LATEST RELEASE
Hitler's Hangmen
The Secret German Plot to Kill Churchill: December 1944
by Brian Lett
Published by Pen and Sword 2019
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In May 1940, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland faced imminent defeat at the hands of Nazi forces in Europe, and feared that there would consequently be a German invasion of their homeland. On 10 May 1940, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill took over. One of the first things that Churchill did was to arrest and detain most of the Fascist leaders in the United Kingdom, under the wartime Defence Regulations. The fear was that in the event of an invasion, the British Fascists would rush to help the invading German troops, and that the likes of Sir Oswald Mosley, Baronet, would order his many followers to rise up in arms against the British Government. The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and many of its Allies from Dunkirk at the end of May and beginning of June confirmed the likelihood of an imminent German invasion of Britain.
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In the late 1920s and the 1930s, there were a large number of British Fascists expressing their views openly in Britain. Shortly after Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, rose to power in Italy, a British Fascisti party was founded in Britain – in sympathy with all that Mussolini stood for. That soon developed into a number of individual Fascist groupings such as Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, Arnold Leese’s Imperial Fascist League, and MP Jock Ramsay’s Right Party. The militarism of the Fascists appealed to the many veterans who had experienced the military life and discipline of the First World War. The threat of Communism was very real throughout Europe, following upon the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and there were Communist MPs in the House of Commons. The British Fascists were violently anti-Communist, and also anti-Jew. After the rise of Nazi Germany, their anti-semitic views became more extreme. One of their complaints was that “World Jewry” was seeking to take control in Britain and elsewhere, and if not stopped, would dominate the world.
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The first edition of Mosley’s Fascist newspaper “Blackshirt”, in February 1933, bore the banner “Britain First”, since British Fascists purported to be strongly patriotic. The front page article was an attack on the British parliament: “Parliament blethers while Industry Dies”, calling for a Fascist revolution in the system of government. Trying to set the people against parliament was a classic Fascist tactic, and indeed remains a tactic used by many modern populists. Mosley modelled his style of oratory on Adolf Hitler.
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Arnold Leese, a retired Army vet living in Guildford, was probably the most anti-semitic of the Fascist leaders, writing pamplets and booklets condemning Judaism. He was jailed for six months in 1936 for this, but having served his sentence, he continued to lead the Imperial Fascist League with vigour and with anti-semitic vitriol.
Jock Ramsay MP, more formally Captain Archibald Maule Ramsay, was a Scot, whose family seat was Kelly Castle, near Arbroath. He was elected as a Conservative and Unionist MP in 1931, was re-elected, and remained an MP when war broke out. He founded a secret Fascist society called the Right Club, which quietly recruited and placed Fascists in all government departments, in the army and in parliament. Ramsay planned to have Fascist agents of his Right Club everywhere. According to his own list of members of the Right Club, Ramsay succeeded in recruiting eleven MPs to join him. The damage that the Right Club could have done in the event of a German invasion was enormous. Ramsay intended that he would lead a Fascist government in Britain after the Germans had defeated his country.
Jock Ramsay MP, more formally Captain Archibald Maule Ramsay, was a Scot, whose family seat was Kelly Castle, near Arbroath. He was elected as a Conservative and Unionist MP in 1931, was re-elected, and remained an MP when war broke out. He founded a secret Fascist society called the Right Club, which quietly recruited and placed Fascists in all government departments, in the army and in parliament. Ramsay planned to have Fascist agents of his Right Club everywhere. According to his own list of members of the Right Club, Ramsay succeeded in recruiting eleven MPs to join him. The damage that the Right Club could have done in the event of a German invasion was enormous. Ramsay intended that he would lead a Fascist government in Britain after the Germans had defeated his country.
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There were many other Fascists and Fascist organisations thriving in Britain by 1939. It was only after Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister that a crackdown took place. Mosley, Leese, Ramsay and hundreds of other leading Fascists were arrested on the grounds that they were a threat to national security, and they were detained in prison. Much of the information on their activities was gathered by a network of MI5 agents headed by spy chief Maxwell Knight. There is now a feast of available information on the activities of all the main characters in the British Fascist movement in previously secret MI5 files, which were opened at the National Archives, Kew, a few years ago. Knight’s agents infiltrated many of the Fascist organisations, including the Right Club. Their reports are startling. They reveal vehement pro-Nazi, anti-semitic and anti-Government views.
