Snapper Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 Subititled "The Most infamous commando operation of World War II, Hitler's Raid To Save Mussolini by the American Greg Annussek is a rattling good yarn. It trundles along with all the style of a Jack Higgins book, and to be honest it could almost be one. Even some of the characters appear in The Eagle Has Landed. It begins with a run down of the toppling of Il Duce and then tells the amazing saga of the Germans search for the old despot after he had been stashed away by the new regime. Not unlike John Howard's Pegasus Diaries the book hinges on one chapter of action as Student and his paratroops and Otto Skorzeny's Friedenthal Commandos make their assault on the Gran Sasso. There is much bickering between the branches of service over who thought up what and who did what. But the image of the glider force flying in towed by stubby Henschel Hs 126 tugs is evocative as is the breathtaking flight from the summit by a Fieseler Storch taking Benito and Otto away to supper with the Fuhrer. The pilot was something else... Otto Skorzeny is the focus of interest and there is some detail about his actions in the Ardennes and even working for the Mossad. You couldn't make it up. The only danger is of being swept up in the thrill of the chase; but Annussek makes constant effort to remind us that the Nazis are the bad guys and the all-purveying evil of their regime is never far behind the action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted December 8, 2006 Share Posted December 8, 2006 There was a program on rotary wing aircraft (helicopters) on Discovery Wings the other night and they said there that the Luftwaffe had helicopters in service in WW2 - mainly on the Russian Front - picking up downed aircrews. Apparently the Mussolini recovery raid was supposed to have been done by one of these machines - but it crashed a day or two prior to the raid necessitating the use of the gliders..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 10, 2006 Author Share Posted December 10, 2006 Only because I've read this one book on the subject can I claim to be the expert on this raid in my house, if nowhere else!! There is certainly no mention of helicopters in the book. The Germans were thrashing around trying to find Mussolini for quite a while and actually prepared to raid an island he'd not even been held on at one point. The Germans certainly had autogyros but I don't think any were used operationally and they must, as you say, have been well advanced in helicopter developments. Interesting stuff. It's possible any designs would not have been able to have flown at the 7,000 feet altitude of the mountain summit anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 I've had a quick nose on the web - bear in mind my memory is shot here - and I "think" this was the machine the program referred to: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Fa_223/DI52G1.jpg[/img] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_FA_223_Drache http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Fa_223/DI52.htm Maybe I'm getting confused (sign of ald age...) and it was intended to pull Mussolini out after the rescue with the helicopter, rather than the Storch that was used - as opposed to being used to insert the rescue force??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 Top man, Neil. I remember this type now. But, how they were used is probably more for a planes site than ours! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienFTM Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 IIRC the "field" that the helicopter would have landed on (and the Storch did land on) was in fact a substantial slope, which would have trashed any helicopter past or present and was the only thing which allowed the Storch to take off, as heavily laden as it was with literally a ski jump take off downhill. But I could be wrong - working from memory here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted December 18, 2006 Author Share Posted December 18, 2006 Nothing wrong with your memory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.