For Bill Medland - English SS man during siege of Budapest?

panzermahn · Post by **panzermahn** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:44 pm

I think this is probably would be interesting to Bill and researchers of Anglo-German collaboration in WW2

I have a book written by Krisztian Ungvary (Siege of Budapest) and in one of the chapters, there was a mentioned by the author that a SS man of British origin participated in the breakout of the German-Hungarian forces after Operation Konrad III has failed. However there is no mentioned of what is his fate during or after the breakout. Apologies I can't remember the page number that mentioned about this

Anyone had any ideas of clues to this SS man of British origin during the siege of Budapest?

Thanks,
Panzermahn

Rand · Post by **Rand** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:06 pm

There was an Irishman named James Brady who was a member of Jagdverbande Mitte, who took part in evacuating Admiral Horthy from Budapest, as part of Operation 'Panzerfaust'.

There are no known Englishmen or other indivduals from the United Kingdom that were in that area of the war at that time period.

Brady's statement to MI5 after the war is in Richard Landwehr's
'Siegrunen' magazine - issue number 65. It's about a seven page article on this Brady fellow.

Hope this helps, Rand.

panzermahn · Post by **panzermahn** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 8:43 pm

Rand wrote:There was an Irishman named James Brady who was a member of Jagdverbande Mitte, who took part in evacuating Admiral Horthy from Budapest, as part of Operation 'Panzerfaust'.

There are no known Englishmen or other indivduals from the United Kingdom that were in that area of the war at that time period.

Brady's statement to MI5 after the war is in Richard Landwehr's
'Siegrunen' magazine - issue number 65. It's about a seven page article on this Brady fellow.

Hope this helps, Rand.

Hi Rand,

Thanks for your reply. However Ungvary's book specifically mentioned that the SS man of English origin took part in the breakout from the Budappest encirclement whereas James Brady mentioned he took part in Unternehmen Panzerfaust which were back in 1944

I try to get the exact quotation from Ungvary's book

Regards
Panzermahn

Doktor Krollspell · Post by **Doktor Krollspell** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:11 am

Hello Panzermahn!

The passage in Krisztián Ungváry's excellent "Battle for Budapest - 100 Days in World War II" (2003) that mentions this english SS man is a quote from the diary of a 15 year old Budapest boy named László Deseö , who in February 1945 lived in the Front line area:

9 February... Half past eight in the morning. I'm standing near the stairs to the cellar. A little while ago 17 Germans arrived to defend the house, among them an SS man of English origin. Five of the are standing next to me. We are not talking. They are very nervous.

Ungváry page 232.

I don't remember any other places in this particular book where the alleged english SS man is mentioned. So, the source is a 15 year old civilian boy living at the front lines. This doesn't automatically means that it's false or wrong but still... A strange german accent or some other language or maybe some SS man with a grasp of english?

Regards,

Krollspell

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:02 am

maybe some SS man with a grasp of english?

....but...why would he be talking English? And conversely - how would a 15 yr old Hungarian boy, who would have been NINE when the war broke out - know what English sounded like?

Tom Houlihan · Post by **Tom Houlihan** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:24 am

An Irishman probably would have spoken English anyway. Forum Heroes aside, it's rather unlikely that any of the Germans spoke Gaelic!

Phylo's point about the young lad recognizing English is valid. Even if said "English SS man" had a clear brogue, a Hungarian teenager is unlikely to have recognized the difference.