Germany

SOE Agents Paved the Way For D-Day, Remembering Violette Szabo

The preparation for D-Day on the Allied side took a couple of years of meticulous planning, training, the massing of troops and then intense coordination with air, sea and land forces as well as coordinating the French resistance.

The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) was the driving force behind infiltrating agents into occupied France, setting up intelligence networks, coordinating with the French resistance, arming guerilla bands, and performing acts of sabotage and subversion.

One of the best known of these British agents was a woman, Violette Szabo who was as brave as she was beautiful. Code-named Corrinne, Szabo conducted two missions into France. On her second one, shortly after D-Day, she was captured by elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division who were moving into Normandy after the Allied invasion. She got into a sharp fire-fight with the Germans, allowing her teammates to escape. But she was captured, beaten, tortured by the Gestapo and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where she was executed in January 1945. She was just 23 years old at the time of her death.

Early Life, Following a Tomboy Lifestyle:

Szabo was born Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell in Levallois Paris on June 26, 1921. Her father was English and her mother French. They met during World War I and together they had four boys and just one girl, Violette.

Because she was surrounded by four brothers as well as several other male cousins, Violette was a tomboy and she competed with them, excelling in athletics, gymnastics, cycling, and shooting, something her father taught her well. It was said, that despite being just five foot three, she was as strong as a man.

The family moved to South London and Violette was popular because she was athletically gifted, beautiful, and could speak French as well as English. She left school at just 14, working in the retail industry.

When the war broke out, she was a perfume saleswoman in a department store. In the dark days of 1940 with Free Frenchmen pouring into England, her mother sent her to find a lonesome French soldier to celebrate Bastille Day with.

Violette met Etienne Szabo, French Foreign Legion officer. And although he was 31 and she just 19, they began a torrid love affair and the two were married just five weeks later. Soon after their marriage, Etienne was sent back to Africa where he served in Senegal, South Africa and then Syria. Violette was working as a telephone operator. Etienne returned briefly to England, where Violette got pregnant with their first child. He was then sent to North Africa where he was killed at El Alamein in October 1942. His daughter Tania was born on June 8, 1942, he never got to see his daughter. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille Militaire, and the Legion d’honneur.

Szabo Joins SOE:

Violette was devastated by her husband’s death and then volunteered to join SOE as a courier. Because of her ability to speak fluent French and English, she was accepted. She was given a cover assignment as a Section Leader of The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, as was typical for SOE operatives.

Szabo had to successfully complete paramilitary training in Scotland where she was instructed in Field Craft, Weapons, Demolition and Night and Day Navigation. She then attended training in Hampshire where she learned communications, cryptography, weaponry, uniform recognition and escape and evasion tactics. Although she wasn’t excelling in her courses, she passed. Where she did excel was in the physical aspects of the course and was rumored to be the best shot in the SOE.

After completing the Group B’s “finishing school” at Beaulieu in Hampshire, which taught students how to operate as undercover agents, she learned how to parachute out of an airplane and passed the second time around as her first attempt resulted in a badly sprained ankle.

Szabo was offered her first mission as a courier to Philippe Liewer, the head of the SALESMAN circuit in Normandy. This was a busy time for SOE. In the buildup for the Normandy invasion, during the fourth quarter of 1943, SOE flew 105 sorties to France. By the second quarter of 1944, that number skyrocketed to 1665.

Szabo’s mission was a dangerous one. London had received a message that Liewer’s deputy, Claude Malraux was arrested in Rouen. Liewer couldn’t risk going himself, so he remained in Paris and sent Szabo to assess the situation, far more difficult than a traditional courier role.

They arrived on April 6 and Szabo traveled to Rouen under the false identity of a secretary named “Corinne Leroy”. She spent three weeks doing a careful investigation of what happened to the SALESMAN circuit. Malraux and SOE radio operator Isadore Newman had been arrested. Also, more than 100 members of the resistance group had been rounded up and were in the hands of the Gestapo. She delivered the news to Liewer back in Paris that his cell was shattered. His wanted poster was plastered all over the town. They left France and were flown back to England on April 30.

During the period of February-May 1944, SOE airdropped to French resistance forces in France 76,290 Sten guns, 27,961 pistols, 16,945 rifles, 3441 Bren guns, 572 bazookas, 304 PIATs, and 160 mortars.

In addition to the SOE agents, 100 Jedburgh teams were dropped into France in uniform to coordinate with French resistance units operations. Each Jedburgh team had two officers and one sergeant radio operator. The “Jeds” had British, American and French team members.

Szabo had proved herself very capable and was promoted to Ensign in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, her cover organization. She volunteered for a second mission with Liewer to attempt to rebuild the SALESMAN cell in Limoges in west‐central France. They parachuted in on the night of June 7-8 just after the Allied invasion.

On the morning of June 10, Liewer sent Szabo by car with another agent Jacques Dufour to meet with Jacques Poirer. The Maquis in the area weren’t as ready for action as previously believed and poorly led. Szabo was to act as his liaison officer. The local Maquis also didn’t know that, due to the invasion, the 2nd SS Panzer Division was moving up to the coast and passing thru their area.

Szabo wanted to move by bicycle but Dufour insisted that they travel by car, something the Germans had forbidden the French to drive in the aftermath of the invasion. If even seen driving, it would immediately arouse suspicion with the Germans. It would prove to be fateful. Szabo was armed with a Sten gun and two magazines. On the way, they picked up another resistance member Jean Bariaud.

The Germans had set up roadblocks in the town of Salon-la-Tour to find Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe, a battalion commander of the 2nd SS that had been kidnapped by the resistance. As Dufour slowed the car, Bariaud leaped from it, escaping into the woods and warning the rest of the resistance about what transpired.

Szabo and Dufour leaped from the car and Dufour opened fire. The gun battle resulted in a French woman being killed as she emerged from a nearby barn. Once armored cars arrived on the scene the two fled across a stream and up to a hill where Szabo twisted the same ankle that she had hurt during her parachute training.

She leaned against an apple tree and provided covering fire against the Germans long enough for Dufour to escape. He made it to a friend’s barn and hid out. Szabo was captured. A German SS officer put a cigarette in her mouth, she spat it out and demanded one of her own.

Szabo was transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, the SS Security Service) in Limoges, where she was brutally interrogated for four days by SS-Sturmbannführer Kowatch. She was then transferred to Gestapo HQ in Paris where she was tortured. Her cover story and the name she used “Vicky Taylor” was blown and by then the Germans knew of her real name and her activities.

Szabo was shackled to SOE radio operator Denise Bloch and they began a long, circuitous journey to Ravensbrück concentration camp which took ten days. There she kept up the morale of other prisoners and refused to work as slave labor in the Heinkel munitions factory. They were placed in the vegetable garden where the women dug potatoes.

In early October, they were moved back to Ravensbrück and later to a punishment camp at Königsburg where they were forced into hard, physical labor cutting down trees and clearing the field by hand to construct an airfield. But despite this, Szabo kept the morale of the others high and was always trying to find a way to escape.

