GERMANS JOIN BRITISH

Chronicle (Levin), 25 October 1946, Page 5

GERMANS JOIN BRITISH

Press Assn.-

PART IN COMMANDO FORCES DURING ADVANCED ( D-DAY LANDINGS

Bsj Telearagh

-Copyright

1 Received Friday, 11 a.m. LONDON, Oct. 24. Even Viscount Montgomery did not. know the commander of Troop No. 3, which Lord Mountbatten yesterday referred to as Troop X, which, in the advanced landings on D-Day, consisted of Germans, says the Evening News. The troops' commander, Colonel Peter Laycock, revealed how 100 fiercely anti-Nazi Germans were given British identities, assumed British names and served for four years as Allied commandos.

Colonel Laycock said: "Schmidt-1 became Smith, and my sergeantmajor, whose name was really unprounceable, called himself O 'Neill. One of the Germans, 'George Lane,' after capture, was interrogated by . Rommel himself without his identity being revealed." A number of these Troop X commandoes were killed in action. Lord Mountbatten was speaking 1 at a Commando Benevolent Fund. dinner when he made the revelation. He said Britain, during the war, had formed an international 'I"1' 1 gg !■.■■■ ■ . 1 . 1 ■ ;

commando unit, one troop of which consisted of Germans. The other units comprised French, Dutch, Belgian, Polish and Norwegian troops. "They were Germans who believed in democracy, and were prepared to face torture to rid their country of Nazism," Lord Mountbatten said. "They were all very 1 fine soldiers. The commandos of other nations have leaders to speak for them, but they have no one. I would like to say I am proud oi those men.