"Windproof " Banská Bystrica 1944 Disaster

OSE Operation "Windproof "

Banská Bystrica 17 September - 27 October 1944

Final historical facts as of 2 February 2020

Left to Right : M/Sgt Jerry Mican ,USNR Lt.Green ,SOE Maj.Sehmer Tri Duby 7th Oct.1944

Operation Windproof was a communication operations run by the SOE in Slovakia and Hungary sandwiched between the Nazis and advancing Soviet lines. The British OSE and OSS operational details were classified till 2008 and yet as we speak substantial facts are still missing removed intentionally or still classified by military archives ,

The objectives were to pass messages between London and underground parties with the idea of penetrating Hungary from the north due to difficulties in entering Hungary via Yugoslavia. The operations had a supporting role for a Slovak Rising and assist the Hungarian government’s negotiations for an armistice with the Allies.

Initially named Operation Desford was intended to be headed to Hungary, but due to weather conditions and aircraft malfunction had to be postponed several times. As a result of these delays, conditions in Central Europe changed - the Uprising in Slovakia began. When the landing was due, liaison with the Slovakian insurgents became more important than the mission in Hungary. The operation changed its name to Operation Windproof (D) and eventually got to Slovakia. In fact, she was a victim of changing conditions. And if they had managed to get to Hungary after making contact with the leadership of the Uprising, it would have been great, but their primary goal was Slovakia.

These operations were working on stretched logistic air-support by Sterling and Halifax bombers flying out of Brindisi and Bari Italy. The Windproof team were thanks to weather of weather, missed supply drops, Foreign Office duplicity, treachery and political turmoil between Moscow, London and the various Governments in Exile.

Ops.Windproof were para dropped into Slovakia on night of 18th/ 19th September 1944 at Zarnovica, by an RAF Special Duty Haliax from 184th Sqd Brindisi 30 miles West of target and the Slovak Partisans HQ at Banska Bystrica, the team led by Maj.Sehmer landed at Velikople. Also 20 aerial delivery containers were air dropped .

Nr 148 th Sqd Special Duty Halifax on a mission September 1944

The team was led by Major Sehmer who was fluent in German was along with Lt. Daniels ( Andrew Duwecz) was 2nd in command and was actually Polish working undercover with Lt.Zanopian as the interpreter. Corporal Davies was a hastily found W/T operator. At the same time in central Slovakia the US army had a W/T unit linked to the main supply base at Bari in Italy. Their role was mainly for propaganda and an escape unit for the USAF. The Czech underground army unit known as V.I.T were also operationally working with the SOE party Manganese’ together with ‘A’ Force officers running three W/T sets. There was also a Soviet delegation working with General Golian.

Black B-24J 885th Special Ops OSS Bari

885 Special Ops Sqd Bari Flt.Ops Room

RAF containers for SNA prepared for a B-24 night drop at Banska

Prior target over Tatra Mountains

In his report, Major J. Sehmer indicated they were dropped 79 kms off course and almost on top of the German Army and they also ran the risk of being shot by the Slovak sentries. They were taken to meet General Golian, leader of the Slovak Rising who commanded about 50,000 partisans of the SNA. Here the negotiations for Windproof to remain in Slovakia as a base so that the other officers Lieutenant Daniels and Lieutenant Zanopian could establish routes and links into Hungary. The report also indicated a growing number of refugees, particularly of Russian origin who had taken French and Belgian nationalities seeking protection from Soviet retribution.

Head of Mission parachuted on 18 September was Major John Sehmer who spent nearly a year in the headquarters of Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic during operation "Hackthorpe II " engaged in rescue of Allied flyers. He was parachuted o 19.4.1943 at night ,an operation run from London by Col.Bailey .Sehmer returned to UK on 29.5.1944 from Macedonia and Serbia. The Brits were also interested on the outcome in Slovakia, though Hungary remained their main priority. Therefore, the target of this mission was first and foremost to move from the south of Slovakia to Hungary. Upon their arrival in Banska they were introduced to the MANGANESE mission team cosisting of Cadt Officer Vanura , Sgt,Maj.Kosina and Sgt.Maj.Biros parachuted earlier on June 9, 1944 also some 70 miles of course at Velky Uherec.

By the end of September, German troops had gained such an advantage in the field that the defeat of the Slovak Uprising was a matter of days ... Nevertheless, on October 7, the Americans sent another mission to Slovakia, with fourteen other OSS members under Capt Baransky code named " Day Team ".

Sept.1944 Slovak Velitschko saboteurs team

The begining of the end

An unrest that has been smoldering for a long time which willl set in motion on 29 August 1944 with the uprising of the Slovak army. The army rebelled against its own government, a pro-Nazi regime led by Catholic priest Joseph Tisza. Slovakia has been an ally of Nazi Germany since 1939, when it seceded from Czechoslovakia on March 14 with the support of Hitler. She showed her allied loyalty in September 1939, when the Slovak army participated in the attack on Poland and in the attack on

A cipher dated 25th September 1944 (PRO/ HS4/245/223485) indicated the delicate activities within this theatre of operations. Throughout the war there was a core group of partisans loyal to the exiled Slovaks in London.Agreements had been reached to stage a rising when the Czech Parachute Brigade attached to the Soviet army arrived and would allow free passage for the westward Soviet advance. In reality 2 Soviet Brigades failed to arrive in Banska Bystrica, whereby the planned rising could not take place.

The German counter offensive commenced on 19 September. By the end of September, German troops had gained such an advantage in the field that the defeat of the Slovak Uprising was a matter of days ... Nevertheless, on October 7, the Americans sent another mission from Bari to Slovakia, 6 B-17's with fourteen other OSS members under Capt Baransky code named " Day Team ".Also on that flight was OSE Lt.Col.Threalfall who wanted to take a view at the situation in Banska and Sehmer diversion from initial plan. Along with Threalfall was also the Palestine agent Abba Berditchev , OSS Major Ross and Lt.Deranian .On return Threalfall took along to Bari Slovak Lt.Col.Mirko Vese, Jan Ursini ( Social Democrat ) and Alco Novemersky ( Communist ) for talks with exiled President Benes in London which in fact saved their lives .

Intelligence reported another 2,500 partisans passed through Tri Duby from Soviet lines en-route for Bohemia. The Whermacht then attacked in force southwards with two SS and five Wehrmacht divisions towards Vrutky causing the Slovak army to retreat towards Stara Kremnicka with the partisans retreating into Visokafatrim with heavy losses and lack of ammunition and arms.

The ruthless Dirlewanger and Kaminski Brigades fresh from their killing spree in the Warsaw Uprising were sent to ‘rub out’ the remnants of the Slovak Rising. They were forced into a small pocket of territory in central Slovakia and annihilated. In the east Marshal Zhukov had been slow to react as the troops in this sector were not trained or equipped for mountain warfare and the tanks were useless in this terrain.

The Whermacht successfully quashed the Slovak Rising with all bar a few participants rounded up or surrendered leaving the "Windproof " team working on their own (PRO/HS4/245/223485). A cipher dated 6th October 1944 indicated the surviving Slovaks were reluctant to accept Soviet control and sought help from the Windproof team to develop propaganda for posters and newspapers. At the same time reports were coming in that the Soviet controlled partisans were undisciplined with poor quality Soviet officers lacking leadership skills.

Generals Golian and Viest 1944

"Kaminsky" SS Brigade

"Dirlewanger" SS Brigade

The Slovaks still under General Golian requesting the partisan HQ in Kiev to order all partisan units to a camp at Moravia to resolve the situation. Working in isolation, the Windproof team continued to collect intelligence from the team based in Hungary and route it to London. High priority was the interrogation of Hungarian POWs for intelligence on the state of Hungary’s armed forces and the state of the economy for briefing politicians in London and the Foreign Office. Supplies being dropped by the USAAF became a major political issue and Major Sehmen repeatedly requested supplies as the German Army was again attacking Slovak positions just 7km from their transmission site.

Golian with Soviets ( Col.Kononov August 1944 )

Lieutenant Daniels and Lieutenant Zanopian had crossed over the border into Hungary in civilian clothes and made their way to the Matra Mountains where they made their base camp. Their hideout was close to waterfalls at Vizesés. The surrounding area had been popular for tourism prior to the war with a number of hotels and restaurants dotted around the quite spare countryside. There had also been a glider school located nearby. Most of the area had been a farming estate with game shooting once owned by Count Michael Karolyi, which had been confiscated by the government in 1920 and later became one of the leaders of the Hungarian Revolution in 1923. The location was close to the village of Parad, a small thermal spa and about 2km from Gyöngyös and connected by a narrow gauge railway ideal for guiding aircraft to the drop zone. Gyöngyös also had rail links to Budapest.

Gen.Viest announcing the end of the Uprising as of October 30,1944

Radio Banska

They set up courier routes between Slovakia and Hungary and posed as agents working for the Slovak SNA and carried false identities. Their missions were to collect intelligence and secure a safe house in Budapest through a number of known sympathisers to the Allied cause (These are listed in the archive). It would take a courier a week to deliver a message from Lieutenant Daniels to the Windproof HQ in Slovakia. Movement within Hungary became difficult so a journey to Ipolyszög near Balassa-Gyarmat was fraught with danger due to new laws relating to labour and conscription. This meant able-bodied men were being rounded up regularly.

Gen.Viest

The danger escalated after the Germans began to withdraw from southern Hungary towards the end of September 1944 and drew up defensive lines between Morava Ostrava, Trencin and the Vahu Valley. In the disputed territory between Hungary and Slovakia, Hungarian officials abandoned their posts and returned home with many villages straddling the border preferring to belong to Slovakia rather than Hungary. Retreating Germans had begun looting shops in Budapest and there were reports of small bands of criminals masquerading as partisans.

RAF 264 Sqd air drop at Tri Duby September 1944

RAF crew wh participated on air drops to Banska

Intelligence gathering indicated that the demoralised Hungarian army were hoping for British forces to invade via Italy/ Austria and Yugoslavia before the Soviet Army entered Budapest with some officers indicating that some units would collaborate immediately in retaliation on the retreating German army. However, the Gestapo had spies riddled in all units of the Hungarian army with no one daring to express anti-German sentiments for fear of reprisals. In one of the final missions by Lieutenant Daniels was to capture a senior Hungarian officer and bring him over the border to Major Sehmer for interrogation.

SNA Hospital train

SOE’s Czech "Mica" was suppose to joined the operation after 17th October 1944 prior to being ex-filtrated to Italy. The Mica team consisted of officers Col. Greenless and Lt.Col Raw together with a W/T operator who were being sent to bolster the Hungarian operations.

Operation Windproof became so politically sensitive with outward hostility by the Soviets towards the presence of SOE teams in Slovakia and Hungary that they were being forced to step down from operations and make their way to Budapest. However, at the last moment and despite heavy Soviet re-supplies to General Golian and the SNP forces, SOE decided to airdrop Lt.Gibbs as an interpreter for Windproof team at an emergency airfield at Brezno on 21st October 1944. The SOE had brought pressure upon a number of interested parties that access to southern Germany via Hungary was also another option.

Soviet supplies and partizan reinforcement Tri Duby airfield 1944

A cipher dated 24th October 1944 (PRO/HS4/245/223485) indicated on how desperate the Windproof / Anticlimax team composed of Sehmer, Berditchev , Zanopian ,Davies and Warndorfer were becoming. They had been cut off at Slavosovce about 90km East of Banska Bystrica with 250 SNP soldiers, 250 partisans and another 400 men without arms when on their way back from Hungary they encountered German troops . The request for supplies was promptly attended too, but bad weather delayed the re-supply sortie. By 28th October they were surrounded and Major Sehmer indicated he would dump the W/T set in case of capture which eventually was later on recovered with help of the partizans .

Communication with Lt.Daniels and Lt. Zanopian had been broken with no knowledge of their whereabouts. In fact Lt.Daniels was arrested on the way back to Slovakia interrogated and torturted by the Hungarian Jandarmerie then finally dispatched to a Poles POW camp near the Slovak border .

Major Sehmer managed to escape, however, with the odds against them the SNA soldiers and partisans deserted when the Germans captured Slavosovce. With a company of partisans the Windproof team made their way to Polomka at the base of the Nizke Tatry Mountains.With no kit or stores Major Sehmer was anxious of their position and again requested they join the Mica team. They regrouped with about 200 men from the 3rd Partisan Company commanded by Dymko and moved to Zavadka n Hronom to await the airdrop.

Although desperate, re-supplying them proved difficult and although there was a Soviet partisan group based 3km West, this group had not been re-supplied for over a month. Foul weather over the UK and parts of Europe held up the re-supply mission until mid-November and the W/T set needed spares for them to continue to broadcast messages. MANGANESE Team was captured , Sgt.Kosina interrogated by Gestapo Bratislava but he managed to mislead them. Vanura and Biros were captured on 31.10 and executed near Bahnicky. Agent Keith Hansen = Frank Hesenque whereabouts was not clear .

Retreating SNA troops

Despite their ordeal requests for bombing targets were made and the text in the messages showed deep concern, as the local meteorological conditions were not bad which prompted repeated prioritization of re-supply. General Golian was betrayed by a woman and caught at Bukovec 6km west of Kosice from where he was sent to Bratislava to be tried for desertion and treason. The Windproof team immediately requested permission for their plan of escape to be granted.

