X troop : the secret Jewish commandos of World War Two

Title:

X troop : the secret Jewish commandos of World War Two

Author:

Garrett, Leah, 1966- author.

ISBN:

9780358172031

Physical Description:

xiv, 351 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Summary:

"The incredible World War II saga of the Jewish refugees who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit--but whose story has gone untold until now"--

June 1942. Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. The resulting volunteers are a motley group of intellectuals, artists, and athletes, most from Germany and Austria. Many have been interned as enemy aliens, and have lost their families, their homes; they will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis. Known as X Troop, some simply call them a suicide squad. Garrett follows this unique band of brothers from Germany to England and back again, to tell the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Exile -- Behind the Wire -- The Pioneer Corps -- Joining the Fight -- Disaster at Dieppe -- The Elite of the Elite -- Italy -- The Field Marshal, The Water Polo Star & The Codebreaker -- Southampton, June 4, 1944 -- Sword Beach, June 6, 1944 -- Pegasus Bridge, June 6, 1944 -- Varaville and Beyond, June 7-15, 1944 -- Normandy Breakout -- The Adriatic -- Walcheren -- Crossing the Rhine -- The Final Push -- Into the Abyss -- Denazification -- Afterword: The legacy of X Troop.

Genre:

Biography.

Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896

Biographies.

Subject:

World War, 1939-1945 -- Commando operations -- Great Britain.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Eastern

World War, 1939-1945 -- Secret service -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 -- Opérations de commandos -- Grande-Bretagne.

Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 -- Campagnes et batailles -- Front occidental.

Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 -- Service secret -- Grande-Bretagne -- Biographies.

HISTORY / Military / World War II

HISTORY / World.

Commando troops

Military campaigns.

Secret service

Europe

Great Britain

Biography.

Biographies.

Masters, Peter, 1922-2005.

Gans, Manfred.

Anson, Colin Edward, 1922-2016.

Great Britain. Combined Operations Command. Commando, 10th. No. 3 Troop -- Biography.

Available:*

Library	Collection	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Cobourg Branch	Searching... Unknown	Adult Biography	940.54 Gar	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE MONTH

"This is the incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit--but whose story has gone untold until now." --Wall Street Journal

"Brilliantly researched, utterly gripping history: the first full account of a remarkable group of Jewish refugees--a top-secret band of brothers--who waged war on Hitler."--Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of The Longest Winter and The Liberator

The incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit--but whose story has gone untold until now

June 1942. The shadow of the Third Reich has fallen across the European continent. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. The resulting volunteers are a motley group of intellectuals, artists, and athletes, most from Germany and Austria. Many have been interned as enemy aliens, and have lost their families, their homes--their whole worlds. They will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis. Trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, this top secret unit becomes known as X Troop. Some simply call them a suicide squad.

Drawing on extensive original research, including interviews with the last surviving members, Leah Garrett follows this unique band of brothers from Germany to England and back again, with stops at British internment camps, the beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of Italy and Holland, and the hellscape of Terezin concentration camp--the scene of one of the most dramatic, untold rescues of the war. For the first time, X Troop tells the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis.

"Garrett's detective work is stunning, and her storytelling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance, and revenge."--Wendy Lower, author of The Ravine and National Book Award finalist Hitler's Furies

Author Notes

LEAH GARRETT is a professor at Hunter College. Her last book, Young Lions: How Jewish Authors Reinvented the American War Novel , won and was short-listed for several major literary awards. She lives in New York City with her husband and their two daughters.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Garrett (Young Lions), a professor of Jewish studies at Hunter College, recounts in this dramatic and deeply researched history the WWII exploits of X Troop, a British commando unit made up of Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany, and Hungary. Garrett details the commandos' various backgrounds (Olympic athlete, diplomat's son); describes how they escaped Europe only to be detained as "enemy aliens" in the U.K.; and explains how the British military's need for German-language speakers to interrogate prisoners and undertake reconnaissance missions led to the creation of X Troop. Trained in "advanced fighting techniques and counterintelligence," the commandos were given British names and identity papers to protect them in case of capture and first saw action in the August 1942 raid on Dieppe in northern France. During the D-Day landings, X Troopers helped to take Pegasus Bridge and other strongpoints. One commando, "who was determined to capture and kill as many Nazis as possible," drove 400 miles to liberate his parents from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Garrett folds vivid profiles of Lord Mountbatten, Lord Lovat, and other prominent military figures into the story, and skillfully draws from war diaries and interviews with surviving X Troopers. This scrupulous history shines a well-deserved spotlight on its heroic subjects. (May)

