Post by peterd on Dec 3, 2012 6:17:28 GMT -8
Scarfaced Otto Skorzeny was an SS commando leader who gained instant fame as the man who liberated Mussolini in September 1943. After the Gran Sasso raid he became responsible for all sabotage and subversion behind Allied lines and headed the SS special units. Skorzeny progressively received control over other German special units, including the Navy's sabotage divers and midget submarine units, and from May 1944 also of the Leonidas squadron, the Luftwaffe's suicide ground attack unit, the German equal of the Japanese Kamikaze.
In mid-October 1943, German intelligence got wind of the time and place of the Tehran Conference. Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the RSHA cooked up a plan to assassinate the three Allied leaders. It was codenamed Operation Long Jump, and was immediately approved by Hitler. After the Gran Sasso raid, Skorzeny was chosen to lead the mission. However, Skorzeny considered the mission to be suicidal, and regarded the intelligence coming from Tehran to be false. To his luck he managed to convince Hitler and the mission was cancelled.
On July 20 1944 Skorzeny was in Berlin and found himself in the middle of the coup d'etat against the Nazi government. He helped to put down the putsch attempt of the German military, spending 36 hours in charge of the Wehrmacht's central command room before being relieved.
In October 1944 Hitler put him in charge of Operation Panzerfaust, a snatch operation to capture the son of Hungarian regent governor Miklos Horthy, who had secretly negotiated his nation's surrender to the Red Army. Skorzeny's men kidnapped Horthy's son and sent him to Germany by plane. When that failed to convince Horthy to stop negotiations with the Russians, Skozreny seized the castle in Budapest with a combination of words and gunfire, forcing the governor to resign. This action laid the groundwork a pro-Nazi puppet government to take control of Hungary.
During the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes, aka the Battle of the Bulge, Skorzeny was at the head of the German advance. He commanded a force of English speaking German soldiers in a mission codenamed Operation Greif (Griffon). Their objective was to operate behind Allied lines, wearing American uniforms and riding captured vehicles to spread confusion among the Allied troops. One of Skorzeny's units, the 150th Panzer Brigade, used German Panther tanks painted in American colors to pose as US tank destroyers. Another unit was wearing US Army Military Police uniforms and were misdirection units that changed sign posts. The operation caused uncertainty among in the American ranks, security was tightened and rumors started flying that Skorzeny and his men were planning to assassinate Eisenhower.
In early March 1945, as the Russians were closing in on Berlin, Skorzeny was summoned to Hitler for the last time. The dictator ordered him to go the Bavarian Alps and prepare for guerilla warfare against the occupying Allies. Skorzeny followed the orders, but after the Fuhrer's suicide he turned himself in to the Americans.
Skorzeny was tried as a war criminal at the Dachau Trials by a US military tribunal after being held as a POW for more than two years. Skorzeny and his officers of the 150th Panzer Brigade were charged with participating in the improper use and theft of American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. Skorzeny admitted that he ordered his men to wear American uniforms, but his defense argued that such tactic was a legitimate ruse de guerre. Moreover, the defense presented a surprise witness, Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas, a British secret service operative, also known as the White Rabbit, who testified that he and his operatives had worn German uniforms while operating behind German line. In the end Skorzeny was acquitted.
After his trial Skorzeny was detained in the Darmstadt internment camp while he was subjected to the procedure of the so-called denazification court. In July 1948 three US Military Police officers showed up in Darmstadt and escorted the scarfaced commando leader out of the camp. Once outside, the three MPs revealed that they were former SS officers dressed in US uniforms and let Skorzeny go into hiding. He hid out for a while at a farm in Bavaria. In 1950 he moved to Spain, where he set up a small engineering company which served as a front for his activities with the organization of former SS officers - the ODESSA network.
In the 1950s Skorzeny became a military advisor to Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser. While in Egypt he was also involved in the commando training of Arab volunteers, several of them Palestinian refugees, one of whom was Yasser Arafat.
