Hide and Seek: The Irish Priest in the Vatican who Defied the Nazi Command. The dramatic true story of rivalry and survival during WWII.. Stephen Walker

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      The Pope had good reason to seal off the Vatican City, as he wished to keep the whole site immune from the chaos that was engulfing Rome. Across the city there was fear and uncertainty. Burglaries, assaults, rape and murder had spread to all districts as Romans took matters into their own hands. But Friday night was their last evening of unrestrained lawlessness. By the following evening the city was swarming with SS men, infantrymen and German troops of all descriptions. The battle was over and as darkness fell Rome had new rulers.

      Field Marshal Kesselring declared martial law and his ten-point proclamation was pasted on walls throughout the city. His decree stated that Rome was under his command and all crimes would be judged according to German laws of war. He also made it clear that snipers, strikers and saboteurs would be executed. All private correspondence was prohibited and all phone calls would be monitored.

      That night, at the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler recorded a special broadcast which was transmitted shortly afterwards on Radio Rome. His delight at having captured the Italian capital was obvious, though it was punctuated with a series of warnings and he declared that Italy would suffer for deposing its once-favourite son. Clearly Mussolini was on the Führer’s mind. Hours later the mission to rescue him from the heights of the Gran Sasso began.

      The Nazi high command had also become worried that the intelligence work and planning organized before the Italian surrender would go to waste. Even during the battle for Rome, Himmler had sent a message to Captain Skorzeny and General Kurt Student, the commander of Germany’s airborne forces, reminding them that Mussolini’s rescue was still a top priority. Both men concluded there were three ways to carry out the rescue. They could arrive at the Gran Sasso by parachute, perform a landing by glider, or launch a ground attack.

      On the afternoon of Sunday, 12 September a group of gliders carrying German paratroops made their way to the remote mountain resort. Mussolini was sitting by the window in his room and saw Skorzeny’s glider crash land outside the hotel. The young captain climbed out and ran towards the building. He overpowered a radio operator and bundled a number of carabinieri out of the way. He climbed the stairs and on the second floor turned right. Moments later he found himself face to face with the man he had been hunting for six weeks, Benito Mussolini.

      Skorzeny spoke first. ‘Duce, the Führer has sent me to set you free.’

      ‘I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not abandon me,’ Mussolini replied.

      By now the other paratroops had secured the building and the cable car, and the underground passage that linked the hotel and the resort’s station was in German hands. The kidnapping had taken its toll on Mussolini: he looked tired and ill and a little unkempt. Wearing an oversize overcoat and a felt hat, he walked out of the hotel and his every movement was tracked by a German newsreel cameraman who had come along to record the rescue. He made his way to one of the gliders and then, tucked behind the cockpit, he sat beside Skorzeny.

      The take-off from the mountaintop nearly ended in disaster. The glider shot down into a chasm but the pilot was able to pull out of the nose-dive. An hour later they landed safely and then Mussolini and Skorzeny were put on another plane. Aboard the Heinkel 111, they were flown for an overnight stay in Austria. Back in Rome Herbert Kappler was anxiously waiting for news and when it came he quickly passed it on to officials in Berlin. Shortly after six o’clock he cabled a message informing them that the rescue of Mussolini had been carried out successfully and that a meeting had been arranged with senior officers in Vienna.

      The next day Skorzeny and Mussolini were due to fly to Munich, where the former dictator would meet up with his wife.

      Before he retired to bed Skorzeny received a telephone call. It was Hitler, who told the young captain, ‘Today you have carried out a mission that will go down in history and I have given you the Knight’s Cross and promoted you to Sturmbannführer.’

      The Führer was thrilled that Mussolini had been freed and he was clearly in the mood to congratulate those who had helped in the rescue mission. After Skorzeny was honoured, there were others to be recognized. Herbert Kappler was also on the list and he was given the Iron Cross for his work. However, for him there was another reward to come. He was promoted to Obersturmbannführer, the highest rank of his career. Five weeks earlier he had been ordered to stay in Rome by the Führer and told to concentrate on police intelligence work. Now, with the city in German hands, Lieutenant Colonel Kappler had an even bigger job to do.

       Chapter Seven OCCUPATION

      ‘We Germans regard you only as Jews, and thus our enemy’

      Herbert Kappler

      Hungry and poorly dressed, a group of fourteen Allied servicemen arrived at the entrance of the Holy See looking for shelter and food. They were taking an enormous risk by travelling in such a large group and looking out of place. But they were lucky, for a friendly priest from St Monica’s monastery offered them respite and made contact with Anton Call, a carabiniere who was on close terms with Monsignor O’Flaherty and Sir D’Arcy Osborne and had helped to hide Albert Penny, the British seaman who had arrived at the Vatican on a bicycle. Call advised the new arrivals to approach the Vatican in twos and threes. He said once they got inside they should declare they were prisoners of war and ask to be handed over to Osborne’s butler, John May. The next day Call discovered that the servicemen were in a local barracks. The plan had failed. The escapees had managed to fool the Swiss Guards but not the gendarmes, who handed them to the carabinieri in St Peter’s Square. All fourteen men were taken to the Vittorio Emmanuele barracks.

      That night Call visited O’Flaherty. The police officer gave the priest details of the new detainees and O’Flaherty gave him 3,000 lire to buy food for the escapees. Within hours the men were well fed and well dressed. O’Flaherty considered the police barracks a safe place to leave the servicemen as the Germans did not visit the place. But the men’s freedom was short-lived, for in late October the Germans unexpectedly arrived at the barracks. Two of the group managed to escape but the remaining twelve were rounded up. For O’Flaherty the episode was a clear reminder that the escape operation needed more space and resources.

      For Herbert Kappler the discovery of the escapees justified his policy of keeping the Vatican under surveillance and confirmed that he was right to keep a close watch on O’Flaherty. In his developing battle with the monsignor it was an enjoyable early triumph. Even so, for every escapee Kappler’s men caught there were many more who evaded detection.

      O’Flaherty took huge personal risks. On one occasion he met three South African escaped servicemen in Rome and while he was taking them to the apartment he had found for them they were stopped by three SS men. Luckily the Germans were lost and just wanted directions. Another time he escorted two more South Africans from a railway station to their safe house. He visited hospitals where escapees were being treated and regularly secured their release to pro-Allied families in the city.

      It was an open secret that O’Flaherty was the man behind the escape operation. By late October 1943 around 1,000 servicemen had been placed in safety in homes across Rome and in farms and buildings outside the city. Kappler wanted to catch the monsignor red-handed but knew he could only arrest him away from Vatican territory.

      By now the monsignor and his friend and collaborator John May realized that the two of them could not handle the escape operation on their own. ‘Look, Monsignor, this thing is too big for one man, you can’t handle it alone … and it’s hardly begun!’ May said. O’Flaherty agreed that another senior figure was needed to share the workload of recruiting host families, raising money and visiting suitable accommodation for the escapees. Count Sarsfield Salazar of the Swiss legation was approached. Salazar had been interned СКАЧАТЬ