With the Allies pushing the Germans back on all fronts, they weren’t going to allow the SOE agents to survive. On the morning of February 5, 1945, Szabo was executed, shot in the back of the head while forced to kneel, by SS-Rottenführer Schult in the presence of camp commandant Fritz Suhren. Along with her the other two SOE women, Denise Bloch, and Lilian Rolfe were also executed. The other two women were too weak to stand and were carried by stretcher to the execution. Their bodies were then sent to the crematorium.

Awarded the George Cross:

Szabo was posthumously awarded the George Cross on December 17, 1946, only the second woman to be awarded that honor. Her citation reads:

St. James’s Palace, S.W.1. 17 December 1946

The KING has been graciously pleased to award the GEORGE CROSS to: —

Violette, Madame SZABO (deceased), Women’s Transport Service (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).

Madame Szabo volunteered to undertake a particularly dangerous mission in France. She was parachuted into France in April, 1944, and undertook the task with enthusiasm. In her execution of the delicate researches entailed she showed great presence of mind and astuteness. She was twice arrested by the German security authorities but each time managed to get away. Eventually, however, with other members of her group, she was surrounded by the Gestapo in a house in the south-west of France. Resistance appeared hopeless but Madame Szabo, seizing a Sten-gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them. By constant movement, she avoided being cornered and fought until she dropped exhausted. She was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement. She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed. Madame Szabo gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.

She was also later awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance. She and her husband Etienne were the most decorated couple in World War II.

Her daughter Tania wrote a book about her mother’s missions in France, called “Young, Brave and Beautiful”, that author Jack Higgins (The Eagle has Landed) wrote the forward for. A film was made about her exploits, “Carve Her Name with Pride” that starred Virginia McKenna as Szabo. A 2009 video game, “Velvet Assassin” is based on Szabo.

In 2009 she was also chosen as the “face” of the SOE memorial, unveiled on London’s Albert Embankment. There is a Violette Szabo museum at Wormelow, Herefordshire.

Photos: Wikipedia

Looking For a Binge-Watching Series on Memorial Day? Look No Further

Memorial Day preparations and programs are all going non-stop this weekend. In our small bucolic town in Central Massachusetts, our schools have all put together very nice programs to honor those members of our country who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our high school put together a nice program where the students researched town members who had been killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. They then read a brief bio on each to hit home the high cost of our freedoms.

Our vets from the local Veterans Council, VFW, American Legion, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Cub Scouts, as well as local citizens, went into our local cemeteries, placed flags on all of the military graves recently. Then we placed wreaths on all of the monuments around town.

Our local Memorial Day ceremonies will kick off at 8:20 today. Once that is over, we’ll partake in the traditional Memorial Day activities by grilling some food outside while giving thanks to those who made this all possible.

One of the other traditional fares on Memorial Day is the War Film marathons that are always on television. We’ve compiled a list of our favorites in the past, however, this year, we’re going to recommend a mini-series to binge watch and if you can last thru the entire thing, it will take some time.

Ken Burns produced some outstanding mini-series on PBS, his one of the Civil War back in 1990 was a classic. He later did one on Baseball in 1994 that was another must watch. But the one we’re recommending everyone dust off on Netflix is his marathon documentary on World War II, simply called ‘The War’.

Burns made this one in 2007 and it took six years of research to put together. Critics panned it because they said he tried to make it sound like the United States won the war alone. That is hogwash, Burns just eschewed the big picture and focused on the regular small town people of four communities and how the war was seen and felt down in Waterbury, Connecticut, Mobile, Alabama, Luverne, Minnesota, and Sacramento, California.

I was out of the country when it first aired and I missed it. It was put on my list of things to see but I never got around to watching it. Recently we saw it on Netflix and binge-watched the entire 15 or so hours over one weekend. And we were glad we did.

At the end of World War II, Eric Sevareid had reported to the people of the United States what he saw during the war years but after the war was over, he felt like he …and others like him failed to bring the true cost of it home. He wrote:

“Only the soldier really lives the war. The journalist does not — war happens inside a man — and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers. If, by the miracles of art and genius, in later years two or three among them can open their hearts and the right words come, then perhaps we shall all know a little of what it was like — and we shall know then that all the present speakers and writers hardly touched the story.”

What Burns showed in this masterpiece of filmmaking was while we all get to know several small-town Americans during the seven episodes, there is nothing ordinary about any of them. This isn’t a glossed over, sanitized version of World War II but a true first-hand look at the ugliness and cost of sending an entire generation off to war.

Burns often shows the brutality and the gruesome nature of how the war was conducted. With some never seen before footage. Troops being starved and beaten on the Bataan Death March, Japanese troops being burned alive by flamethrowers, the awful scope, and brutality of the Nazi death camps.

The remembrances of Quinten Aanonsen, a farmer’s son from Luverne are particularly poignant. He wanted to learn to fly to escape the family farm. He became a pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt and as a close ground support squadron member, he saw up close what the awesome firepower of “the Jug” could bring on the enemy. He also watched many of his friends die. The girl he met while in flight school and their letters back and forth kept his sanity.

Two of the people who appear in the film have written books and they give a great look at the war in Europe and the Pacific. Paul Fussell was in the infantry fighting the Germans in France and Germany and his book “Doing Battle” was a definite page-turner. E.B Sledge from Mobile wrote the fantastic book, “With the Old Breed.”

“Something in me died at Peleliu,” Sledge wrote. “Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places who do not have to endure war’s savagery will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.”

The film also shares the plight of Japanese-Americans who were uprooted from their homes and ordered to internment camps. Then asked to serve the very country that treated them and their families as the enemy.

The treatment of the blacks both in the war factories and in the military gets spared nothing either. One of the more telling moments was that of a black Marine who was wounded and transported to a hospital ship, the only black man on board. And the ship’s barber refused to cut his hair.

“The War” is marvelously filmed with some outstanding action shots, the personal stories are both riveting and at times both funny and sad. And the narration by Keith David, who did the older Navy recruiting films, is first rate.

Take the time to watch “The War” which Burns brilliantly put together and when you see one of those bent-over WWII vets today, shake his hand and wish him well. After all, “The War” is their story.

Photo of US Pilot Quinten Aanonsen: PBS

“Saving Private Ryan” Re-released for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day

One of the biggest blockbuster war films is being re-released for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy invasion of France. Steven Spielberg’s classic “Saving Private Ryan” is being brought back in 600 theaters nationwide for just two days, June 2 and June 5 at 3 and 7 p.m. on those days to commemorate the Normandy landings.

It is hard to believe that Spielberg’s masterpiece is turning 21 this year. Released in 1998, the film had an absolutely stellar cast including Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Edward Burns, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, and Adam Goldberg. The gritty and graphic filming, especially during the opening minutes showed the ugliness and realism of the awfulness of real combat.

