Operation Greif & The Winter of Paranoia (1944) During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the frozen forests of the Ardennes became the backdrop for one of the most unsettling operations of World War II—Operation Greif. Under the command of SS commando Otto Skorzeny, German soldiers were hand-picked for their English-speaking skills, dressed in captured American uniforms, and equipped with U.S. weapons, vehicles, and passwords. Their mission: infiltrate Allied lines, sabotage communicatio