by Damien Lewis
By spring, 1947, the Secret Hunters had captured all of the Gestapo/SS who had murdered Captain Garstin and his men, including Hauptscharfuhrer Karl Haug (here in his arrest photo), plus Gestapo commanders Hans Kieffer and Helmut Knochen. On April 22, 1947, all were sentenced to hanging or given long custodial sentences.
The top-secret operations of Barkworth (above, sketched in pastel, by an unknown artist during his Secret Hunters days), Rhodes (above right, in suitably irreverent pose) and team lasted through to summer 1948, during which time they tracked down and brought to trial over one hundred Nazi war criminals.
In hunting down the Nazi war criminals, the SAS reclaimed the Swastika – originally an ancient symbol from the East, denoting spirituality and peace – in freedom’s cause.
Today, there are regular reunions to commemorate Operation Gain, including one in 2015, when British and French parachutists dropped into one of the original WW2 landing zone, including James Irivine (centre photo, beige beret), grandson of Trooper Leslie Packman who was murdered on Op Gain.
Bibliography
Note: this book contains public-sector information licensed under the Open Government License v3.0.
Archives, Museums, Research Organisations
The National Archives at Kew are a rich repository of documents underlying the stories depicted in these pages, including files related to the Special Operations Executive, the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, plus official War Office and Cabinet papers, records of the Chiefs of Staff meetings and Churchill’s correspondence concerning same.
The National Army Museum’s Special Forces Collection constitutes a rich resource of images, records and memorabilia from the war years, including from the operations depicted in these pages.
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) is also rich in records, including those held at the IWM’s London site, namely unpublished records and reports from those who are depicted in these pages, and photographs and film footage related to the operations portrayed. At the IWM Duxford, the Airborne Assault Archive also contains key documents and images.
The Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge, contains useful papers pertaining to Winston Churchill’s role within the stories depicted in these pages.
Unpublished Sources
Bien-aimé Tonton Hyacinthe, Père Alexis Wiehe, English translation (unpublished), part of the Wiehe family collection.
A Personal Memoir Written by Captain Cecil Leyland Riding MC, ‘D’ Squadron, 1st SAS Regiment, part of the Dumfries Museum Captain Cecil Riding MC collection.
Report on the Commando Orders of 18.10.42 and 25.6.44 with Reference to Certain of the War Crimes Caused by Them, Major Barkworth, June 1948, part of the Barkworth family collection.
Fred Rhodes, handwritten notes on the war years, provided by Phil Rhodes, as part of the Fred Rhodes family collection.
National Archives, TS 26/855 SHAEF Court
National Archives, FO 950/4873 Mrs S. N. Twyman
National Archives, WO 218/192 Gain Reports
National Archives, WO 219/2389 July Reports
National Archives, WO 205/208 June–Aug 44 Reports
National Archives, WO 205/651 June Reports
National Archives, WO 311/7 Hitler KO
National Archives, WO 208/6856 Hughes Report
National Archives, WO 26/855 SHAEF Court
National Archives, WO 218/193 Key Reports
National Archives, HS 9/1406/8 Starr
National Archives, WO 235/560 Noailles Trial
National Archives, WO 311/76 Papers
National Archives, AIR 20/8937 Report SAS Operations
National Archives, WO 309/1405 Early Papers
National Archives, WO 208/4669 Pre-Trial Papers
National Archives, WO 208/3322/100–101 Vaculik/Jones Escape Reports
National Archives, WO 309/659 More Statements
National Archives, WO 309/660 Noailles Witnesses
National Archives, WO 218/212 2 SAS Missing Parachutists
National Archives, WO 311/724 SAS
National Archives, WO 311/78 Pre-Trial
National Archives, WO 373/86 Decorations
National Archives, KV-2-1500-1 Kopkow
National Archives, KV-2-1500-2 Kopkow
National Archives, KV-2-1501-1 Kopkow
National Archives, KV-2-1501-2 Kopkow
National Archives, KV-2-1501-3 Kopkow
Published Books
Lorna Almonds-Windmill, Gentleman Jim, Constable & Robinson, 2001
W. V. Brelsford (ed.), The Story Of The Northern Rhodesia Regiment, Government Printer Lusaka, 1954
Anthony Cotterell, Apple for the Sergeant, Hutchinson, 1944
Virginia Cowles, The Phantom Major, William Collins, 1958
Martin Dillon with the late Roy Bradford, Rogue Warrior of the SAS, John Murray, 1987
Ian Fenwick, Enter Trubshaw, Collins, 1944
Roger Ford, Fire from the Forest, Cassell, 2003
Helen Fry, The London Cage, Yale University Press, 2018
Jean Overton Fuller, The Starr Affair, Victor Gollancz, 1954
Charles Glass, They Fought Alone, 2018, Penguin Random House
Alex Kershaw, Avenue of Spies, Crown, 2015
Derrick Harrison, These Men Are Dangerous, Bladford Press, 1988
Sarah Helm, A Life in Secrets, Little, Brown, 2005
Alan Hoe, David Stirling, Sphere, 1994
Richard Holmes, MM, Mediterranean Odyssey, 2016
Anthony Kemp, The Secret Hunters, Michael O’Mara, 1986
Damien Lewis, The Nazi Hunters, Quercus, 2015
Damien Lewis, Hunting the Nazi Bomb, Quercus, 2016
Paul McCue, SAS Operation Bulbasket, Leo Cooper, 1996
Mike Morgan, Daggers Drawn, Sutton, 2000
Gavin Mortimer, Stirling’s Men, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2004
Jeremy Murland, Dunkirk 1940, Pen & Sword, 2016
Christopher J. Murphy, Security and Special Operations, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006
E. C. W. Myers, Greek Entanglement, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1955
T. B. H. Otway, Airborne Forces, Imperial War Museum, 1990
John Randall and M. J. Trow, The Last Gentleman Of The SAS, Mainstream, 2014
Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery and Keith Chester, The Hidden Nazi, Regnery History, 2019
Hamish Ross, Paddy Mayne, Sutton, 2004
Streak Designs Ltd and Coretra Ltee, Lieutenant John H. Wiehe [1916-1965], Streak Designs (Ed), 2016
Stephen Tyas, SS-Major Horst Kopkow, Fonthill Media, 2017
Nicola Tyrer, Sisters in Arms, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008
Serge Vaculik, Air Commando, Jarrolds, 1954
Guy Walters, Hunting Evil, Bantam, 2009
A. P. Wavell, Other Men’s Flowers, Jonathan Cape, 1944
Charles Whiting, Death on a Distant Frontier, Leo Cooper, 1996
Père Alexis Wiehe, Bien-aimé Tonton Hyacinthe, Éditions Du Lau, 2016
Dennis Williams, Stirlings in Action with the Airborne Forces, Pen & Sword, 2008
Ex-Lance-Corporal X QGM, The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941–47, SAS-LRDG-RoH, 2016