The film begins with the Rangers of the 2nd Battalion coming ashore at Normandy. They were in the worst possible position in any of the beaches, code-named Omaha. The Germans held the high ground on the beaches and had plenty of prepared positions manned by a seasoned, well-trained and led division.

“Ryan’s” opening beach sequence which takes about 28 minutes was brilliantly filmed where the absolute chaos of combat meets up with coherence of the troops trying to complete their assigned missions. This was no sanitized Hollywood version of the invasion. Spielberg spared no details as bodies and body parts were flung in the air from mortar rounds, machine guns ripped bodies to shreds and entrails were strewn about from the German guns.

Spielberg takes the audience out of their seats as just bystanders and puts their asses right in the surf of the Channel. They are instantly transported to 1944 and put right in the action with the infantry. So intense was the filming of this sequence, that many World War II veterans who had been to Normandy for the actual invasion, got symptoms of PTSD from watching the film and triggering memories of their own experiences.

That opening sequence was filmed in Curracloe, Ireland over 15 days and cost over $12 million dollars to film.

Spielberg’s story begins after the Rangers led Hanks and Sizemore survive the opening day of the invasion and get tasked to venture far inland to find a paratrooper (Damon) of the 101st Airborne, who lost all of his brothers in combat and to be sent home. As Hanks’ men die one by one while attempting to find and then rescue Ryan, they’re left wondering if all of that sacrifice for the purpose of saving one man’s life is worth it.

Saving Private Ryan was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and ended up winning five, for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It made $481 million dollars in 1998. In today’s dollars, it would equate to earning nearly $750 million. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

For more information about the re-release and to find out the times and locations for “Saving Private Ryan” is playing on the 2nd and 5th of June, visit the Fathom Events website.

Our only wish is that the re-release would be extended to cover Memorial Day as well.

Photo: Paramount Studio Still

Operation Archery, Brit Commandos Raid Vaagso, Norway Dec. 27, 1941

After the forces of Hitler’s Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that the military create a force that could carry out raids against Nazi-occupied Europe. “Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down these coasts, first of all on the “butcher and bolt” policy…” Thus the Commandos were born.

The Commandos were an all-volunteer outfit that would eventually encompass all services of the British military as well as foreign volunteers from the occupied countries. Their training was hard and nearly always was conducted with live ammunition. Eventually, they would consist of 30 individual units and four assault brigades.

Although they would serve with distinction in every theater it was in Norway where the Commandos would first earn their fame by conducting various raids on German installations and try to get the Germans to divert more troops to defending Norway that may have been used on the Eastern Front.

The raid on the Norwegian islands of Vaagso and Maaloy, codenamed Operation Archery, was conducted to destroy the German fish-oil production facilities there as well as the glycerine production which was used in the manufacture of explosives.

This operation also broke new ground for combined operations. It was the first time air support was integrated into the raiding plans from the outset. So this was a true Special Operations Forces combined organization using air, land, and sea forces.

In overall charge of the operation was Brigadier Charles Haydon, while the raid on the ground was led by John Durnford-Slater and conducted by his troops of No. 3 Commando, two troops of No.2 Commando, a medical detachment of No.4 Commando, a demolition party from 101 Troop (canoe) of No. 6 Commando and a dozen Norwegians from Norwegian Independent Company 1. His raiding force would number 570 officers and men.

The Royal Navy provided offshore gunfire, by the light cruiser HMS Kenya, and the destroyers HMS Onslow, Oribi, Offa, and Chiddingfold. The submarine HMS Tuna was in support as the force navigational check. HMS Prince Charles and Prince Leopold were used to ferry troops into and out of the area. The Royal Air Force (RAF) provided bombers and fighter-bombers for close air support.

Durnford-Slater trained his troops hard. Every morning, they would rehearse 25-30 landings until 30 men could sprint from their landing craft with all of their weapons and equipment, 25 meters to cover and do it within 10 seconds. His second-in-command or 2IC in Brit parlance was Major J.M.T.F. Churchill, MC. Known to his close friends as Jack, Churchill was both a character and a fantastic, fearless leader. He would go into combat with his Scottish Claymore broadsword and play his own bagpipes.

Preparations for the Raid:

At the end of October 1941, Lord Louis Mountbatten took over the British Combined Operations and he alerted Durnford-Slater that they had the most daring plan yet in Norway. Their target was the small port of South Vaagso, about 350 miles north of Norway’s southern coast and about halfway between Bergen and Trondheim. And similarly to earlier raids, the port produced substantial quantities of fish oil that was vital for the German war machine.

Intelligence specialists in London had in a painstakingly detailed effort in building an exact model of the town. Durnford-Slater carried it back to Scotland with him in a suitcase. His officers made briefings to the troops off of this model although only the senior officers knew of the exact location.

They carried out successful rehearsals at the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow. They set sail in heavy seas on Christmas Eve. The men from 12 Commando would make a diversionary raid on the Lofotens (site of an earlier Commando raid) to distract the Germans. 12 Commando during the diversion stayed ashore for two days destroying German installations without suffering a single casualty and returned with 29 prisoners and about 200 new recruits for the forces of Free Norway.

The raiding force arrived perfectly on time and exactly where they were supposed to be. The troops were on the landing craft at precisely 0700, having been fed at 0500 and checked their weapons and equipment for the final time before the raid.

The Germans, unaware of what was close to their shore, were yawning thru lectures on military courtesy, no differently than soldiers of every army do. That was about to change quickly.

One alert German soldier in South Vaagso spotted the British ships sailing into the fjord and called it in. His superiors told him that it was probably German ships. When he persisted, he was told he probably celebrated Christmas a bit too much. He should have been rewarded. The German at the other end of the phone, however, decided to alert the German naval commander and took a rowboat to alert him, neglecting to alert the Army units in town.

The Battle Begins:

It was then, that the German troops first became aware of the Commandos presence was when the HMS Kenya’s dozen 6-inch guns began shelling the nearby German coastal batteries at Maaloy. With the destroyers, Offa and Onslow’s 4-inch guns joining in, the Germans were ducking into defensive positions having 400-450 shells rain down on them in less than 10 minutes. The Commandos, in US-made Higgins assault boats, were racing toward shore.

RAF medium twin-engine Hampden bombers flew over the landing sites and dropped smoke bombs to cover the assault troops. At Maaloy Island, Jack Churchill played his bagpipes as they approached shore and led his 105 men, 5 and 6 Troops, against the German defenders. Their objective was the big herring oil factory, the shore batteries, an antiaircraft position, and any other German troops.

R. Clement’s Group 1 had the mission to clear the village of Hollevik, then reform and become the onshore reserve. Durnford-Slater would lead Group 2’s, 200 men of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Troops, into Vaagso, while CPT. D. Birney’s 30 men of Group 5 would deploy into blocking positions on the road south into Vaagso from Rodberg. Group 4, CPT. R.H. Hooper’s 65 troops, would remain as a floating reserve on HMS Kenya.