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Because of the detentions, the head was temporarily cut off the beast. However, there had been thousands of active British Fascists before the war, and there can be no doubt that many of the foot soldiers were in due course conscripted into the British Armed Forces. One example was Theodore Schurch, a member of the British Union of Fascists who served with the British Army in North Africa, acting as spy for the Axis forces, before finally defecting to them. He was executed after the war as a spy. An unanswered question is how many other British soldiers remained secretly pro-Fascist and pro-German. The evidence suggests that a number did, but just how many, and how well organized they were, remains unknown.
All possible preparations were taken by the British, but in the event the Nazis did not invade Britain in 1940. The Battle of Britain was fought in the skies, the Home Guard was on full alert, the Auxiliary Units were trained as “stay behinds” behind an advancing German front line, but the invasion never came. In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, and in due course the latter joined the Allies. In December 1941, after Pearl Harbour, so did the United States of America. By 1943, the fear of an invasion of Britain had ebbed away. The British Government began to release some of the British Fascist detainees, since it was felt that they could no longer be a threat to national security. In June 1944, on D-Day, the Allies successfully invaded Normandy and began to fight their way through France and into Germany. Allied casualties were significant, but they also took hundreds of thousands of German prisoners. By agreement, half of those captured were sent to prison camps in the United States, half were sent to the United Kingdom. By late November 1944, more than 250,000 German troops were on British soil, almost un-noticed by the British Government, who believed that victory was now certain, and that the only question was when that victory would be achieved – before Christmas 1944, or into 1945. The British Government were now content to release some of the most dangerous British Fascist detainees. By November 1944, Ramsay, Leese, Mosley and most of the other leading Fascists were free men. Orders were issued to permanently stand down the Home Guard.
All possible preparations were taken by the British, but in the event the Nazis did not invade Britain in 1940. The Battle of Britain was fought in the skies, the Home Guard was on full alert, the Auxiliary Units were trained as “stay behinds” behind an advancing German front line, but the invasion never came. In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, and in due course the latter joined the Allies. In December 1941, after Pearl Harbour, so did the United States of America. By 1943, the fear of an invasion of Britain had ebbed away. The British Government began to release some of the British Fascist detainees, since it was felt that they could no longer be a threat to national security. In June 1944, on D-Day, the Allies successfully invaded Normandy and began to fight their way through France and into Germany. Allied casualties were significant, but they also took hundreds of thousands of German prisoners. By agreement, half of those captured were sent to prison camps in the United States, half were sent to the United Kingdom. By late November 1944, more than 250,000 German troops were on British soil, almost un-noticed by the British Government, who believed that victory was now certain, and that the only question was when that victory would be achieved – before Christmas 1944, or into 1945. The British Government were now content to release some of the most dangerous British Fascist detainees. By November 1944, Ramsay, Leese, Mosley and most of the other leading Fascists were free men. Orders were issued to permanently stand down the Home Guard.
The body of Werner Drechsler, victim of Nazi Vehmic Justice, hung on display in Papago Park Prisoner of War Camp, Phoenix, Arizona
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Adolf Hitler did not overlook his quarter of a million troops in Britain. Many of them were recently captured, almost all were front line troops, they included many Waffen SS and other fanatical Nazis, and they maintained, in most of the prison camps, an iron Nazi discipline, both in Britain and the US. This discipline was maintained by a brutal imposition of Nazi Vehmic Law – an ancient system of vigilante law dating from medieval Westphalia, and adapted by the Nazis to ensure absolute obedience. For a German prisoner of war, the war was not over – he remained on active duty, waiting for the Fuhrer’s orders. Under the Vehmic system, those who were found guilty of anti-Nazi activities would be beaten to death by a Nazi mob, and then their bodies would be hung by the neck in a public place for all to see. In the prisoners of war camps, the public place was usually the camp latrine block. The Vehmic system also provided that anti-Nazis would be reported to the authorities back in Germany, and their families might then be executed and their possessions seized. Thus, in the majority of camps the German prisoners remained active troops, waiting for their next set of orders. Hitler issued those orders in the late autumn of 1944. His invasion force was already in Britain. Hitler intended to use them to full effect in his final attempt to avoid total defeat by the Allies .
