Otto Skorzeny - German Forces | Gallery

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#1

Otto Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny, famous German commando

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/german-forces/18091/otto-skorzeny
#2

Thanks for the detailed info, rudeerude. The photo shows Skorzeny -who was actually of Austrian origin- in his cell in Nuremburg prison in November 1945.

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#4

Battle of the Bulge Commando.Skorzeny led a panzer brigade of German soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge disguised as American soldiers in an operation known as Operation Greif. A handful were captured by the Americans and spread a rumor that Skorzeny was leading a raid on Paris to kill or capture General Eisenhower; this was untrue, but the Americans believed it and Eisenhower was confined to his headquarters for weeks.

He spent the first two months of 1945 commanding regular troops in the defense of the German province of Pomerania as an acting major general. For this defense, Hitler awarded him Germany’s highest military honor, the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross.

Skorzeny surrendered to the Allies in May and was held as a prisoner of war for more than two years before being tried as a war criminal for his actions in the Battle of the Bulge. However, he was acquitted when a British colonel testified in his defense that Allied commando forces also fought in enemy uniform. Still, he continued to be held until he escaped from a prison camp on July 27, 1948.

He settled in Fascist Spain with a passport granted by its dictator, Francisco Franco and resumed his prewar occupation as an engineer. In 1952, he was finally cleared by the German government of any wrongdoing in the war, which enabled him to travel abroad. Later on, he worked as a consultant to the Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser and the Argentine dictator Juan Peron, and is rumoured to have assisted several of his friends in the SS escape arrest in the years after the war.

Skorzeny died a multi-millionaire in Madrid in 1975.