Tragedy and Disaster:

One of the Hampden bombers was flying toward the shore when it was hit by German flak guns onboard the armed trawler Foehn. The bomber was hit and reeling when one of its phosphorous bombs inadvertently hit one of the landing craft. Nearly half of the troop were either killed or badly burned by the unfortunate accident. After offloading whatever ammunition and equipment that they could salvage, the surviving Commandos pushed the craft out into the water to sink.

But the rest of Durnford-Slater’s men surged ashore and immediately set about clearing the town which was long and narrow. The fighting was vicious and house-to-house. The Germans were reinforced by 50 men of a Gebirgsjäger (Alpine, mountain) troops on leave from the Russian front. They barricaded themselves in one large building to use as a strongpoint. The Commandos had to clear each room with hand grenades. CPT Johnny Giles was shot down at the door of the strongpoint but his men took it and his younger brother, Lt. Bruce Giles assumed command.

The Germans had also barricaded themselves in the Ulvesund hotel and they flung back the first two attempts to take it. CPT Algy Forester was killed and then so was Norwegian CPT Martin Linge was also killed trying to assault the front door.

As the Brits were readying for a third assault under the command now of a CPL ‘Knocker’ White, another Captain appeared with a 3-inch mortar, which was unauthorized by had been appropriated. They expertly dropped the first shells straight down the chimney of the hotel, setting fire to it and causing a large number of German casualties. The third assault carried the hotel. White would earn a Distinguished Service Medal for his actions later.

There was chaos in the narrow streets. The Germans used to the no-quarter-given in Russia refused to move out of the buildings they were defending and had to be burned out using hand grenades. Norwegian civilians were streaming down the street heading for the landing craft, anxious to get away from their occupiers.

The British committed their floating reserves and then Durnford-Slater was also reinforced by Churchill’s men who had quickly overrun the guns on Maaloy Island and captured several prisoners, including two “comfort” women who the Germans held there for their troops. Churchill, broadsword in hand, led his men ashore.

As they cleared the town house-by-house, the Commandos encountered several snipers. So they’d just burn them out one-by-one. Durnford-Slater observed two such Commandos who set about their task with a vengeance. He wrote that the men “appeared to be enjoying themselves.” One sniper wounded CPT O’Flaherty thru the eye. He would eventually return to duty with a black eye patch and finish the war as a Brigadier.

CPT O’Flaherty is led to the rear after being wounded in the eye by a German sniper

After the British battered the armed trawler Foehn, the ship ran aground and the crew deserted it. An armed British party found the captain’s codebooks when it was discovered he’d been killed by shellfire. The codebooks contained a wealth of signs, countersigns, and code words, and the radio call-signs of every German vessel in northern Europe. It was a huge intelligence boon for the raiding party.

By noon the town had been secured, the troops, however, continued in town until 1400 when Durnford-Slater ordered his men back to the boats. By 1500 all of the Commandos had been safely transported back to the ships.

The result of the raid was a tremendous success for the Commandos. They sank 10 vessels, 18,000 tons of shipping, and the Commandos had burned or blown up four oil factories and a number of warehouses, fuel tanks, vehicles, the Seternes lighthouse, the telephone exchanges, the steamship wharf, and the German barracks inside of town.

The Maaloy coastal artillery batteries were destroyed along with a tank, while much of the garrison had been killed, wounded, or captured. About 130 Germans were killed, without counting the crews of the eight ships destroyed. Another 98 were captured. The two “comfort” women were guarded by two sailors on board ship. But later reports read that on checking later, one British officer found the hallway empty and “the rifles leaning on the wall outside the doors.” Of the Norwegian population, one was killed and five wounded; 70 more returned to England with the Commandos to volunteer for the forces of Free Norway.

British casualties among the Commandos were 20 dead (which included three Norwegians) and 53 wounded. The RAF lost eight aircraft along with their crews.

The Germans assumed the British would make a major push to retake Norway and thus threaten the German hold on Finland and Sweden. They moved their battleships into Norwegian waters and put additional troops there while beefing up their coastal defenses. By the time of D-Day, there were 400,000 German troops in Norway that weren’t fighting in either Normandy or Russia.

Photos: Imperial War Museum

World War I, “The War to End All Wars” Centennial

At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Armistice to end World War I was to take effect. It ended the bloodbath which consumed Europe from 1914 until November 11, 1918. Nearly 20,000,000 people were dead including 9-11,000,000 troops and a like number of civilians. Another 20,000,000 were wounded.

The United States got involved in the fighting late in the war, in 1917, but by war’s end, had put nearly 5,000,000 men and women under arms. Americans would suffer over 300,000 casualties. Called “doughboys” because the British and French troops considered them Ill-trained and ill-equipped, they had by war’s end did a large share of the fighting that caused the Germans to seek terms.

When the Germans signed the terms of surrender in a train car in France, the had to leave all their conquered territories in Western Europe within two weeks and surrender 5,000 guns, 25,000 machine guns, and 1,700 planes.

With the news of armistice, there were huge celebrations in London to celebrate the end of the war. However, once the initial stage of euphoria wore off, the news was met with a mainly melancholy expression. The huge cost in terms of the young generation was felt by all countries. It was a Pyrrhic victory that nearly destroyed an entire era of Europe’s young.

Unfortunately, the harsh lessons of the “Great War” as it was also called weren’t paid proper heed to and just 21 years later Europe and the entire world was thrust into an even bigger and bloodier conflict.

However, in 1918, the war in Germany had not gone well. They tried to take Paris in a series of offensives in 1918 to try to force the issue, but all of their attacks were rebuffed. In October, General Erich Ludendorff told the government that he couldn’t even guarantee that the front would hold another two hours. The German General Staff believed the situation was hopeless.

Germans Revolt Against the Kaiser:

On the night of October 29-30th, German sailors revolted in the port of Wilhelmshaven quickly spread across the entire country and in just a little more than a week’s time, had led to a proclamation of a republic (Weimar Republic) on November 9.

Kaiser Wilhelm II then abdicated and fled to Holland. Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat became the Chancellor. A German peace delegation arrived at the front line in five cars and was escorted thru the bombed-out, devastated areas of Northern France for 10 hours. They were taken to a secret destination where they boarded General Ferdinand Foch’s personal train in the forest of Compiègne. Foch did not, however, take part in any of the negotiations. He appeared when the Germans arrived and then did not appear again until the signing of the documents.

The German negotiators heard about the Kaiser’s abdication while in the train car and were instructed by their superiors in Berlin, with the new government to sign the Armistice. They did this at 5:30 a.m. on November 11. The Germans asked for an immediate cease-fire to prevent the useless and wasteful loss of life of the common soldiers. Foch denied this request, insisting on the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month as the official cease-fire and the end of hostilities.

As a result of Foch’s insistence, there were nearly 11,000 casualties, with 2738 killed on that day during those fateful hours waiting for the Armistice to take effect.

The date, November 11th is recognized by many countries and is known as Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day. But rather than build grandiose memorials of glory and triumph, the 5000 or so memorials that were built in Britain, revealed the horrible sacrifice paid by the ordinary soldiers of the military. There were to remind future generations of the heavy price and burden paid by the troops.

