by Graeme Davis
After some negotiation the group shared them with Operation Paperclip, and they are now in the archives of the 34th Specialist Regiment. The reports of werewolf attacks and German-Italian reprisals informed the development of the regiment’s standard anti-werewolf tactics, which are used to this day.
The first expedition took place in the spring of 1942 under the command of a young SS Hauptmann named Wilhelm Streiber. Contact was apparently lost after a handful of initial reports describing the region and setting out a proposed survey plan for Mount Lykaion and its surroundings. The expedition’s disappearance was officially ascribed to partisan action.
The second expedition, in the fall of the same year, was commanded by Colonel Gerhard Brandner and accompanied by a full company of Waffen-SS troops from SS-Sonderkommando Waggner. Up to the time of writing, no reports from the Brandner expedition have been found – or at least, none have been made public. However, KGB documents recovered by the CIA during the Greek Civil War of 1946–49 included reports from Soviet-backed Communist partisans on several crates that “seemed to contain large and aggressive animals of an unconfirmed species” that were taken off the mountain by truck in early November 1942 and put on trains for Berlin.
Ahnenerbe documents from early 1943 refer to “five crates of supplies, transferred from Greece for Project Löns.” This name does not crop up anywhere else, but it is worth noting that Hermann Löns was the author of a book titled Der Wehrwolf – a popular novel about a German guerilla band in the Thirty Years’ War that became required reading in the later years of the Nazi regime. It is tempting to believe that Project Löns was a forerunner of the later Werwulf program, and that the Mount Lykaion expeditions were sent to capture live werewolves for research purposes.
The Wolfsangel, a German heraldic device used as a badge by SS Wolfen units.
Division Lüneberg
More detailed information on Division Lüneberg and the Nazi Werwulf program can be found in Kenneth Hite’s The Nazi Occult, also in this series.
Greece was not the only country targeted by Ahnenerbe and Sonderauftrag H research teams. Expeditions were also sent to Croatia and Lithuania, and German scientists compared notes with their Japanese counterparts in the Ryokuryukai (“Green Dragon Society”) research organization. Out of all this research came the SS Division Lüneberg.
On the surface, Lüneberg was a resistance organization established to carry out guerilla attacks on advancing Allied forces and thwart teams from the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA or “Monuments Men”) and operations Surgeon and Paperclip so that artifacts, data – and in the end, personnel – could be spirited away to safety. A station named “Radio Werwolf” broadcast propaganda and sent coded messages to these groups.
Nazi Germany’s true werewolves were concealed beneath the umbrella of this dispersed and compartmentalized organization. Their best-known action took place in Cologne in late May of 1945, when five SS Wolfen ambushed an MFAA team in the Lehrichstrasse near the city’s famous cathedral. After a brief skirmish, troops from the 34th Specialist Regiment conducted a sweep of the old city which resulted in many casualties on both sides. Wolfen have also been implicated in war crimes in Russia, Poland, France, and Norway.
Initially located in Poland, Division Lüneberg’s command and training facility was moved first to Thürenberg, Czechoslovakia and then to Schönsee, Bavaria, which was liberated by American troops on April 25, 1945. Officers from Operation Paperclip were able to retrieve a small quantity of papers from a burning building, which eventually found their way to Project Leash.
Modern Werewolf Forces
Since the end of World War II, many nations are known or believed to have experimented with lycanthropy as a part of various “super-soldier” initiatives. The most reliably documented projects and units are described below.
Project Leash: A successor to the FXU (Field Experimental Unit) of the wartime OSS, this CIA-run experiment was based on documents recovered from the Division Lüneberg facility at Schönsee and Ryokuryukai headquarters in Tokyo. Scrapped in 1948 after several test subjects from this and Allied projects escaped and fought with each other.
