First SEALs (34 page)

In the late spring, “
American P-38s came over at about 100 feet and really gave us a thrill,” said Taylor. “We never dreamed that Americans would ever be near, but now we heard rumors
that they were in Regensburg and coming fast.” At the beginning of May, the SS officers abruptly departed from the camp, bringing an end to the daily executions. On May 4 the prisoners began to hear the sound of battle in the distance, and Taylor began to hope against hope that the Americans would finally arrive and set the camp free.

T
HE DISTANT SOUND OF
an engine put Staff Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek and the rest of his reconnaissance team on high alert. The group had set out before dawn that morning, ordered to scout the bridges in the area, and had no idea what they might find this deep in German territory. Peering through his binoculars, the sergeant saw a white car with a red cross painted on its hood headed right for their position.

Cautious that this might be a trick, the entire group trained their weapons on the vehicle as it slowed to a stop. Two men got out of the car and explained that they were looking for a general because they wanted to surrender a large concentration camp to the Americans. Although taken by surprise, Kosiek immediately determined that liberating the camp should be his next priority. He radioed his CO and requested permission to approach the camp. He “
stressed the fact that 1,600 prisoners were depending upon us for fast liberation”
*
and talked the officer into authorizing the team to go to the camp.

Still on the lookout for a trap, Kosiek first reached the camp at Gusen and then headed for Mauthausen. Along the way he received new orders to return to his original reconnaissance mission.
Fat chance!
thought Kosiek. He later wrote, “
From beginning to
end I had to explain the situation impressing my superiors that to return now would possibly be more dangerous than to continue. They realized it was no longer a matter of choice and that the inevitable would have to be.”

At first glance, Kosiek thought Mauthausen looked like a factory, but soon the electric fence came into view and behind it he saw “hundreds of people who went wild with joy when they first sighted us,” said the sergeant. “It's a sight I'll never forget. Some had just blankets covering them and others were completely nude, men and women combined, making the most emaciated looking mob I have ever had the displeasure to look upon. I still shake my head in disbelief when that picture comes before me, for they hardly resembled human beings. Some couldn't have weighed over forty pounds.” The German prison guards greeted the newcomers with an American salute, and the crowd of prisoners went wild. “Never before have I felt such a sensation running through me as I did at that moment,” recalled Kosiek. “I felt like some celebrity being cheered at Soldiers Field in Chicago. That was the first time I have had people so overjoyed at seeing me. As I stood there looking out at the mob I realized what this meant to them and I was glad we had made the effort to free the camp.” Kosiek had the former inmates gather in the courtyard of the prison. From somewhere the prisoners found instruments and started playing “The Star Spangled Banner.” Kosiek recalled, “My emotions were so great that the song suddenly meant more to me than it ever did before. Many of the refugees were crying as they watched our platoon standing at attention presenting arms.”

Taylor felt elated when fellow prisoners excitedly broke the news “
that an American Jeep and halftrack were at the entrance” of Mauthausen. Though weak with malnutrition and barely ambulatory, Taylor was determined to walk on his own two feet toward his liberators. The OSS operative staggered toward the gates of Mauthausen, where he encountered a crowd of “frenzied” prisoners gathering
in front of the fence. Though he could hardly make any headway through the mob, the spectacle gave him hope that the prisoners' stories might actually be true. He continued to doggedly push and navigate his way through the cheering, emaciated group of inmates until he found himself standing before a tall, burly soldier wearing the uniform and stripes of an American sergeant. The newcomer identified himself as “Albert Kosiek, Troop D, 11th Armored Division, Third U.S. Army.”

With a quivering hand, Taylor held up his dog tags and whispered the words that first came to mind:

“God Bless America.”

*
In actuality there were tens of thousands of prisoners at the two camps Kosiek's team liberated.

29

SUNSET

MAY 11, 1945, MILAN, ITALY

“Artifice” entered the posh Milanese residence. James Angleton, Rome's X-2 counterintelligence chief, had previously vetted the
Decima MAS
agents who joined the Allied side, and now he would be called upon to capture their leader, infamously known as the Black Prince. Junio Valerio Borghese had been hiding in the home of a friend for several days following the surrender of the German forces in Italy. By this time the Allies had captured most of the Axis-aligned
Decima MAS
operatives, but Borghese remained at large. The new, forward-thinking X-2 counterintelligence chief saw how useful a man like Borghese could be to the United States against a new potential adversary—the Russians. Angleton was determined to bring the Black Prince safely into American custody.