Retreating SNA troops

They continued to operate and provide communications despite the village of Polomka being captured by the Germans on 25th November with their emergency broadcast (called ‘skeds’) requesting re-supply. That night the drop zone fires and flares were not lit as an unidentified plane was in the vicinity. Their ‘sked’ also confirmed other members of the Slovak National Council had been captured and taken to Bratislava for trial. Little is known what happened to the Windproof team.

Operation Windproof Correspondence: Since the publication of these pages based on Andrew Durovecz (Lt. Andrew Daniels) own account, subsequent correspondence about the story requires additional information and verification to be published in due course.

SS Obergruppenführer Hermann HÖFLE with captured Gen.Viest and Golian , Gestapo Bratislava November 6,1944

Gen.R.Viest and Gen.Golian last photo with SS interrogators Bratislava 1944

SNA retreat chart

SS Obergruppenführer Hermann HÖFLE, executed Bratislava 1947

There is no doubt Andrew Durovecz was an 'ardent' communist supporter whose book contains interesting pro-Soviet viewpoints and claims which today may be seriously doubted. His belief that Raoul Wallenberg the Swedish humanitarian was a double agent lies in tatters. In 1990 he makes no mention of operation Windproof and numerous authors understate the resistance to the Nazis in Hungary.

SNA on retreat

Lack of documentary evidence about the size of the Hungarian Underground is due to the post-war political climate. I am grateful to Steven Kippax confirming that the SOE archives have been heavily 'weeded' to protect former SOE operatives from Czechoslovakia / Hungary as they went back into the field during the 'Cold War'. From 1946 Soviet Russia controlled Hungary and a number of former SOE operatives were active for a number of 'Western' agencies during this period. The scale of operations has only recently come to light. On Dec 18,1944 SOE Bari sends an chiper message that 3 RAF 148 Special Duty Sqd planes are on standby status for an airdrop departure to Dunvaly .

A little is known that another SOE operation was planned during the rebellion. It was supposed to be Mica's landing team, consisting of Lt.Col. Kenneth Greenless, Rupert Raw, Captain Schweitzer, and radio operator Sergeant Edwards. The members of the landing team had to jump on 29 October 1944 in Donovaly, where there was a rebel line in that period. The landing, however, for the known events of late October and early November 1944 (German troops defeated the rebel army) did not take place though some say it took place and immediately returned to Bari.

SOE continued to deploy the aforementioned officers in the territory of the war Slovak state. One possibility was to deploy them to the 2nd Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade commanded by Colonel Vladimír Přikryl. This idea, however was diaspproved by STAVKA. .After the defeat of the Uprising, the brigade was to move east and join the Red Army. Soviet command, and in particular Marshal Konev disagreed with the deployment of the Mica airborne team to Přikrylovej unit. The potential British mission had to stay in Bari until 21 January 1945, when its members flew back to Britain.

A failed Uprising

Shortly after the Slovak uprising in August 1944, the Czech Intelligence Service in London learned several British and American flyers recently liberated from German POW camps in Slovakia were at Banska Bystrica and Tri Duby. This was where the Czech Forces of the Interior (SNA)—a group of partisans—were defending a liberated area against enemy troops.

The information was forwarded to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS—the forerunner of the CIA) in London. A decision was made to send teams of agents into Slovakia to evacuate downed airmen, provide supplies to the partisans and gather intelligence. These were to be the first OSS units to operate in central Europe.

OSS Bari arranged for the 15th Air Force to send an evacuation flight on September 17. Two B-17s with fighter from 52nd FG cover landed at the secret air base established at Tri Duby. They stayed on the ground for less than an hour, picking up 17 flyers and dropping two OSS teams.

The first group of agents, known as the Dawes team, comprised of intelligence officers, weapons and demolitions experts and a radio operator. A 35-year-old textile wealthy plant owner from Charleston, South Carolina, Lt. J. Holt Green was in command of Jerry Mican, Joseph Horvath and Robert Brown. They were later joined by a second team, code named Houseboat, comprised of John Schwartz and Charles Heller. The Dawes team was dispatched as a liaison group to the SNA headquarters at Banska Bystrica with the assignment of transmitting to Bari intelligence and situation reports on the progress of the campaign, as well as estimating arms, ammunition and demolition requirements for further resupply of the SNA

Three additional OSS teams were sent in on October 7. The “Day” team was comprised of Capt.E.V. Baranski and two civilians, Anton Novak and Daniel Pavletich. Their mission was to work close to combat lines west of Banska Bystrica for frontline tactical intelligence.

The Bowery team was comprised of Lt.Tibor Keszthelyi, Steve Catlos, and civilians using the code names Francis Moly and Stephen Cora. They were to arrange with the SNI underground to infiltrate two civilian agents across the Hungarian border to the vicinity of Budapest and were then to return to Dawes HQ for evacuation. The infiltration of Moly and Cora was successfully accomplished on Oct. 11 and Keszthelyi and Catlos rejoined the Dawes group.

Francis Perry was sent in under code name Dare. He was to represent the German Austrian desk collecting information on Slovak headquarters and exploring the possibility of courier routes over the frontier. Two other civilians also were dropped. Emil Tomes, an American who lived in Slovakia, was sent in to work independently on counterintelligence, and Associated Press correspondent Joseph Morton.

Despite the covert nature of the operation, the OSS gave Morton permission to report on the evacuation of fliers. He sent a message to AP saying he was off to cover the greatest story of his life. When he arrived in Slovakia, Morton immediately sent back a story with the plane that had carried him there, but the dispatch was snatched up by censors. He was never heard from again.

On October 7, six Flying Forts landed with arms, ammunition and demolitions equipment. Six additional agents were sent to join the Dawes team: James Gaul, Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, J. Dunlevy and photographer Nelson Paris. Gaul, a Harvard Ph.D. who spoke six languages, became Green’s deputy. By the end of October, the situation began to deteriorate as organized resistance began to fade. Green had said he wanted to fly out a group of airmen, as well as several members of his team, including correspondent Morton.

This flight was scheduled for October 18, but had to be postponed. Constant weather problems either in Slovakia or at the point of origination prevented the flights from ever being made.4 This proved to be a death sentence for those who were to be evacuated.

SNA marching into the Tatra ( left front Anton Novak)

OSS Bari’s concern for the teams was evident in the message to Green on October 25 stressing that their security was vital and urging him to do everything possible to insure the safety of the party. Green’s options were running out, however, after Banska Bystrica was bombed by the Germans and the Tri Duby airstrip was lost Lt.Green decided to evacuate the camp. He divided his group of 37 (agents and downed fliers) into four units, headed by Lain McGregor, Perry and himself. The group retreated with the SNA in the direction of the Russian lines. On the long exhausting march, many Czech soldiers and Americans became ill from lack of food and due extreme cold exposure.

SNA leaving Banska ( note Soviet and Lend /Lease vehicles )

Unknown captured troops

On November 6, a patrol consisting of Army Pvt. Schwartz, and five 15th Air Force personnel were captured by a German unit. Shortly thereafter, the Czechs and Americans fought off a German attack.

A week later, Lt.Green’s group, after almost nine days of marching in the bitter cold through the mountains, stopped at a farm house on the outskirts of the village of Doolnia Lehota. On the following day they traveled to a nearby mine camp where partisan nurses dressed their feet. It was learned later that the Germans captured and killed these nurses.

SS Abwehrgruppe 218 Edelweiss on lower Tatra plains

Green and his men lived on the mountainside not far from the Czech Brigade’s headquarters from November 18-30. During that time, Green contacted Major Sehmer of the British mission and went to Polomka to send a message to Bari over the British wireless. During Lt. Green’s absence, on the 30th, the SNA unit was attacked by the Germans.

Edelweiss unit retaliating near Banska October 1944

SNA on retreat

October 1944 Perry and one Slovak soldier had gone down to the village for food and were captured. The rest of the Americans narrowly escaped. On Zvy Ben Yaakov letter from his jail cell to his wife where he was jailed since October , he describes Perry Francis as his new cell's friend of Jewish relligion ,

Last SNA defenses

Bari had not received any messages from any of the teams since the end of October. In early December, Green finally contacted headquarters. The next and last message from the Dawes team, although badly garbled, was interpreted as follows:

Thirty of our groups and wilsh now in estate near Dalnialsheta southeast Brezno. No news Baranski, Novak and Pavletich. McGregor, Lain and John Krizan (cover name John Schwartz) with flyers whereabouts unknown since separation Nov. 10th. All equipment lost. Majority in bad condition because exposure, frozen feet, exhaustion from long mountain marches and starvation diet. Drop soonest to Sehmer complete extra heavy clothing.By then, the net had begun to close around the agents. On December 9, Capt.Baranski and Pavletich were captured .

On December 12 , Lt.Keszthelyi and Mican were captured. The rest of the group stayed in the mountains for the next three weeks, most of them living in a small acottage about three hours north of Polomka and the remainder at a winter resort hotel at a place known as Velky Bok. On Christmas Eve, the British and Americans held a party at the cottage. Religious services were conducted by Lt. Gaul. The next morning the men were washing their clothes when they came under attack and were surrounded by Germans. The partisans guarding the house resisted for three hours, but were driven away by artillery fire from Polomka. According to a Czech soldier, 14 persons fully dressed and in complete uniform were marched out of the cottage and taken away.

Joseph Tiso decorating SS troops on October 30, 1944

Only one man escaped, it was Anton Novak, a 25-year-old Czech who was part of the “Day” team. He eventually made his way through the Russian lines to Belgrade. Five people escaped capture because they were away from the shack at the time of the attack: Two OSS Army enlisted personnel Catlos and Dunlevy, a British agent by code name Zanopian, the W/T British BT Cpl.Davies and 24-year-old Maria Gulovitch, a Czechoslovakian teacher who spoke five languages working with the OSS unit. Lain , McGregor,Gaul and Berditchev who separated from the "Dawes team" to escort the group of USAAF airmen ( who after disagreement with Lt.Green elected to give themselves up to the German Edelweiss 218 and who were later on imprisoned Bratislava then in a POW camp. The camp was subsequently overrun and they were repatriated. The same was true for Schwartz.

Unaware of what had happened to the agents, a final attempt was made to resupply the OSS teams on December 27. The pilot flew off course, missing the target. After he left Windproof in 1944, Lt.Daniels who was Hungarian, was arrested by the Nazis in Hungary and imprisoned in Budapest. The resistance group sprung him from prison by bribing the guards and he was then hidden in a Budapest home. He was there from November 1944 until spring 1945.

SNP on retreat lower Tatra December 1944

SNP on retreat to Tatra December 1944

SNP on retreat lower Tatra December 1944

Rememberin the way to Polomka cottage memorial (1996)

Barn of the OSS / OSE teams refuge December 1944 (memorial )

Polomka Cottage memorial visited by US Ambassador to Slovakia

Einsatzkommando 218 Edelweis

This was the end of the Anglo-American mission. Between November 6 and December 26, 1944, 15 members agents were captured along with two American civilians, two British officers one Army Pvt and a Czech officer who had joined the group.

OSE Radio captured from Polomka ( similar replacement brought by Berditchev )

OSE presonal belongings left behind at Polomka

In early January 1945, Werner Mueller, one of Berlin’s best linguists, and Dr. Hans Wilhelm Thost, an interpreter for the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA-Reich Security Main Office), were ordered to go to Mauthausen to interrogate a group of English and American officers who were taken prisoner in the sector held by the Slovak rebels.

Thost testified after the war that he saw one POW in a room with Frank Ziereis, a balding 43-year-old Bavarian who was Mauthausen’s Commandant. Ziereis slapped the man across the face. He continuously demanded that his subordinate, a cigar-smoking, World War I U-boat sailor named Habecker, hang the prisoner by his wrists.

middle and right: Frank Ziereis , Bachmeier

Meanwhile, in another room, two SS officers were interrogating another POW. The American was in a crouching position with his hands bound beneath his thighs behind his knees. One SS man was holding a heavy whip in his hand and Thost could see the American’s forehead and buttocks were bloody from where he had been lashed. The second German seemed to think the marks on the POW’s face was funny. He called it a “Jesus halo.”

Habecker (comitted suicide after killing family 1945)

Thost said he was overcome watching this torture and went back to the room where Habecker was still trying to coerce information from the first POW about the Allied service in Bari that had sent him to Slovakia. Ziereis took out three or four wooden rings, about the shape and size of a pencil, which he put between the prisoner’s fingers. He then pressed them together hard. “This ‘Tibetan Prayer Mill’ causes intolerable pain,” Thost said. “Ziereis got an intense pleasure out of that torture.”

Later, Ziereis had Sehmer, the British agent, hung by his wrists in another room. Thost heard him scream. Afterward, Sehmer was brought back to sign a confession, but he could barely write “because all the blood was drawn from his hands.”

A SOE extermination camp dressing

The worst treatment was given to Baranski. When he refused to reveal details of his mission, the Commandant tied his wrists behind his back and fastened them to a chain hanging from the ceiling. Ziereis kicked the table Baranski was standing on out from under him, leaving the American dangling. After seven or eight minutes, Baranski said he would tell all, “but the Commandant let him hang a few more minutes.”

During the next four or five days, the British and American POWs continued to be tortured. Thost said these interrogations were carried out so the prisoners had no permanent injury. “These Gestapo men did not torture the prisoners in fits of anger but, on the contrary, with all composure....The pleasure experienced by Ziereis and Habecker was apparent.”

When the Germans were satisfied they had elicited all the information they could, the POWs were told to remove their uniforms and put on prisoners’ uniforms. Then they were marched out.

