Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

James Brady - Member of Waffen SS

  • 25-05-2020 5:34pm
    #1
    rtmt73
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 ✭


    Hello,
    I have just come across the interesting case of James Brady; almost certainly not his real name.He has been mentioned before on this forum; along with Frank Stringer
    Brady joined the British Army in 1938, was supposed to be from Stokestown, Co. Roscommon.
    While serving in Guernsey, he was arrested for assaulting a policeman, while drunk, and given jail.
    When his unit left Guernsey he was left behind in prison when the Germans invaded the Channel Islands. Brady was transferred to mainland Europe as a POW. He eventually agreed to join the German Army, for what ever reason, serving on the Eastern front. He was wounded several times and involved in some intense fighting against the Soviets. He was part of Otto Skorzeny's unit of the Waffen SS; rose to the level of Sergeant.
    After the war he was, finally, arrested and court-martialled by the British and given jail again. He was eventually released and, it is thought, returned to Ireland around 1950.
    It is not known what became of him after that. Quite a mystery?
    Does anyone have any information after 1950?


Comments

  • #2
    skooterblue2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭skooterblue2


    rtmt73 wrote: »
    Hello,
    I have just come across the interesting case of James Brady; almost certainly not his real name.He has been mentioned before on this forum; along with Frank Stringer
    Brady joined the British Army in 1938, was supposed to be from Stokestown, Co. Roscommon.
    While serving in Guernsey, he was arrested for assaulting a policeman, while drunk, and given jail.
    When his unit left Guernsey he was left behind in prison when the Germans invaded the Channel Islands. Brady was transferred to mainland Europe as a POW. He eventually agreed to join the German Army, for what ever reason, serving on the Eastern front. He was wounded several times and involved in some intense fighting against the Soviets. He was part of Otto Skorzeny's unit of the Waffen SS; rose to the level of Sergeant.
    After the war he was, finally, arrested and court-martialled by the British and given jail again. He was eventually released and, it is thought, returned to Ireland around 1950.
    It is not known what became of him after that. Quite a mystery?
    Does anyone have any information after 1950?

    Otto Skorzeny was mercenary after the war. I am not sure what he was at (CIA consulting, private security in Africa, etc etc). While he was infamous during the war he didnt actually achieve that much but he was using a load of revolutionary technologies and techniques like Helicopter insertion and parachutes and using Paras training regimes. I think he had a farm in Ireland and may have been using it as a resting resort (Neutral and Second world at the center of the world). If I were him I would be using Brady or Stringer as a local "go for". I doubt either of them had many employment opportunities after the war. There is a possibility that they were given Waffen Membership for publicity rather than merit. The Waffen were an elite unit. I doubt they were of value to benefit from the Odessa line to Argentina.

    The French Foreign Legion were devastated after WW2 and took in loads of Nazi paticularily SS. It suited both parties. The Nazis wanted to break with their past and the French were gearing up for Algeria and IndoChina (Vietnam). All were welcome, no references were necessary, two weeks of Legion training sorts the wheat from the chaff, they knew their material.

    They could also have grabbed dead mens dog tags and started new lives if they returned to America or the UK with other Units.


  • #3
    Beechwoodspark
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,947 ✭✭✭✭Beechwoodspark


    Skorzeny is an interesting character for sure. As someone mentioned he had some level of involvement with the CIA.

    He turned up briefly in a book I read recently about the Manson murders, he was a mentor for a presumed CIA agent (very right wing) who was undercover in San Francisco and LA during the late 60s.


  • #4
    skooterblue2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭skooterblue2


    Beechwoodspark wrote: »
    Skorzeny is an interesting character for sure. As someone mentioned he had some level of involvement with the CIA.

    He turned up briefly in a book I read recently about the Manson murders, he was a mentor for a presumed CIA agent (very right wing) who was undercover in San Francisco and LA during the late 60s.

    Oh no, never a CIA agent, just a contractor (do your job, take your cash and fupp off home when you are done). There were also things moving in Argentina with the Perons coming to power and massive German manufacturing and industrialisation in South America back then. Pinochet being installed in Chile in and abouts the same era. Any man who was on the Eastern Front and came back was a tough nut. Possibly not a desirable person but a desirable person to get a job done.

    then there were loads of opportunities in a new Africa with resisting nationalisation of rare earth minerals and new ideologies which didnt concord with western ideals. A boy could make a good life for himself in this new world. The great thing about chaos is it creates opportunities.


Advertisement