Special Interrogation Group

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The Special Interrogation Group (SIG) (some sources interpret this acronym as Special Identification Group or Special Intelligence Group) was a British Army unit organized from German-speaking Jewish volunteers from the British Mandate of Palestine. The SIG performed commando and sabotage operations against the Nazis behind front lines in the Western Desert Campaign during World War II.

Contents

[edit] Formation and training

The idea to create the SIG belongs to Herbert Cecil A. Buck, MC of the Punjabi Guards and Scots Guards, an Oxford scholar and German linguist who was captured and escaped from Egypt using Afrika Korps uniform. He subsequently became the SIG commander.

In March 1942, Col. Terence Airey (Military Intelligence Research at the War Office in London) wrote that "a Special German Group as a sub-unit of M[iddle] E[ast] Commando... with the cover name 'Special Interrogation Group', to be used for infiltration behind the German lines in the Western Desert, under 8th Army... the strength of the Special Group would be approximately that of a platoon... The personnel are fluent German linguists... mainly Palestinian (Jews) of German origin. Many of them have had war experience with 51 Commando..." [1]

Some personnel was also recruited directly from the Palmach, Haganah and the Irgun. Other recruits came from the Free Czech Forces, the French Foreign Legion and other German-speaking Jewish troops. The SIG was a part of D Squadron First Special Service Regiment. Its strength deviated between 20 and 38, according to various sources. [1]

According to a SIG member Maurice Tiffen, their first training base was located near Suez. [1] The SIG were trained in desert navigation, unarmed combat, handling of German weapons and explosives. They were given fake German identities, were taught German marching songs. For their missions, they were supplied with German pay books, cigarettes, chocolates, and even love letters to fictitious sweethearts in Germany.

Walter Essner and Herbert Brueckner, two non-Jewish Germans, had been conscripted from a POW camp to train the SIG. Before the war, they were former members of the French Foreign Legion who had been captured in November 1941 serving in the 361st Regiment of the Afrika Korps and were subsequently recruited by the British Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC) as double agents.

[edit] Operations and betrayal

On June 3, 1942, the SIG was assigned its first mission: to assist the SAS, led by Lt. Col. David Stirling in destroying Luftwaffe airfields 100 miles west of Tobruk in Italian-occupied North Africa (today eastern Libya), which were threatening the Malta Convoys.

The SIG drove captured German vehicles behind German lines near Bardia, set up roadblocks and carried out acts of sabotage. Dressed as German military police, they stopped and questioned German transports, gathering important military intelligence.

During one raid, Herbert Brueckner managed to run away and betrayed them. Essner, closely guarded by Tiffen throughout the raid, was given to the Military Police and was later shot. [2]

On September 13-14, 1942, the SIG participated in Operation Agreement, the raid on Tobruk to destroy German Afrika Korps vital supply port. The SIG were to play the role of German guards transporting three truckloads of British POW's to a camp at Tobruk. The assault failed and the British forces lost three ships and several hundred soldiers and Marines.

Surviving SIG members were transferred to the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps.

[edit] Partial list of SIG members

  • Herbert Cecil A Buck, MC
  • Maurice "Tiffen" Tiefenbrunner (formerly of the 51st Middle East Commando and SAS)
  • Ariyeh Shai
  • Dov Cohen (former Irgun member)
  • Bernard Lowenthal
  • Israel Carmi (later an officer in the Jewish Brigade)
  • Karl Kahane (served in the regular German army for 20 years, had an Iron Cross from WWI, a Town Clerk in Austria until forced to flee after the Anschluss)[3]
  • Dolph Zeintner
  • Philip Kogel
  • Walter Essner (German POW)
  • Herbert Brueckner (German POW)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c The Jewish Commandos of the SIG by Martin Sugarman, BA (Hons), Cert Ed. - Assistant Archivist, Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) Jewish Military Museum. February 6, 2002 (The Allied Special Forces Association) Accessed July 9, 2006
  2. ^ Julian Kossoff, Mike Yared, The Times November 17, 2000 [1]
  3. ^ "Anders Lassen" by M Langley, New English Library, 1988 pp.199 and 210). For Kahane's SIG participation in the Benghazi raid of June 1942, see "Rogue warrior - Paddy Mayne", Bradford and Dillon, Arrow Books 1989 pp. 43-4 and Appendix 1 and "The Phantom Major", V Cowles, Collins 1958, pp.156-61 [2]

[edit] See also

[edit] Furter reading

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