Mueller sensed something was wrong and asked an SS officer why they were not being transferred to a POW camp. He was told a teletype message from Berlin, signed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the RSHA, had come in ordering their immediate execution. The order directly contradicted his earlier instruction that Americans and Englishmen were to be exempted from the “bullet order” directing that escaped prisoners be taken to Mauthausen and eliminated. Mueller asked how the prisoners were to be killed. He was told: “Don’t be excited; they will have a very easy death.”

The Americans were unaware they were going to be executed, according to a Polish prisoner who was in Mauthausen at the time. The signs on the door they entered said they were going to the bath. “After they undressed,” Wilhelm Ornstein testified, “they went to another room with a camera where Ziereis was yelling: ‘photograph, photograph.’ Baranski, Green, Gaul, Perry, Keszthelyi, Mican, Horvath, Haller, Paris, Pavletich, Sehmer, Willis and Wilson were shot by SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Georg Bachmayer.” Ornstein took Nelson Paris’ dog tag off his neck after he was killed and later gave it to investigators. He said the Americans were executed on January 26 ,1945 then bodies were transfered to a cool room before cremated.

The OSS canceled its operation in Slovakia at the end of January, long after contact with the Dawes team had been lost. By this time, the agents were all believed to be dead. In fact, on January 24, 1945, Allied Force Headquarters intercepted a broadcast from Berlin that said 18 members of an Anglo-American group of agents were captured and executed. Additional reports to this effect were picked

up a couple of weeks later.

Marshal Tolbukin troops near Banska Bystrika February 1945

Maj. John Sehmer OSE + Leader

Birth 19 Apr 1913 Staffordshire, England

Death 26 Jan 1945 (aged 31) Mauthausen

(Although both the CWGC and Special Forces Role of Honour give his age as 41, this is incompatible with BMD records.)

Royal Tank Regiment, R.A.C.attd. Special Operations Executive ,M B E (award announced in London Gazette, 4th January 1945) Son of Ernest and Nellie Sehmer; husband of Mary Elizabeth Sehmer, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.

While on an OSS/SOE mission in Czechoslovakia, captured by the SS on December 24,1944; a month later, after horrific torture and abuse, Major Sehmer and three members of his unit were executed at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Bodies were cremated.

Jaques August Warndorfer , allias Major Jack Wilson ( rear second from right )

Lt.Abba Berdichev + (1920 - 1945) "Willis "

Was a volunteer paratrooper who went behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.

Abba Berdichev was born in Galati, Romania to Suzi and Mordechai Berdichev, was a descendant of a well-known Hassidic family. Since childhood, he was an ardent Zionist and had a deep love for Israel.

As a teenager, he was involved with Zionist youth groups in Romania. As young man, he joined an agricultural training farm in preparation for immigration to the Land of Israel. In October 1940, a pro-Nazi regime came to power in Romania and the situation became dangerous for Jews. Berdichev decided it was time to leave. Paying a premium to get on a ship immediately, he immigrated to Israel on the ship "Darien 2", whose voyage lasted four and a half months.

As the ship approached the shores of Haifa , it was captured by the British and all aboard were imprisoned as illegal immigrants for a year and a half in the Mazrah detention camp near Acco .

After being released, Berdichev underwent further agricultural training on Kibbutz Geva and later at Ashdot Yaakov. In November 1943, he volunteered to SOE to be part of a group of paratroopers whom the British would drop behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Europe. The group was put under a course of training conducted by the British army in Ramat David and then in Egypt.

For the purpose of the mission, Berdichev was given was false British identity papers under the name "Lt.Robert Willis " however his rank as Leutenant was not false. On all archive photos he can be seen wearing this rank , unlike Israeli Palmach, State Archives and Yad Vah Shem he was not a Sargent.

Sgt.Warndorfer A. Jaques + "Maj.Jack Wilson "

Captured at Polomka along with Sehmer,Berditschev,Ben Yaakov

Maria Kokovka ,tortured and executed at Mauthausen .

SIS Hungary, Sergeant NUMBER 13041720 Death : 12th January 1945 AGE 44 Groesbeek Memorial,Netherlands Panel

born 1899 or 1900 Austria officer cadet,Austrian Navy in WW1

resided Inverness Viennese Jewish refugee 220 Company,Pioneer Corps

transferred to SOE Intelligence Corps Extra Regimental List

alias Major Jack Wilson (SIS) POW 26.12.1944 Slovakia executed Mauthausen King's Commendation for Brave Conduct (posthumous)

Márgita Kocková + (SNP) executed Mauthausen 24.1.1945

English language teacher Slovakia, Interpretor HQ 1st Czechoslovak Army,attached SOE Op.Windproof as interpretor . On December 4, 1944, fascist troops from all sides surrounded the area, and in the afternoon it was occupied by special SS units and the Vlasovci. Partisan troops were forced to resort to the mountains. Margita Kocková with a group of partisans got to the area of Polomka (former district Brezno, now Banska Bystrica district). Here she was ordered to accompany the Anglo-American military mission which was hiding in a cottage at Polomka. On December 26, 1944, the Abwehrgruppe 218 "Edelweis" ambushed the cottage, in which they caught all the members of the mission, Margita Kocková and Kapt.Stanek Commander of the resistance unit were captured along with most of the US and British mission. She was transported , interogated, tortured , executed and cremated at Mauthausen. Stanek
was executed same day .

Lt.Andrew Durowecz (Daniels) OSE POW Hungaria, escaped , survived
Lt.Stephan Zanopian (Steve Stevenson) OSE escaped , survived

OSS Operation "Windproof "

(rescue Allied airmen )

Dawes Team Dispatch Date : 17th September 1944 from Bari by 483rd BG

Green, James Holt ~ Lt. USN, North Carolina, LDR Mauthausen +

Lane H.Miller - Lt. Army Air Corps ,Pilot * ** Daws Team Mauthausen +

Brown, Robert R ~ Corp, Army, Illinois, "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Gaul, James H ~ Lt, Navy, New York, ** "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Heller, Charles S ~ SP(X)2, Navy, Illinois, (Houseboat)"Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Horvath, Joseph J ~ S/Sgt, Army, Ohio, "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Perry, Francis ~ 1st Lt, Army, New York, (Dare) "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Mican, Jerry G ~ M/Sgt, Army, Illinois, (Houseboat) "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Morton, Joseph ~ Civilian, War correspondent, AP Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Paris, Nelson B ~ PhoM1C, Navy, Oregon, ** "Dawes Team" Mauthausen +

Schwartz John Pvt Army (Houseboat) "Dawes Team" POW Hungary , survived

McGregor William Capt. Army ** (weapon IR) "Dawes Team " POW, " " survived

Lain Kenneth A Lt. Army ** (weapon IR) "Dawes Team " POW, " " survived

Dunlevy G Sgt Army ** "Dawes Team " POW, " " survived

Maria Gulovikova Interpretor Escaped Survived

Bowery Team Dispatch Date : 7th October 1944 from Bari by 483rd BG

Keszthelyi, Tibor K ~ 1st Lt, Army, LDR, executed Mauthausen

Steve J.Catlos Army escaped capture

Francis Molly Agent escaped
Stephan Cora

Day Team Dispatch Date : 17th October 1944

Baranski, Edward V ~ Capt, Army, Illinois, * LDR , executed Mauthausen

Pavletich, Daniel + ~ Civilian, Executed Mauthausen

Novak Anton (Anton Facuna) Escaped, Survived

* Declassified 1980

** Arrived with Day Team 17th October 1944

OSS Bari Slovak Disaster

Unfulfilled hopes, unforeseen setbacks and faulty planning led to the worst disaster in the history of the OSS. The place was central Slovakia. The time was the fall and winter of 1944-1945. The impetus was an uprising of several thousand partisans and the revolt of two divisions of the Slovak Home Army against the Nazi collaborationist regime as the Anglo-American armies pushed eastward toward Germany and the Red Army pushed the Wehrmacht westward towards the Czechoslovakian border. The Czech government in exile in London under President Edvard Beneš flew in a regular Army general to take charge of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia and appealed to the Allies to aid the revolt which rapidly grew to more than 60,000 soldiers and partisans.273 To assist the Slovakian insurgency and rescue downed pilots, as well as to establish an intelligence network in Czechoslovakia and neighboring Austria and Hungary, the OSS’s Special Operations headquarters for the Mediterranean Theater assembled two OSS missions of more than two dozen OSS personnel.274

Chosen to command the SO’s “Dawes” Mission help rescue downed airmen as cover for covert operation to help the Slovak Uprising ,was Navy Reserve Lt. (Sg) J. Holt Green from an old and prominent family from Charleston, South Carolina. Holt Green was a graduate of the Harvard Business School and had managed the family’s textile mills in North Carolina before joining the Special Operations Branch of the OSS in early 1943.

He and most of the other SO members of the team had trained at Areas F, B or A; so had some of the SI members in addition to the SI schools; and the radio operators had, of course, also trained at Area C. Green was not inexperienced. Overseas, he had participated in several missions to Yugoslavia and later on in August and early September 1944 in Operation Reunion in Bucharest , the rescue of 1100 Allied airmen POW's.

Most of the enlisted men in the Dawes Mission were the kind of ethnic Americans with roots in the occupied countries that Donovan had seen as potential “shadow warriors” conducting espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines. M/Sgt Jaroslav (“Jerry”) G. Mican, a native of Prague, had emigrated to Chicago in the 1920s, become a U.S. citizen, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and taught foreign languages in a Chicago high school. Politically active in Chicago’s Czech and Slovak communities, Mican knew influential political figures in Illinois and in the Czech government in exile, including Vojta Beneš, brother of the former Czech President. Although 42, Mican had enlisted in the Army as a private and then joined OSS/SO.

It was Mican who selected some of the other Czechoslovakians for the mission: Sergeant Joseph Horvath, 24, who had immigrated from Slovakia to Cleveland, Ohio, with his parents in 1928; and Czech-born Sergeant John Schwartz (code named Jan Krizan), of SI, who had escaped from the Nazis in 1940, fled to New York, and joined the U.S. Army before being recruited by the OSS.

The two radio operators were both Chicagoans: Army Private Robert Brown would accompany Holt Green, who he had previously served on a mission in Yugoslavia, Navy Specialist First Class Charles O. Heller, also a Czech speaker, would be the radioman for Schwartz. This was the first team sent in as the “Dawes” Mission, and of the six, only Schwartz would survive.

On an old landing strip at Tri Duby airfield the center of the uprising in western Slovakia, two, four-engine B-17G “Flying Fortresses” of the 15th U.S. Air Force landed on 17 September 1944, with the six Americans and five tons of arms and ammunition. The crowd applauded, but downed American airmen waiting to be rescued, took one look at Green in his naval officers hat and asked “What the hell is the Navy doing here?”

The two planes returned to Italy with 15 Allied airmen rescued by the partisans. Green and his team set up a headquarters and established communications with Bari.

On October 7th a second and much larger OSS contingent of arrived on 7 October. Six B- 17s with 32 P-51 from 52nd FG as fighter escorts filled the landing field. They brought in more than a dozen additional OSS personnel, plus twenty tons of supplies: submachine guns, bazookas, ammunitions, explosives, communications equipment, medical supplies, and food and clothing. They took back more 28 downed American airmen. The second contingent included SO, SI, Commo, and Medical Corps personnel, because the OSS regional headquarters in Italy now sent more SI personnel to spread an intelligence network.

A former Austrian, Lt.Francis Perry, an SI officer from Brooklyn, was assigned to return to his native Vienna, 120 miles to the southwest, and recruit an espionage network. Capt. Edward V. Baranski, SI, an ethnic Slovak from Illinois, who had been urging SI to infiltrate agent teams into Czechoslovakia for some time, was in charge of OSS SI’s “Day” Group, which was ordered to establish a ring of local spies in German-occupied Slovakia.

His three SI team members included indigenous Slovak civilian agents, Anton (“Thomas”) Novak and Emil Tomes and civilian radio operator Daniel Paletich, a Croatian who spoke Slovak. Another group of SI agents, whose mission was to build a circuit of agents from Budapest, Hungary, 100 miles to the south, included two ethnic Hungarians from New York City, Lieutenant Tabor Keszthelyi and Sergeant Steve J. Catlos, plus Private Kenneth V. Dunlevy, an SI radio operator and cryptographer. Special Operations sent along Lieutenant James Harwey Gaul, son of a prosperous Pittsburgh family, who had done archaeological excavations in Slovakia while a graduate student at Harvard.

He was to assist Holt Green. To instruct partisans in the use of American submachine guns, bazookas and other weapons as well as plastic explosives, SO weapons and demolition experts Captain William A. McGregor, former head of the lacrosse team at the University of Maryland, and Lieutenant Kenneth Lain, who had been an athlete at the University of Illinois, were included.

Air Corps Lieutenant Lane B. Miller from California had been a B-24 “Liberator” pilot at 376th BG in Italy, who had been shot down and rescued by partisans in Yugoslavia back from Ploesti Oil Fields, was to be in charge of the airmen rescue mission. Naval photographer Nelson B. Paris came along to record the historic mission with still and motion picture cameras. Learning about the mission, Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton from St. Joseph, Missouri, gained OSS permission at the last minute to accompany the group, and he climbed on board carrying his portable typewriter. Of these 13 men, only five, McGregor, Lain, Novak, Catlos and Dunlevy, would emerge from the mission alive.

