Otto Skorzeny, who rescued Mussolini in 1943, seen here during the defence of Frankfurt, February 1945.
Otto Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he commanded a rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny was also the leader of Operation Greif, in which German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using their opponents' uniforms and customs. At the end of the war, Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement and the ODESSA network where Skorzeny would serve as Spanish coordinator.
I stumbled across your blog - thought you might be interested to know that my mother worked as an air hostess for Iberia in the 70's, and she was serving on the flight which took Skorzeny to Spain for the last time.
ReplyDeleteShe remembers being struck by the huge scar across his face, and that during the flight he was very quiet and undemanding, unlike the other passengers in his class. Within a few days or weeks, the news of his death broke and his face was all over the press in Spain, at which point she realised just who the man was.