SAS My trip to Alsace

galcock

Member
I have already posted threads about Operation Pistol which took place in September 1944. This Easter I went to my fathers operational area to meet two families. The first family who lived at Kappelkinger (near the 1944 drop zone for Pistol). I was told here that after my father and his men of C3 patrol had blown off the lines a small troop train near Insming it was reported that two German Officers were killed in the explosion. After the attack on the train the family told me that a local man was arrested and interrogated by the SD for two days. he was treated severely but then released. This suggests to me that the German Security forces took some time to realise that the SAS had been responsible.

Next I went to Ferriendal Farm for lunch and to meet the family again. I was told that during my fathers stay at their farm the gestapo arrived to speak to the farmer Jean Koenig. My father and his men were just behind a door in the next room. After the Gestapo left Jean Koenig had asked my father what he would have done had they opened the door. He replied that he would have shot them. Jean then asked what would have become of him and his family to which my father replied that he would have taken them with him through the lines. This was hardly a practical idea. Jean Koenig fed my father for three nights and built a den in the woods for him and his men to sleep in. Mrs Koenig came out each night and took their clothes to wash and dry them. This was invaluable help.

I was also told that an old man lived locally who as a boy had seen, in 1944, my father and his men hiding in the orchard - they were in the trees. I was taken to the very spot where they were and was surprised to find it was only a short distance from the village edge. I am writing a book about this mission.
 
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