In the days right after the end of World War 2 I got involved with a campaign in Germany to put down an insurgency in post-war Germany involving what was call the "Werwolves." They were a network of former Nazis who had gone underground to conduct an insurgency against Allied forces. Their intent was to kill US and other Allied soldiers through means of bombs and guns, but also a slew of other absurd methods which included a slew of poisons, some of which were not even very potent, it turned out. Often the delivery system was the problem. These included cigarettes, aspirins and coffee, and various other foods, as well as glass pellets. They were not very effective, mostly because of the Allied, mostly U.S., counter-measures, which we launched as soon as U.S. intelligence got wind of the rumors of these werewolves.
There were actual werewolves involved. Many werewolves got involved in the Third Reich, some rising to high ranks. They saw it as the best opportunity that had come along in many centuries to knock mankind down a a few notches, possibly even put them back on their heels. A werewolf told me many years later that the best part, which was lost on none of them, was the irony that humans were going to be the driving force in their own downfall.
I was contacted by an M.I. officer who I knew, a weredog, who wanted me involved. I have to tell you that at first I was very concerned, due to the reports I read about their preparations and plans. But we wiped them out and scarfed them all up in a little over 2 years, mostly due to 2 things. One, we went after them very aggressively, with "extreme prejudice," a nice little phrase we used later, in Vietnam. We were very war weary and had no intentions of messing around, wanted to stamp out any residual Nazi nastiness as quickly as possible. Two, the rumors were exaggerated and the werewolves were overconfident, a fatal German flaw. Halfway through 1946 most of the werewolves involved saw this and bailed, made themselves scarce. This was a disappointment to all weredogs involved as we thought we might bag a lot of werewolves, get a high body count.
One of the werewolves involved was named Lothar. He fought in and barely managed to get out of Russia, then spent the final days of the war as Hitler's body guard. During that time Lothar fell in love with Blondi. Now it gets good. Hitler loved dogs, particularly German Shepherds. Go figure. He had two females, in particular, who he loved most of all - Blondi and Bella. Blondi was a werewolf. Bella was a weredog.
Life is always messy, even for weredogs. There were weredogs in the Third Reich. They were attracted by the order and discipline, the martial attitude. The story of what happened to them all, during and after the war, is an epic story in itself. Many lost faith in the Nazis, and the Germans, when saw or heard of some of the horrors that were SOP for the Nazis. Bella stayed with Hitler until the end. She told me once, the only time we ever spoke of this topic, that yes, her master was a bit insane, but that also he was a wounded and damaged man. Yeah, whatever.
Anyway, with Blondi dead and Lothar and Bella on the run and underground he joined the werewolves. He told me that at first it seemed brilliant and plausible. But he soon realized that it was futile and not fully baked.
Seeing the writing on the wall, so to speak, Lothar decided to become scarce. But what to do with Bella, who was very much a broken dog and, Lothar feared, unwilling to go on living. She was past her shift time and needed to phase over to human. So Lothar contacted me, in the midst of all this werewolf mess, and managed to convince me that he was not setting a trap and convinced me to try to smuggle Bella out of Germany. I agreed. We got her out. She was, after all, a weredog. What choice did I have?
I never thought that I would ever again lay eyes on Bella. I was wrong.
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