Skorzeny's special missions : the memoirs of Hitler's most daring commando

218 Pages·2011·1.64 MB·English

by  Skorzeny

Skorzeny’s Special Missions
Skorzeny’s Special Missions
The Memoirs of Hitler’s Most Daring
Commando
Otto Skorzeny
Foreword by Charles Messenger
Skorzeny’s Special Missions: The Memoirs of Hitler’s
Most Daring Commando
A Greenhill Book
This edition published in 2011 by
Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Limited,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS
www.frontline-books.com, email [email protected] Copyright © Otto
Skorzeny, 1957
Foreword © Charles Messenger, 2006
ISBN 978-1-84832-533-3
First published in Great Britain by Robert Hale Limited in 1957. Greenhill
Books published a hardback edition in 1997. A paperback edition, with a
new foreword by Charles Messenger, was released by Greenhill in 2006.
This is the first edition to be published by Frontline Books, and includes the
additional material from the 2006 paperback edition.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by
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prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any
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prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP data record for this title is available from the British Library.
For more information on our books, please visit www.frontline-books.com,
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Printed in the United States
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Foreword

I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
Appendix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
between pages 96 and 97

1 The author when a witness in the Nuremberg war crime trials in 1945
2 The Albergo Campo Imperatore Hotel when Mussolini was kept
prisoner
3 Otto Skorzeny with some of his men in Italy after the rescue of
Mussolini
4 Mussolini greeting Hitler on his arrival at the Führer’s headquarters in
East Prussia, 16th September, 1943
5 Hitler congratulating Otto Skorzeny on the rescue of Mussolini,
September, 1943
6 A portrait of the author, then a Major in the Waffen SS, taken about
the same time
7 In paratroop uniform in Italy at a presentation of decorations to his
men
8 A similar event at Friedenthal, Germany, in November, 1944
9 An American picture of Otto Skorzeny at the time of his arrest by the
United States Army
10 As a prisoner of war, 1946
11 In the Denazification Camp at Darmstadt, May, 1948
12 Otto Skorzeny with Wing Commander Yeo Thomas in Madrid, 1952
FOREWORD
O
tto Skorzeny was one of the more colourful characters of the Third Reich
and became a darling of the Nazi propaganda machine. He is best known for the
part he played in the dramatic rescue of Mussolini from incarceration in a hotel
in the Abruzzi mountains, but he also took part in a number of other daring
special forces operations. Originally published in 1957, this is an account of his
war.
Austrian-born like Hitler, Skorzeny experienced the turbulence in that
country of the early 1930s. A believer in Anschluss, he joined the Nazi Party in
1930, but says nothing about the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss as a result
of an abortive Nazi plot to bring about union with Germany four years later,
although it is difficult to believe that he was not in some way involved. When
Anschluss did occur in March 1938, Skorzeny’s role in helping to prevent
bloodshed came to the attention of Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the newly appointed
German governor of Austria. But, when war came, he was turned down by the
Luftwaffe as being too old to become a pilot and had to content himself as a
trainee Waffen-SS engineer officer instead. Skorzeny saw service with the SS
Das Reich Division in France, the Balkans and the invasion of Russia before
being evacuated sick with colic at the end of 1941.
It was not until spring 1943, after a period of home service, that Skorzeny
entered the field that would make him famous. He joined Section 6 of the
RSHA, which was its foreign department, covering not just intelligence, but
special operations as well. Here he experienced the bureaucratic frustrations and
jealousy which characterised so much of the Nazi government system. In the
midst of this he turned to studying British special operations, notably those
employing commandos, and the activities of SOE, and began to formulate his
own concepts. This was helped in that he was allowed to form his own special
forces unit, thanks to an extent to the head of the RSHA, Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
whom Skorzeny had known in Vienna. It was, however, the order to report to
Hitler’s field headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia, on 26 July 1943, which
radically changed his life.