Skorzeny was then involved in subterfuge operations for the Argentinian Peron government, the CIA and even the Mossad. In the 1960s he set up his own right-wing organization and commando training center, the Paladin Group. He died in 1975 at the age of 67 in Madrid.
Written by: Nandor Laklia
In mid-October 1943, German intelligence got wind of the time and place of the Tehran Conference. Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the RSHA cooked up a plan to assassinate the three Allied leaders. It was codenamed Operation Long Jump, and was immediately approved by Hitler. After the Gran Sasso raid, Skorzeny was chosen to lead the mission. However, Skorzeny considered the mission to be suicidal, and regarded the intelligence coming from Tehran to be false. To his luck he managed to convince Hitler and the mission was cancelled.
On July 20 1944 Skorzeny was in Berlin and found himself in the middle of the coup d'etat against the Nazi government. He helped to put down the putsch attempt of the German military, spending 36 hours in charge of the Wehrmacht's central command room before being relieved.
In October 1944 Hitler put him in charge of Operation Panzerfaust, a snatch operation to capture the son of Hungarian regent governor Miklos Horthy, who had secretly negotiated his nation's surrender to the Red Army. Skorzeny's men kidnapped Horthy's son and sent him to Germany by plane. When that failed to convince Horthy to stop negotiations with the Russians, Skozreny seized the castle in Budapest with a combination of words and gunfire, forcing the governor to resign. This action laid the groundwork a pro-Nazi puppet government to take control of Hungary.
During the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes, aka the Battle of the Bulge, Skorzeny was at the head of the German advance. He commanded a force of English speaking German soldiers in a mission codenamed Operation Greif (Griffon). Their objective was to operate behind Allied lines, wearing American uniforms and riding captured vehicles to spread confusion among the Allied troops. One of Skorzeny's units, the 150th Panzer Brigade, used German Panther tanks painted in American colors to pose as US tank destroyers. Another unit was wearing US Army Military Police uniforms and were misdirection units that changed sign posts. The operation caused uncertainty among in the American ranks, security was tightened and rumors started flying that Skorzeny and his men were planning to assassinate Eisenhower.
In early March 1945, as the Russians were closing in on Berlin, Skorzeny was summoned to Hitler for the last time. The dictator ordered him to go the Bavarian Alps and prepare for guerilla warfare against the occupying Allies. Skorzeny followed the orders, but after the Fuhrer's suicide he turned himself in to the Americans.
Skorzeny was tried as a war criminal at the Dachau Trials by a US military tribunal after being held as a POW for more than two years. Skorzeny and his officers of the 150th Panzer Brigade were charged with participating in the improper use and theft of American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. Skorzeny admitted that he ordered his men to wear American uniforms, but his defense argued that such tactic was a legitimate ruse de guerre. Moreover, the defense presented a surprise witness, Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas, a British secret service operative, also known as the White Rabbit, who testified that he and his operatives had worn German uniforms while operating behind German line. In the end Skorzeny was acquitted.
After his trial Skorzeny was detained in the Darmstadt internment camp while he was subjected to the procedure of the so-called denazification court. In July 1948 three US Military Police officers showed up in Darmstadt and escorted the scarfaced commando leader out of the camp. Once outside, the three MPs revealed that they were former SS officers dressed in US uniforms and let Skorzeny go into hiding. He hid out for a while at a farm in Bavaria. In 1950 he moved to Spain, where he set up a small engineering company which served as a front for his activities with the organization of former SS officers - the ODESSA network.
In the 1950s Skorzeny became a military advisor to Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser. While in Egypt he was also involved in the commando training of Arab volunteers, several of them Palestinian refugees, one of whom was Yasser Arafat.
Skorzeny was then involved in subterfuge operations for the Argentinian Peron government, the CIA and even the Mossad. In the 1960s he set up his own right-wing organization and commando training center, the Paladin Group. He died in 1975 at the age of 67 in Madrid.
Written by: Nandor Laklia