World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia by Jim Downs
Moderator: sniper1shot
World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia by Jim Downs
My book, World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia, has been reviewed by the Associated Press. The reviews went out Sunday worldwide. However, not all newspapers by any means will run the reviews. I would appreciate it if any of the Feldgrau members would call their local newspaper, if it is an AP subscriber, and ask the book editor to review the book. Thanks, Jim Downs. This falls under the title of shamlessly promoting your book.
Correction.
Just ask them to run the AP review as they received it. They don't have to write a new review. Thanks. Jim Downs
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Here is the AP review:
By LARRY HEINZERLING, Associated Press Writer
"World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia"@ (Liefrinck Publishers, 337 pages,
$
14.95 paperback) by Jim Downs.
In the final months of World War II, the super-secret Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) mounted a daring mission deep inside Nazi-occupied Europe. The
two-pronged operation in Slovakia was mounted to rescue American bomber crews
shot down over enemy territory and to support a partisan uprising against the
country's pro-Nazi rulers.
It was one of the most tragic OSS failures of the war. Most of the
participants were captured - some tortured during interrogation - and finally
executed at the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
The book opens in July 1944 with accounts of U.S. bomber crews shot down
over
the Balkans and the heroic efforts by the OSS and the 15th Air Force based in
Bari, Italy, to rescue them.
With the help of local partisans, more than 1,900 downed airmen were
plucked
from enemy hands by September 1944, when the OSS - the forerunner of today's
Central Intelligence Agency - launched the ill-fated DAWES mission.
DAWES was led by U.S. Navy Lt. Holt Green. It linked up in Slovakia with a
British unit under Army Maj. John Sehmer of the Special Operations Executive,
which specialized in sabotage. The fate of the two men and those they led
make
up the core of this book.
It is a story of bravery and endurance and events gone terribly wrong.
As the rebellion by partisans and deserting Slovakian army units led by
Gen.
Jan Golian grew, German SS reinforcements were rushed to Slovakia to crush
the
revolt.
Banska Bystrica, the rebel capital, fell to a fierce German assault on
Oct.
27, forcing the Americans and British - along with retreating Slovak soldiers
and partisans - to flee into the mountains as a bitterly cold winter
descended
on them. Their flight was long, desperate and ultimately doomed.
On the run, deep in the mountain forests, they survived freezing rain and
snowstorms, icy streams that froze boot leather to skin, countless sleepless
nights and days without food as they dodged their Nazi hunters.
Green, Sehmer and most of the others were captured the day after Christmas
in
a hut used by hunters. They were taken to Mauthausen, where several were
tortured and all, on orders from Berlin, were eventually executed.
This is not a literary work. It is, however, the most comprehensive and
thoroughly researched account published of the events from the perspective of
the many participants - Americans, British, Slovaks and others.
The narrative, while chronological, jumps from person to person and place
to
place in a complex and somewhat disjointed fashion, but the detail is rich
and
striking.
Downs, a former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, says in his foreword
that he first "agonized over attempting to tell the story through the
personality of one participant, or perhaps three or four. In the end he went
for
the mosaic, the whole, complex episode with the myriad of players of all
nationalities. ... But what emerges is the fullest account of two desperate
groups, one American, the other British, fleeing through the mountains before
their luck ran out."
The book, which is self-published and available only through online
booksellers, includes interview material from one of the key survivors of the
disastrous mission, the indomitable Maria Gulovich. She managed to escape the
Nazis, leading a few of her OSS colleagues through German lines to advancing
Russian army units and freedom.
Joe Morton, an Associated Press war correspondent, is an unexpected
participant in this drama. Based in Bari, Morton talked his way onto one of
the
planes heading for Slovakia. "I'm off on the biggest story of my life,"
Morton
told his boss in Italy before he left. Morton was captured and executed with
the
others.
Downs writes: "This book is the story Joe Morton planned to write. He
could
have told it best."
________________________________________________________________________
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Sell a Home with Ease!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/SrPZMC/kTmEAA ... /vY7plB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
Please visit The OSS Society's web site at http://www.osssociety.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the AP review:
By LARRY HEINZERLING, Associated Press Writer
"World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia"@ (Liefrinck Publishers, 337 pages,
$
14.95 paperback) by Jim Downs.
