Any Truth In This

Two other Britons were hanged for treason after the war for their activities in Germany, namely John Amery on 19 December, 1945 and Theodore Schurch on 4 January, 1946.

Amery, the son of Conservative politician Leo Amery, was almost certainly mentally ill. He was apparently involved in trying to recruit British POWs into the German forces, which has a link with the book version of "The Eagle Has Landed" where one of the very small number who did so turns up in the early part of the plot.

 

Yes, John Amery got the rope from Albert Pierrepoint, the professional publican-hangman for the British Government. He was a nutter, but he did not plead nuttiness, so he got the rope. Looked like a skinny weed. Hitler's Renegades, by Adrian Weale, is a good history of the members of the "Britisches Freikorps," also known as the "Legion of St. George," who numbered less than 50. They were mostly used for propaganda purposes, which included sitting around Berlin bars with their hookers and mistresses, so the German public could see what a pathetic lot the British were. A few, including the captured Merchant Mariner, Walter Purdy, were infiltrated into POW camps as "stool pigeons." Purdy was sent to Colditz, where his cover was blown. The Senior British Officer told the Germans they had better take him back, as the British POW contingent would neither protect him nor look out for his safety. Purdy was yanked out of Colditz forthwith. A few actually saw combat late in the war, and one gained an Iron Cross in the defense of Berlin for knocking out Soviet tanks with his Panzerfaust. One such fictional member is in the book -- but not the movie -- of "The Eagle Has Landed." There were a few Americans who apparently also defected -- I read somewhere about a P-38 pilot who flew his machine to Vienna and handed it over, but they are not as well-known. I have a book about Americans who served as broadcasters to the Reich. Also a pathetic lot.

 

I have found it difficult to sort out the dispositions of the various court and tribunal actions that resulted from the apprehension of the "British" participants in the Nazi Radio Propaganda scheme after the war.

There were a great range of punishments metered out and some were not prosecuted at all. There were numerous issues of citizenship and nationality (thus jurisdiction) to be resolved -- as has been pointed out, William Joyce was determined to have carried out his treasonous acts while claiming protection under a British passport and, although technically a US citizen by birth, was summarily executed in Britain. On the other hand his wife Margaret was determined to have started broadcasting as a naturalized German citizen and was not prosecuted.

There were others who were determined to have had minimal participation -- one or two innocuous broadcasts -- and they were not prosecuted. P. G. Wodehouse and Ralph Powell (nephew of Lord Baden-Powell) were two in this category. Some were charged with minimal broadcasting and therefor in violation of British Defence Regulations -- they mostly received light sentences ranging from being bound over to 9 months in prison.

The heaviest prison sentences for civilians were metered out to those participants who committed other offences in addition to extensive broadcasting. Most of these individuals were charged with assisting the enemy -- Leonard Banning - 10 years in prison; Norman Baillie-Stewart - 5 years in prison; Jack Trevor - 3 years in prison; Frances Eckersly - 1 year in prison; Margaret Bothamley -- 1 year in prison. It should be noted that some of these sentences were reduced later.

The servicemen (mostly captured in the French and Crete campaigns of 1940/1941) involved were tried by court martial mostly charged with aiding the enemy -- it was claimed some had divulged damaging information to the Nazis and/or adopted pro-Nazi stances. All were found guilty: Signalman William A. Colledge -- life in prison (reduced to 7 years); Sergeant Arthur Chapple -- 15 years in prison; Pilot Officer Benson R. M. Freeman -- cashiered, 10 years in prison; Rifleman Ronald Spillman -- 7 years in prison; Guardsman William Griffith -- 7 years in prison.

Three participants were charged with high treason, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging: William Joyce; John Amery; Walter Purdy (Royal Navy according to Doherty -- but actually Merchant Marine). Joyce and Amery were subsequently executed but Purdy's sentence was reduced to imprisonment for life.

James

 

Originally posted by angie999@Feb 3 2005, 11:16 AM
Schurch was apparently involved in trying to recruit British POWs into the German forces, which has a link with the book version of "The Eagle Has Landed" where one of the very small number who did so turns up in the early part of the plot.
[post=31175]Quoted post[/post]

There is the book "Jackels of the Reich" by Ronald Seth detailing the activities of of the British Free Corps. It would appear that the Germans did not trust them and therefore they were moved arounded but never actually used.

 

A book has recently come out "revealing all" about Germany landings in Suffolk/Norfolk.
I'll try and post the title etc tonight.
Ali

 

There may be books about the Germans landing here.They did not.... There have been so many tales of how they landed to take out the Radar station near Worth on the Dorset coast...No way, I lived there....
Sapper

 

Originally posted by angie999@Feb 3 2005, 11:16 AM
Two other Britons were hanged for treason after the war for their activities in Germany, namely John Amery on 19 December, 1945 and Theodore Schurch on 4 January, 1946.

[post=31175]Quoted post[/post]

Here is a link giving details of Schurch's trial and the charges he faced:

http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/schurch.htm

 

'The Eagle Has Landed' seems to have drawn some inspiration from the persistent rumours of a German landing near the British secret research bases at Shingle Street/Orfordness on the Suffolk Coast in 1940. These stories, which have appeared in the media at regular intervals since 1942 usually maintain that the raid/invasion was beaten off by a flamethrower weapon that set the sea alight. Witnesses report seeing charred German corpses in the water. Like many wartime urban legends (or trench myths) this one stubbornly refuses to go away, and was examined only a few months ago in an excellent Radio 4 documentary. That came to the conclusion that the whole thing was based on the confused memories of a few eye-witnesses in the fevered atmosphere of the 'invasion summer'. The book 'Shingle Street' by James Hayward published in 1994 believes that the episode was played up by SOE and the Directorate of Military Intelligence for propaganda purposes.

 

It wasn't Lord Haw-Haw who was the son of a Tory MP - it was John Amery. Born in 1912, John Amery went to Harrow. Later he went into business but it went bankrupt. In 1936, aged 24, he went to Spain to work on General Franco's side. Incidentally, by this time he had 74 motoring offences! In Spain he met Jacques Deriot, the leader of the French Fascists, and later went to live in France. He was still there in 1941, when the Germans recruited him. He established the Legion of St George - an organisation which tried to persuade British POWs to fight for the Germans on the Eastern Front against the Russians. He also went to Italy, where he made speeches in support of Mussolini. He was captured by Italian partizans in April 1945, tried for high treason and hanged in December 1945.

His father, Leo Amery, held office as Secretary of State for India and Burma in WW2, and was the man who - in the highly charged debate on 8 May 1940 regarding Chamberlain's handling of the war - quoted Cromwell's words from the back-benches on the Government' side: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" As Churchill said in his memoirs: "These were terrible words, coming from a friend and colleague of many years, a fellow Birmingham Member, and a Privy Counsellor of distinction and experience".

John Benson