Hi Graham,

I believe I visited the cottage and met the owner who showed me the basement that was still in the original state from WW2. He also showed me items he found when he was renovating the cottage including Mauser and Lee Enfield spent rounds. There is a memorial to 2 SAS killed outside the cottage. 5131977C-EE1A-420B-8D39-E36AF7D6E847.jpg
 
I now have the full list of British SAS killed and their graves location. If you get an Instagram account you will see photos of all the graves I have attended to pay my respects. I would be very interested in your book when you get it published.
 
Hi Graham,

I believe I visited the cottage and met the owner who showed me the basement that was still in the original state from WW2. He also showed me items he found when he was renovating the cottage including Mauser and Lee Enfield spent rounds. There is a memorial to 2 SAS killed outside the cottage. View attachment 36211
Bob what a quick reply - no Dad's cottage is at a place called Koecking Bois in Alsace Lorraine. He had three SAS with him - for some reason he did not shoot one of the shocked German soldiers who had been upstairs at the time he shot his comrades at point blank range. He told me this man had red hair - dad turned and ran off into the woods and then had to shoot his pursuers - 3 out of 4 were shot here. Father has the honour of being probably the only SAS soldier to have captured an American front line position - General Patton's men. Bob I once paid for two American intelligence reports from the National Archive in Maryland which record my father and his men coming into their lines in 1944. Father never had a high respect for the typical American soldier. When I lived on the SAS base at Hereford, as a 16 year old, we had over to dinner 2 American officers -they were the start of the American special forces -both very tall men. Graham
 
Yes I will try and get there in October. I will also be visiting eh Argenta Gap military cemetery to pay my respects to Anders Lassen VC MC, (SAS) and Tom Hunter VC (Commandos)
 
Yes I will try and get there in October. I will also be visiting eh Argenta Gap military cemetery to pay my respects to Anders Lassen VC MC, (SAS) and Tom Hunter VC (Commandos)
Did you know it was an ex-commando - a major Rooney on his raid on Sark had inadvertently prompted Hitler to initiate his evil commando Order aimed at all special forces - Major Rooney - he went on to train the SAS in 1944 in Scotland at Darvel and Monkton.
 
Hello everyone,

I am an ex 22 SAS and Australian 1 Commando veteran based in Australia. In 2019 prior to Covid I commenced a pilgrimage to visit all the WW II SAS grave sites throughout Europe.

In 2022 I will be flying back to France to carry on the pilgrimage. I therefore seek any information and advise and backgrounds on individuals who served in the SAS who were KIA or murdered when taken prisoner who are buried in France and Italy.

I have already attended many graves in France and the SAS Memorial at Sennecey La Grande.

I have compiled a list of those graves I have not visited and note information on this site relates to some but not all of them.

Any assistance and advice would be apprecaited.

Regards

Bob Lancaster
Hello Bob. I have been to Moussey and have images of the 3 SAS who were killed by the SS. Please read the book- The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis. It is an excellent account of the SAS in the Vosges as well as the Jedburgh teams and the Maquis who supported them. ISBN NUMBER 978-1-78429-389-5. I hope you can find it. Got mine on EBay UK. Good luck and Bonne Courage. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!... Ian R Bridle U.K.
 
Sorry Bob I can't find the image of the 3 graves of the SAS who are buried in the church's cemetery at MOUSSEY....if I can find it I will post it on here. Again my very best wishes to you. Ian R Bridle U.K.
 
Hello everyone,

I am an ex 22 SAS and Australian 1 Commando veteran based in Australia. In 2019 prior to Covid I commenced a pilgrimage to visit all the WW II SAS grave sites throughout Europe.

In 2022 I will be flying back to France to carry on the pilgrimage. I therefore seek any information and advise and backgrounds on individuals who served in the SAS who were KIA or murdered when taken prisoner who are buried in France and Italy.

I have already attended many graves in France and the SAS Memorial at Sennecey La Grande.

I have compiled a list of those graves I have not visited and note information on this site relates to some but not all of them.

