Otto Skorzeny: The Devil's Disciple

by Stuart Smith

Overview

SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. "Hitler's favorite commando" acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison. Skorzeny's influence on special operations doctrine was far-reaching and long-lasting—in 2011, when US Navy SEALs infiltrated Pakistan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, the operational planning was influenced by Skorzeny's legacy. Yet he was also an egoist who stole other men's credit (including for the seminal rescue of Mussolini), brave and resourceful but also an unrepentant Nazi, and a self-aggrandizing hogger of the limelight.

Stuart Smith draws on years of in-depth research to uncover the truth about Skorzeny's career and complex personality. From his background as a student radical in Vienna, to his bloody service with the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, his surprise rebirth as a commando, and his intriguing post-war career and mysterious fortune, this book tells Otto Skorzeny's story in full—warts and all—for the first time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472829450
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Stuart Smith is a business journalist. He was a Major Open Scholar in Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford, 1973–76 and completed an MA in International Relations at Sussex University, 1978–79. For 20 years, until 2008, Stuart was editor of Marketing Week, a high-circulation business magazine. He lives in the UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Prologue 8

Maps 11

1 The Knowledge of Pain 18

2 Accidental Soldier 30

3 Thugs in Field Grey 41

4 The Liberator of Mussolini 57

5 Special Ops and High-Value Targets 82

6 Miracle Weapons 98

7 The Stauffenberg Plot - July 1944 109

8 The Scherhorn Affair 124

9 The SS Changes Tack 134

10 Operation Panzerfaust: Budapest, October 1944 149

11 Everything on One Card: Operation Greif 162

12 Operation Greif Mission and Aftermath 179

13 Implosion: The Schwedt Bridgehead 197

14 Skorzeny's Last Stand 220

15 Trial and Errors 236

16 Escape from Darmstadt 255

17 Apocalypse Soon: Preparing for World War III 261

18 Neo-Nazis and Colonel Nasser: Skorzeny's Wilderness Years 283

19 The Years of Plenty 295

20 Ghosts of the Past: Skorzeny's Last Years 305

Epilogue: Man and Myth 319

Glossary 326

Note on the Waffen-SS 329

Bibliography 331

Notes 340

Index 376

Editorial Reviews

Stuart has put together a fascinating portrait of a man whose entire career was largely built on one exploit - rescuing Mussolini from captivity in 1943.” —IPMS/USA

From the Publisher