The Hidehira Project: Named for a 12th-century Japanese clan leader who was supposedly raised by wolves, the Hidehira Project at Nagano University is officially an attempt to clone the extinct Honshu wolf. However, the Tyana Institute has traced the bulk of the project’s funding back to the Japanese Defense Agency and believes that the project’s true goal is to create lycanthropes for military purposes, perhaps by gene-splicing.
Randall’s Rangers: Reformed in 1947 and augmented by German research, this werewolf special forces group has served alongside the 34th Specialist Regiment, Delta Force, and the Navy SEALs in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Rangers also scouted inside East Germany and western Russia between the loss of Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane in 1960 and the introduction of the SR-71 Blackbird in 1966.
L Company: A product of the Talbot Group’s research, L Company is nominally attached to Britain’s Royal Marine Commandos, but for all practical purposes it falls under the command of the Director Special Forces. Its existence is officially denied by the Ministry of Defence, but L Company has seen action in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.
While the U.S. Army’s encounters with Nazi werewolves are fairly well-documented, reports from Soviet forces have only become available fairly recently.
During the Upper Silesian Offensive of March 1945, troops of the Soviet 59th Army advancing through Czechoslovakia suffered repeated hit-and-run attacks from werewolf groups displaying Nazi insignia. The first such contact was with a scout platoon commanded by Lieutenant (later Major) Yevgeni Demidov. In his memoirs Demidov writes “We had, of course, been briefed on the SS Werewolves, but it seems no one on our side knew that there were actual werewolves among them. We were prepared to face desperate fascist insurgents amid the rubble of German towns – indeed, we were eager to reverse the roles of Stalingrad and felt our experience there had prepared us for anything the enemy might attempt. But this attack by supernatural beasts in the snowy terrain – for this, we were completely unprepared. I lost good men there, and I will never forget it.”
Karelia Division: Attached to the 45th Detached Reconnaissance Regiment of Russia’s Spetsnaz GRU force, CIA sources suggest that despite its name the Karelia Division is no more than company strength. It seems to consist mostly of shamanic werewolves from Siberia, northern Russia and Lapland. This was the most successful line of Russian lycanthropy research after the United States beat Soviet forces to Schönsee. The Karelia Division has reportedly been active in Chechnya, Kosovo, and Ukraine in recent years.
Sayeret Zev: The United States shared its werewolf research with Israel as part of the 1978 Camp David Accords that normalized Israeli-Egyptian relations after the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Sayeret Zev is classified as a long-range reconnaissance force, but like many Sayeret units it conducts a wide range of antiterrorist and counterinsurgency operations both inside and outside Israel’s borders.
Dağ Keşif Taburu (DKT): This branch of the Turkish OKK (Special Forces Command) is believed to be descended from the kurt suçlular founded by Suleiman the Magnificent. There are no reports of its activities prior to 2002, although rumors of wolf-related atrocities have been coming out of both Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan for decades. The DKT has also been active along the Syrian border, and in various counterterrorist operations in eastern Anatolia.
Werewolf Paramilitaries
The existence of werewolf paramilitaries was not widely reported until The Hague war trials arising from the Bosnian War of 1992–95, when the Chetnik Wolves of Vučjak was named among several other groups. A Tyana Institute report for the US State Department confirmed that this group was entirely human, but flagged a number of other paramilitary groups worldwide as confirmed or potential werewolf threats.
Brothers of Fenrir: A neo-Nazi organization with ties to biker g
angs and organized crime, the Brothers of Fenrir was apparently founded in Sweden in 2007. Since 2010, it has spread to Norway and Denmark, but attempts to establish a chapter in Iceland have been unsuccessful so far. The Brothers have been linked to attacks on immigrant communities and foreign-owned businesses and the intimidation of left-wing politicians. Sweden’s SAPO security police classifies the group as growing and potentially dangerous.
Ossory Volunteers: A 1982 Royal Ulster Constabulary report named this group as a possible splinter wing of the Provisional IRA. Since the IRA ceased combat operations in 2005, the Ossory Volunteers have been linked with gun-running and assassinations in eastern Europe and North Africa. Terrorist communications intercepted by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters suggest that surviving members of the group are working as mercenaries in various trouble spots, including Chechnya and Ukraine.
