My Commando Operations: The Memoirs of Hitler's Most Daring Commando

482 Pages·1995·81.29 MB·English

by  Otto Skorzeny

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The Memoirs of Hitler’s
Most Daring Commando
OTTO
SKORZENY
MY
COMMANDO
OPERATIONS
The Memoirs of Hitler’s
Most Daring Commando
Translatedfrom theGerman byDavidJohnston
_SCHIFFER MILITARY_HISTORY
Atglen,PA
I DEDICATE THISBOOK
TOTHE TRUE HEROES
OFTHE SECOND WORLDWAR
THE COMMON
RUSSIAN AND GERMAN SOLDIER
Translated from theGerman by DavidJohnston.
Copyright©1995bySchifferPublishing.
LibraryofCongressCatalog Number:94-68031
Thisbook wasoriginally published underthetitle.
MeineKommandoUnternehmen,
©1993by UniversitasVerlaginF.A. Herbig VerlagsbuchhandlungGmbH.Munich.
Thisbook wasoriginally published
in 1975byEditionAlbin Michel.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any formsor by
any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or information
storageand retrievalsystems-without written permissionfrom thecopyrightholder.
Printed inChina.
ISBN:0-88740-718-8
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CONTENTS
PARTI
Chapter1 10
ON THE RIGHTOFSELF-DETERMINATION OF PEOPLES
Chapter2 21
THEANSCHLUSS
Chapter3 33
Waffen-SS
Chapter4 41
WHY WE DIDN’T LAND IN ENGLAND
& TAKE GIBRALTAR
Chapter5 52
FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNELTOTHE BALKANS
Chapter6 64
UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTTHE FLIGHTTO ENGLAND
BY RUDOLF HESS
(MAY 10, 1941)
Chapter 7 75
BARBAROSSA
Chapter8 85
CONTINUALTREASON
Chapter9 102
WHY WE DIDN’TTAKE MOSCOW
PART II
Chapter10 126
THE “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”
THE TRUTH ABOUT STALINGRAD
Chapter11 141
DON’T SHOOT!
Chapter12 158
WHY HITLER DIDN’T BUILD THEATOMIC BOMB
THE REVENGE WEAPONS
Chapter13 171
FROM THE BEST U-BOATSTO
THE NEW “SYNTHETIC MATERIALS”
Chapter14 183
FROM SICILY TO REMAGEN
Chapter15 201
PLANNED OPERATIONS
PART III
Chapter16 228
HITLER’S ORDER: YOU MUST FIND AND FREE THE DUCE!
OPERATIONALDRICH
Chapter17 247
SEARCHING FOR THE DUCE
Chapter18 265
THE FREEING OFTHE DUCE
Chapter19 285
JULY 20, 1944
Chapter20 303
OPERATION PANZERFAUST
Chapter21 329
GRIFFIN
PART IV
Chapter22 362
VLASOV AND BANDERA
NICOLAI, CANARIS & GEHLEN
Chapter23 385
OPERATION FREISCHUTZ
Chapter24 396
ADRIAN VON FOLKERSAM MISSING
WALTER GIRG & His LAST MISSION
Chapter25 412
SCHWEDT ON THE ODER
LAST REUNION WITH VIENNA
Chapter26 432
NUREMBERG
Chapter27 454
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN EUROPE
EPILOGUE 462
PART I
1
ON RIGHT
THE
SELF-DETERMINATION
OF
PEOPLES
OF
Art invented triumvirate:Borghese-deMarchi-Skorzeny-Myyouth
-
in Vienna The tragedy ofa German people in an East European
- -
state The student: the time of the duels Ban onfraternities by
-
Baldur vonSchirach Theengineer:work,sportandpoliticalcom¬
mitment in favor of union with Germany -Goebbels in Vienna -
Dolfuss declares Marxists and NationalSocialists illegal- Unex¬
plainedaspectsofafailedputsch -Honeymoon trip toItaly-The
oppression.
'I oralmost thirtyyearscertaincorrespondents,journalistsand
I
J radioand television reportershavedescribed meas“themost
|1 dangerous man in Europe.” Forexample,at theend of No-
JL.
vember19731wasworking in my office in Madrid,when I
learnedwhileskimmingthrough ItalianandSpanish newspapersthat
I was planninga coupd’6tat in Rome. I wasn’t surprised; for in the
fantasiesof many journalistsI had already organizedcountlesscoup
-
d’6tats, plotsand kidnappings, notonly in Europe noblesseoblige
finally-but inAfrica and both Americas.This time the Rome con¬
spiracy hadbeendirectedbyatriumvirate,consistingofPrinceValerio
Borghese, the attorney de Marchi, leader of the M.S.I., and me. On
completionof theirpreparationsI wassupposedtosupplytheItalian
rebelswith four Fokkeraircraft.Wherewas Isupposed toget them?
Igave the followingstatement duringan interview with Manuel
Alcala of the Madrid daily newspaper Informacioneson November
23,1973:
“It’slaughable:whenever theItalian governmentfindsitself fac¬
ingseriousdifficulties, it uncoversa plot which threatens it. It is no
10
MY COMMANDO OPERATIONS n
lessstrangethat thisisthesecond timewithinashort period that they
havediscovereda plot in which I wasallegedly involved.More than
a yearagothey found letters1had written toPrince Borghcse,which
contained nothingastonishing.We becamewartimefriendsin 1943.