Neither the Slovaks nor the OSS regional headquarters in Bari, Italy had anticipated just how quickly, forcefully and successfully the Germans would act, although Holt Green by radio had advised against sending in the second team and subsequently asked for an evacuation. Hitler recognized the danger the revolt posed to the supply lines to the Wehrmacht trying to stop the advancing Red Army, already in Poland, from getting to Germany itself, and he dispatched five veteran divisions, with artillery and armor, to crush it. Moly the counterintel specialist and Cora were to cross Hungarian border to verify the situation on the Hungarian President Horthy .Moly reached Hungaria on October 7,1944 while Bowery team dismantelled the same day.On October 27 OSS and SOE tems were retreating towards the Tatra Mountains where they set a camp . Wandorrfer and Davies were ordered not to cross into Hungaria . Due to betrayal Gen.Viest was captured on November 4th.

When they quickly smashed the rebellious units of the Slovak Home Army, the partisans scattered, and SS, Gestapo, and special anti-partisan units hunted down partisans and those who had aided them. The Slovaks and the Dawes Mission had hoped that the Red Army, 200 miles away would break through the German defenses in the Carpathian Mountains, but the Soviets did not get through and liberate Slovakia until March 1945.

OSS regional headquarters did eventually try to rescue the Americans, but bad weather prevented the flights, and then on 26 October, the German Army took Banská Bykstrica and the airfield. Moving out ahead of the Germans, Holt Green decided to split the group of Americans, which had grown to 37 including the OSS teams and downed U.S. aviators, into four sections, hoping to reduce casualties and chances for capture. Like the partisans, the Americans headed for the Tatra Mountains to the north to await rescue by the Russians.

The winter of 1944-1945 was cold and cruel, one of the worst in Europe in decades. Rain, mud, and then ice storms battered those seeking refuge in the mountains. Food was scarce. During a march of more than eighty miles along the mountain ridges in the direction of the Russian Army, the American OSS men and aviators lost members a few at a time. Then in mid-November, exhausted and freezing, all of the airmen along with two OSS officers chose to go down to a village and surrender. More were captured later as they tried to obtain food. As Christmas drew near, the remnants of the OSS mission, plus some British SOE and SIS agents, found shelter in a mountain hotel near Velny Bok, just north of Polomka, Sergeant Joe Horvath’s birthplace. Holt Green organized a Christmas Eve party.

On Christmas day they set flares for an expected airdrop of food and other supplies, but it did not arrive. On the next morning, 250 German troops of a special anti-partisan SS unit stormed up the mountain, overcame the partisan guards and captured Green and most of the Americans and British agents in his group after a firefight in which Green and James Gaul received gunshot wounds in their arms. The group had been betrayed by one of their partisan guards.

Five members of the group, who had been quartered in a hut higher up the mountain, were able to avoid capture. The escapees included two OSS agents Sergeant Steve Catlos and Sgt. Kenneth Dunlevy; two OSE agents Zanopian and GT Davies and 24-year-old Maria Gulovich, a Slovakian schoolteacher and partisan, who had been hired by Holt Green as an interpreter and guide. She would help lead that small group to safety all the way to the Russian lines in Hungaria and continue to Romania .

Most of the members of the American and British missions, whether captured at Velny Bok or earlier, were taken to Banska jail then Gestapo Bratislava and then via Bruck an der Donau further 200 miles west to Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria, one of the infamous Nazi concentration and death camps. (The downed airmen, except for Lane Miller of the OSS mission, were taken to regular POW camps, and liberated at the end of the war.)

The group from Velny Bok arrived on 7 January 1945, and Berlin sent special SS and Gestapo officers to interrogate them. Under the personal supervision of the camp commandant, SS Colonel Franz Ziereis, most of the British and American captives were tortured while being interrogated.

The commanding officers were apparently tortured first. Captain Edward V. Baranski had his hands tied behind his back, his wrists attached to a chain hanging from a beam above, then he was hoisted upwards so that his whole weight pulled on his backward bent arms. He writhed in pain while being interrogated. Lieutenant Holt Green was put in a crouching position, his hands bound beneath his thighs, behind his knees. An interrogator struck him with a heavy whip across the face and back until they were bloody. The English major was tortured with what was called the “Tibetan prayer mill,” three or four wooden rings, which when strongly pressed together, crushed the victim’s fingers. The torture for these and other captives went on for two weeks. Berlin ordered them executed as spies, despite the fact that the military members had remained in uniform during the entire mission.

Beginning on the morning of January 24, 1945, the American and British prisoners—all of them that day or over the next three months, accounts differ—were taken one at a time to a windowless, underground bunker and shot in the back with a pistol by the camp commandant himself. The dead included British Major John Sehmer, Maj.Wilson allias Wandorfer Jaques, Abba Berditchev and a 30-year-old Slovak-American woman, Margita Kocková, a teacher who had returned to Slovakia and been assigned by the headquarters of the 1st Czechoslovak Army to be an interpreter for the British SOE team. The members of the American mission who were executed at Mauthausen included Captain Baranski, Lieutenants Green, Gaul, Keszthelyi, Miller, Perry, Sergeants Horvath and Mican; radio operators Brown and Heller; Navy photographer Paris; and AP correspondent Joe Morton, who had joined to report the story of the Dawes Mission. Two indigenous civilian members of the mission, Slovak Emile Tomes and Croatian Daniel Pavletich, were captured and killed in Slovakia. Their deaths brought to 14 the total number of members of the Dawes Mission who were killed.

The group that had escaped capture at Velky Bok because they were farther up the mountain continued their wintry trek eastward through the mountains led by guide Maria Gulovich. Two weeks and fifty miles later, she and American Sergeants Steve Catlos and Kenneth Dunlevy, together with two members of the British mission, finally met the advancing Red Army. But instead of being rescued, they were interrogated by the Soviet secret police, who considered them possible spies and prevented them from contacting their own forces. Held anonymously in Soviet custody, the group was taken to Romania on the way to the Soviet Union. But at Bucharest, were there was an Allied mission, they were able clandestinely to contact an American general, and a group of GIs in jeeps came and whisked them to safety. The team brought with them their Slovak guide, Maria Gulovich, who later received a Bronze Star Medal for bravery and eventually became a U.S. citizen. Holt Green and James Gaul, the two commanders of the Dawes Mission, were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.282

SS Franz Ziereis, the commandant at Mauthausen, was captured and mortally wounded by an American patrol on 23 May 1945, some sixty miles south of the camp from which he had fled a the approach of Patton’s 3rd U.S. Army. Deputy Commandant, SS Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bachmayer, had shot his wife, children, and himself, the day Germany surrendered, May 7th. Torturer Walter Habecker was located by the British in 1947, arrested, and incarcerated in a military prison, where he later hanged himself. Some of the other interrogators and torturers were tried and hanged.

Of the two top Nazis under Hitler, responsible for the executions at Mauthausen, as well as genocide against Jews and others and numerous other war crimes, SS chief Heinrich Himmler was captured and committed suicide with poison in May 1945. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler’s chief subordinate, who oversaw the SS, Gestapo, and the methods of liquidation of those in the Nazi camps, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death at Nuremberg, with Donovan and several OSS men and others in the audience at the sentencing. Kaltenbrunner was subsequently hanged.

OSS Hdq MTO Egypt

Black B-24J 885th Special Ops OSS Bari

885th Special Ops Sqd Bari

OSS Officers with Draza Mihalovic August 1944 / Allied airmen rescue Serbia

USNR Lt.(Sg) James Holt Green + (1909 - 26.1.1944) DSC

James Holt Green had long wanted to wear a uniform in this war, but at almost 6 feet tall and not even 140 pounds, he didn’t meet the physical standards set by the armed services. When the 31-year-old registered for the draft in October 1940, his chest circumference measured several inches under

At Banska Hdq Sept.1944

the required size. But there were those within the US government who knew they needed more than fighters on the front lines. Green had the necessary skills to manage the business of the war, and the connections to get himself hired for the job. In February 1943, Green received his commission as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the United States Naval Reserve and was promptly assigned to the OSS office in Cairo, Egypt.

At Banska with Lt.Gaul Sept.1944

The OSS was an elite group. Only about 20,000 men and women worked for the intelligence service over the course of the war—out of 16 million who served in a US uniform—and only a third of those were given an overseas posting. Green’s fiscal management and office leadership in Cairo received high marks, but being an OSS administrator was not enough; within six months, he was campaigning for a spot in Special Operations. In January 1944, Green parachuted into Axis-occupied Yugoslavia, where he spent several successful months working with the British to rescue dozens of Allied fliers downed behind enemy lines.

On August 30,1944 he coordinating the release on of 1100 US airmen POW in Bucharest, Romania along with OSS Maj.Ross and Col.Kraigher, Sgt.Horvath as well with other OSS and SOE operatives under operation "Gunn" and " Reunion "

CO 15th Air Force Lt.Gen N.Twining (left) Col.Gunn and Lt.Green Bari Sept.1944

Lt.Col.Gunn and Romanin Air Force Capt.Cantacuzino, Bari ,Aug 1944

Sgt.Horwath, Operation Reunion , Bucharest 1st Sept 1944

The flight had been arranged by secret military cable. An elaborate code of flares and signal fires was agreed upon, and the 15th Air Force 52d Fighter Group staged a midair diversion over the Adriatic Sea. But these attempts at subterfuge were of little use. There was no disguising the drone of the American B-17 Flying Fortresses as they passed over Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, on the morning of September 17, 1944.

Arrival at Tri Duby airfield on October 7, 1944 of OSS Maj.Ross returning back to Bari

Holt , Mican, Sehmer Tri Duby airfield 1944

Lt.Green seen here at Try Dubi airfield along with M/Sgt.Mican and Pvt Schwarz

The sound had become familiar since the United States had entered the Second World War almost three years earlier; it was inevitably followed by bombs. On this day, though, the B-17s instead touched down on the dirt runway at Tri Duby airfield, miles behind German lines. When James Holt Green (MBA 1935) dropped out of the forward crew hatch he was surrounded by a throng of people—Soviet officers, Slovak partisans, American airmen, and local residents who had rushed to the airfield to see what was happening. Their clandestine arrival was “a carnival,” according to one of the B-17 pilots. The crowd burst into applause at the sight of Green in his full khaki Navy work uniform, with the single star and two stripes of a United States lieutenant (junior grade) on his shoulder.

Supplies as of Oct 7,1944

“What the hell’s the Navy doing here?” asked one American airman as five more men emerged. Despite Green’s uniform, the men weren’t there under the auspices of the Navy, but instead at the direction of the Office of Strategic Services, a nimble new intelligence organization that drew from all branches of the armed forces as well as the civilian ranks. Green and his men, all volunteers for this duty, were tasked with retrieving the American airmen who had been downed in Axis territory; about 60 were already gathered in Banská Bystrica. But that wasn’t their only objective.

An additional OSS team at Bari for Banska , departure cancelled ( not MICA )

Victory over Nazi Germany finally seemed to be in sight. In June 1944, Allied troops had come ashore on the beaches of Normandy, pushing the Axis forces east as the Soviet Union forced them west. In late August, Allied tanks had liberated Paris, which had been under German occupation for more than four years, and the Soviets had entered Bucharest, Romania, which had allied itself with Germany in 1940. But each day of the offensive cost countless lives. It wasn’t enough to win the war; the Allies needed to win it now.

Banská Bystrica had become the capital of the Slovak National Uprising. Now that German troops

had been evicted from the medieval city, partisans marched through the streets, and Free Slovak Radio began broadcasting. The OSS team established their office in a well-appointed villa with “all the trimmings” that had until recently been occupied by the Gestapo, and conditions for the operation were “almost unbelievable,” Green cabled his superiors at an Allied air base in Bari, Italy. His visits to the front had been, he said, “great fun.” Morale was high, and Green was optimistic about the mission, as was his nature.

That was the real mission—code named DAWES and HOUSEBOAT—of the six men who landed in Slovakia that morning: They were there to bring an end to the war. Green and his team were under orders to support the Slovak National Uprising. Three weeks earlier, Slovak partisans had risen up against the country’s Nazi-allied government. Parts of central and eastern Slovakia, including the Tri Duby airfield, were now under insurgent control. The OSS believed that a sustained Slovak rebellion could create a new front in the sprawling war, splitting the weakening Axis forces. The Slovak partisans just needed a little help holding the line until Soviet troops arrived from the west.

To everyone’s surprise, a four-man team headed by Major John Sehmer of the British Special Operations Executive—the inspiration for the OSS—parachuted into Banská Bystrica soon after with much the same orders as the OSS agents. The American and British teams got to know each other at a lavish dinner party thrown by Brigadier General Ján Golian, leader of the Slovak uprising. But artillery fire echoed in the distance.The German troops were advancing more quickly than the OSS mission planners expected, and the Soviet forces were stalled. On September 22, just five days after his arrival, Green cabled Bari: “Believe situation likely become critical.” He renewed his request for guns and for 10,000 first-aid field dressings for the partisans and asked for the immediate evacuation of more downed American airmen who had made their way to Banská Bystrica. Instead of planes and supplies, Bari sent additional intelligence requests and notified Green of its plan to deliver more OSS agents.“Do not—repeat—do not send any more men in except another radio operator,” Green responded.

Slovak Army loading supplies from Bari

Green’s trips to the front were no longer fun. On the afternoon of October 4, he watched as German tanks rolled into Svätý Kríž, 28 miles from Banská Bystrica. The uprising he was there to support was already faltering. “Many people believe Germans will exert great pressure to crush this movement,” Green cabled Bari. “There is considerable anxiety among officials and civilians. Do not believe present force could hold against any real push.” Bari’s response: “Cannot help.” Bad weather grounded the planes in Italy for more than two weeks.