The OSS intended to capture Borghese and squeeze him for as much information as possible. However, the British and the Italian partisans had different plans for the Black Prince: both groups intended to execute him without a trial. At his first meeting with Borghese, Angleton offered the
Decima MAS
leader a fair trial if he would cooperate. However, Borghese was suspicious of the OSS's true intentions and declined his offer.

Yet, when Borghese learned the partisans had discovered his whereabouts and were en route to claim their prize, the Black Prince quickly turned himself over to Angleton. Concerned for his captive's safety, Angleton dressed Borghese in an American military uniform and drove him to an apartment in Rome, where the Americans arrested him on May 19. For several months the former Italian special operations chief provided invaluable intelligence to the Allies. His working relationship with Western intelligence agencies would continue after the war. Some have alleged that the Black Prince may also have helped plan a Cold War underwater sabotage operation. The Allies had promised the Russians a particular Italian battleship, the
Giulio Cesare
, as a war prize. They turned it over to the Soviets in 1949. It was commissioned in the Soviet navy as
Novorossiysk
and became the flagship of the Black Sea fleet. In what is considered the worst Soviet naval disaster in history, the prized vessel sank after a mysterious massive explosion tore a 150-meter hole in her bow, killing more than six hundred sailors. Multiple theories as to the cause of the explosion persist to this day, including a mine and possible underwater sabotage linked to former
Decima MAS
operatives.

Despite Borghese's assistance, the Italians pressed for his prosecution, and a lengthy trial began in the fall of 1945. The court convicted him of collaborating with the Germans and sentenced him to nine years in prison, of which he served four. Upon his release the neo-Fascist Black Prince became heavily involved in the postwar Italian political landscape—a Cold War crossroad between the East and the West.

M
AY 8, 1944, MARKED
the end of the war in Europe. Thereafter the Allies focused almost entirely on the war in the Pacific. Many MU agents in Europe transferred to the Pacific, including Ted Morde. In late July 1945, Morde led a mission to conduct an intelligence survey of an island off the coast of China. When
his team was still yards from shore, they came under heavy fire from twenty-four Japanese-crewed junks moored near the beach. According to the official records, “Throughout the running battle which ensued he directed the action of his group with coolness though continuously exposed to enemy fire.” Morde and his men managed to evade the Japanese, allowing them to thoroughly explore and map the island. During a heavy monsoon storm that threatened to capsize his vessel, Morde himself used a small oar-driven boat called a sampan to take soundings of the beaches in “an operation taken at great risk and accomplished with great difficulty.” Later, he recruited approximately seven hundred workers who helped the team repair the air strip, which allowed the U.S. Army Air Corps to land planes on the island.
*

A
S THE WAR IN THE
P
ACIFIC
came to a close, the OSS deactivated the MU in June 1945. Many MU operatives transferred into the special operations branch and received parachute training and continued to conduct maritime missions, despite the disbandment of the MU. The final OSS combat swimming mission of World War II, dubbed “Caprice V,” took place in August 1945. A rescue team was tasked with finding the agents from an earlier submarine-launched Caprice mission which had conducted reconnaissance of a small group of occupied Batu Islands off the west coast of Sumatra. Two OSS swimmers, including Gordon Soltau, future all-pro
football player for the San Francisco 49ers, were part of the mission to recover the lost men. On the first beach the Caprice team attempted to infiltrate, they received automatic weapons fire from Japanese sentries. The men retreated and successfully infiltrated a neighboring island a short distance away. In a dramatic fashion, Soltau was “
dispatched upstream, swimming to reconnoiter along the way” to ensure the rescue team didn't get ambushed by the Japanese. Soltau and the men got into several other fire fights while leaving no stone unturned in their quest to find the agents of the original Caprice mission. However, their valiant efforts were in vain; they never located the missing men.