Events Held in Europe on the Centennial:

In Britain, there are numerous events being planned. The biggest one is to be the National Service of Remembrance in Whitehall, central London, at the Cenotaph paying respect to the men and women of Britain and the Commonwealth who served in the World Wars I & II and in subsequent conflicts. The Royal Family will be in attendance.

After the ceremonies, there will be a poppy wreath-laying ceremony and the sounding of “The Last Post” by a Royal Marines bugler.

In France, both French President Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will preside over a ceremony in Compiègne, at the clearing where the signing of the Armistice too place, said to be “defined by the simplicity of a moment of silent reflection and of tribute”.

President Macron will then give a speech at the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris at exactly 11 a.m. which will be attended by more than 120 foreign dignitaries representing the countries involved in the First World War.

Photos: Wikipedia

On This Day, 1943, Daring Raid By Nazi Commandos Rescues Mussolini

By September of 1943, World War II was not going well for Nazi Germany. The Russians had routed the German attack at Kursk and had the strategic initiative. The German Afrika Korps had been pushed across and out of North Africa. German cities were routinely being bombed by American bombers during the day and British bombers at night. The British and Americans had landed in Sicily, which forced Italy out of the war, and the new Italian government had former dictator Benito Mussolini arrested. And the Allies had invaded the mainland of Italy and had a toehold on a beachhead.

Hitler wanted his ally Mussolini saved and tasked Hauptsturmführer (SS captain), Otto Skorzeny, to lead a raid to free him. Hitler called Skorzeny to Berlin to personally give him the mission.

“I have a mission of the highest importance for you. . . . Mussolini must be rescued, and speedily. . . .”

The Luftwaffe’s paratroop commander General Kurt Student was tasked with supplying the majority of the men for the operation.

The result, Operation Eiche (Operation Oak), was one of the most daring raids in Special Operations history. And afterward, Skorzeny became known as the “Most Dangerous Man in Europe.”

Background to the Operation:

The Italians had moved Mussolini around during his captivity. He was first held in Ponza, then at La Maddalena, both small islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Skorzeny was using all available intelligence means to find out where the Italians moved Il Duce to. They were to learn that Mussolini was moved on August 26 to the Campo Imperatore Hotel, a ski resort at Campo Imperatore in Italy’s Gran Sasso massif, high in the Apennine Mountains.

Mussolini, complaining of stomach pains was kept in luxury accommodations and treated more like a guest than a captive. The Italians emptied the hotel of guests. He was being guarded by 200 carabinieri.

Skorzeny decided on a daring glider rescue as the surrounding mountains were too steep for a paratrooper assault. Gazing at aerial photographs, Skorzeny decided to land the gliders in what appeared to be a flat area behind the hotel.

The assault force would consist of 12 DFS 230 gliders with German airborne troops and 16 of Skorzeny’s SS Jagdverbande 502 (Hunting Group 502), Nazi Germany’s elite special operations unit.

The Raid Operation is Launched:

The Germans were to launch the raid at 0700 on September 12 but the gliders arrived late and the take off was delayed until 1300 hrs. Two of the gliders crashed on take off leaving the raid force with just ten.

Then, to his horror, Skorzeny learned that the field behind the hotel was not level but a steeply rising slope, strewn with boulders. While the German paratroop commander Maj. Hans Mors ordered an abort, Skorzeny countermanded it and ordered the gliders to attempt to land on the small clearing in front of the hotel.

One glider crashed, resulting in injuries to the commandos inside. Skorzeny’s pilot skillfully landed just 30 feet from the entrance of the hotel. Mors and the paratroopers were to cover the roads and block any forces attempting to enter the area. Skorzeny had with him Carabiniere Gen. Ferdinando Soleti who, speaking Italian urged the Italians who heavily outnumbered the Germans, not to shoot.

It worked perfectly. Three minutes after alighting from the glider in front of the hotel, Skorzeny was standing in front of Mussolini. “Il Duce, the Führer has sent me to free you.” Mussolini hugged him and said, “I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not leave me in the lurch.” In the entire amazing sequence, not one shot had been fired.

Because the road to Rome was considered too dangerous and the paratroopers too lightly armed to protect him, it was planned on having a Fieseler Storch a short-takeoff and landing aircraft (STOL) to land at the hotel and whisk Mussolini to Rome.

The Storch was designed to only carry three personnel. But Skorzeny insisted on flying with Mussolini and the heavily overloaded plane plummeted down the mountain before the pilot was able to pull it up and gain altitude. Once they arrived in Rome, Mussolini and Skorzeny boarded a He-111 bomber which flew to Vienna before flying on to Berlin. Mussolini would join Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair HQs two days later.

While in Vienna, Skorzeny received a call from Hitler personally to give him the news. Elated, Hitler promoted the SS man to Major and awarded him the Knights’ Cross. “Today, you have carried out a mission that will go down in history.”

Mussolini would only be spared for a short time. Hitler put in charge of the Fascist held area in Northern Italy where he shot many of the people who deposed him. But in January 1945, while attempting to sneak into Switzerland while dressed as a German soldier, he was captured along with his mistress Clara Petacci by Italian partisans. They were shot and hung in the city square in Milan by their bootheels.

Skorzeny would survive the war and worked as a military advisor to the Egyptian Army as well as being recruited by the Israeli Mossad to get information on former Nazis working on rockets for Egypt that would be targeted against Israel. He died of cancer in 1975 and after cremation, had his ashes interred in his family’s plot in Austria.

Despite the Nazis being one of the more evil empires of the modern world and while we detest everything they stood for, this is a great example of a classically executed special operation. The commandos had a plan that in the opening moments of the operation was scrapped due to developments and complications on the ground. The commander used his quick decision making and boldness and still flawlessly executed his mission. And by him bringing a local commander of the troops guarding the hostage, he was able to free the hostage without having to fire a shot.

It makes a good study for prospective Special Operations candidates to learn about the ability to think quickly and clearly, improvise and adapt your forces when facing a fluid situation and under a great amount of stress.

A video made by the Germans on the rescue of Mussolini can be seen here:

July 20, 1944, Operation Valkyrie, the Plot to Assassinate Hitler Fails

Operation Valkyrie was the plan by German Count Claus von Stauffenberg and other senior German generals in the Wehrmacht to assassinate Adolf Hitler and several other high ranking Nazis in an attempt to end the war in Europe. It failed.

Stauffenberg planted a bomb concealed in a briefcase under the conference table in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair, his headquarters in East Prussia, but another German officer unknowingly moved the briefcase to a spot farther down the table behind a heavy wooden leg where the blast of the explosive was directed outwardly.

Hitler survived with very minor injuries. Four Nazi officers were killed in the blast, 13 others were injured, 3 seriously. The conspirators, believing Hitler dead had already moved to wrest control of the government from the Nazis and with the news that Hitler survived it quickly collapsed. Conspirators were arrested, tried in a kangaroo Nazi court and quickly executed. The war would drag on for many more months at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Prelude to a Coup: By July of 1944, the war in Europe had turned against the Germans. In the east, the sheer weight of the Soviet Union’s endless supplies of troops, tanks, and planes had pushed the Germans back into Poland.