Soviet supplies Try Duby 29.8.1944

When the six B-17s finally broke through the cloud cover above Tri Duby on October 7, it was a “beautiful” sight, noted one observer. The planes brought not only much-needed supplies, but also the personnel that Green had unsuccessfully argued against. Here were 14 more men—including Joseph Morton, an Associated Press correspondent who called this “the biggest story of my life”—for whose safety Green was now responsible. The machine gun volleys of the approaching German forces could be heard even as the men unloaded the planes. When they took off again 30 minutes later, 26 more American airmen were on their way to safety.

Slovak Army and Partizans Tatra November 1944

This is the final contact from here,” Green wrote on October 25. The next day, the airfield fell to the Germans. The uprising of General Golian had collapsed. Now the OSS team had a new mission: the survival.The enlarged OSS team began to train the Slovak partisans on the newly delivered guns and gather intelligence for possible infiltrations into Hungary and Austria, but Green had given himself another task: Almost as soon as the additional OSS personnel landed, he began looking for a way to evacuate them, though Green himself never planned to leave. He still believed he and the original DAWES and HOUSEBOAT teams were doing vital work. Weather and German bombing strikes again limited support from Bari, as did Green’s superiors’ faith in his abilities: “We know in part your problems and the seriousness of your position. Know your ability to cope with them. Keep up the good work. Best of luck.”

Partizans Tatra 1944

As wounded Slovak soldiers retreated into Banská Bystrica to escape the German advance, Green pleaded with Bari for another plane. The Soviets managed to land frequently to resupply their forces and evacuate civilians and wounded soldiers, but Bari hesitated. Finally, on October 18, Bari agreed to send a flight “soon” to pick up more downed American airmen. Days passed. Each morning the men would repair bomb damage to the airfield and then wait and wait for the sound of the B-17s. Desperate to get the men out of the country, Green tried to negotiate space on a Soviet flight. They refused the American officer’s request.

“This is the final contact from here,” Green wrote on October 25, as the OSS agents destroyed classified records and gathered what supplies they could. “The situation here is very serious, so we will move into the hills north of here.” The next day, the airfield fell to the Germans. The uprising had collapsed. Now the OSS team had a new mission: The survival.

Donovaly, October 1944 Slovak Army and "Windproof "retreat (above Lt Green's car )

Same place today

Lt.Green seen here on October 26,1944 on lower Tatra hideout (3rd from left Ludwig Svoboda)

Partizan leader Ludwig Svoboda managed to escape Edelweiss 218

Lt.Green, Joe Morton (left ) and M/Sgt Mican

At 3 a.m. on October 28, Green transmitted another message, this one from Donovaly, a town about 15 miles from the former rebel capital: “Believe situation getting worse. Possible we may discard radios, but keep listening. … Have arranged to split into four groups if necessary… Organized resistance rapidly deteriorating. Believe…” His transmission deteriorated into gibberish, and then the radio went silent for 38 days.

For weeks Green and his team fled through the Slovak mountains and the harsh weather toward the safety of the Soviet Army, whose move westward had been halted. On the eastern front, too, the Germans had stopped retreating, launching a surprise offensive that would become one of the bloodiest of the conflict, the Battle of the Bulge. Green knew little about these events. He was focused on finding his team a warm place to sleep and enough to eat. Some nights they took refuge in a sheepherder’s shed or in makeshift barracks of the partisans, but other nights they huddled around a fire in the forest, ice forming on their eyebrows.

It was an ordeal that Green’s survival training in a bucolic Virginia national park two years earlier had left him ill-prepared to face. Still, he attempted to keep discipline and decorum among the team. “Stand tall and act like American soldiers,” he had admonished them a few weeks into their grueling march. “We’re on a military mission for the United States, not a bunch of ragtag wanderers!” The men had immediately done what they could to bring their dirty uniforms back to their proper appearance, though they continued to hobble along on frostbitten feet.

Green had also forbidden the group from stealing food. They still had gold coins, which Green had distributed among the men, and would buy what food they could. One night, however, the team discovered that their limited food supply had been stolen by some of the partisans they were lodging with. Green first tried to buy the supplies back. When that failed, he gave his team permission to steal when they needed to. There was no other way to survive.

Their numbers had dwindled. Many of the American airmen who had arrived in Banská Bystrica in hopes of evacuation chose to surrender to the Germans, but the OSS team did not have the same faith in the enemy. Though they wore uniforms—and should, therefore, be protected under the Geneva Conventions—they feared they would be treated not as soldiers but as spies. Green worried for the fate of those members of his team who had been captured during their flight. Some had also joined the group as it traveled, including the British SOE team and Maria Gulovich, a Slovak partisan who served as a translator.

SNP Army members on retreat lower Tatra Mountains November 1944

Green knew little about these events. He was focused on finding his team a warm place to sleep and enough to eat. Some nights they took refuge in a sheepherder’s shed or in makeshift barracks of the partisans, but other nights they huddled around a fire in the forest, ice forming on their eyebrows.

Slovak Army and partizans retreating towards Polomka

Green had also forbidden the group from stealing food. They still had gold coins, which Green had distributed among the men, and would buy what food they could. One night, however, the team discovered that their limited food supply had been stolen by some of the partisans they were lodging with. Green first tried to buy the supplies back. When that failed, he gave his team permission to steal when they needed to. There was no other way to survive.

One night, Green and several others ventured out to evaluate the situation. On their sortie, they blew up a railroad tunnel, blocking the German troops from 400 miles of vital railroad tracks. It was just before Christmas 1944 that the team regrouped at a small shack
camouflaged with pine boughs near the top of Homôlka Mountain. The situation seemed dire. Some 3,000 enemy soldiers occupied Polomka and Hel’pa just six miles away, making it ever more difficult to find the supplies they needed.

Left : still in regular Whermacht uniform Commander of Abwehrgruppe 218 "Edelweiss" SS Obersturmbannführer Erwein von Thun und Hohenstein

In 1943, Thun-Hohenstein became head of the Rome defense center. After the capitulation of Italy in the summer of 1944, he was ordered to Milan. In November 1944 he was commissioned to set up a special guerrilla fighting unit in Slovakia. The Slovak national uprising had just failed there, and many members of the army had joined the partisans. The unit over which Thun-Hohenstein received command was called Defense Group 218 "Edelweiß". It was composed of 300 men strong and consisted of Slovaks, Caucasians, Cossacks and Germans. Thun-Hohenstein used the code name "Benesch" because of its similarity to the president of the Czech government in exile Edvard Beneš.

Defense group 218 was subordinate to Front Control Center II South-East. Since the SS took over the defense in the spring of 1944, it had been subordinate to Dept. VI-S of the Reich Security Main Office, namely Otto Skorzeny, and was later renamed the "SS Hunting Association South-East".

Defense group 218 is believed to have committed numerous crimes in the last months of the war in Slovakia. The main operation was against partisans, but the persecution and murder of Jews was also part of their work. The Thun-Hohenstein unit is said to have killed around 300 Slovak partisans and captured 600. Most were sent to concentration camps. [4]

A member of Abwehrgruppe 218, Ladislav Nižňanský, was indicted in Munich in 2004 for the Ostry Grun massacre in Slovakia. The role of Thun-Hohenstein was also highlighted during the process. Left : "Benesch "

Abwehrgruppe 218 was also involved in the arrest and extradition to the security service groups of a group of Anglo-American liaison and reconnaissance officers. They had been later on escape from Banska as part of a joint operation by the English SOE ("OPERATION WINDPROOF") and the American OSS ("MISSION DAWES") and were intended to support the partisans. The English and American officers were later deported to Mauthausen, tortured and shot. At the end of the war, Thun-Hohenstein, now ranked General Major , was captured by the Soviet Union in May 1945. On January 18, 1946, he was sentenced to death by a Soviet military tribunal. The sentence was carried out on February 12, 1946 by a shot in the neck

22 December 1944, Edelweiss 218 occuping Polomka and Helpa villages

But the OSS and SOE agents were not ready to give up. Green had declined an earlier invitation for him and his team to join the Soviets who were launching attacks on the German troops as they fled Banská Bystrica. He knew the OSS agents were not trained infantrymen. But the intelligence they had gathered gave them other ways to thwart the Germans. One night, Green and several others ventured out to evaluate the situation. On their sortie, they blew up a railroad tunnel, blocking the German troops from 400 miles of vital railroad tracks. It was a small victory, but the daring strike only made the enemy more determined to flush out the Americans and Brits they knew to be hiding in the mountain range.

Still there was reason for hope. Green had managed to send a message to his superiors in Bari through British radio channels: “All equipment lost. Majority in bad condition because exposure frozen feet, exhaustion from long mountain marches,and starvation diet. Drop soonest…” Green did not know if his plea had been received, but he decided to hold their position on Homôlka Mountain. Each night some of the team lodged at Vel’ký bok, at the summit of the mountain, to stoke the signal fire in hopes that the US Army Air Forces would bring relief.

Come Christmas eve, though, the team was still watching the skies. The weather had been clear for days, and they could not understand why help had not come. It was SOE officer Sehmer who suggested celebrating the holiday while they waited.Green and Sehmer were among those who set off on a selfassigned mission to raid enemy troops of the supplies they had plundered. When they returned with food and gifts, a Christmas tree stood in the corner of the shack.

It was hung with red hearts and blue-and-white stars and topped with a candle. Green tacked an American flag on the wall for decoration. Before the lively party began, one man offered a prayer of gratitude “for our deliverance from the high winds of the wintry mountains and from the cruel snows fallen upon us, and from the perils of the black night and dark valleys.”

The blessing would not last. On the morning of December 26, another cloudless day, as some of the men were cooking breakfast, bullets pierced the roof and walls of the shack. Green was shot in the arm. Surrounded by German forces, the occupants surrendered. Green, six of his OSS colleagues, Sehmer, and AP correspondent Joseph Morton were among those captured. Only a few members of the group, including Maria Gulovich, who had hiked up the mountain to Vel’ký bok after Christmas dinner to tend the signal fire, escaped the German assault.

The next day US planes dropped the supplies Green had been waiting for, along with letters from the team members’ families, letters that would never be read.Can you tell me if anything has been heard of from any of the men who were with Holt?” Green’s mother, Daisie, wrote to Lane Rehm, the man who had recruited her son into the OSS. It was May 1945, and the family had recently received a letter informing them that Green was now considered missing in action. Rehm told her to have faith. “Miracles were happening there every day,” he said.

But the intelligence agency already knew there would be no miracle. Slowly, over the preceding months, the OSS had pieced together the last days of the DAWES and HOUSEBOAT missions.

Polomka Barn memorial 1996

Green and those taken prisoner alongside him had been shuttled back to Banská Bystrica, where the Gestapo again resided. There the prisoners were treated with surprising courtesy; Green was rightly suspicious. Their final destination was to be the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. An estimated 90,000 people would die there before the end of the war.

President Jozef Tiso decorating SS Edelweiss 218 soldiers for suppressing the Slovak National Uprising in Banská Bystrica, 31. 11. 1944

Commandant Franz Ziereis, who oversaw the brutality at the camp, supervised the beatings and interrogations of the OSS team personally. He interrupted one to demand that Green the “gangster,” as he called him remove the lieutenant stripes from his uniform. The Germans were again on the retreat on both the eastern and the western fronts when, on January 24, 1945 .Green was led into a small room and positioned in front of a camera on a tripod. An SS officer raised his gun and shot James Holt Green in the neck.

Over the next several weeks, all of the prisoners of war captured at the shack would be executed but some who had followed Green through the mountains survived to tell the story of the mission. Wrote one in a now-declassified report: “Without Green’s perspective and good judgment, conditions in the mountains might have been entirely different.” Green would be posthumously awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross for extreme gallantry and the Czechoslovak War Cross. No, he and his men had not hastened the end of the war in Europe, which continued until May 8, 1945

that had been an impossible mission. But despite being surrounded by enemy forces, they had rescued dozens of American flyers and had sent hundreds of cables filled with intelligence gathered from behind Axis lines.

After Mauthausen was liberated on May 5, 1945, an OSS officer named Jack Taylor returned to the camp. He had also been imprisoned there. Now he was collecting materials to bring its interrogators and executioners to trial for war crimes. In Commandant Ziereis’s desk he found one final message from the leader of the OSS mission in Slovakia, a damning piece of evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners of war: the Navy insignia Green had worn so proudly.

Post war Mauthausen POW's execution records

Mauthausen war criminal Frank Ziereis

A dying Nazi murderer , SS Frank Ziereis shot by US guards on the run

Edelweiss 218 members trial in 1962. Leader Ladislav Niznansky third from left

After the war, Lt. Green’s mother wrote angry letters to Major General William Donovan, chief of the OSS, seeking details. The parents of Jim Gaul, second in command of the Dawes Mission, also sought information in vain. Gaul was a Harvard graduate, a brilliant Ph.D. anthropologist.

Green was a wealthy young textile manufacturer from Charleston, S.C. Family members of other victims learned little from the War Department. Nothing is known of what Lane Miller’s family learned. Among the victims was Joseph Morton, an Associated Press reporter, who talked his way into being allowed to accompany the OSS team in search of what he told a colleague was the “biggest story of his life.”