Theexchangeof lettersinquestion had nothingtodowith a plotora
conspiracy againsttheItaliangovernment.For morethansix months
I haven’t had theslightest contact with Valerio Borghese, and asfar
as Mr.de Marchi isconcerned, I have never laid eyeson him in my
life anddidn’t even know that heexisted. I would like toonce again
state clearly that since thewar I have never become involved in any
political or military affairs of any country, and that I would reject
any suggestion made to me in that direction.”
This time I could deny the charges against me, and this denial was
published. But I have thousands of articles from newspapers and
magazines-most were sent by friends-which attribute to me the
most fantastic, vile and perplexingactionsand plans.Thousandsof
otherpublicationsallaroundtheentireworldspread rumorsanddefa¬
mations,sometimes in support of a politicalsystem.
Yet, I am not the only one affected. I think of the comrades at
whose side I fought, of the brave soldiers 1 commanded and who
died in the maelstrom of war: many fallen on the Field of honor or
lost forever in thesteppes,forestsor prison campsof Soviet Russia.
I believe that people must know that these men never personally
fought unfairly,even though they were involved inadirty war.Even
the enemy hasacknowledged that.
In spite of all the ridicule, I firmly believe that there is military
honorand that itwillcontinuetoexistaslongastherearesoldiersor
until one half of our planet has destroyed the other half. But it is
always possible to learn from the past.
Thisbook isnot intendedasan“officialdenial.”It isa book by a
witness to recent history,one who had the time to reflect on events
and people, on conditionsand plans; a witness whose chief misfor¬
tunewastobea patrioticGermanwhowasbom inVienna,thecapi¬
tal city ofAustro-Hungary in 1908.
When Ispokeaboveofthealleged Borghese-deMarchi-Skorzeny
triumvirate, I recalled, not without a certain nostalgia,twoother tri¬
umviratesthat I had tostudy in myclassin Roman history insecond¬
ary school in Vienna in 1919.The first consisted of Caesar,Crassus
12 OTTO SKORZENY
andPompeius,thesecondOctavius,Antoniusand Lcpidus:Triumviri
reipublicaeconstituendae...
I was ten years old at the time. The Hapsburg Empire had just
collapsed. Austria was now a country of six-million inhabitants (of
which nearly 2million lived in Vienna),83,000square kilometersin
area.They had taken away the industries of Bohemia and the agri¬
cultural land of Hungary and had left it noaccess to the sea. It was
therefore forced to live in misery or unitewith Germany.
In March 1938there wasmuch talk of “rape by Hitler.” But like
Hitler,whowas himself bom inAustria, wewereGermans'.And we
had the same right as the Saxons, the Bavarians, theSwabians, the
Wiirttembergers and all the other members of the German union,
from whichAustria had been expelled after the Battleof Koniggratz
in 1866.
For nine and a half centuries Austria, which in German means
eastern empire, was part of the German Empire.Thisexplains why
an overwhelming number of Austrians voted for union. From 1918
to 1922, in the state of emergency of the defeated, we turned to the
“Reich”outof an instinctforself-preservation.All partiessupported
reunification with Germany so strongly, that two laws were passed
by the Austrian National Assembly, on November 12,1918 and on
March12,1919.Theydeclared:“Austriaisafundamental partof the
German Reich.” This sentence was added to the nation’s constitu¬
tion. Furthermore, the new state was officially called German-Aus-
tria.
Inspiteof the“rightof self-determinationof peoples,” theallies
refused to take into consideration the will of theAustrian people at
VersaillesorSt.Germain.We were not incorporated into the Reich.
Ultimately,inSeptemberandOctober1919,thealliesdemanded that
the German and Austrian republics remove from their constitutions
thosearticlesrelatingtotheunionof thetwocountries.TheAustrian
government tried to “rouse democratic opinion” and organized re¬
gional refercndumsinTyrolandSalzburg;that wasinApriland May
1921.The results:145,302Tyroleansvotedfor union,1,805against.
However it wasall in vain.These referendumswere not “controlled
by the nazis.”There were none yet.
In1931formerForeign MinisterSchobersuccessfullyconcluded
acustomsandtradeagreementwith theWeimarRepublic.TheLeague
of Nations and the International Court of Justice declared that this