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Part Three
It seemed I barely had time
to feel settled in my new home, the Quonset hut, when I received orders that
sent me to someplace in Scotland for training with the British Commandos. I
was told to report to a Sergeant Matthew at a British army command post in
London, and that he would then accompany me, along with some other
soldiers—both American and British—to the training camp. They would never
tell any of us exactly where we were going and there were no visible signs
anywhere, including street signs, to help pinpoint the location. There were
already other Americans training there with the Commandos, and we all just
made an educated guess as to the city or town nearby.
I really admired the
Commandos, as they were some of the toughest and best-trained men I had ever
met. We went through a minimum of twelve hours of training, day and night.
This included a twelve to thirty-five mile run every day at a speed of
anywhere from six to eight minutes a mile, depending on the weight of our
packs, which could be anywhere from sixty to eighty pounds. It included
every type of physical exercise you could imagine, including all types of
calisthenics, weight lifting, scaling cliffs, and either wading across swift
flowing streams and rivers, or crossing them hand over hand on a rope that
had been stretched across. We learned hand-to-hand combat and Karate, the
use of a knife in a close fight, and how to throw a knife to eliminate an
enemy. And, in addition to many other things, we learned how to use a
parachute. This consisted, at first, of jumping off of high platforms while
harnessed in an open chute, with the main emphasis being on how to hit the
ground. My gymnastics really came in handy here. Eventually we graduated to
jumping from planes. During all of my training with the Commandos and the
Rangers, I never saw a sign of fear, no matter how dangerous the training
assignment, on any of the faces of those very fine young men.
When the U.S. Rangers were
formed in England, I was transferred, along with the other Americans, to a
separate camp. The already-trained Americans formed the training cadre at
the new camp for the incoming American volunteers. In my mind, they did a
great job emulating the Commandos within a relatively short period of time.
Training with both the Commandos and the Rangers, while very demanding, was
a lot of fun. I was at first teased about my size because I was only five
feet seven inches tall. But I soon gained the respect of all the people—many
of who referred to me as “the little Jew boy”—with whom I trained. I was
told that I had unusual strength for someone my height, and that I had great
reflexes that helped to offset an opponent’s height and weight advantage.
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Training in England |
After this training, which
lasted twelve weeks, I was called in and told to report to an officer who
was headquartered in London. He escorted me to a meeting of high-ranking
officers, including General William Donovan, commanding officer of the OSS,
and General Walter Bedell Smith, who was General Eisenhower’s Chief of
Staff. I could not have been more nervous if I had been told I was to appear
for a court martial hearing.
As I entered the room, I
heard General Donovan ask General Smith, “Do you think this is a good idea?”
He replied, “General Eisenhower said it was a direct order from the
President.” (I include this because I believe that what I was asked to do
was President Roosevelt’s way of responding to pressure being put on him by
people like Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, to do something to
help the Jews in Europe.)
After saluting and standing
at attention, I was told to stand at ease and then be seated. I was told
that, should I agree to do what they were about to outline, I would require
a lot of additional training. They didn’t tell me what would happen if I did
not agree. My assignment was to be the elimination of certain German SS and
Gestapo officers, as well as other people designated by General Donovan,
General Smith or their adjutants, in a briefing prior to each mission. I was
told that the men I would be eliminating were instrumental in the torture
and elimination of the Jews in Europe. In addition to carrying out the
primary objective, I was to forward or bring back whatever information I was
able to obtain about troop positions and movement. I was also to report the
names of any German officers, high ranking Gestapo agents, and Nazi Party
members that I met along the way. These names helped to confirm which German
troop units were in the area, as well as confirming other things about which
I was never told.
When I asked why they had
picked me when they had all of those capable Commandos and Rangers to choose
from, they explained, “You are an intelligent young man, you have the
necessary physical attributes, and you are somewhat fluent in French and
German, and will soon be even more so. Also, your size and demeanor are such
that you can melt easily into a crowd, you have a good short-term memory and
a not-so-good long-term memory for the names of people and places, and … you
are Jewish.”
If I had ever wondered why
they kept me filled in as to what was happening to the Jews in Europe, I now
knew why. I’m sure they felt this knowledge would be an additional incentive
for me to accept the overall mission and its concept. And I did feel that,
by accepting, I could try in some small way to be a factor in stopping the
persecution of the Jews in Europe.
After asking a number of
questions, all of which they answered without pulling any punches, I agreed
to do my best to carry out whatever missions they would assign. My series of
missions were labeled “Code Name Hammer.” I never did find out who decided
on that label, but I remember thinking at the time that they hadn’t given it
much thought.
And so the balance of my
training began, which consisted of extensive karate and jujitsu workouts
that were, or so it seemed to me, mostly on the offensive side. I learned
jabs that would, at the beginning of any hand to hand combat, cut an
opponent six or more inches taller than me down to my size, and every
possible way to eliminate an individual or, if necessary, several
individuals in just a few minutes.
One of my instructors was
William Fairbairn. At the time of my training I didn’t know his name, and I
doubt that he knew mine. But many years later, while reading the book,
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, by Patrick K. O’Donnell, I came across
his picture. The description under the picture reads:
OSS’s legendary
hand-to-hand combat instructor, William Fairbairn, also known as the
“Shanghai Buster.” Fairbairn was the creator of the deadliest form of
jujitsu and street fighting ever devised, called “Gutter Fighting.”
During WWII, the Shanghai Buster was in his fifties, but he could easily
crush any recruit that he trained. He often described his hand-to-hand
system to new recruits this way: “There’s no fair play: no rules except
one: kill or be killed.”
There were additional
training periods of six weeks each in both an all-German and an all-French
environment. All conversation was in German and all newspapers, magazines,
packaged food and radio broadcasts were in German. My training instructors
spoke only German during our training periods. The same was repeated in the
all-French environment. I went through some very extensive testing and was
finally given my first assignment, and I had the feeling they did not expect
me to come back. This made me even more determined to complete the mission
and return.
Part Four
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