USNR Lt.James Harvey Gaul + (1911-1945) DSC

Served as a Lieutenant, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Navy during World War II. He resided in New York State prior to the war.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 17, 1911, Gaul was the son of a prominent Pittsburgh composer and organist, Harvey Bartlett Gaul. Lieutenant Gaul spent part of his high school education at St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, D.C. Attending Forms V and VI at the private, all-boys school on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral, Gaul was a “tall, likeable boy” and played on the school football team. From an early age, Gaul was a polyglot, a trait that may have influenced his future career decisions. Upon graduating from high school in 1928, Gaul attended the University of Pittsburgh before enrolling in Harvard University to pursue a PhD in Archeology, completing his thesis in 1940.

From then until the entrance of the United States into the Second World War, Gaul began a career in academia, studying in Palermo, Egypt, Carthage, and Greece. He later taught in Paris and the College of Brooklyn.

With the tide of war creeping closer and threatening to drag the U.S. in, Gaul enlisted in the Navy and would become a member of the Office of Strategic Services in April 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gaul would go on to serve in Basra,Iraq the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean.

Shortly after the Allied landings at Normandy, Lieutenant Gaul volunteered to join the “Dawes Team,” charged with rescuing Allied pilots in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)

behind enemy lines. Sent with him to join the team on that date were Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, J. Dunlevy and Navy photographer Nelson B. Paris.

Gaul was appointed as second-in-command of the group on October 17, 1944, since, by this time, he could speak six languages and was familiar with up to fourteen, had spent time as an archaeologist in Czechoslovakia. Before the end of the month, the team’s base had been captured and the group was on the run. Gaul’s decisive courage helped maintain the group’s cohesion while trying to perform their duties.

Gaul’s bravery and leadership allowed the group to secure medical aid and safe refuge for injured members of Dawes Team. On December 26, 1944, Gaul was captured with 80,000 Slovaks near Polomka after the team resisted a force ten times larger. From there he was taken to Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria where he was executed as a prisoner of war in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.

Lt.Lane H.Miller + Pilot ,USAAF 376th BG Silver Star

Like most young men of his generation, Lane enlisted to serve in World War II. He joined the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), and was assigned to 513 Bomber Squadron, 376 Bomber Group (Heavy) U.S.A.A.F. Lt. Miller ,Aug10,1944 he was shot down on the way back from Romania , bailed out and managed to escape through Yugoslavia back to Bari ( beneath Miller and his crew )

According to hand written notes by crew member Glenn Bodien, on his last mission with Miller, who was the pilot on Aug. 10, 1944, Miller was so impressed with the resistance fighters and partisans in Slovakia, he asked to join their covert efforts with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS - CIA precursor) for the top secret Dawes Mission.

Miller was assigned to “round-up” downed allied airmen, mostly bomber crews, and get them safely to Italy. By October, Miller and five additional agents joined the Dawes team on the ground. Towards the end of October, with organized resistance deteriorating and supplies low, Miller was to fly out a group of downed airmen and several members of his team, including well known AP war correspondent Joe Morton. That lifesaving flight was postponed due to the worst winter storm in 50-years. This sealed their fates.

In November and December, 1944, the code-named OSS Dawes Mission was on the run in the Tatra Mountains, now part of Slovakia. Miller and his compatriots had been flown into the Partisan headquarters of a ragtag army that had risen against the pro-fascist Slovakian government. Miller was assigned to assist in rounding up downed American airmen—mostly bomber crews—and get them back to Italy. Al-though supplied principally by the Soviets, the Slovak Partisans also received aid from the OSS in the form of weapons and medical supplies. Additionally, the Americans conducted intelligence operations that identified targets for the U.S. 15th Air Force. Based in southern Italy, the 15th Air Force had flown the OSS personnel into Banska Bystrica in two groups, landing B-17’s on a grass airfield. A third flight scheduled to bring out a group of airmen and the majority of the OSS team—including Miller—never materialized. Bad weather originally delayed the flight, and then by late October, the Wehrmacht had overrun both the airfield and Banska Bystrica. The Germans had committed five SS divisions to the region to crush the Slovaks to prevent Soviet armies in Poland and Hungary from joining forces in Slovakia. The American and British intelligence teams had not anticipated this.

Based in southern Italy, the 15th Air Force had flown the OSS personnel into Banska Bystrica in two groups, landing B-17’s on a grass airfield. A third flight scheduled to bring out a group of airmen and the majority of the OSS team—including Miller—never materialized. Bad weather originally delayed the flight, and then by late October, the Wehrmacht had overrun both the airfield and Banska Bystrica. The Germans had committed five SS divisions to the region to crush the Slovaks to prevent Soviet armies in Poland and Hungary from joining forces in Slovakia. The American and British intelligence teams had not anticipated this.

To survive, 37 flyers, a team of male and female agents and resistance members, headed towards the safety of the Russian Red Army lines. Nazi troops were hot on their trail on a mission, code name Edelweiss. A week later, after marching through the bitter snow covered Tatra mountains, the team stopped at a farm house, then on the following day they traveled to a nearby mine camp where partisan nurses dressed their feet. Germans later “captured and killed those nurses for helping them.”

(left Lt.Lanes's crew, escapees on Aug 10,1944 after a Ploesti bombing mission )

The troops of the Czech Forces of the Interior (CFI) and the Partisans, a separate group, fled into the mountains as Wehrmacht armor-supported troops poured into Banska Bystrica. Weary soldiers and desperate civilians jammed the roads out of the city. The 16-man OSS team, commanded by Lt. Holt Green, USNR, and a group of 15 airmen, who had filtered into the city over the previous two weeks, joined the flight and headed for the upper reaches of the Tatra. Green hoped to lead the group through the rugged terrain to the Red Army lines. The Americans soon found themselves battling the coldest European winter in 50 years, suffering frostbite, hunger, and scrambling to stay a step ahead of German SS Einsatzkommando (counter- insurgency) patrols. December 14, 1944, Miller’s party reached a cabin on Homolka Mountain. For the next eleven days the team recovered. They “celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25 by singing carols and enjoying a ham that young Slovak partisan had carried up from the village.” Religious services were conducted.

The morning after Christmas, “as two men were washing outside, bullets showered the hut...a 300-strong Nazi unit overran the hideout, stripped the captives of their possessions and set fire to the dwelling.. “Partisans guarding the house resisted for three hours,” but were finally driven back by Nazi artillery fire. Only one man escaped—Anton Novak, a 25-year-old Czech who...eventually made his way through the Russian lines to Belgrade.

Most airmen were taken to POW camps. OSS operatives, and Miller who was slotted with them in spite of his uniform, went to Austria’s Mauthausen Concentration Camp. OSS at Bari had no idea what had happened to the agents.

Elements of the American contingent subsequently were captured in small groups. Some were caught on food-foraging trips into villages. Others were betrayed by pro-German Slovaks. The main party, including Miller, was betrayed by a dissident Partisan and was captured in a mountain hut on Dec. 26 above the village of Polomka. British agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were among the group captured. The prisoners were taken to Banska Bystrica and later to Bratislava where they were interrogated. In January, the OSS men and one Slovak woman were transferred to the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria. They were tortured and brutally interrogated by SS personnel sent from Berlin.

The records of this tragic OSS operation were classified until the 1980’s when the CIA began to release records bit by bit. The family members of many of the victims never learned the details of the mission or how their sons, husbands and brothers were captured.

The OSS in 1945 claimed the Dawes team simply was assisting downed American airmen, but in fact they were conducting a wide variety of intelligence operations. After the war, Lt. Green’s mother wrote angry letters to Major General William Donovan, chief of the OSS, seeking details. The parents of Jim Gaul, second in command of the Dawes Mission, also sought information in vain. Gaul was a Harvard graduate, a brilliant Ph.D. anthropologist. Green was a wealthy young textile manufacturer from Charleston, S.C. Family members of other victims learned little from the War Department. Nothing is known of what Lane Miller’s family learned.

Among the victims was Joseph Morton, an Associated Press reporter, who talked his way into being allowed to accompany the OSS team in search of what he told a colleague was the “biggest story of his life.”In January 1945, Berlin’s best linguist, and Dr. Thost, interpreter under Himmler, were ordered to Mauthausen to interrogate Miller and the other English and American prisoners. They demanded Miller and other military be turned over to POW camps. The camp commander refused.

After, Miller and the other men of his team were told to put on camp clothing they were paraded out. The linguist pressed an SS officer why they were not being taken to a POW camp. He was told a teletype order directed they be eliminated. “Don’t be excited; they will have a very easy death,” he said.

Frank Horvath of Cleveland, Ohio, who lost his brother, Joe, in the mission, traveled to Slovakia last summer to visit the hut where the Dawes team was captured. Among the group with Horvath was Mimi Morton Gosney, the daughter of Joseph Morton, less than a year old at the time of her father’s death. The family of U.S. Army Captain Edward Baranski, another member of the mission, never knew the details of his capture until news accounts described the Horvath and Gosney visits to Slovakia a year ago.

Kathy Baranski Lund, four years old when her father was shot at Mauthausen, subsequently received copies of de-classified documents providing some answers to questions her family had asked a half-century before. She and her family will visit Slovakia in August to meet descendants of the Slovak family which hid her father for several weeks prior to his capture.

After the war, Thost testified to horrific torture of the men; mocking whip marks on Miller and the other prisoner’s heads as “Jesus’ Halo’s.” They used the ‘Tibetan Prayer Mill’ to cause intolerable pain.” The Gestapo got “immense pleasure” from their acts. SS Standardenfuehrer Ziereis fled with his wife on 3 May 1945. He attempted to hide out in his hunting lodge on the Pyhrn mountain in Upper Austria. He was discovered and arrested on 23 May 1945, by an American army unit. He was shot three times in the stomach while trying to escape and brought to a U.S. military hospital set up at the former Gusen concentration camp I where he died shortly after interrogation by a former inmate of Mauthausen, Hans Marsalek. His corpse was later hung on the fence of Gusen I by former prisoners of Gusen.

The Dawes Mission remained classified until the 1980’s, after the Cold War. In the Aug. 4, 1999 Eagle Journal, Jim Downs of Oceanside, was seeking information on Miller and the rest of the Dawes team. His completed book, “WW2:OSS Tragedy at Slovakia,” and tells the story in detail.

At home in Coronado, no one was told of the Dawes Mission or Miller’s status. It was not until the 1990’s that some surviving family members of these daring men and women knew the whole story.

Coronado’s own Lane Miller was an unsung hero all along. He received the Bronze Star, Air Medal.Lane Miller, a graduate of Coronado High School, lost his life in tragic circumstances after volunteering for a dangerous mission behind German army lines in World War 11. The U.S. Army Air Corps first lieutenant, whose parents, Lt. Commander and Mrs. H. A. Miller, resided at 550 C Avenue, was a member of an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) team trapped in a remote region of Czechoslovakia. In November and December, 1944, the code-named OSS Dawes Mission was on the run in the Tatra Mountains, now part of Slovakia. Miller and his compatriots had been flown into the Partisan headquarters of a ragtag army that had risen against the pro-fascist Slovakian government. Miller was assigned to assist in rounding up downed American airmen—mostly bomber crews—and get them back to Italy.

Although supplied principally by the Soviets, the Slovak Partisans also received aid from the OSS in the form of weapons and medical supplies. Additionally, the Americans conducted intelligence operations that identified targets for the U.S. 15th Air Force. Based in southern Italy, the 15th Air Force had flown the OSS personnel into Banska Bystrica in two groups, landing B-17’s on a grass airfield. A third flight scheduled to bring out a group of airmen and the majority of the OSS team—including Miller—never materialized. Bad weather originally delayed the flight, and then by late October, the Wehrmacht had overrun both the airfield and Banska Bystrica. The Germans had committed five SS divisions to the region to crush the Slovaks to prevent Soviet armies in Poland and Hungary from joining forces in Slovakia.

The American and British intelligence teams had not anticipated this. The troops of the Czech Forces of the Interior (CFI) and the Partisans, a separate group, fled into the mountains as Wehrmacht armor-supported troops poured into Banska Bystrica. Weary soldiers and desperate civilians jammed the roads out of the city. The 16-man OSS team, commanded by Lt. Holt Green, USNR, and a group of 15 airmen, who had filtered into the city over the previous two weeks, joined the flight and headed for the upper reaches of the Tatra. Green hoped to lead the group through the rugged terrain to the Red Army lines. The Americans soon found themselves battling the coldest European winter in 50 years, suffering frostbite, hunger, and scrambling to stay a step ahead of German SS Einsatzkommando (counter- insurgency) patrols. Elements of the American contingent subsequently were captured in small groups. Some were caught on food-foraging trips into villages. Others were betrayed by pro-German Slovaks.

The main party, including Miller, was betrayed by a dissident Partisan and was captured in a mountain hut on Dec. 26 above the village of Polomka. British agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were among the group captured. The prisoners were taken to Banska Bystrica and later to Bratislava where they were interrogated. In January, the OSS men and one Slovak woman were transferred to the infamous Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria. They were tortured and brutally interrogated by SS personnel sent from Berlin. The decision to execute the prisoners was given by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a high SS official in Berlin who later was tried at Nuremburg as a war criminal and executed. The US airmen, meanwhile, were sent to various Stalag Luft camps in northern Germany, but Miller’s fate was sealed by his OSS assignment.

The records of this tragic OSS operation were classified until the 1980’s when the CIA began to release records bit by bit. The family members of many of the victims never learned the details of the mission or how their sons, husbands and brothers were captured. The OSS in 1945 claimed the Dawes team simply was assisting downed American airmen, but in fact they were conducting a wide variety of intelligence operations.

