The Nazi Hunters
Damien Lewis recounts the SAS mission on Operation Loyton and the post-war manhunt for Nazi war criminals led by Colonel Brian Franks.
- Author
- Damien Lewis
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Price
- £20
- ISBN
- 9781784293895
- Published
- 2017
The Nazi Hunters by Damien Lewis
In late 1944, sixty SAS troopers parachuted into France’s Vosges mountains on Operation Loyton to aid Resistance fighters and disrupt German forces. Dropped into the midst of a Panzer division, lightly equipped with jeeps and medium machine-guns, they fought until ammunition ran out and scattered into the hills around Moussey. The villagers fed, sheltered and informed them yet refused to betray the unit, even under Gestapo torture. Ultimately, thirty-one SAS men were captured and summarily executed.
Lewis follows the mission’s commanding officer into the post-war years. Determined that the killers would not escape justice, Colonel Brian Franks MC formed a clandestine SAS manhunt authorised by Winston Churchill and funded from a black budget. Between 1945 and 1948 these “Secret Hunters” scoured Europe for perpetrators, Nazi war criminals and concentration camp officials, uncovering chilling secrets of the nascent Cold War.
Drawing on interviews and newly released files, The Nazi Hunters reads like a thriller yet remains rooted in fact. It is a gripping tribute to the regiment’s fallen and to the relentless pursuit of justice that followed.
ISBN 9781784293895. Quercus. £20.