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The Nazis remained in alliance with the hard-line Italian Fascists. Most of the Italians brought to Britain as prisoners of war were content that the war had ended for them, but by no means all. There were prison camps such as at Doonfoot in Scotland which contained hardened pro-Mussolini Fascists. They too were not forgotten by Hitler.
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Hitler’s final “throw of the dice” is known to many as the Battle of the Bulge, a major counter-attack through the Ardennes launched early on 16 December 1944. The objective was to divide the US army from the British army, to get behind them both, and force them to sue for peace. Hitler would then be free to concentrate his forces on the Eastern front. The plan for the Battle of the Bulge included a unit of English-speaking Germans, dressed in US army uniforms, who were to infiltrate behind US lines and cause as much chaos as possible. According to some of those captured, this unit was also to head for Paris with the objective of attacking US HQ and assassinating US Commanding General Dwight Eisenhower. Also in December, there was to be a counter-attack down the Serchio Valley in Italy by German and Italian forces, with a number of the Axis forces dressed in the other sides’ uniform.
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Arnold Leese in his Imperial Fascist League uniform
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However, Hitler’s masterstroke was to be in Britain. He planned to mobilise his 250,000 front line troops there, to unite the units from the various prisoner of war camps together, and to march on his chosen objective, London. On December 16 1944, Winston Churchill was in London. If Churchill and Eisenhower could be assassinated simultaneously, the Allies might fall into disarray. Hitler’s plan in Britain depended on a successful break out from the Le Marchant prisoner of war camp in Devizes, Wiltshire. From that camp, seven thousand troops were to break out, killing their guards, seizing weapons from the arms store, and then attacking the two US hospitals adjacent to the prison camp. Once the Nazis had seized the two hospitals, they would have had an ample supply of US hospital vehicles, and US uniforms, with which to move through the United Kingdom, in particular against London. There were also plans to seize armoured vehicles and a nearby RAF airbase. From Devizes, the Nazis would join up with ten thousand troops escaped from a camp near Sheffield, and others from Wales and Scotland. If all went well, they would then link up with other escaped German units from all over the United Kingdom, and also Fascist Italians. There is clear evidence that the Nazis in the Devizes camp were being helped by British Fascists, and with such help, they would have had every chance of reaching London in their stolen hospital vehicles. By December 1944, almost all available Allied front line troops were fighting in mainland Europe, and the quality of most Allied troops in Britain was vastly inferior to the troopers of the Third Reich.
The Keep of Le Marchant Barracks, Devizes, where the break-out was planned to begin. Photographed in December 2018.
In December 1944, most of the significant British Fascist leaders were free men. Ramsay, for example, was a free man after more than four years in prison. Therefore, the Nazi escapees would have had help if they had succeeded in reaching London. Ramsay was still a serving MP, he had refused to resign during his time in custody. He had access to the House of Commons, and as a Conservative and Unionist MP could sit within feet of his sworn enemy Winston Churchill. He had, quite literally, the key to the door of parliament if his Nazi friends wished to use it. On 16 December, a meeting was planned for all the ex-detainee British Fascists in London, under the disguise of a “Social”. There can be little doubt that the meeting was to be used for announcing to all of Britain’s Fascist leaders that a major break out of German prisoners was about to begin, and giving them their orders to provide the Nazis with help and support.
Happily, Winston Churchill survived. The book explains how the plot was discovered and foiled, and the brutal Nazi aftermath.
However, even after Hitler had died, and the Axis powers had lost the war, British Fascism survived. In April 1946, Ramsay commented that the Nazis had been fully justified in their methods against the Jews – the Holocaust was, in Ramsay’s view, a justifiable way to solve the Jewish problem. Meanwhile, Arnold Leese busied himself, and his network, smuggling Nazi war criminals out of British prisoner of war camps with the hope of getting them to South America. Many British Fascists still believed in the re-birth of a Nazi Reich.
Happily, Winston Churchill survived. The book explains how the plot was discovered and foiled, and the brutal Nazi aftermath.
However, even after Hitler had died, and the Axis powers had lost the war, British Fascism survived. In April 1946, Ramsay commented that the Nazis had been fully justified in their methods against the Jews – the Holocaust was, in Ramsay’s view, a justifiable way to solve the Jewish problem. Meanwhile, Arnold Leese busied himself, and his network, smuggling Nazi war criminals out of British prisoner of war camps with the hope of getting them to South America. Many British Fascists still believed in the re-birth of a Nazi Reich.