Frank Horvath of Cleveland, Ohio, who lost his brother, Joe, in the mission, traveled to Slovakia last summer to visit the hut where the Dawes team was captured. Among the group with Horvath was Mimi Morton Gosney, the daughter of Joseph Morton, less than a year old at the time of her father’s death. The family of U.S. Army Captain Edward Baranski, another member of the mission, never knew the details of his capture until news accounts described the Horvath and Gosney visits to Slovakia a year ago. Kathy Baranski Lund, four years old when her father was shot at Mauthausen, subsequently received copies of de-classified documents providing some answers to questions her family had asked a half-century before. She and her family will visit Slovakia in August to meet descendants of the Slovak family which hid her father for several weeks prior to his capture.

1Lt Tibor K Keszthelyi + DSC

Tibor served as a First Lieutenant, Headquarters, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Army during World War II. He resided in Passaic County, New Jersey prior to the war. Tibor was born in Fiume (present day Rijeka), Croatia. He immigrated to the United States. He was noted as a Hungarian who was a typical O.S.S. recruit, intelligent and multilingual. He enlisted in the Army on November 11, 1942 in New York City, New York. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as an Office Clerk and also as Single, without dependents. His name on the Tablet's of the Missing shows "New York" in error and should show his state of residence prior to the war, "New Jersey".

1st Lt. Tibor K. Keszthelyi was a member of what was called the "Bowery Team". The Bowery Team was sent to the region on October 7, 1944 and the team was comprised of 1st Lt. Tibor K. Keszthelyi, Steve Catlos, and civilians using the code names Francis Moly and Stephen Cora.

The "Bowery Team" joined the "Dawes Team" which had previously been sent to the region on September 17, 1944 and was comprised of Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican, SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz.

Both teams were sent into Czechoslovakia to rescue downed American/Allied airmen. On October 17, 1944 Lt. James H. Gaul, Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, J. Dunlevy and photographer Nelson Paris, also joined the "Dawes Team".First Lieutenant Keszthelyi had as specific missions the establishment of contacts in the Czechoslovak underground and the infiltration into Hungary of two Civilian agents. Within a few days after his arrival in Slovakia, he successfully concluded arrangements with the underground for entrance of the two men into Hungary, and personally conducted them over the border.

One of the two men dispatched later accomplished a vital intelligence mission in Budapest. During the ensuing weeks, First Lieutenant Keszthelyi carried on with great skill and intrepidity his duties as liaison agent with the Czechoslovakia underground, obtaining in the process such valuable information on troop movements by rail, detailed reports on industrial production, and significant information on the state of German morale. He rendered important aid in the rescue and evacuation of a large number of Allied fliers. When the food supply of the group became critical, First Lieutenant Keszthelyi was particularly active in the leadership of foraging parties whose activities were extremely hazardous by reason of the constant presence of enemy patrols.

On 12 December 1944, while First Lieutenant Keszthelyi and an Mican were visiting village Myto in an attempt to obtain horses for transportation of seriously ill members of their group, they were captured by a German patrol and unlike on initial OSS records he was not executed . First Lieutenant Kesthelyi's activities until his capture contributed intelligence of distinct value to the war effort. His heroic and selfless performance of duty reflect the highest traditions of the Armed Service.

1st Lt. Tibor K. Keszthelyi was sent by the German SS to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Tibor was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Distinguished Service Cross", Prisoner Of War Medal, Purple Heart, and the Czechoslovakia Miliatry War Cross.

Capt Edward V.Baransky + (1917-1945) Silver Star

Citizens from over 30 countries participated in the Uprising, including the United States. One of those participants was OSS agent Captain Edward Baranski, an American of Slovak and Polish heritage. Baranski landed at the Tri Duby (Sliac) airfield in September 1944 in a B-17 bomber filled with military supplies. His mission was to coordinate the efforts of Slovak resistance fighters and assist U.S. airmen downed over Slovakia in evading capture. Later, as Nazi forces suppressed the Uprising, Captain Baranski was forced to flee to the village of Detva, where a Slovak family sheltered him. Captured by Germans near Zvolenska Slatina, December 12, 1944

Nazi in Bratislava sent him to Mauthausen concentration camp along with OSS and SOE agents captured at Polomka where he was executed in January 1945. But his story doesn’t end there. Recently, Captain Baranski’s daughter, Kathleen Baranski Lund, returned to Slovakia. And she brought some family members with her. Together, they traveled to Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, and Detva to learn more about Captain Baranski’s mission.

On July 15, the Slovak Armed Forces showed tremendous respect to the Lund family when they hosted a wreath-laying ceremony for Captain Baranski at Sliac Airfield, where he first set foot in Slovakia. The event was capped with a flyover by airplanes from the Slovak Air Force and the visiting Indiana Air National Guard. Speaking after the ceremony, Mrs. Lund said how grateful she was to Slovaks like the Lakota family for the kindness they showed to her father, and how proud she was to return here with her family. He was captured by either German or Slovak fascist troops on December 8,1944 in the city of Plest .

1Lt Francis Perry + (1918-1945) Silver Star

Francis served as a First Lieutenant, 2677th Regiment, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Army during World War II. He resided in Kings County, New York prior to the war. He was originally from Vienna, Austria before he immigrated to the United States. He served as a German linguist. He enlisted in the Army on May 9, 1941, prior to the war, in Jamaica, New York. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed in the manufacture of knit goods and also as Single, without dependents. The Office of Strategic Services, of which he was a member, was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. Information on this office's records and activities were not released until 2008.

1Lt Francis Perry became a member of what was called the "Dawes Team" sometime in October, 1944. Under code name "Dare", he was to represent the German Austrian desk collecting information on Slovak headquarters and exploring the possibility of courier routes over the frontier. Two other civilians also were dropped with him at the same time. Emil Tomes, an American who lived in Slovakia, was sent in to work independently on counterintelligence, and Associated Press correspondent Joseph Morton. He was listed as airmen though his Army uniform collar insignia indicates he was with Army Engineer Corps.

The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen on September 17, 1944. The original team included Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, and M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican. Later in September they were joined by a two man team with the code name of "Houseboat" which included SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz. Sometime in October, 1st Lt. Francis Perry was sent in under code name "Dare" to join the "Dawes Team". He was to represent the German Austrian desk collecting information on Slovak headquarters and exploring the possibility of courier routes over the frontier. Two other civilians also were dropped at the same time. Emil Tomes, an American who lived in Slovakia, was sent in to work independently on counterintelligence, and Associated Press correspondent Joseph Morton.

1Lt Francis Perry was captured on 28.November by the German SS in Dolna Lehota (Present Day Slovakia) and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Francis was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Silver Star", Prisoner Of War Medal, and the Purple Heart.

Joseph "Joe " Morton + (1913-1945) US War Correspondent (Ass.Press Intl)

The only American correspondent executed by the Germans in World War II, he was killed in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria. Joe Morton was captured Late December in 1944 in Slovakia. He was a correspondent with the Associated press his assignment was reporting the work of the resistance groups who were fighting the Germans during World War II. On January 26, 1945 Joe and the others captured with him were interrogated tortured and shot by his German captures.

As the Germans advanced on the rebel capital, Lt.Green requested to send most of the Dawes team, including journalist Morton, back to Italy but bad weather prevented the 15th USAAF from taking them back, although every night the Russians were flying dozens of C-47s out of Tri Duby. The Russians promised to fly the Americans out as well but the Russian flights stopped suddenly.

The uprising against the Nazis in Slovakia faltered and on October 27, the Nazis entered Banksa Bystrica. Realizing that escaping into the hills was the only option left, Joe Morton, Lt. Holt Green, and the Dawes team, joined long columns of soldiers, partisans, and civilians fleeing into the mountains while encountering German planes strafing and bombing, artillery fire, as well as German units with dogs in hot pursuit. Many partisans died in the grueling march due to the bad weather. While enduring the march, Joe became friends with Maria Gulovich. Maria said that Joe shared his sulfa powder with her. "Many times others could walk much better than we did, so we kind of stayed together," Gulovich said. "That powder helped....our wounds started healing after application.

On December 14, Morton, the Dawes men, and Maria reached and hid the Homolka cabin above the village of Polomka in the mountains as the blizzard closed in. Eleven days on, the officers celebrated Christmas by singing carols and enjoying a ham that young Slovak partisan Rudolf Hruska had carried up from the village.

On the early morning of December 25, Gulovich made a decision that saved her life. She, along with two American and two British fugitives, took off for a mountain hotel, another partisan hideout some two hours away, seeking food and shelter and medical supplies at a resort hotel farther up the mountain. Gulovich said that the Associated Press reporter Joe Morton "walked with us half an hour or longer, and then he said, "Well, I have to go back" and we hugged. She also recalled that, "Joe wore a hat, a green knitted cap. I turned back after he left me. I can see it even now. He was walking alone with that green hat on top of his head.

The next morning, a 300-man strong Nazi counter-partisan unit named "Edelweiss"/ Abwehr 218 under Commander Ladislav Niznansky, stormed and surrounded the cabin. Morton, who was wearing an American uniform, and the others were captured in the act. Morton's translator Josef Piontek, wrote in his diary that he watched the Nazis burn down the cabin and the flames swallowing a thick stack of notes belonging to Morton who he noted "fed on the news more than on food.

On January 7, 1945, Morton, 12 American OSS agents, including Lt. Holt Green, leader of the Dawes team, and four British SOE agents were taken to the Mauthausen concentration camps run by Standartenführer commandant Franz Ziereis, in Austria 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Linz. At the time, Mauthausen was the fifth largest of the Nazi extermination camps. Two Gestapo officers, Werner Mueller (one of Berlin's best linguists) and Dr. Hans Thost (an interceptor for the Reich Security Main Office) were ordered to go to Mauthausen to interrogate a group of English and American officers who had been taken prisoner in the sector held by Slovak rebels.

A civilian translator at the camp later reported that Morton was questioned but not tortured. Morton made clear that he was not a soldier or officially part of the intelligence group, even showing the Germans his war correspondent insignia or ID to prove that he was a journalist. Along with the duly uniformed Allied officers, he and others should have been treated as prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention (1929). However, the Germans saw little to no difference between spies and journalists and following a telegram from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner ordering the execution in implementation of Hitler's secret Commando Order of 1942. Morton and 13 Allied intelligence agents were led separately into the execution bunker to face a fake camera and told they would be photographed. An SS guard then stepped forward and shot each man in the nape of the neck. All were executed at Mauthausen in the presence of Franz Ziereis and camp chief Adolph Zutter on orders from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

Shortly before capture

Morton was the only American and Allied correspondent to be executed by the Axis during World War II. Morton left behind his wife, Letty Morton, and a 5-month-old daughter, Melinda Ann (now renamed Mimi Gosney), at the time of his death. Daniel Pavletich was captured by the German SS in Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Daniel was tortured and then executed eventhough a POW by the SS. His remains were cremated. It is unknown at this time if he received any awards.

Maria Gulovikova Interpretor OSS escaped through Hungaria to Romania with
OSE Zanopian Silver Star

Lt.Lain Kenneth A , POW Hunagria , survived
Captured on 11.November north of Dolna Lehota
(weapon instructor )

Daniel Pavletich + (1919-1945 ) Mauthausen

Daniel was a Civilian serving with the OSS during World War II.

Information declassified only in 2008

Daniel Pavletich was a member of what was called the "Day Team" that arrived in Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) on October 17, 1944. The team included Capt. Edward Victor Baranski and two civilians, Anton Novak and Daniel Pavletich. Their mission was to work close to combat lines west of Banska Bystrica for frontline tactical intelligence. He was previously trained by OSS.

Already in Czechoslovakia was the "Dawes Team" which had arrived on September 17, 1944. The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen. That team included Lt. James H. Green, Corp Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican, SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz.

On October 7, 1944 a team called the "Bowery Team" were sent to the region and that team was comprised of 1st Lt. Tibor K. Keszthelyi, Steve Catlos, and civilians using the code names Francis Moly and Stephen Cora. On October 17, 1944, the same day the "Day Team" arrived, Lt. James H. Gaul, Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, J. Dunlevy and photographer Nelson Paris, joined the "Dawes Team". Sometime in October, 1st Lt. Francis Perry was sent in under code name "Dare" to join the "Dawes Team". He was to represent the German Austrian desk collecting information on Slovak headquarters and exploring the possibility of courier routes over the frontier. Two other civilians also were dropped at the same time. Emil Tomes OSS counter intelligence specialist, an American who lived in Slovakia, was sent in to work independently on counterintelligence, and Associated Press correspondent Joseph Morton.

Daniel Pavletich was captured by the German SS in Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Daniel was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. It is unknown at this time if he received any awards.

Capt.McGregor William Army POW Hungaria

Captured on 11.November north of Dolna Lehota, survived

McGregor and Lain were captured here at Zelezne

Comemoration of Banska OSS / OSE desaster in 1964 from left : Pvt Schwarz, Lt.Lain Kenneth,Slovak interpretor, Capt.McGregor , Slovak official and Catlos

Anton Novak (Facuna Antonin Czech OSS )

Joined partizans 11 December 1944

Seen wearing US paratrooper's wings badge
and beneath while joined the partizans front left

Schwartz John Pvt Army
POW Hungary, survived

Captured Novemver 7,1944 ( NW Dolna Lehota)

He was the only person in the group who could speak Slovak was John Schwartz, 44, of Massapequa, L. I., an acting lieutenant in those days. He was captured while escorting a group of American fliers toward the Allied lines. The fourth member present for the ceremony was Capt. Kenneth Lain, 42, of Champaign, Ill. “I was heading for the Russian lines when they got me,” he said.