Kirkus Review

The story of a commando unit "determined to wreak havoc on Hitler's regime." The history of World War II teems with elite special forces that stepped on each other's toes during imaginative missions, few of which went as planned, and their exploits continue to fascinate publishers and readers. Working with newly declassified documents, "breathless heat-of-the-battle official war diaries," and other sources, Hunter College professor Garrett revives a subunit within these specialized units that consisted mostly of European Jews. Ironically, they had fled the Nazis to Britain but were arrested as "enemy aliens" and interned under terrible conditions after war broke out in September 1939. Some were permitted to join the Pioneer Corps, which performed manual labor, but it was only in December 1941 that internees were able to sign on to combat units. Garrett's subjects formed part of a special commando force, formed in July 1942, comprised of displaced nationals carrying out different missions depending on their native language. The author focuses on a unit filled with German-speaking refugees called X Troop. "The men's fluency in German," she writes, "would enable them to get essential intelligence that would guide the next moment's choices rather than having to wait to interview prisoners until they were back at headquarters." Garrett describes the prewar lives of a dozen young men, their escape to Britain, the miseries of their internment, the brutal months of training, and their subsequent operations, which carried on well past the German surrender, when they tracked down and interrogated Nazi war criminals. Hollywood-style sabotage missions were rare; mostly, the troop accompanied conventional units "killing and capturing Germans, gathering crucial intelligence, and taking on leadership roles. They were trusted and respected, and they were highly sought after for especially hazardous undertakings." The author compassionately chronicles the casualties, and the traditional epilogue describes survivors who mostly led prosperous lives. A lively, expertly researched history of an obscure WWII unit whose heroism deserves recognition. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Garrett tracks the journey of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria to England, where many were tagged as "enemy aliens" and interned. In 1942, Churchill realized, instead, that these asylum seekers comprised a secret weapon. Volunteers were trained to form a counterintelligence and combat unit that could interrogate Nazi prisoners on the spot. The X Troop commandos assumed new identities, often with Anglicized noms de guerre, to deflect anti-Semitism and protect their families if they were captured. Garrett's pioneering research includes extensive interviews with X Troopers' descendants and two of the surviving commandos. This dramatic, previously untold story of extraordinary covert valor and victory takes readers all across the European front, culminating in the shock of the Terezin concentration camp. This tale of profoundly motivated and capable men of action on a noble mission, each profiled in condensed biographies, is a rousing and redefining portrait of an, until now, overlooked group of dedicated warriors who played an outsized role in defeating the Third Reich. Garrett has added a crucial chapter to the always relevant and ever-deepening history of WWII and the Holocaust.

Library Journal Review

Director of the Jewish Studies Center at Hunter College, Garrett recounts the little-known story of the British Army's X Troop, formed on Winston Churchill's orders and consisting entirely of German Jewish refugees. They were trained in advanced combat as well as counterintelligence, and half would perish without a trace during the war, but Garrett interviews some of the survivors. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Prologue	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
1 Exile	p. 5
2 Behind the Wire	p. 23
3 The Pioneer Corps	p. 42
4 Joining the Fight	p. 53
5 Disaster at Dieppe	p. 67
6 The Elite of the Elite	p. 79
7 Italy	p. 104
8 The Field Marshal, the Water Polo Star, and the Code Breaker	p. 119
9 Southampton, June 4-5, 1944	p. 129
10 Sword Beach, June 6, 1944	p. 140
11 Pegasus Bridge, June 6, 1944	p. 148
12 Varaville and Beyond, June 7-15, 1944	p. 159
13 Normandy Breakout	p. 175
14 The Adriatic	p. 191
15 Walcheren	p. 197
16 Crossing the Rhine	p. 217
17 The Final Push	p. 230
18 Into the Abyss	p. 237
19 Denazification	p. 251
Afterword: The Legacy of X Troop	p. 267
Acknowledgments	p. 281
Appendix: Principal Figures	p. 287
Notes	p. 299
Illustration Credits	p. 333
Index	p. 337

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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