Irishman in SS

Hitler's Irishmen Terence O'Reilly Mercier Press npa
320pps
ONE YEAR after the end of the World War II, two members of Hitler's SS undergo interrogation in London. "Name?" the interrogator barks. James Brady, comes the reply. "Where were you born?" Roscommon. "And you?" his companion is asked."Frank Stringer." Birthplace? "Leitrim." This is quite extraordinary and has the reader sitting up. Both men join the British army. Fate has it that they are stationed in Jersey. They assault a policeman and are sentenced to 18 months. The Germans invade. The Brits abandon the island - a piece of history you seldom read about - plus the two Irishmen. Brady and Stringer become members of the Waffen SS. They tell their interrogators that they did so in their "crusade against communism" and get off the hook. Their plea did not convince this reader, but I would say the SS captors were extremely persuasive. Maybe they believed Hitler was the coming man. Brady, an enthusiastic researcher, sets up the period in depth, particularly the anti-communist feeling in Ireland at the time. In one case, James Gralton, a member of the Communist Party of Ireland, built a social centre in Leitrim. The church denounced Gralton as an "anti-Christ" and warned that "any horse hauling materials to the site would die within a year". Wonderful read.

OVER HERE
NICOLA TALLANT THE notorious Waffen SS planned to send an elite unit of officers to Ireland to organise the resistance, it has emerged.
The crack squad of some 100 Nazi soldiers was due to be dropped into the country - and not just supplies and a transmitter for the IRA as has been long believed.
A new book, Hitler's Irishmen, details just how close Ireland came to being involved in the bloody battles of World War II despite our neutrality.
Author and military historian Terence O'Reilly details how 100 Waffen SS guards were hand-picked to create the elite Irish mission.
In the book, he refers to a document recently released by the UK National Archives.
In it, the specialist responsible for Irish Affairs, Kurt Haller, says: "The Waffen SS put at the disposal of Amt VI, a unit of about 100 picked men, commanded by a Dutchman.
The men were to act primarily as instructors to Irish regular and irregular forces." The unit was set up and given instruction on how to train an Irish resistance after America began to build up its forces in the North when it entered the war in 1941.
A special plane was even prepared from the Luftwaffe to transport the troops which were made up of some of the most highly skilled and fanatical officers in Hitler's army.
Documents also show how the Nazis believed the Irish would be ideal candidates for guerrilla warfare, provided they received "the stiffening of German instructors".
But the plan was scrapped when the unit was instead sent to Persia in 1943 when the likelihood of Allied invasion of Ireland decreased.
It goes beyond earlier revelations about Operation Sea Eagle - a German Foreign Ministry plan to land a seaplane on a lake here to supply the IRA with funds and a transmitter.
The Irish Republican Frank Ryan was due to land in advance of the main party to ensure that the Germans would be welcomed as allies and liberators.
Arms were later to be dropped by air and then sent by "blockade runners" from France. The document used in the book goes on to explain how it was hoped that if the country was over-run by British in a few days that Ireland would turn on their old foes.
However, in his report, the Nazi's Ireland expert Helmut Clissmann, described the men as "arrogant and contemptuous of all foreigners" and went on to say he was doubtful of their ability to co-operate with Irish guerrillas without causing friction.
O'Reilly writes: "Partly as a result of Clissmann's report, but mostly due to the decreasing likelihood of any Allied invasion of Ireland, the SS commandos were released for other duties."
However, the SS unit was given training in sabotage techniques and captured British weapons in preparation for their deployment here.
Hitler's Irishmen also traces the role of two natives, James Brady and Frank Stringer.
Both originally joined the Irish regiment of the British Army but ended up working for the Nazis and signing the oath of the notorious Waffen SS.
O'Reilly says: "Stringer seems to have been a bit of a drifter who went along with whatever was happening.
"But Brady, which was a false name, is a very mysterious character. He was deadly dedicated to the SS."
Copyright 2008 MGN LTD

guinnessdrinker wrote: »

Interesting stuff. Nightflight, are you doing a phd in this area by any chance?

mountainyman wrote: »

Like the priest in Father Ted? Are there any Mayo men who were in SS?

The bizarre story of Laois’s very own Nazi

IT IS a topic rarely discussed in Irish history: the handful of Irish men who fought and co-operated with the Nazis during World War II. Among them was a Laois man, Corporal John Codd. His story is as bizarre as it is complex, and it’s richly detailed in Portlaoise writer Terence O’Reilly’s new book </B>Hitler’s Irishmen.

The book tells the story of John Codd amazing army career. By his late 20s, he had seen much of the world, from Canada to China. While he had a sharp intellect and a talent for languages, it appears his character was a stubborn one and that he was quick to anger. The former British soldier was also a flagrant carouser who at times took advantage of the Germans’ faith in him for his own personal enjoyment.

During his time he trained extensively for saboteur missions that never came to fruition for one reason or another. At no time, however, did he take part in anything that could be remotely thought of as a war crime.

Although Irish military intelligence kept a file on Codd, not a great deal is known of him prior to 1940s - or after 1951, when he seemingly disappeared without a trace. His current whereabouts are unknown, though South America might be a good guess.

Born near the Slieve Bloom mountains in 1912, his family later moved to Dublin. A man of little of formal education, he was intelligent and could converse in half a dozen languages. He emigrated to Canada in 1929 as a teenager. In 1931, he made the move to London and - like his father and brother before him - he enlisted in the British Army with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers

He took part of the evacuation of civilians from Shanghai in 1938. Shortly after he left army, he was recalled in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II. Dispatched with the British Expeditionary Force to France, he was wounded in the retreat from Dunkirk and subsequently captured in May

1940. Transferred to a prison camp in Friesack, he was interrogated by the German army intelligence, Abwher. It soon became quite obvious that he would be willing to fight against the English. He claimed to have been a member of the IRA and his eagerness and language skills was enough to convince the Abwher that he’d be useful in their sabotage plots in England.