The four men found many of their Slovak comrades in the area this weekend. The biggest surprise was to find their former translator, John Surovec. “He saved an American airman's life,” Mr. McGregor recalled. “I am going to propose to the Secretary of Defense that our Government give him a medal.” The Czechoslovak’ Government presented to the four Americans the medal commemorating the Slovak uprising, which started Aug. 29, 1944. Each also received a mountaineer's ax, the symbol of the Slovak partisan commander's authority.

Francis Molly, Civilian Agent ,escaped ( 2nd right )
Counter Intel .

S/Sgt Joseph J Horvath + (1945) Mauthausen

Joseph served as a Staff Sergeant, Headquarters Company, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Navy during World War II. He resided in Cuyahoga County, Ohio prior to the war. He immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia (Present day Slovakia) as a teenager with his family in 1928.

He enlisted in the Army on May 6, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as a Machinist and also as Single, without dependents. The Office of Strategic Services, of which he was a member, was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the main World War II intelligence agency, and a predecessor of today's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Information on this office's records and activities were not released until 2008.

Joseph Horvath greeting a Russian Leutenant in Bucharest Aug.1944 Ops "Reunion"
where he coordinated along with Lt.Green the release of 1100 POW's

SSgt Joseph J. Horvath was a member of what was called the "Dawes Team". The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen on September 17, 1944. The original team included Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, and M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican. Later in September they were joined by a two man team with the code name of "Houseboat" which included SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz. On October 17, 1944 Lt. James H. Gaul, Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, J. Dunlevy and photographer Nelson Paris, joined the "Dawes Team".SSgt Joseph J. Horvath was captured by the German SS in Slovakia and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Joseph was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Bronze Star", Prisoner Of War Medal, Purple Heart, and the Chinese Order of Ynu-Hui.

On that old stove at Polomka barn Horwath and a Slovak partizan prepared breakfast on 24.12.1944

Charles Sylvester Heller SX2 USN + ( 1945) Mauthausen

Served as a Specialist (X) 2nd Class, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Navy during World War II. The (X) in his rank notes that he was part of the Intelligence Group .He resided in Illinois prior to the war. Charles was born in Chicago and he spoke fair Czech. He volunteered to join the O.S.S. and went on the below mission as the radioman.

The Office of Strategic Services, of which he was a member, was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. SP/X/2 Charles S. Heller became a member of what was called the "Dawes Team". The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen on September 17, 1944. The original team included Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, and M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican. Later in September they were joined by a two man team with the code name of "Houseboat" which included SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz.

SP/X/2 Charles S. Heller was captured by the German SS in Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria.Charles was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Bronze Star", Prisoner Of War Medal, and the Purple Heart.

Steve John Catlos (1919-1987) , evaded capture

A Pittsburgher who was decorated Sunday by Slovakians for parachuting behind German lines in 1944 to help a partisan uprising will return home tomorrow. He is Steve J. Catlos, 45, of 312 E. Elizabeth St., Hazelwood, a maintenance supervisor for the Transit Division of the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

In 1964 Catlos was awarded a Slovak medal by the Slovaks, at this

a ceremony Dunlevy refused to attend and Maria Gulovitch was not invited

He and three other veterans of the wartime Office of Strategic Services were honored over the weekend in Vanska Bystrica, Czechoslovakia.

Village Rejdava Kristak's residence where agent Steve Catlos found refuge during illness

As enemy troops invaded Rejdova, Catlos evaded capture and hid in a bunker ( white spot right ) becomming ill due freezing and starvation was then rescued by Romanian soldiers

They and a fifth man are the only survivors of a 16-man team which was parachuted into German-occupied Slovakia. The others were captured and executed by the Nazis while trying to rescue a British mission.

Cpl. Robert R Brown + (...1945) Mauthausen

Robert served as a Corporal & Radio Operator, Headquarters Detachment, Office of Strategic Service, U.S. Army during World War II. He resided in Illinois prior to the war.

The Office of Strategic Services, of which he was a member, was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the main World War II intelligence agency, and a predecessor of today's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Information on this office's records and activities were not released until 2008.

Corp Robert R Brown was a member of what was called the "Dawes Team". The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen on September 17, 1944. The original team included Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, and M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican. Later in September they were joined by a two man team with the code name of "Houseboat" which included SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz.

Corp Robert R Brown was captured by the German SS in Slovakia and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Robert was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Bronze Star", Prisoner Of War Medal, and the Purple Heart.

M/Sgt Jerry G.Mican + ( 1903 -1945) Mauthausen

He served as a Master Sergeant, Headquarters Company, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Army during World War II. He resided in Cook County, Illinois prior to the war. A native of Prague he immigrated to the United States in the 1920's. He earned a Masters Degree from Creighton University and later taught languages in a High School for 12 years. He enlisted in the Army on September 8, 1943 in Washington, D.C. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as a Teacher and also as Married.

M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican was a member of what was called the "Dawes Team". The Dawes Team was sent into Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) to rescue downed American/Allied airmen on September 17, 1944. The original team included Lt. James H. Green, Cpl Robert R. Brown, S/Sgt Joseph J. Horvath, and M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican. Later in September they were joined by a two man team with the code name of "Houseboat" which included SP(X)2 Charles S. Heller and Private John Schwartz.

On October 7, 1944 a team called the "Bowery Team" were sent to the region and that team was comprised of 1st Lt. Tibor K. Keszthelyi, Steve Catlos, and civilians using the code names Francis Moly and Stephen Cora. (Left on the photo ) M/Sgt Jerry G. Mican was captured by the German SS in Slovakia and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Jerry was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the German SS. His remains were cremated. He was awarded the "Silver Star", Prisoner Of War Medal, and the Purple Heart. His remains were never recovered .

Pho1M1C Nelson B.Paris + (1915-1945) Mauthausen

Nelson served as a Photographer's Mate First Class, Office of Strategic Services, U.S. Navy during World War II.

He resided in Oregon prior to the war. . Information on this office's records and activities were not released until 2008. PhoM1C Nelson B Paris became a member of what was called the "Dawes Team" when he was sent to Slovakia on October 17, 1944. Sent with him to join the team on that date were Lt. James H. Gaul, Lane Miller, William McGregor, Kenneth Lain, and J. Dunlevy. PhoM1C Nelson B Paris was captured by the German SS in Czechoslovakia (Present Day Slovakia) and was taken to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Nelson was tortured and then "Executed While A POW" by the Germans

Sgt.Kenneth V.Dunlevy

Reserves - exclusive of Regular Army Reserve and Officers of the Officers Reserve Corps on active duty under the Thomason Act (Officers and Enlisted Men -- O.R.C. and E.R.C., and Nurses-Reserve Status) Served as radio operator for ill-fated OSS DAWES mission in Slovakia, tasked with rescuing downed Allied aircrews; captured by Nazis, but survived the war.

Sgt.Dunlevy receiving a service citation in Washington early 60's

Epilogue of the OSS/OSE Uprising Support

Donovaly Soviet Aerial Delivery on 27.10.1944

On the night of October 27, 1944, Soviet crews of the Briansk Air Division were given the same task as the previous night. But only 60 B-25's were earmarked for their task. Eventually, 61 became airborne. while target was Slovakia . It became crucial because the insurgent airport on morning of 26 October 1944 Tri Duby airfield was occupied by the Germans, specifically members of the battle group Schill which was commanded by SS-Obersturmbannführer Klotz

Schill Kgr Slovakia October 1944

Soviet pilots were given instructions instructions that the cargo during the night of 27 October will be dropped to a new place called Donovaly in coordination with SNA and OSE, which was located 16 km northeast of Banska Bystrica. Air dropping area was meant to indicate three fires spread out in a triangle, duplicated by two green flares and in the Morse alphabet broadcast letter R.

Soviet supported Partizans

To realize and fulfill this special task for the needs of Slovak partisans was selected twenty-two crews representing all three air regiments of the Brianks ADDD. 23 crews crew flew again in formation led by lieutenant. A.A. Limpet. While Kalinovka was covered by 10 Octas clouds, only a few clouds greeted them near the Tatra mountains with a visibility of ten kilometers. The same weather was prevailing in the area of the target, although at a height of 1800 to 2000 m, the clouds were "obscure" from 4 to 7 degrees. The pilots saw three fires placed in a triangle beneath them, and the letter R below the sky, sent by Morse code.

They were above the target. Two green flares were fired in the air. Lt.. B. M. Tylkun from the crew of Lt.. V.P Kanygin, was flying to B-25 "yellow 5". Unfortunately it fell during the flight, which was stowed under the right wing and launched into operation only one instead two flares SAB 100.

Therefore the mission on night of 27 October 1944 was not properly completed . As a result, the regiment group 13.GAPDD had to locate the target itself at night. All group's five B-25 Lt.. V. G. Kuzovov, Lt.. B. F. Archipov Lt.. I. J. Kuznetzova, Lt.. G.I. Kolcov and. Lt.. G.A. Perekaľského within thirty minutes and under supervision of commander of the regiment Lt.. J.K. Gudimov, fulfilled their task and dropped 3750 kg of cargo stored in thirtycontainers over Donovaly.

The 335APDD sent seven B-25. The first to arrived over the area of Donovaly Lt. L. F. Grinevich, who had on board the hero of the USSR Cpt. M. V. Žuravkov, flying in the position of the controller of the work of his crew. Since the destination was perfectly marked, navigator Lieutenant. KF Porsnev could jettison the cargo from aircraft number "12" directly upon the arrival course. Then they saw the dark contours of the six bags below them, a moment later the white dome of the parachutes opened and slowly descended to the ground, moving away from their machine ...

The crews of Lt.. F. F. Ivanov N.V. Isakov, Lieutenant. S. T. Tymchuk Lt.. IN M. Sorokine, Cpt N. Kotovic and g. Lt.. JS Folimonov with co-pilot g. Lieutenant. S.P. Baranisnikov. All completed the assigned combat task successfully and in all at the Sport Hotel area in Donovaly have landed 5250 kg of cargo located in 42 containers .In the area of Donovaly 15.GAPDD sent nine B-25's. The commander of the mission was Lt. M. Cyganenko, along with the navigator of the regiment Maj. F. S. Jalovoj. The crews flew over the area from 00:30 to 00:45.

At this time, the weather was rapidly getting worse and only eight crews performed the task. The last of them, the leader, had no longer the honor, as the clouds compacted the target beneath them. The commander of the regiment Cyganenko among other things, for the fulfillment of this task in adverse weather conditions suggested the commander of the aircraft Lt.. M.M. Gusev for the Red Star decorations and Lieutenant.M. Poljanin to honor the order of Lenin.

The leading crew on Donovaly mission

In addition to their two demanding tasks over the the Slovak mountains the squadron commander Maj. G. L. Leontiev Lt. V. A. Cepurka, Lt.. P.M. Drozdov. Lt.. A.T. Anisimov, Lieutenant. A.A. Bocin and Capt.V. G. Komjagina successfully dropped cargo of 5600 Kg stored in 48 bags.

Of the total number of 22 B-25 bombers that took part in the flight to the Donovaly area that night, actually out of twenty-three twenty assigned the task about 20 B-25's fulfilled the task over the mountains in the area Donovaly from 23:55 to 00:52 h. The city districts assigned planes dropped 14600 Kg of cargo in 120 bags (another source said 15000 Kg). The photos beneath show that on 28 October the US mission was still in the area desperately in need for warm equipment , food and supplies .

Final Remarks :

Neither OSS nor British archives present any evidences that the FO nor US Government ever asked the Soviets for any kind of aerial support eventhough the Soviets were fully aware about the situation of the US and British agents on ground . The aerial delivery was in fact intended for the Soviet supported partizans and not for SNA nor their US and British allies .

Finally doesn't sound strange seeing Soviets flying American manufactured aircrafts over Donovaly paid by US tax payers and sent to them through Lend / Lease approved by the US Congress , when in fact the sender's agents running short of food , supplies and fighting for their lives , does it ? Neverthless for Green, Sehmer , Gaul, Baransky ,Berditschev and rest who died in vain all this would make sense .

Movement status OSS as of 28.10.1944

Commander SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Freitag

Schill Kgr 1944

COMPOSITION OF THE DIVISION:

Chief of Staff SS-Sturmbannführer Heyke

Based in Žilina.

Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment der SS 29 (galizisches Nr. 1)

Staff: SS-Standartenführer Fritz Dern

Adjutant: SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Ditze

Regimentsarzt: SS-Untersturmfuhrer Kowalski

I. Bataillon: SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinz Kurzbach

SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Otto Blankenhorn

II. Bataillon: SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Wilhelm Allerkamp

SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Sulzinger

III. Bataillon: SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Karl Wildner

13. Kompanie

14. Kompanie

SS-Kampfgruppe Wildner

Commander of the SS-Obersturmbannführer Karl Wildner.

The battle group was deployed from September 28, 1944 under the command of SS-Kampfgruppe Schill.

It consisted of 3 infantry companies, a company of heavy weapons, platoon 7.5 cm infantry cannons leIG18, platoon 5 cm anti-tank guns PaK38, engineer, reconnaissance and connecting platoon.

A total of about 900 men.

DIVISION IN SLOVAKIA DURING THE SNP:

October 5, 1944: Supreme Commander H. Himmler's decision to move the 14th SS Galizien Division (14th Galizische SS

Remembering the OSS and SOE tragedy US & British Embassy staff Slovakia visiting Polomka

Polomka nowadays

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