The Gate of Hell - SAS in Belsen 1945

[Oddball]

The Gate of Hell
by Alexander van Straubenzee


Sixty years ago, on April 15, 1945, Lieutenant John Randall, then a 24-year-old SAS officer, was on a reconnaissance mission in northern Germany. He and his driver were heading down the road to Lüneberg when he noticed a large, imposing iron gate in front of a track leading off into the woods to their left. Curious, Randall decided to investigate, and so discovered one of the most horrifying aspects of Hitler's Germany.



Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=IH41J2LIJWMJHQFIQMFSNAGAVCBQ0JVC?xml=/news/2005/04/10/wbels10.xml)

[Upfrontreporting]

Fantastic read, must have been an experience beyond what anyone can imagine.


regards
Upfrontreporting

[Solo]

If you guys have ever seen Band of Brothers, that scene is well represented.

[Upfrontreporting]

Yeah, I've seen BoB, although the smell is not conveyed in a TV-show.
Must have been terrible.

[Vivelamorte]

The Gate of Hell
by Alexander van Straubenzee


Sixty years ago, on April 15, 1945, Lieutenant John Randall, then a 24-year-old SAS officer, was on a reconnaissance mission in northern Germany. He and his driver were heading down the road to Lüneberg when he noticed a large, imposing iron gate in front of a track leading off into the woods to their left. Curious, Randall decided to investigate, and so discovered one of the most horrifying aspects of Hitler's Germany.



Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=IH41J2LIJWMJHQFIQMFSNAGAVCBQ0JVC?xml=/news/2005/04/10/wbels10.xml)

I think I would've killed the camp commanders and that one guard with my bare hands. Bloody bastards.

[RGRBOX]

Interesting story.. thanks.

[Minjin]

An important read. Thanks for posting.

[Oddball]

I think I would've killed the camp commanders and that one guard with my bare hands. Bloody bastards.


We discovered, however, that members of 1 SAS shot SS guards in the Belsen concentration camp. As John Randall remembers, and he was among the first to go into Belsen, some of the men were given a guided tour of the camp by the Camp Commandant, Kramer, and his assistant, Irma Greese. He describes Kramer as a big 'fearsome-looking’ man and Greese as a ‘ sinister woman dressed in black’. The guards were still arrogant and defiant. ‘They just let us drive through the gates. We gave some of them an option to escape. The ones who accepted the offer fled into the woods. We followed them and shot them - probably about six.’

Reg Seekings, who was also at Belsen, remembered a stocky Irishman who was shooting guards for what he claimed the SS had done to his comrades in France. That Irishman was Billy Hull. ‘I’ll never forget Belsen,’ Hull confesses. ‘The smell of rotting bodies. The place was an incredible size. I caught a guard beating a prisoner behind a hut and I sorted him out. I kept thinking of my friends that the SS executed on the Garstin “stick” in France.

‘In a hut I came across five SS guards , three of them women. One of them began pleading with me and was taking out photographs of his family. As he went to hand them to me, one of the SS women hit him in the mouth. I shot the five of them.’

It has taken Billy Hull over forty years to admit to this, though he adds that another SAS colleague shot a group of captured SS men behind a barn near Belsen.

From 'Rogue Warrior of the SAS The Blair Mayne Legend' by M.Dillon & R.Bradford (1987)

[martinexsquaddie]

michael bentaine of childrens tv fame
liberated one camp and recalled shooting guards out of hand
quite easy to tell even the ones who put on prison uniforms they were the well fed ones :(
can't really see an arguement for not slotting them

[Freibier]

michael bentaine of childrens tv fame
liberated one camp and recalled shooting guards out of hand
quite easy to tell even the ones who put on prison uniforms they were the well fed ones :(
can't really see an arguement for not slotting them
Agreed, would have probably done the same

[M1A2U2]

Ive heard the new version of the 1980s film "The Big Red One portrays the liberation of a camp very well

[California Joe]

Amazing isn't it.

I'd like to buy Billy Hull a drink.