In the west, the Allies had crossed the English Channel on D-Day, gained a foothold in France and were pouring troops and supplies into the continent. They were close to breaking out of their Normandy beachhead and sprinting across Western Europe.

The Allied air forces ruled the skies, especially over the battlefields in France. Allied fighter-bombers were taking a terrible toll on German armor and their supply lines. German cities and their industrial might were beginning to suffer under the non-stop bombing by the Americans during the day and the British at night.

With the situation looking bleak for the German people, growing tired after five years of war and millions of casualties, a group of German Army (Wehrmacht) officers planned on using “Operation Valkyrie” which was a German World War II emergency government operations plan issued to the Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation.

The plan of these officers was to assassinate Hitler, disarm and arrest the SS which would free all the German soldiers from their oath to Hitler once he was dead. General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planned on modifying it on July 20.

Their plan involved tricking the Reserve Army into the removal of the Nazi government with the story that the SS had attempted a coup d’état and assassinated Hitler. The conspirators counted on the soldiers’ obedience to their orders from the Reserve Army High Command.

Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, as commander of the Reserve Army, could activate Operation Valkyrie. Only he and Hitler had the power to do so. Therefore, for the coup to succeed, therefore, Fromm had to be convinced to go along with the conspiracy or be removed from the equation.

Stauffenberg as Chief of Staff to the Reserve Army would attend briefings with Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair HQs. He planned on executing the assassination and then race back to Berlin to execute Valkyrie. The conspirators had already contacted the Allies thru Allen Dulles the OSS (later CIA Director) Chief of Station in Switzerland.

Between 1943 and 1944, five attempts to assassinate Hitler were put into motion and none of them ever got implemented. As the war progressed, Hitler was seen less and less in public and even shunned Berlin for the most part. He spent most of the later years of the war either at Wolf’s Lair in Rastenburg with an occasional visit to his Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. He was heavily guarded by the SS and Gestapo in both places because the Nazis feared an assassination attempt.

July 20 Attempt: On that fateful day, von Stauffenberg flew to Wolf’s Lair for the conference. He went into the men’s room to prime the bomb, he could only prime one as a result of war wounds, he lost an eye, his left hand and two fingers on his right.

He gave the other bomb to his aide, rather than leaving it in the briefcase where it was sure to explode anyway. The bomb consisted of a two-pound block of plastic explosive that was primed with a pencil detonator. He crushed the cap end which consisted of a thin copper tube containing copper chloride that would take about ten minutes to silently eat through wire holding back the firing pin from the percussion cap.

At 12:30 Stauffenberg entered the conference room and placed the bomb under the conference table next to Hitler. After just a few moments, he was paged out of the room for a phone call, which was the plan. Colonel Heinz Brandt saved Hitler’s life inadvertently by pushing the briefcase with his foot behind a thick wooden leg of the table. It directed the blast away from Hitler. It would direct the blast closer to himself, however, as his leg was blown off during the explosion which took place at 12:42.

The bomb demolished the conference room and killed a stenographer. Of the 24 people inside the conference room, only 4 would die. The blast blew out the windows and doors and a few bodies flew out as well.

Stauffenberg, believing Hitler dead, raced with his aide and driver and bluffed their way thru three checkpoints. His aide, Werner von Haeften, then tossed the second bomb into the woods on the road to the airport. They had an He-111 bomber standing by at the airfield and by 1300 they were airborne back to Berlin.

By 1600 Stauffenberg reached Berlin, he telephoned the other conspirators saying Hitler was dead. The order was given to initiate Operation Valkyrie. But a phone call from General Erich Fellgiebel, also a conspirator to the Reserve Army HQs stated that Hitler was alive. The troops didn’t know who to believe and that froze them with indecision.

Fromm, who had been sitting on the fence, called the Wolf’s Lair and spoke with Field Marshal Keitel who demanded to know where von Stauffenberg was. Fromm turned his back on the resistance and switched sides. He said he thought Stauffenberg was with Hitler.

Fromm attempted to have Stauffenberg arrested when he arrived at the Bendlerblock HQs. Olbricht and Stauffenberg then detained Fromm at gunpoint. In other places in Germany and occupied France, the army officers who were part of the plot were going thru with the plan as they’d been instructed.

But it was quickly falling apart. Himmler, who had contact with several conspirators, playing both sides against the middle, moved to consolidate Nazi power. At 1800 hours the conspirators in Berlin were still sitting on their hands as several key officers were wracked by indecision.

At 1900, Hitler called Major Remmer in charge of the Berlin garrison to assure him that he was still alive. Remmer’s orders were to surround the Bendlerblock HQs but not to enter. The conspirators panicked and many were attempting to switch sides. Stauffenberg was wounded in the gunfire. Fromm regained control of the HQs and convened a hasty court-martial for Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Haeften, and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim. He sentenced them to death and hastily shot them in the courtyard just after midnight to cover his own tracks.

Otto Skorzeny appeared and with Remmer they took charge of the situation and under orders from Hitler stopped all summary executions to allow the Gestapo to interrogate the rest of the conspirators.

Aftermath: Hitler, Himmler and the Gestapo decided to arrest anyone remotely associated with the conspirators and in the latter’s case, to settle old scores with anyone remotely associated with opposition sympathies.

Over 7000 German citizens were arrested. Of those, nearly 5000 were executed. Those arrested were put on trial in a kangaroo court run by fanatical Nazi judge Roland Freisler who would shout and browbeat the accused for the newsreels who filmed it all. The accused were stripped of their uniforms and given old, shabby clothing that didn’t fit. All of the accused were found guilty and were sentenced to hang with the punishment being carried out within two hours of sentencing. Included in the killing was Fromm who was found out anyway and executed in March of 1945 by a firing squad.

The failure of the 20 July 1944 bomb plot meant that the war would continue for another 9 months with hundreds of thousands of casualties. The last of conspirators, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin died in 2013 in Munich. The conspirators, long dismissed as disloyal Germans were finally thought of as heroes.

Photos: Wikipedia

OSS Captain Martin Gelb Awarded Congressional Gold Medal in NH

Because of security classifications that didn’t expire until 10 years ago, many members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) never were fully recognized for the work they did behind enemy lines during World War II.

But for a Derry, NH man, that oversight has been fixed as he was finally recognized for serving in the unit that was the forerunner for the CIA and the US Army Special Forces of today.

