Skorzeny's Special Missions by Otto Skorzeny

Author:Otto Skorzeny
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473818293
Publisher: Frontline Books

CHAPTER X

JULY, 1944, in Berlin. The military situation was continually deteriorating, as a tremendous Russian offensive in June had rolled up almost the whole of our central eastern front and more than thirty German divisions had been taken prisoners. How such a thing could have happened was a mystery to all of us. No one could say whether the disaster was due to the High Command or the troops themselves.

In the west, the invasion had succeeded and the enemy, backed by all his enormous superiority in material, was thrusting towards the German frontier.

The wireless announcement of an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler came like a thunderbolt. How was such a thing possible, and at FHQ, too? Had our enemies found a means of getting there? Were the previous anxieties of the troops guarding it shown to be justified? It never entered our heads that the bomb should have been placed by one of our own people, so I saw no reason to postpone an urgent journey to Vienna to attend some frogmen exercises in the Diana baths.

At 6 o’clock, Radl and I arrived at the Anhalt station. We made ourselves comfortable in the sleeping coach, produced some real coffee, which I had brought from Italy, and lit a spirit lamp. When we stopped at Lichterfelde West, the last station in Greater Berlin, we saw an officer running along the platform and could just hear him shouting: “Sturmbannführer Skorzeny! Sturmbannführer Skorzeny!” He flung himself into our compartment, quite out of breath. “You must return to Berlin at once, Sturmbannführer! Orders from Headquarters. There’s a military revolt behind the attempt on the Führer’s life!”

“You’ll have to go on alone, Radl, and handle the conference yourself. I’ll follow to-morrow morning if I can.” I had my suitcase on the platform in a second and followed it as the train was moving out.

At Section VI, Brigadier Schellenberg told me that the source of the conspiracy was supposed to be the Bendlerstrasse, the headquarters of the C.-in-C., Home Forces. “The situation is obscure and dangerous,” said Schellenberg, who looked pale as death and had a revolver on the table in front of him. “I’ll defend myself here if they come this way,” he continued. “I’ve armed all the employees with machine-pistols. Couldn’t you get a detachment of your men here to protect the house?”

I rang up Friedenthal and von Foelkersam answered. “Alert the whole battalion at once,” I said. “Await further orders, which I alone will give. No. i Company is to come here at once. I appoint Ostafel my adjutant and you and he must jump into a car and come along without waiting for the others.” I went on to give him a short resume of the situation. The company could be with us within an hour.

“Brigadeführer,” I said, turning to Schellenberg, “have most of your staff disarmed at once. You’ve no idea how dangerous such men can be with firearms! I’ve just had to send a chap down to the cellar to prevent damage from his machine-pistol.

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