Broken Mountain Republic: First reported by the FBI as a localized separatist-ecoterrorist group, the Broken Mountain Republic is based in northern Idaho and has been involved in attacks on state and federal law-enforcement facilities around the state. It claimed responsibility for the deaths of six Idaho Department of Fish and Game employees during a local wolf cull in 2014, although a local coroner ruled that the deaths were caused by large wolves.
Mureș Brigade: Allegedly active during the Transylvanian ethnic disturbances of 1990’s “Black March,” the Brigade is an ethnically Romanian militia dedicated to the expulsion of ethnic Hungarians from the country. It is believed to have links to the nationalist Romanian Hearth Union and sympathizers within both local and national government. The CIA is still assessing reports that some of its members fought in Bosnia as volunteers or mercenaries.
Hounds of God: A secret society of werewolves based in Latvia and Lithuania that traces its origins to the 11th century. Its stated purpose is to combat witches and other supernatural threats, but it was involved in nationalist uprisings against the Russian Empire, the Nazis, and the Soviet Union.
Werebears (Northern Europe)
The Old Norse word berserker translates literally as “bear-skin man,” and contemporary descriptions of Norse armies include elite warriors dressed in bear skins as well as wolf skins. The Persian chronicler Ibn Miskawayh tells of a “great and terrible bear” that rampaged through the town of Bardha’a (modern Barda, Azerbaijan) when the city was sacked by the Rus in AD 943, “which fought with the strength of a bear and the intelligence of a man, and which the attackers said partook of the nature of both.”
Werebears have always been less common than werewolves, but they are still to be found in the forests of northern Russia and Scandinavia, as well as in remoter parts of the United States and Canada. While werebears are normally reclusive and dangerous only when harassed, they have been known to associate with environmental activists in their home areas and to intimidate logging and construction crews. According to a 2011 report by the FBI’s WSUB Section, fewer injuries and fatalities result from these incidents than from similar werewolf confrontations.
Skinwalkers (North America)
According to Native American legends, skinwalkers are witches – usually, but not always, male – who can transform into animals, including wolves. Especially well-documented in Navajo tradition, skinwalkers are universally regarded as evil and destructive.
Skinwalkers are similar to the shamanic werewolves of Europe in many ways, but also have some things in common with sorcerous werewolves. They are not limited to wolf form, but require an animal skin to affect their transformation. In human form, their eyes reflect light like an animal’s, but in animal form their eyes are dead and lifeless. They are said to be unnaturally fast and agile, and almost impossible to catch. It is said that some Navajo skinwalkers can adopt the form of another human being, or possess another human being by making eye contact.
There are very few reports of skinwalkers being active outside of Reservation lands. They are active mostly at night, and have been known to attack houses and vehicles. While it is generally agreed that Navajo shamans have effective means of identifying and counteracting skinwalkers, the Navajo Nation has consistently refused to share its knowledge with outsiders, and skinwalker sightings are not generally reported.
Nagual (Central America)
The pre-Columbian word nagual is often translated as “shapeshifting witch,” but the known abilities of the nagual are more consistent with shamanic lycanthropy. The ability to transform into a jaguar, puma, or other animal form is latent in individuals who are born on a day linked to the animal’s spirit in the Mesoamerican calendar system, and can be developed and controlled through training and experience. Originally associated with Tezcatlipoca, the patron deity of change through conflict, nagualism was condemned as witchcraft by the Spanish, who regarded Tezcatlipoca as a demon of chaos. Nagual became synonymous with bruja (“witch”), and this attitude persists to the present day.
A nagual is not intrinsically good or evil, but acts according to his (or more rarely, her) personality. Many are valued by their communities, and are called upon to undo evil caused by others of their kind.
A pre-Columbian painting of a Nagual.
