The Nazi Hunters (37 page)

At the same time, Barkworth was overseeing a separate investigation to the far south, in Italy. Captain Henry Parker – the aficionado of the Barkworth whisky, Benzedrine and no sleep system – had been sent to investigate the disappearance of several Special Forces operators captured during a sabotage mission behind enemy lines. Barkworth’s tentacles were also reaching as far north as Norway, where he was seeking the arrest of the entire personnel of
Einsatzkommando
Tanzmann, a unit that appeared to have played a key role in Operation Waldfest.

Allowing all of that to fall into the labyrinth of BAOR officialdom would render such operations next to impossible. There is little evidence that Barkworth responded to any of the BAOR communiqués seeking to reel him in, or at least not in writing.

Instead, on 6 December 1945 a missive went out from the Eaton Square AG3-VW office, stating that ‘Major Barkworth will be winding up the investigation during December [1945].’ The suggestion – which appears to have been little more than a smokescreen – was that the Villa Degler outfit was being disbanded. In truth, it was being strengthened.

On 8 December, on orders from Eaton Square, an SAS Trooper Ratcliffe – a soldier from a non-existent unit – was dispatched from the London port of Tilbury on a ferry bound for Antwerp, to rendezvous there with Barkworth. He was driving a truck laden with the following supplies destined for the Villa Degler operation:

2 Charging engines for W/T sets.

1 Amplifier.

9 Tannoy speakers for amplifier.

1 Jeep type outer cover.

1 Motor Gasket Kit (Ford).

34 – gall. Jerricans (petrol)

. . . And so the list continued.

The truck driven by Trooper Ratcliffe also carried: ‘1 Tin Box containing Secret Documents, Stationary . . . Several rolls of maps’, for the attention of Major Barkworth.

On the one hand, AG3-VW was sending out radio messages and telegrams suggesting that the Villa Degler operation was being shut down: ‘Confirmed we agree disbandment Major Barkworth’s team . . .’ ‘Confirm that agree to withdrawal to UK for disbandment personnel, transport and equipment of MAJOR BARKWORTH’S Team.’

Yet at the same time, Galitzine was writing to all and sundry – those whom he counted as close and influential friends – seeking to bolster Barkworth’s cloak-and-dagger operation. ‘They are a little isolated band and any further help you can give them will be most appreciated.’

In the closing days of 1945 there was a sense of driving urgency about the Villa Degler set-up, one underpinned by an extraordinary Benzedrine-fuelled energy. While Galitzine, Franks et al were struggling to buy enough time for the completion of their under-the-radar manhunting operations, Barkworth was about to unleash his single greatest broadside.

The ‘SAS’ major was burning the midnight oil as never before, preparing a mammoth, ninety-page report that would demonstrate to Colonel Franks that his mission was very much accomplished. In May 1945 Franks had charged Barkworth with solving the cases of the Op Loyton missing. Barkworth’s end of year ‘Missing Parachutists’ report was to be the proof that this – and so much more – had been achieved.

That report would be printed on 2nd Special Air Service ‘official’ paper, with the winged-dagger SAS badge emblazoned across the front – some three months after the Regiment had been disbanded. It would be addressed to ‘The Commanding Officer, Special Air Service Regiment’ – a position that officially did not exist any more. And Barkworth would include a telling quote from Shakespeare on its opening page.

But in these cases

We still have judgment here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which being taught return

To plague the inventor.

Macbeth
, Act 1 Scene VII.

In other words, the SAS would sit in judgment over the Op Loyton killers; and those who had indulged in torture and mass murder would reap what they had sown.

In a sense, Barkworth’s report was the ultimate cry of defiance. It screamed out two seminal points. One: you cannot so easily kill off the SAS Regiment. Two: no matter what, justice will be done. It laid out the arguments for fourteen separate war crimes cases to be brought to trial, covering some
thirty-nine
victims – the extras being the downed American and Canadian airmen and other Allied servicemen and women killed alongside the SAS.

