Churchill’s German Army: The Germans who fought for Britain in World War Two
Helen Fry

The compelling story of 10,000 Germans and Austrians who fled Nazi persecution and joined the British forces in the Second World War. Having escaped Nazi Germany with their lives, this was their chance to fight back. They served in all theatres of war, including dangerous operations behind enemy lines, invasion of Sicily and the D-Day landings. Now they faced their former countrymen on the beaches and battlefields of Europe. But ‘Churchill’s refugee soldiers’ did not feel they were betraying the country of their birth. Germany had betrayed them. Some were head-hunted for special duties behind enemy lines for the Commandos (X Troop), Special Raiding Forces, SAS, SOE and top secret intelligence operations. Others were involved in the crucial battles at sea, paratroops, and elite infantry regiments. They fought, and many died, fighting on the front line for the country that had saved them from Hitler’s tyranny. At the end of the war, they returned in their thousands in British army uniform to Germany and Austria to begin the reconstruction of post-war Europe, the hunt for Nazi war criminals and restoration of democracy. In this revised and expanded edition, based on eye-witness accounts and original interviews with veterans, as well as recently declassified files, Helen Fry pieces together their extraordinary story and their sacrifice. This is the unique story of the men and women who fought for King and adopted country, and sheds light on this little-known aspect of British wartime history.