Codd’s real motivation is subject to speculation but issues of self-preservation rather than a shared ideology were the probable source for his collaboration. He became deeply unpopular among the other British POWs in Friesack for his obstinacy and his willingness to collaborate. Approached about the possibility of doing missions for the Germans, an unabashed Codd is reported to have become very interested at the financial aspects of the arrangements, particularly the £8,000 budget.

He was released from the camp along with a younger Leitrim man, Frank Stringer. The two saw the sights of Berlin in what was a considerable change from the monotony of the Stalag. However, Codd’s temperament flared again and he grew irritated by his German handlers, believing he should be left to roam the streets of Berlin unescorted.

In October 1941, Codd became involved in a mission known as Operation Innkeeper. This was to involve Codd and Stringer being dropped in England, where they would act as saboteurs. Codd, at the time, was paid well over the average wartime wage of a German worker. Like a true Irishman, he used the money to enjoy himself.

According to one German military intelligence report: “In Berlin, he showed he had indiscriminate capacity for women and drink.”

Codd soon over-ran his allowance and would burst into fits of rage when his monetary whims were not met. He had also met a local German girl who he wished to marry but was refused permission by his handlers at the time. At the same time he was being extensively trained in improvised explosives, using substances such as charcoal, which he quickly became adept at.

Operation Innkeeper was shelved after a reshuffle in the Abwher in 1942. Stringer was also separated from his countryman, as Abwher officials believed that Codd was having a negative influence on the young man.

Angered by what he perceived as a snub, Codd wrote a threatening and abusive letters to an Abwher official, stating that he would stop co-operating with the Germans if certain conditions were not met. His letter did not go unnoticed. He was paid a visit shortly afterwards by the Gestapo and imprisoned in August 1942.

Apparently seeing the error of his ways, the Laois man repented to army officials and said he would be more co-operative if given a second chance.

He was released, but the Abwher would have no more to do him and his antics. He was then approached by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence branch of the Waffen SS, who saw potential in the crafty and combustible Laois man. He soon started training in cryptography.

Despite the SS disapproving of marriages between Germans and foreigners, they gave permission to Codd to marry his girlfriend, Irma Schoenhoff, and the couple settled down in a bungalow in Lehnitz. Codd trained alongside men from Norway, Turkey, Algeria, Italy, Denmark and several other nations in the use of Allied weapons. He was also introduced to an American of German extraction named William Colepaugh.

Colepaugh had fled America to answer the Fuhrer’s call to serve, and German intelligence had taken a keen interest in him. Codd was instructed to teach him German and it became evident that plans for the pair to travel to America were in the offing.

Codd was, however, unceremoniously scrubbed for the mission after Colepaugh - like so many others - expressed his intense distaste for the Laois man. Colepaugh would eventually leave for New York with a German called Erwin Gimpel. It would turn out to be a stroke of luck for Codd. In America, Colepaugh would again switch allegiance back to the US and confess his plot to the FBI. Gimpel was sentenced to death.

This was to be Codd’s last opportunity to join a saboteur mission as, following D-Day in 1944, the Germans directed all their efforts combating the Allies in main land Europe.

It was suggested at one stage that Codd should join the British Free Corps, a group of British POWs who fought with the SS. Codd balked at this on the principle that he was Irishman and he would not fight alongside the English. Considering that he served in the British forces for eight years, the statement can be taken very lightly.

Codd knew also himself the writing was on the wall for the Germans and this refusal could be seen as another act of self-preservation. He noted that his training officers drank their sorrows away as a foreboding atmosphere began to envelop Germany.

In April 1945, Codd was at home with his wife when the Russians made the final thrust into Germany. Hiding in their bomb shelter, the pair escaped unmolested by the Russians.

In the chaos of the downfall of Hitler’s Germany, Codd saw his opportunity for escape.

He and his wife moved west, negotiating and bluffing his way through half a dozen Russian checkpoints and interrogators. With Codd’s guile and language skills, the pair arrived in Hildensheim, where they were air-lifted to Brussels.

In Brussels, Codd claimed Irish nationality to officials. He wasn’t on any British wanted lists and he was again passed freely by their officers. The couple subsequently went France to meet the Irish legation there at the same time convincingly passing through several more interrogations. From France, they travelled through England and arrived in Dun Laoghaire from Holyhead on 18 June

1945.

They headed to Codd’s mother’s home. Mrs Codd, who hadn’t seen her son for the best part of a decade, only for him to appear with a German bride in tow, didn’t take kindly to his return. It’s recorded that the first night Codd spent at home was at the roadside.

Soon afterwards, Irish military intelligence, G2, interrogated Codd and his wife but again the pair were soon released. They took up residence in Dublin but from 1951, Codd seemingly vanishes. At the time, poverty was rife in Ireland with high levels of unemployment and emigration.

It is believed that Codd had immense difficulty in securing work and there are rumours that he wished to start a new life in South America. Either way, Codd has since disappeared into the mists of history and it is suggested by the author of Hitler’s Irishmen that perhaps this is for the best:

“Several Irish families had no idea that a father or an uncle had served with Eoin O’Duffy’s Bandera in the Spanish Civil War, it being thought best that such fascists be left as a skeleton in the family cupboard ... Few Irish would welcome the knowledge than an ancestor had served in a cause in so unworthy.”
Perhaps this is true, but when you read about John Codd’s bizarre life you can’t help feeling that he was an extraordinary man who found himself in an extraordinary situation, which ultimately led to extraordinary results.
Hitler’s Irishmen by Terence O’Reilly is on available now in all good books shops.