Three months previously, the BAOR legal team had declared that ‘only a miracle’ would solve the cases of the Op Loyton missing.
Now this.
Barkworth’s report would prove an extraordinary testament to the sheer tenacity and brilliance of the Villa Degler team, who had achieved the seemingly unachievable within a timescale that few would have imagined possible.

Radio traffic from Barkworth to Franks reflected the frenetic pace of activity, as the two men raced towards a finish line of sorts. Or rather, as matters turned out, it would be a race towards a new beginning.

‘One. Printed report complete Saturday night. Two. A few witnesses remain from whom sworn statements will be taken. Three. Request Oxford at Frankfurt or Strasbourg to fly me back Sunday 18th onwards. Shall bring copies printed report with me . . . Six. If Black’s stick found and time short will not dig up.’

The ‘Oxford’ reference was to a light aircraft – an Airspeed AS.10 Oxford training aeroplane – one that Barkworth needed to fly him back to London with his ‘Missing Parachutists’ reports in hand. ‘Black’s stick’ referred to a further group of eight SAS men who had been murdered on the orders of SS
Sturmbannführer
Hans Dietrich Ernst. Time was clearly so tight that Barkworth feared he couldn’t afford to ‘dig up’ the ‘Black stick’ bodies, even if they were found.

A further radio message reported a slight slippage in the proposed time schedule: ‘Work continuing top pressure. Hope be ready by Sunday if printing continues night shift. Monday would make things easier.’

The fate of Black’s stick had been revealed by one of the
Einzatskommando
Tanzmann
suspects. Shortly before the Vosges fell
to US forces, the men of
Einzatskommando Tanzmann
had been posted to Norway in an effort to bolster the Reich’s defences in the north. In due course much of the unit
had been arrested, posing under false names as the crew of a surrendered U-boat.

As Barkworth made clear, he wanted to get his hands on as many of the
Einzatskommando
Tanzmann
men as possible. ‘Those who are not wanted for War Crimes against British should be detained as wanted by French, as Kdo. Tanzmann was responsible for atrocities.’ Amongst their ranks would be many of the Moussey villagers’ oppressors.

When
Einzatskommando
Tanzmann
veteran Walter Janzen had been handed over to Barkworth, his interrogation solved the case of eight of the remaining ten Op Loyton ‘missing’. On 14 September 1944 eight SAS had been captured in the firefight at the sawmill in the Celles Valley. Three were those who’d become separated from Lieutenant Karl Marx’s party, as they were chased across the hills by German search dogs. The other five were a sabotage party commanded by Lieutenant James Black.

Janzen had been one of those in the
Einzatskommando
Tanzmann
force sent out to seize Black and his men. The SAS unit had run out of ammo and been captured, whereupon all eight had been handed over to a local
Wehrmacht
unit. But when Janzen returned to his headquarters,
Sturmbannführer
Hans Dietrich Ernst – their overall commander – had taken the news very badly indeed.

‘Ernst was in a great fury, and cursed us all,’ Janzen told Barkworth. ‘Orders had already been issued by Ernst to have the eight prisoners fetched back to our unit . . . Ernst told both me and Albrecht that a secret Reich order existed that parachutists should be shot. He further told us that we both ought to know this.’

Janzen went on to relate how the eight men were driven into the woods outside of St. Dié, stripped naked and shot in the head – in scenes remarkably reminiscent of those in which the previous eight SAS men had been murdered. Janzen denied any role in the killings, but described how he had approached the mass grave at the end, ‘to shovel the earth in’. The SAS men’s dog tags had been taken from them and buried separately, to hide their identities as much as possible.

As far as Barkworth was concerned, Janzen’s testimony was the silver bullet that he’d been searching for. On two occasions now
Sturmbannführer
Ernst had been proved to have disregarded his superior officer’s orders, so that he could have his captives stripped naked and shot dead in the forest. In short,
Sturmbannführer
Ernst was responsible for the cold-blooded murder of sixteen of the Op Loyton party, and against all orders.

While Isselhorst may have orchestrated the evil, Barkworth felt certain he would claim that he was only acting on the Führer’s instructions – as decreed in his Commando Order. By contrast,
Sturmbannführer
Ernst had disobeyed the orders of a superior so as to pursue some kind of personally motivated vendetta or bloodlust.