Any assistance and advice would be apprecaited.

Regards

Bob Lancaster
Hi Bob. I recently visited Moussey and paid my respect to soldiers of Op Loyton. I also visited the memorial site to 8 SAS heroes murdered by the Gestapo. Sadly the memorial site has been vandalised. The UJ ripped down, the 8 conifers planted cut down to root and a section of the stone (ICI) removed by cutting tool. Furthermore, the graves are unkept and in a poor state of repair. Finally, the memorial plaque for one soldier has been removed from its site. I think the damage was calculated and planned. We aim to return to tidy the place up hopefully with some funding from the CWGC……I have written to the Mayor of Moussey to highlight our concern and findings. These men have to be remembered and respected. When you returning to France?
Paul Hardy
 
Bob -it has been a long time since I replied to your comments - since then I have discovered my father, SSM and SQMS John Alcock, was on Operation Loyton as he had always said - he was in one aircraft with Captain Scott on the 7th of September and had been sent out as a reinforcement party to join Operation Loyton. The other aircraft carried an officer called Reynolds and his men. Reynolds was captured and executed. Father's aircraft aborted its drop due to fog and returned to RAF Keevil. So a week later father set off again but this time for Operation Pistol with Captain Scott again.
By the way, in my father's oral stories, he talked about a French SAS soldier who jumped out of their aircraft after the mission was cancelled. He supposedly jumped because he saw his own village below. So, my father was on Loyton, albeit briefly, but ended up winning the Croix de Guerre at silver Star level for Pistol - one of around ten such medals won by the whole wartime SAS. I have also discovered he was the very first RSM for the new 21st SAS - in 1947 - it is in the first newsletter of the SAS association. Father went on to be the RSM to 3 Para at Suez in 1956.

Strangely his army record shows he was still in the 2SAS after it had been disbanded in 1945. He was still there in 1946. Recently I spoke on the telephone to ex-2SAS trooper Jack Paley, aged 101. He told me he came to see my father to wish him luck just before he went off to the Suez Operation with three Para. Jack Payley and his wife have stayed at my home on one of their visits to the UK. Jack lives in Canada. When I went to Canada to teach for 9 months father set things up for me to see and speak to ex-Major Roy Farran. In the end, we spoke on the phone and he told me how he knew my father and from what period. They were in southern Italy and later in Tuscany together. After my father died in 1997 I was able to speak to Henry Druce of Loyton fame. Cyril Wheeler, an ex-corporal from 2SAS, set this up for me. I think what has made my book unique is that I am the son of a SAS soldier from WW2 who has heard and remembered his father's stories from that period for almost all of his childhood. As an adult, I linked all of this together through reading the SAS story/history and by going to my father's operational area for Pistol and Loyton. This has allowed me to place his stories in context. I met all the French who hid my father in 1944. Jean Koenig was the key French character. I have also visited the cottage where father had to shoot up to six enemy soldiers in close combat in order to survive and so escape Major Reynold's fate on Loyton. It has all been a cathartic process for me. You see I refused to speak to my father for seven years and for four of these years I lived in Queensland. When I came home I decided I had to see him and find some common ground again. We did this together and by going to Moussey and the Pistol area and meeting the French it has all helped. I have listed in my book all the French names of people who helped my father and his men in 1944. One of them won the King's Medal and that was Jean Koenig. I have been in Jean Koenig's home where the Gestapo paid him a visit when my father and his men were hiding in the bathroom and were ready to come out and kill the two black-coated Nazis. My book is a tribute to a man I think I now understand for the better. I wish he was still alive and able to read my book about his time on Operation Pistol. How he kept a cool head, when surrounded at the cottage and then fought his way out was a remarkable escape story. He should never have got away with it. My book will come out in August 2024, if things go smoothly and it will be available in Australia. I am indebted to my Australian friend John Poulter, who is a retired history teacher living in Queensland,, for all his advice in putting this book together. SAS Operation Pistol will be the title although I had wanted to call it Raindrops in Alsace because of the abnormally bad wet weather throughout the operation.
 
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