In the final months of World War II, the super-secret Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) mounted a daring mission deep inside Nazi-occupied Europe. The
two-pronged operation in Slovakia was mounted to rescue American bomber crews
shot down over enemy territory and to support a partisan uprising against the
country's pro-Nazi rulers.
It was one of the most tragic OSS failures of the war. Most of the
participants were captured - some tortured during interrogation - and finally
executed at the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
The book opens in July 1944 with accounts of U.S. bomber crews shot down
over
the Balkans and the heroic efforts by the OSS and the 15th Air Force based in
Bari, Italy, to rescue them.
With the help of local partisans, more than 1,900 downed airmen were
plucked
from enemy hands by September 1944, when the OSS - the forerunner of today's
Central Intelligence Agency - launched the ill-fated DAWES mission.
DAWES was led by U.S. Navy Lt. Holt Green. It linked up in Slovakia with a
British unit under Army Maj. John Sehmer of the Special Operations Executive,
which specialized in sabotage. The fate of the two men and those they led
make
up the core of this book.
It is a story of bravery and endurance and events gone terribly wrong.
As the rebellion by partisans and deserting Slovakian army units led by
Gen.
Jan Golian grew, German SS reinforcements were rushed to Slovakia to crush
the
revolt.
Banska Bystrica, the rebel capital, fell to a fierce German assault on
Oct.
27, forcing the Americans and British - along with retreating Slovak soldiers
and partisans - to flee into the mountains as a bitterly cold winter
descended
on them. Their flight was long, desperate and ultimately doomed.
On the run, deep in the mountain forests, they survived freezing rain and
snowstorms, icy streams that froze boot leather to skin, countless sleepless
nights and days without food as they dodged their Nazi hunters.
Green, Sehmer and most of the others were captured the day after Christmas
in
a hut used by hunters. They were taken to Mauthausen, where several were
tortured and all, on orders from Berlin, were eventually executed.
This is not a literary work. It is, however, the most comprehensive and
thoroughly researched account published of the events from the perspective of
the many participants - Americans, British, Slovaks and others.
The narrative, while chronological, jumps from person to person and place
to
place in a complex and somewhat disjointed fashion, but the detail is rich
and
striking.
Downs, a former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, says in his foreword
that he first "agonized over attempting to tell the story through the
personality of one participant, or perhaps three or four. In the end he went
for
the mosaic, the whole, complex episode with the myriad of players of all
nationalities. ... But what emerges is the fullest account of two desperate
groups, one American, the other British, fleeing through the mountains before
their luck ran out."
The book, which is self-published and available only through online
booksellers, includes interview material from one of the key survivors of the
disastrous mission, the indomitable Maria Gulovich. She managed to escape the
Nazis, leading a few of her OSS colleagues through German lines to advancing
Russian army units and freedom.
Joe Morton, an Associated Press war correspondent, is an unexpected
participant in this drama. Based in Bari, Morton talked his way onto one of
the
planes heading for Slovakia. "I'm off on the biggest story of my life,"
Morton
told his boss in Italy before he left. Morton was captured and executed with
the
others.
Downs writes: "This book is the story Joe Morton planned to write. He
could
have told it best."
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Mr. Downs:
Your book sounds interesting to say the least!
Could I ask how long this project took?
Was it very difficult to substantiate all the facts and information?
Was it difficult to be unbiased?
How easy or difficult was it to find an publisher?
Is there another book in the works?
Regards
Annelie
Your book sounds interesting to say the least!
Could I ask how long this project took?
Was it very difficult to substantiate all the facts and information?
Was it difficult to be unbiased?
How easy or difficult was it to find an publisher?
Is there another book in the works?