On New Year’s Eve 1945 Galitzine issued a new wanted list at Barkworth’s behest. Top of the table sat ‘La Grande Fosse Case – Murder of 8 British PW; Dr Hans Dietr [sic] ERNST. Sturmbannführer i/c SD Kommando . . . took part in Operation Waldfest against 2 SAS in Autumn 44.’

‘Description: Dark brown hair, brown eyes, parts hair right side. Strident scar on face. Pale and seared complexion. Wears glasses for reading . . . Exact double of investigator Major E.A. Barkworth . . . Accused of murder La Grande FOSSE and also of 8 British PW at St. DIE in September, 1944.’

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barkworth demurred when it was suggested that
Sturmbannführer
Ernst was his spitting image, though he clearly kept his dry sense of humour amidst all of the horror. In a 12 January sitrep sent to Eaton Square, Barkworth would comment: ‘I enclose photographs of Ganninger, Hardtjenstein’s adjutant; Richard Schnurr, involved in the Noailles and Pexonne cases; Dr. Ernst, who I do not think looks like me at all . . .’

Barkworth had by now solved all but two of the cases of the Op Loyton ‘missing’, and he had a good sense of what had happened to the remaining two. It was time to concentrate fully on the hunt for the killers. But it was just as he chose to do so that the challenges of operating as a ‘black’ outfit really began to weigh upon the Villa Degler team.

By now Barkworth had worked out his best means to track down those war crimes suspects that he hadn’t yet managed to ensnare. Under the heading ‘The Tracing of Germans’, Barkworth wrote to Galitzine: ‘I have got this mapped out in order to try to trace the maximum number of Germans with the least vehicle mileage; and given luck I hope to produce some satisfactory results.’

He went on to outline his main problems. ‘Two things have however held us up. The first has been the stoppage of issue of petrol . . . The second is the poor condition of the 4 jeeps . . . I do not think any of them can go on much longer, as they had very high mileage, and two are at the stage of writing-off. I am sure you will appreciate it is no good sending out a party on a long run in bad weather with a vehicle which will probably need a search party to bring it in.’

Beneath the humour, Barkworth’s sense of frustration is clear. Now operating completely off the books, he had unlimited freedom. But at the same time he had neither the vehicles nor the fuel to enable his Villa Degler team to fulfil its potential. In truth, as the New Year dawned, Barkworth’s operations were somewhat circumscribed.

And, predictably, the problems emanating from the BAOR had far from gone away. ‘There are one or two things however which I shall not take lying down, as I am sure you can imagine,’ Barkworth’s letter to Galitzine continued. ‘Assimilation into an existing BAOR unit or any such measure.’

Moreover, owing to the relentless pace of operations and the pressure, Barkworth’s health was suffering. For several days he’d been laid up, hospitalized.

‘This has been extremely unfortunate and incidentally rather painful,’ Barkworth wrote. ‘I had a tooth pulled out by a German dentist who must I think have been a werewolf, because I have got my face swelled up; a condition which the Americans call cellulitis.’

But still, Barkworth would prove unstoppable. On 2 January 1946 he was back in action, in spite of his illness.

‘Karl HAUG of Gruppe Kieffer in 4 Civil Internee Camp RECKLINGHAUSEN,’ he radioed to Galitzine. ‘Has given statement on shooting SAS . . . in which he took part. Following also present HSTUF SCHNURR (of PEXONNE case) . . . and driver of truck. HAUG knowledgeable and willing witness . . .’

‘Hstuf and KRIM KOMM ALBRECHT ARTHUR now listed in civil prison ROTTERDAM. Consider this is the man from KDO. ERNST. Have arranged to interrogate . . . Will send you following. HAUGS statement. Photos of ERNST . . . Pathologist reports LODGE and DAVIS . . .’

Barkworth sensed now that the quest for
Sturmbannführer
Ernst would take him east.
He had secured evidence suggesting that the killer of eighteen of the Op Loyton men had fled into the Russian Zone. He sought Galitzine’s help smoothing a way into Stalin’s area of occupation, which was never an easy thing to manage.