Otto Skorzeny
Volume 1 | Issue 1 - Conflict
Article by Stephen Woodward. Edited by Liam Geoghegan. Additional Research by Liz Goodwin.
Recently I was watching a documentary on the Nazi leaders imprisoned in Spandau, which contained an astonishing claim by one Otto Skorzeny. This former SS commando asserted he could easily have sprung the six prisoners from the custody of one of the four major power prisons, if provided with a mere one hundred men and two aircraft. Such a proposal at first sight seems more plausible as a Hollywood film (it does bare a remarkable similarity to Wild Geese II!) than a real life scenario.
Naturally, my curiosity prescribed that I look into the back-story of a man who would have the pluck to mount such an operation. It turns out that Skorzeny was a man with a truly remarkable and fearless character. Sporting a somewhat sinister ear to chin scar on his left cheek, Skorzeny during the war had engaged in secret operations of incredible audacity. He had led planned assassination attempts against “The Big Three” meeting in Tehran in 1943, an operation which came within a whisper of its objective; another against Josip Tito, yet again meeting failure only in the last seconds. Skorzeny had been a major player in crushing Von Stauffenberg’s coup, as well as capturing and forcing the resignation of the regent of Hungary. The greatest of his feats was the extraction of Benito Mussolini from captivity, freeing him from his captors without firing a single shot before diving an idling aeroplane off a cliff, revving up at the last minute, avoiding the crashing waves below.
Having been sprung from a prisoner of war camp by SS pals disguised as U.S. soldiers a couple of years after the war, Skorzeny was denazified in absentia in 1953. Eventually he settled in Spain and founded a paramilitary training school just outside Alicante, training and arming guerrillas for the likes of Colonel Gadaffi, and Juan Peron, whom he favoured as a modern guardian of fascism.
Despite the despicable nature of his politics and the acts he engaged in, he sure seems to have led a colourful life. Perhaps I should start writing a film script, hmm… I wonder if Tom Cruise would be interested in this one?