Ian Sayer - Hitler’s Personal Hostages: The 139 Men, Women, and Children Saved from Imminent Execution in the Final Days of the Third Reich

The equivalents of SS ranks in the US and British armies are approximate, and can vary from source to source, especially the noncommissioned ranks. The equivalents used in this book are as follows. (United Kingdom ranks are given in parentheses where different from US ranks.)

Thursday 3 May 1945: Borgo Valsugana, Italy

Forward position of 351st Infantry Regiment, US Army

F rom behind a bush at the leading edge of the Allied front line, a GI kept watch on the Brenta river valley, a picturesque vista of farms scattered along the wooded foothills of the mountains. Those hills were full of German paratroopers. Walking directly toward the GIs position from the enemy lines were several figureshalf a dozen partisans carrying weapons, a better-dressed civilian who appeared to be unarmed, and a lean figure in a threadbare, blue-gray uniform. Every man awake in the American lines had watched these men appear from the German positions and pick their way down the slope into the valley. What it could mean was anybodys guess.

Officially, the war in Italy was over. But on the ground the situation wasnt so simple. The previous evening, the BBC and Allied forces radio had announced the end of hostilities; then came an official order from the commanding officer of the 88th Division: Stop fighting and hold in place pending further orders. But the men of the 351st were taking no chances; a battalion of paratroopers from the German 1st Fallschirmjger Division were holding the far side of the valleyhardened, dedicated warriors who might not honor the cease-fire.

Only yesterday afternoon, before the official announcement, the colonel of the 1st Fallschirmjger Regiment had come across under a white

Leaning on his rifle, the GI watched the motley line of men approach. As they got closer, the man in the blue-gray uniform spotted the GI and halted.

Im a British officer, he called in a crisp English accent. Can we come over?

Sure, said the GI. You can all come over.

They filed past him and were directed toward the company HQ, located in some nearby farm buildings.

The English officer introduced himself to the company commanding officer as Wing Commander Harry Day of the Royal Air Force. Hed been a prisoner of war, and until a few days ago he had been one of a group of over 130 high-ranking military and civilian prisoners being held hostage by a fanatical SS detachment in the mountains of the South Tyrol. A seasoned escaper (the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III was just one of his adventures), Day had slipped away and, with help from partisans, had traversed over one hundred miles of German-infested territory looking for the Allied lines. His fellow hostagesincluding women and childrenwere still in deadly danger, held under threat of execution, a sentence that might be carried out at any moment. Day had escaped with one purpose: to summon help. Would the Americans be willing and able to send a lightning force to pluck the hostages from danger?

Wing Commander Day was taken immediately by jeep to the regimental HQ, then higher up the chain to the headquarters of the 85th Infantry Division and II Corps. At each stage, he told and retold the story of how the hostages had come to be in their present plightan incredible story of concentration camps and Gestapo dungeons, families torn apart and SS execution squads. And he begged the American commanders to do something to rescue the hostages.

One month earlier