The existence of an elite order of Aztec “jaguar warriors” has been well established. According to a Jesuit report that is now in the Vatican’s restricted archives, some of the jaguar warriors were shapeshifters. They were held in high esteem, and frequently acted as assault troops. There was said to be no evidence of shapeshifters in the companion order of “eagle warriors.”
The Mexican intelligence agency CISEN has been tracking naguals and other paranormal threats since the Aztec Mummy crisis of the late 1950s. CISEN reports a marked increase in nagual activity beginning in 2008; they seem to be active on both sides of the drug war, and have been classified as a serious threat.
Mexican GAFE special forces troops have been training with the 34th at Fort Bragg since early 2009, and in February of 2014 the Mexican government officially denied rumors that the jaguar warriors have been revived as a secret army unit attached to the GAFE.
Buda (North and East Africa)
Buda is a form of witchcraft originating in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East. Its powers include the evil eye (the power to injure or kill with a glance) and the ability to shapeshift into a hyena. It was first reported in 1406, in the Hawayan Al-Koubra of Al-Doumairy; French and English accounts from the 19th century broadly confirm Al-Doumairy’s account of shapeshifting witches attacking sleepers and drinking their blood. In Sudan, Tanzania, and Morocco they are also accused of digging up graves and eating the corpses, a behavior that is not unknown in natural hyenas.
Because of buda’s many similarities to European and Middle Eastern witchcraft, the Tyana Institute classifies it as a form of sorcerous lycanthropy. Bipedal hybrid were-hyenas have been reported from western Sudan, and shapeshifting hyena cultists are active in Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.
The 34th Specialist Regiment classifies buda shapeshifters as a growing threat, especially in immigrant communities. A report on a string of mutilations among Sudanese immigrants in Omaha, Nebraska is pending, and the CIA’s GUID (Global Unusual Incident Desk) is actively investigating claims that bipedal lycanthropes committed atrocities during the 2012 Mali coup led by General Amadou Sanogo. It is not yet clear whether they were acting as death squads for one side or the other, or simply taking advantage of the chaos.
Leopard Societies (West Africa)
Word of African leopard societies first reached Europe in the 19th century. Colonial officials of various European powers reported on murderous secret societies whose members wore leopard masks and skins, and killed with steel claws or knives. There were also rumors of cult-like activity, cannibalism, and witchcraft.
Despite strenuous efforts to stamp them out, the leopard societies survived, growing stronger in the late 1940s when they allied themselves with many of the anti-British rebellions that flared up immediately after the end of World
War II. Although official reports stress the use of masks and skins, a 1948 memorandum from the Talbot Group to the British Colonial Office stated that “it must be recognized that these secret societies, and others like them elsewhere in the British Empire and Commonwealth, include among their senior membership certain adepts who have the ability to become leopards rather than simply adopting a leopard disguise.”
Leopard society activity has declined since the middle of the 20th century, although both the Talbot Group and the Tyana Institute believe the societies still exist. There have been unsubstantiated reports of leopard society assassins taking part in the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002, the Second Liberian Civil War of 1999–2003, and the First Ivorian Civil War of 2002–07. UNPAMON, the United Nations Paranormal Monitoring program, rates leopard societies as a serious threat in those three nations but reports no activity elsewhere.
Weretigers (South and East Asia)
Weretigers are found in India, China, and Southeast Asia. They are almost always described as violent killers with a taste for human flesh, and the overwhelming majority of reports over the last 200 years are consistent with shamanic or sorcerous lycanthropy. These creatures are invariably solitary, and are as strong and elusive as natural tigers.
An exception to the general pattern is the harimau jadian of Malaysia and Indonesia. Their lycanthropy passes down through certain bloodlines and is controlled by spells, fasting, and meditation. When in tiger form, the harimau jadian are benign creatures who kill wild pigs to protect the community’s crops. However, they can be dangerous. While in tiger form they can fail to recognize friends who do not greet them by name, often with fatal results. They have also been known to stalk and kill outsiders who wrong them or their community.