In a ceremony held Monday at the Derry Municipal Center, Capt. Martin Gelb was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, awarded by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

“Martin Gelb is an American hero and I’m honored to have the opportunity to stand with our community and his family to present him with this long overdue recognition for his service to our country,” Shaheen said.
Gelb was part of a critical intelligence unit that shaped the course of World War II, Shaheen noted, saying that the veteran’s service and sacrifice were kept secret for decades, adding it was only recently the level of Gelb’s OSS service was known.
The OSS formed the framework of what became the nation’s intelligence services, including the CIA.
“I am so thrilled that he is finally receiving the acknowledgment and commendation for his extraordinary service and I join with our community in thanking him for his bravery and service to the United States, and to the world,” Shaheen said. “Martin Gelb is a true American hero.”
Gelb, 99, was born in Brooklyn, New York and joined the Army at 22 as a tool inspector.
He then served in England, France, and behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany, serving as a field radio officer, communications officer and military intelligence officer and completed a myriad of missions including providing support to U.S. and British operations while also assisting with the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp, the largest of the Nazi camps that imprisoned about 250,000 people between 1937 and 1945.
Gelb said he was “speechless, ovewhelmed” and receiving the honor was unbelievable.
The humble soldier took a moment after the ceremony to answer questions from those attending, saying he wasn’t sure why this was such a big deal, but to those in the room, it was.

For Gelb, being honored and receiving the medal has brought back memories of his service — and he will never forget those years.
“I think of them all the time,” Gelb said. “This occasion has opened up a lot of memories stored in my mind which I chose to forget about. It brings up good and bad memories.
The Derry veteran loves America and said he did the job he was asked to do.
“I love the country we have and I don’t care what anybody says, this is one great country,” Gelb said. “We were called up, guys like me, to perform a task and we did the best we could.”

Gelb was interviewed by an author for a book that detailed the stories of the veterans, telling their stories. He remains friends with author Bill Graser after meeting him at a veterans event in 2011.

To read the entire article from Derry News, click here:

Photo courtesy WMUR TV, Martin Gelb

The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) Was Formed on This Day 1942

On June 13, 1942, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was formed. The OSS was a wartime intelligence agency of the United States during World War II and a predecessor of the modern Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, guerrilla warfare and post-war planning.

With the U.S. entry into World War II, President Roosevelt was worried about the state of the United States Intelligence services, which were non-existent or operated under an ad hoc basis, there was no overall direction or leadership. All counterespionage activities were under the auspices of the FBI and J.Edgar Hoover who tried to quash the talk of a military Intelligence service.

Nevertheless, FDR appointed William Donovan to draft a plan on creating a service similar to that of the British MI-6. Donovan was the perfect man for the job and done intelligence gathering for FDR despite the two being political opposites before the war.

On July 11, 1941, Donovan was appointed as the chief of the new organization known as the office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). The British provided great assistance; while Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers and the existing US agencies were hostile especially Hoover and the FBI.

President Roosevelt liked the idea of moving COI to the Joint Chiefs. FDR however, wanted to keep COI’s Foreign Information Service (which conducted radio broadcasting) out of the military’s control. It was then decided that the “black” and “white” propaganda missions be separated giving FIS the official side of the business. FIS and half of COI’s staff were sent it to the new Office of War Information.

The remainder of COI were then earmarked for what was to become OSS. Donovan chose the name that reflected his sense of the “strategic” importance of intelligence and special operations.

The Office of Strategic Services was born by a Presidential military order issued by President Roosevelt on June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct special operations not assigned to other agencies.

But Donovan’s fledgling agency already had others fighting over the turf of intelligence. From the CIA’s OSS history, the State Department cut OSS out of one of the biggest Intelligence realms right away.

The Department of State and the armed services arranged a Presidential decree that effectively banned OSS and several other agencies from acquiring and decoding the war’s most important intelligence source: intercepted Axis communications. Donovan protested, but his complaints fell on deaf ears. The result was that OSS had no access to intercepts on Japan (codenamed MAGIC) and could read only certain types of German intercepts (called ULTRA by the Allies). Other edicts also limited OSS’s scope and effectiveness. The FBI, G-2 and ONI, for instance, stood together to protect their monopoly on domestic counterintelligence work. OSS eventually developed a capable counterintelligence apparatus of its own overseas—the X-2 Branch—but it had no authority to operate in the Western Hemisphere, which was reserved for the FBI and Nelson Rockefeller’s office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.

Under the expert leadership of Donovan and a crash course of intelligence from the British, OSS expanded quickly and just a few short months after being formed was instrumental in providing excellent and timely intelligence for the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November of 1942.

Donovan had already provided the State Department with desperately needed French-speaking officers in French-held North Africa the fall before to act as “vice consuls” and won OSS grudging respect from State. With Donovan’s leadership and outstanding training by the British, OSS began to quickly build a worldwide clandestine intelligence capability.

The first COI/OSS officers arrived in Britain in November 1941 before the US was even in the war. They leaned heavily on the British for their training, expertise, experience, and information to get off the ground. The British, used to operating on more of a shoestring budget were happy to share the seemingly endless resources given to the new American unit.

The relationship was slow to blossom but in the end was a marriage that would be extremely beneficial to both sides and laid the groundwork for the close cooperation and trust the two countries still enjoy. However, the Brits were cautious at first, worried that the neophyte Americans could compromise their hard-earned operatives in Occupied Europe. Despite this, the two sides grew interdependent on one another by war’s end.

At the peak of war operations in late 1944, OSS had grown to over 13,000 personnel.CIA history pages break down OSS personnel as follows:

General Donovan employed thousands of officers and enlisted men seconded from the armed services, and he also found military slots for many of the people who came to OSS as civilians. US Army (and Army Air Forces) personnel comprised about two-thirds of its strength, with civilians from all walks of life making up another quarter; the remainder were from the Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard. About 7,500 OSS employees served overseas, and about 4,500 were women (with 900 of them serving in overseas postings). In Fiscal Year 1945, the office spent $43 million, bringing its total spending over its four-year life to around $135 million (almost $1.1 billion in today’s dollars)

The Special Operations Branch was patterned after the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) and did their training at the British facility at Milton Hall. Together the two armies combined to make the famous “Jedburgh” teams that parachuted into Occupied France prior to the D-Day invasion. They comprised 93 teams that had two officers and an enlisted radio operator. William Colby, the future Director of CIA was a Jedburgh in WWII but perhaps the most famous of the Special Operations Branch was Virginia Hall, the famous “Limping Lady of OSS” .

General Donovan recruited an eclectic group of volunteers that he described as “Glorious Amateurs”, but after a few years in service, they were a professional organization that formed the backbone of CIA and later the US Army Special Forces. Donovan described the perfect OSS men as “PHDs who can win a bar fight. OSS wanted smart, self-starters who could think on their feet.

William J. Casey, who was OSS in World War II and later DCI from 1981 to
1987 in the Reagan administration remembered, “You didn’t wait six months for a feasibility study to prove that an idea could work. You gambled that it might work. You
didn’t tie up the organization with red tape designed mostly to cover somebody’s ass. You took the initiative and the responsibility. You went around end; you went over somebody’s head if you had to. But you acted. That’s what drove the regular military and the State Department chair-warmers crazy about the OSS.”

When the war ended, the handwriting was on the wall for OSS. President Truman who took over when FDR died in early 1945, disliked Donovan and the OSS. Donovan’s plan to keep a peacetime intelligence service was filed away but ignored. OSS was disbanded on October 1, 1945.

