Wilhelm Bittrich (1894 – 1979)
Obergruppenführer of the German SS and a Waffen-SS General during World War II He is perhaps now best remembered for his contribution to the defeat of the failed allied airborne offensive Operation Market Garden which took place in the Netherlands in September of 1944.
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Other visits (to the front) showed me that efforts were being made on the Western Front to arrive at understandings with the enemy on special problems. At Arnhem, I found General Bittrich of the Waffen-SS in a state of fury. The day before, his Second Tank Corps had virtually wiped out a British airborne division. During the fighting the general had made an arrangement permitting the enemy to run a field hospital situated behind the German lines. But party functionaries had taken it upon themselves to kill British and American pilots, and Bittrich was cast in the role of a liar. His violent denunciation of the party was all the more striking since it came from an SS general.
In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard.
I once spent an hour and a half trying to explain a situation to "Sepp" Dietrich with the aid of a map. It was quite useless. He understood nothing at all.
The things Heinrich (Himmler) says are sheer nonsense! Things will go badly for us if we don't change our ways, and he is a fool if he does not understand this.
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