SS-Fall.Jg.Btl. 600 and Oper. "Panzerfaust"

[Kocjo]

Here are some photos (but I'm not 100% sure) from Budapest!

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5361

Regards,
Kocjo

[Debica Fusilier]

Hi Ron-WSSOB,

How busy was Skorzeny personally with actual operations in 1943-44? Certainly he was organising units and planning operations, but as far as I can see he spent only two days actually on operations when any bullets were flying, and these were few.

Both operations I can tghink of took place far behind German lines so it was his opponents who would have taken much greater risks to engage in combat. One of these operations, the rescue of Mussolini, was actually a Luftwaffe prachute operation Skorzeny hijacked by use of political influence.

Can you list the occasions when Skorzeny was PERSONALLY involved in operations in 1943-44 that drew return fire?

Cheers,

Sid.

Is it just me or does Skorzeny kinda remind you of "Colonel Flag" from M*A*S*H?

[Rob - WSSOB]

The "though vicious, was stupid" comment comes from the history of the US 120th IR, as quoted on page 172 of Schadewitz's book "The Meuse First and Then Antwerp"

I don't really know much about Skorzeny. Schadewitz is clearly unimpressed with the man's tactical abilites (as were the Americans and a few of Skorzeny's officers, apparently) The sense I get is that Skorzeny was a maverick instead of a team player, a guy who cultivated his connections with the "higher-ups" to advance his career and saw his peers only in terms of how they could help his fortunes. He was unorthodox, undoubtedly brave, probably very charming and dashing but clearly was a self-promoter to PT Barnum-like extremes. He probably called some tabloid on Fleet street from a pay phone in the "Alpine Redoubt" to suggest "The Most Dangerous Man in Europe" as a headline.

[panzermahn]

Hi Kocjo,

You put "battle" in inverted commas with justification.

Like ALL of Skorzeny's personal actions, Panzerfaust took place far behind AXIS lines. Skorzeny was essentially an internal security enforcer.

Skorzeny has been called "The most dangerous man in Europe".

That should read "Possibly the most dangerous man INSIDE Axis Europe."

Cheers,

Sid.

I remember the American Stars & Stripes magazine called Skorzeny as;

"The Most Dangerous Nazi in Europe"

[Paddy Keating]

I don't really know much about Skorzeny. Schadewitz is clearly unimpressed with the man's tactical abilites (as were the Americans and a few of Skorzeny's officers, apparently)

The late CO of SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600, Siegfried Milius (+1992), served under Skorzeny on the Oder Front as commander of KG Solar. He told me that while he did not doubt Skorzeny's personal bravery - which is a matter of record - he saw him as reckless and self-serving to the potential detriment of anyone under his command.

Indeed, in the foreword Herr Milius penned for the 1986 book Fallschirmjäger der Waffen-SS, he expressed his opinion of Skorzeny clearly albeit discreetly in relation to Panzerfaust in September 1944:

What was planned [by SS-Stubaf Skorzeny] was a drop on the Budapest Citadel to depose the Hungarian Imperial Vice-Regent, Admiral Horthy. There was no equipment in hand for a jump and this was feverishly sought and collected. The drop did not come about, however, because finally even Skorzeny became aware of the prospects of the paratroopers' ending suspended from the ridges of roofs and gutters, or impaled on spiked railings [my italics].

This is the English translation as published. Herr Milius' German original was more elegant. He thought Skorzeny was a glory-hunting liability.

The sense I get is that Skorzeny was a maverick instead of a team player, a guy who cultivated his connections with the "higher-ups" to advance his career and saw his peers only in terms of how they could help his fortunes.

Quite so. Ask any Fallschirm-Lehr-Rgt veteran of the Gran Sasso raid how he feels about Skorzeny. I have seen a series of photographs taken on the plateau showing Hauptmann Gerlach and Skorzeny clearly engaged in a very terse exchange of views.

Gerlach knew that having Skorzeny on board with the Duce would be endanger the take-off but Skorzeny was not going to miss the opportunity to present himself as Mussolini's rescuer, to the effective exclusion of everyone else involved in the operation. So, they nearly crashed into the valley.

Skorzeny got his Ritterkreuz and made his name as Germany's commando leader but there were men in the Brandenburg airborne and coastal raider units and junior officers in Skorzeny's own SS-Jagdverbände who were ten times the man he was, who had far more in common with their LRDG, SAS and SBS counterparts than Skorzeny ever had.

He was unorthodox, undoubtedly brave, probably very charming and dashing but clearly was a self-promoter to PT Barnum-like extremes. He probably called some tabloid on Fleet street from a pay phone in the "Alpine Redoubt" to suggest "The Most Dangerous Man in Europe" as a headline.

LOL! Yes, one can just envisage him doing that. I met him as a kid in Spain once. Well, I just said hallo as he and my father's partner chatted. He was a formidable-looking man, very dashing, full of Viennese old world charm, but a real car salesman, if you know what I mean. An elegant car salesman but loads of gab. You only have to read his memoirs to see this.

PK