Regards
Annelie
OSS Tragedy in Slovakia
Annelie,
I worked on this project for five years: two trips to Slovakia and two research visits to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. I interviewed approximately 150 people. Yes, some parts of the story were difficult to substantiate. The issue of how the OSS men were betrayed is unclear. One man's story, an airman, differed greatly from the stories of the other men with whom he was with. I could never find out what happened to Dr. Manfred Schoeneseiffen, the head of the Gestapo team sent by Heinrich Mueller, AMT IV, from Berlin to Mauthausen to interrogate the Anglo-American prisoners. He fell through the cracks after the war and died a natural death in Cologne in June 2001. I located him just before he died. It took me two years to learn what happened to Walter Habecker of the Gestapo. He had participated in the interrogations in Berlin of the Rote Kapelle and also the Hitler bomb plot conspirators prior to being sent to Mauthausen where he brutalized the prisoners. The British finally found him in 1947 and he was tried in Bad Oyenhausen. He hanged himself in his prison cell. I am still trying to learn if the Gestapo had a political prisoner interrogation center in the Opel Haus in the Taunus forest north of Frankfurt. Two American prisoners were interrogted there but survived luckily. There are other issues that still intrigue me. Thanks for your interest. You can order the book on Amazon.com.
I worked on this project for five years: two trips to Slovakia and two research visits to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. I interviewed approximately 150 people. Yes, some parts of the story were difficult to substantiate. The issue of how the OSS men were betrayed is unclear. One man's story, an airman, differed greatly from the stories of the other men with whom he was with. I could never find out what happened to Dr. Manfred Schoeneseiffen, the head of the Gestapo team sent by Heinrich Mueller, AMT IV, from Berlin to Mauthausen to interrogate the Anglo-American prisoners. He fell through the cracks after the war and died a natural death in Cologne in June 2001. I located him just before he died. It took me two years to learn what happened to Walter Habecker of the Gestapo. He had participated in the interrogations in Berlin of the Rote Kapelle and also the Hitler bomb plot conspirators prior to being sent to Mauthausen where he brutalized the prisoners. The British finally found him in 1947 and he was tried in Bad Oyenhausen. He hanged himself in his prison cell. I am still trying to learn if the Gestapo had a political prisoner interrogation center in the Opel Haus in the Taunus forest north of Frankfurt. Two American prisoners were interrogted there but survived luckily. There are other issues that still intrigue me. Thanks for your interest. You can order the book on Amazon.com.
Much help from people on the Feldgrau list
Annelie, I forgot to add that I received considerable assistance for different people on the Feldgrau list. This group is a great help for writers like me.
Thankyou Mr. Downs:
With what you have just posted it seems even more interesting.
It is interesting to me how writers go about these books.
But, you say you have personally interviewed 150 people and collabrated
and substantiated facts and so I think I should like to read what you have put together and written.
One more question please. Is the "chasing" of the facts and stories
the most interesting part of writing a book....or is it finally having come to fruition and seeing it published. I think for me it would be the chasing of the facts and not the writing and publication portion.
Regards
Annelie
With what you have just posted it seems even more interesting.
It is interesting to me how writers go about these books.
But, you say you have personally interviewed 150 people and collabrated
and substantiated facts and so I think I should like to read what you have put together and written.
One more question please. Is the "chasing" of the facts and stories
the most interesting part of writing a book....or is it finally having come to fruition and seeing it published. I think for me it would be the chasing of the facts and not the writing and publication portion.
Regards
Annelie
Chasing the Facts
Yes, Annelie, chasing and finding the facts is the most interesting thing. To locate a survivor who was an eye witness or participant is pretty exciting. When I found Charles Muller, for example, I couldn't believe it. He was shot down in June, 1944 on a Blechhammer raid. He went down near the target and was captured three days later. He was put into Stalag Luft VII near Blechhammer, a small POW camp. He noticed that one set of guards was a little casual when the German supply truck went out the gate. Charles volunteered to work with the men assigned to unload the truck each time. He noticed the high under-carriage beneath the truck. One day those two guards were on the gate and Charlie climbed up under the truck and went right out the gate. The truck stopped after a couple of miles and he dropped down and rolled into the bushes. He later made it south to Slovakia and found a Soviet-led partisan group. They later flew him in an old bi-plane to Banska Bystrica where he met the OSS who arranged for him to fly back to Italy. Fascinating story. Then, I found in Warsaw a Polish correspondent in her 90's who had been in Banska Bystrica during the Slovak National Uprising and knew the members of the American mission. She spoke, and still does, excellent English, and I interviewed her over the telephone. She is now blind, but her memory is excellent. Her story, and Charles' story are in the book. Writing, that can be fun also, particularly when you can find the right words to create a vivid picture of dramatic events.