The SIG was a Jewish commando unit in the British army during WW2 the uncanny thing was that they all speak fluent German, they were designate to infiltrate the German lines, all their training was in German and with German equitment.
http://www.alliedspecialforces.org/specialidentificationgroup.htm
Perhaps the reason that they spoke such fluent German is that they were?
Of course 
when I said “uncanny” I meant uncanny that the British founded a unit of exclucivly German speakers and also the fact that they were conducting all the units activities in German.
From “Shield of David”, by Yigal Allon, Random House, 1970, (p 125)
I am a little confused by the quote next to the picture. Should it not say “in the event of a German occupation of Palestine”.
It may be this unit or the Haganah that Wingate was involved in before or at the start of the war. I read (and can’t remember where, posibly Slim bio) that he planned to go back after the war to continue the work.
Hi “2nd of foot”,
I agree, it should probably say “in the event of a German occupation of Palestine” or "for the possibility of a German occupation of Palestine”.
Orde Wingate was a cousin of T.E. Lawrence IIRC. Hence he was sometimes referred to as the “Lawrence of Judea”. He loved the Jewish People and organized the “Special Night Squads” from Palestinian Jews during the 1930’s. They operated against Arab marauders. If I remember correctly, Wingate said something to the effect that “The Arabs think that they own the night. We shall teach them to fear it”. The British government was not pleased with his activities and transferred him away from Palestine. He went on to organize the “Chindits” in Burma during WWII. Tragically, he died in a plane crash in Burma in 1944. Had he lived, I think he would have went back to Palestine. However, his widow did return to Palestine to offer her support for the Jews during their fight to preserve the fledgling State of Israel.
There also existed No. 3 Troop 10th Interallied Commando, also known as the “X” troop, which consisted mainly of refugees from Axis countries (mainly Germany and Austria, most of the members were Jewish).
They were trained in the usual Special Forces techniques, but also received all new intelligence information about the German forces.
There exists an excellent autobiographic account by one of the members, Peter Masters, originally Peter Aranyi from Vienna, Austria, “Striking Back”.
He describes how as a teenager after the Anschluss he got tormented by the Hitler Youth, got temporarely arrsted with his father, but after release, with the help of a relative, managed to escape to Britain just before WW2 started. There he earned his living doing odd jobs until he was interned as an enemy alien in 1940. From internemt camp he volunteered for the Royal Pinoneer Corps and from there was recruited into No3 Troop 10th Interallied Commando. As all Axis citizens fighting in the British Forces he had to write a fake biography, giving himself a British identity (English name, religion usually C0E). This was done out of two reasons: First to protect the soldier in case he got captured by German troops, so that he would be treated as an ordinary POW and not shot out of hand as a traitor, and secondly to prevent the German military form knowing that there existed a special forces unit consisting of native German speakers. He reentered the European Continent on the Eastern flank of Operation Overlord and fought all the way back into Germany. During his time in the British Army he reached the rank of Seargeant.
Members of his unit were usually divided into teams of four and attached to battalion staffs to do special reconnaisance and interrogation of prisoners.
Others served e.g. in the Glider Pilot Regiment (like Sergeant Louis Hagen from Potsdam, aka Louis Haig, who fought in Arnhem. He wrote a book called “Arnhem Lift”).
Most of the survivors of these units later accepted British citizenship and continued to live in Britain after the war.
Jan