Hi there,
I thought I'd share with you a discussion I had with a veteran (hes in his mid 80s), the other night. He was a polish Lieutenant paratrooper with the Red Devils (British) in Italy towards the end of the war there.
He mentioned a mission that he and his company were sent on to hunt down HG paratroopers (referred by him as the "Green Devils" that were still in action in Northern italy. They stumbled onto a village that haunts him still. He saw 7 boys, locals of the village, crucified and mutilated, and every livestock animal cutopen and mutilated as well.
He told me of how he wanted to scream but his throat had siezed up and did not allow him to utter a sound. He rememberd of how, near this scene of horror was a kitchen, still operating, with pasta still hot laid out apparently for a meal. One of the soldiers tried to go near the food but was ordered away, fearing a boobytrap, sure enough when a length of rope was tied to the table holding the food, run out, and yanked from the outside, an explosion blasted through the whole room.
From then on his orders were to take no prisoners, and following some intelligence, his company was dropped ahead of the apparent path of the Green devils and, waiting in ambush, they massacred them, a few hundred he reckons, he said that his sten gun was so hot from the 15 magazine changes that he had to wrap bundle upon bundle of cloth/clothing around it to prevent it from burning his flesh.
Any survivors they executed on the spot. Most of the men were over 30s and the highest rank was a Major.
It was frightening listening to the account, he had a far-away stare and tears were in his eyes like he was recounting an event that happened yesterday.
Does anyone know of this or more details of the unit...I'd never heard of the HG Para group before.
I will try to get some more details of the location and date later...
BDS
I thought I'd share with you a discussion I had with a veteran (hes in his mid 80s), the other night. He was a polish Lieutenant paratrooper with the Red Devils (British) in Italy towards the end of the war there.
He mentioned a mission that he and his company were sent on to hunt down HG paratroopers (referred by him as the "Green Devils" that were still in action in Northern italy. They stumbled onto a village that haunts him still. He saw 7 boys, locals of the village, crucified and mutilated, and every livestock animal cutopen and mutilated as well.
He told me of how he wanted to scream but his throat had siezed up and did not allow him to utter a sound. He rememberd of how, near this scene of horror was a kitchen, still operating, with pasta still hot laid out apparently for a meal. One of the soldiers tried to go near the food but was ordered away, fearing a boobytrap, sure enough when a length of rope was tied to the table holding the food, run out, and yanked from the outside, an explosion blasted through the whole room.
From then on his orders were to take no prisoners, and following some intelligence, his company was dropped ahead of the apparent path of the Green devils and, waiting in ambush, they massacred them, a few hundred he reckons, he said that his sten gun was so hot from the 15 magazine changes that he had to wrap bundle upon bundle of cloth/clothing around it to prevent it from burning his flesh.
Any survivors they executed on the spot. Most of the men were over 30s and the highest rank was a Major.
It was frightening listening to the account, he had a far-away stare and tears were in his eyes like he was recounting an event that happened yesterday.
Does anyone know of this or more details of the unit...I'd never heard of the HG Para group before.
I will try to get some more details of the location and date later...
BDS