Two years later Truman approved the new organization called the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) until the National Security Act of 1947 turned CIG into the Central Intelligence Agency, to perform many of the missions that General Donovan had advocated for his proposed peacetime intelligence service. CIA became what General Donovan had initially proposed.

But the modern-day CIA and the US Special Operations Command owe a great deal of their legacy to OSS and to General Donovan. They still employ some “PHDs that can win a bar fight”

</ifram<span style="font-weight: 400;"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>Photos: US Army</span></p><p>

Photos: US Army, CIA

Remembering Robert G. Cole, MOH In Normandy On Memorial Day

We’ve been focusing on Memorial Day in the past week, writing about some of the heroes of past conflicts who despite all odds persevered and made it thru the horrors of war and were awarded the Nation’s highest award. Today on Memorial Day, we remember a hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his incredible courage during the D-Day Normandy invasion and survived the battle but was tragically killed during the invasion of Holland a few months later.

Robert G. Cole was an airborne battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division leading the 3rd Bn, of the 502nd Parachute Infantry into D-Day landing outside of Carentan. He led his battalion on an assault on German positions and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Cole was born at Ft. Sam Houston, TX in March of 1915, his father was an Army doctor. He joined the Army on July 1, 1934, and a year later was granted a discharge so that he could attend the US Military Academy at West Point.

Cole graduated as a 2LT of Infantry in 1939 and joined the paratroopers in 1941, earning his wings in March 1941. As the airborne forces were being rapidly expanded, he quickly attained rank and just three years later, Cole was commanding a battalion in the 502nd.

Cole was a tall, muscular Texan with a booming voice that he seldom lowered, he reigned over a tough, wild battalion of paratroopers with an iron hand. And his men respected and feared him as much as they did the Germans. One trooper, Ralph Kelly remembered, “I was more afraid of Cole than I ever was of the Germans.”

On D-Day, the entire 101st Airborne was spread all over Normandy in their first combat jump. Units were separated and small groups with troops from several different commands would link up and conduct assigned missions. So by midday on June 6, Cole had only 75 men with him but he was still able to effect linkup with the 4th Infantry Division behind Utah Beach by capturing Exit 3 at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville.

The battalion had the assigned mission of being in reserve in the initial invasion. But by June 10, Cole’s battalion had reorganized into 400 men. And he would need every one of them during the next assault.

With the 101st assigned the mission of taking Carentan, the men of Cole’s battalion were assigned to taking the narrow causeway leading up to the town. The causeway was very narrow and totally exposed on either side where there were marshes with no cover. Cole’s troops would be in the sights of the German paratroopers who were guarding the town. The causeway was called Purple Heart Lane by the troops.

The German troops were dug in well on one side behind a hedgerow and at the far end of the causeway was a bridge over the Douve River that Cole’s troops were to take after moving down the causeway. Past the bridge was Carentan.

As Cole moved his troops up, they were hit with accurate devastating fire from German mortars, artillery, and machine-gun fire. The troops huddled against the side of the causeway bank after taking horrendous casualties. They decided to take up defensive positions for the night.

The darkness offered the 502nd little respite. The Germans continued to hit them with concentrated artillery and mortar fire, including strafing from German aircraft. This cause even more casualties and completely knocked out one of Cole’s companies right out of the fight.

By morning, Cole had 265 men left for an assault. Cole decided to call for smoke and would personally lead a bayonet charge into the German positions. His attack gained momentum and they finally advanced thru the hedgerow and a farm behind it, driving the Germans out and killing and wounding a large amount of them in the fighting and then cutting the German paratroopers down as they attempted to flee.

The attack was costly, with 130 of his 265 becoming casualties. Both Cole’s 3rd Battalion and the 1st Battalion suffered high casualties and after taking the bridge, couldn’t advance inside the town of Carentan. The German paratroopers of the 6th Parachute Regiment (Fallschrimjaeger) counter-attacked and tried to drive the Americans back. During the night, the American artillery turned the tables on the Germans and pounded the Nazi paratroopers and broke up their attacks.

The Germans decided that they couldn’t hold Carentan as their ammunition was running out and pulled out, leaving just small, blocking forces inside the town. The 506th Parachute Infantry made famous in the “Band of Brothers” book and television series would be tasked with taking the town just after dawn on June 12th.

On the 7oth anniversary of the battle, the French citizens of Carentan erected a monument to the courage of “Cole’s Charge” as it had been called. The Stars and Stripes of the United States float on the monument beside the Tricolour,” said a French administrator.

Cole was recommended for the Medal of Honor but tragically would not live to see it. Just a few months later during the invasion of Holland in Operation Market-Garden, Cole’s battalion was contacted by American P-47s and was asked to place orange marker panels in front of his unit’s position. The Thunderbolts had been trying to strafe German positions and were hitting some American ones as well.

Cole, rather than task a subordinate to it, decided to do it himself. As soon as Cole laid down the panel, the P-47s began putting devastating fire on the German positions and the amount of fire being received from them slackened perceptibly. Cole, standing in the open and shielding his eyes against the sun, he raised his head to catch a glimpse of the plane. A German sniper about 100 yards away in a farmhouse saw this and shot Cole in the temple killing him instantly.

Later, the Americans saw a German try to hightail it from the farmhouse, a .30 caliber machine-gun cut him down before he got far. The word passed quickly thru the battalion that the men had gotten the German that killed Cole and they all felt much better about it.

Grave of Robert G. Cole in the Netherlands. (US Army)

Just two weeks later, his Medal of Honor was awarded to his mother, wife, and son at Ft. Sam Houston. Cole was buried with his troops in the American military cemetery in Margraten, the Netherlands.

Medal of Honor Citation:

For gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty on 11 June 1944, in France. Lt. Col. Cole was personally leading his battalion in forcing the last 4 bridges on the road to Carentan when his entire unit was suddenly pinned to the ground by intense and withering enemy rifle, machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire placed upon them from well-prepared and heavily fortified positions within 150 yards of the foremost elements.

After the devastating and unceasing enemy fire had for over 1 hour prevented any move and inflicted numerous casualties, Lt. Col. Cole, observing this almost hopeless situation, courageously issued orders to assault the enemy positions with fixed bayonets.

With utter disregard for his own safety and completely ignoring the enemy fire, he rose to his feet in front of his battalion and with drawn pistol shouted to his men to follow him in the assault. Catching up a fallen man’s rifle and bayonet, he charged on and led the remnants of his battalion across the bullet-swept open ground and into the enemy position. His heroic and valiant action in so inspiring his men resulted in the complete establishment of our bridgehead across the Douve River.

The cool fearlessness, personal bravery, and outstanding leadership displayed by Lieutenant Colonel Cole reflect great credit upon himself and are worthy of the highest praise in the military service.

Photos: US Army of General Eisenhower talking to LTC Robert Coe just prior to the D-Day invasion.