THE EVIL HORRORS AND ATROCITIES OF THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS AND BEYOND, HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL, UK…. (LEST WE FORGET)

Here below is a very brief look and insight into our Nazi Holocaust Years Exhibition here at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail, UK

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman of Adolf Hitler here on display at The Crime Through Time Collection , Littledean Jail , UK .

 

HERE IS A PICTURE OF SOME OF THE EMPTY  ZYKLON B CANISTERS USED AT VARIOUS NAZI DEATH CAMP GAS CHAMBERS , AS CAN BE SEEN HERE ON DISPLAY . ( LEST WE FORGET )

POLITE WARNING …  THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL (WHERE UPON THIS EXHIBITION IS HOUSED )  IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE EASILY OFFENDED , DISTURBED OR OF A SENSITIVE NATURE

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail ,UK.

THE CONTENT HERE ON DISPLAY BOTH ONLINE AND WITHIN THE JAIL IS IN THE MAIN HARD HITTING , GRAPHIC, EXPLICIT , IN YOUR FACE , TONGUE IN CHEEK , CONTROVERSIAL AND TO MANY … VERY DISTURBING .

WITH THIS IN MIND AND FOR YOUR BENEFIT AND COMFORT … PLEASE DO TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF OUR FACEBOOK POSTS , READ OUR TOURISM LEAFLETS AND DO TAKE NOTICE OF ALL OUR WARNING SIGNAGE PRIOR TO ENTERING THE JAIL .

Irma Ida Ilse Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was a female SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women’s section of Bergen-Belsen.

Grese was convicted for crimes against humanity committed at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and sentenced to death at the Belsen trial. Executed at 22 years of age, Grese was the youngest woman to die judicially under British law in the 20th century. She was nicknamed by the camps’ inmates “the Hyena of Auschwitz Above : Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman  on display here at Littledean Jail,  of the sadistic Irma Grese …. deemed to be  “The Angel of Death ”  , who was subsequently arrested and later hanged by British Hangman Albert Pierrepoint

Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was the Commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dubbed The Beast of Belsen by camp inmates, he was a notorious German Nazi war criminal, directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. He was detained by the British army after the Second World War, convicted of war crimes and hanged on the gallows in Hamelin prison by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint.Below: Original painting by Gloucestershire Artist Paul Bridgman  on display here at Littledean Jail,  of the evil and sadistic Josef Kramer …. better known as “The Beast of Belsen “

Used original Zyklon B 100gram sized canisters from one of the first Nazi gas chambers situated at Grafeneck Euthanasia Center, housed in Grafeneck Castle, Germany . It had officially opened in January 1940 and was closed on the orders of Nazi warlord Himmler in December 1940 . This facility was mainly used to exterminate mentally Handicapped and retarded victims as part of the Nazi euthanasia program. These canisters are exceptionally rare find from what was one of the earliest gas chambers and crematorium facilities . There is evidence that exists to the effect that a minimum 10, 654 were gassed there, though inevitably many more victims were murdered there before its closure . these canisters are now on public display at the Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail

Here is some more interactive, historical and hopefully educational background footage and insight into the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust years. The photo gallery below the first video also provides a brief pictorial glimpse into our own disturbing Nazi Holocaust exhibition here at the jail .

We also feature a great many interactive pieces in relation to UK World War 2 Special Forces, including the SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the SAS (Special Air Service) …. whom were both actively involved in a great many operations against the Nazi’s during this period .

Original painting by Gloucestershire artist Paul Bridgman on display at The Crime Through Time Collection, Littledean Jail , UK

BELOW IS A BRIEF PICTORIAL GLIMPSE INTO SOME OF THE EXHIBIT ITEMS HERE ON DISPLAY AT LITTLEDEAN JAILS  NAZI HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION .

 

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

Witness drawing of the sboskek wrist knife used to quickly dispatch prisoners at Jasenovac

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferiority”: Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

WHAT WAS THE HOLOCAUST?

In 1933, the Jewish population of Europestood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and theircollaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Although Jews, whom the Nazis deemed a priority danger to Germany, were the primary victims of Nazi racism, other victims included some 200,000 Roma (Gypsies). At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly Germans, living in institutional settings, were murdered in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people. Between two and three million Soviet prisoners of warwere murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment. The Germans targeted the non-Jewish Polish intelligentsia for killing, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians for forced labor in Germany or in occupiedPoland, where these individuals worked and often died under deplorable conditions. From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and others whose behavior did not match prescribed social norms. German police officials targeted thousands of political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of incarceration and maltreatment.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE “FINAL SOLUTION” 

In the early years of the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established concentration camps to detain real and imagined political and ideological opponents. Increasingly in the years before the outbreak of war, SS and police officials incarcerated Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps. To concentrate and monitor the Jewish population as well as to facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the Germans and their collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps for Jews during the war years. The German authorities also established numerous forced-labor camps, both in the so-called Greater German Reich and in German-occupied territory, for non-Jews whose labor the Germans sought to exploit.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941,Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) and, later, militarized battalions of Order Police officials, moved behind German lines to carry out mass-murder operations against Jews, Roma, and Soviet state and Communist Party officials. German SS and police units, supported by units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than a million Jewish men, women, and children, and hundreds of thousands of others. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of many of its Axis allies to ghettos and to killing centers, often called extermination camps, where they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities.

THE END OF THE HOLOCAUST

In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter andliberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp closed in 1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely

SAS HEROES – SERGEANT ANDY McNAB DCM MM, CHRIS RYAN MM AND BRAVO TWO ZERO HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Sergeant Andy McNab DCM MM (born 28 December 1959) is the pseudonym of an English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.

McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the Special Air Service (SAS) patrol, Bravo Two Zero, for which he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1991. He had previously received the Military Medal in 1980, awarded for an action whilst serving with the Royal Green Jackets in Northern Ireland during 1979

In addition to Bravo Two Zero he has written two other autobiographies and a number of fiction books.

Andy McNab, Chris Ryan  and Bravo Two Zero feature here at The Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean Jail within our SAS Who Dares Wins Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW)  exhibition, so if you are in the area please do drop by and pay a visit .

AN INTERVIEW WITH SAS HERO ANDY McNAB ABOUT BRAVO TWO ZERO.

BELOW IS A PICTURE OF THE ORIGINAL BRAVO TWO ZERO PATROL MEMBERS

(Bravo Two Zero patrol members. From left to right: Ryan, Consiglio, MacGown (obscured), Lane, Coburn (obscured), McNab (obscured), Phillips, Pring (obscured).

Sergeant ‘Andy McNab‘ (pseudonym), DCM, MM, patrol commander former Royal Green Jackets Captured by the enemy, later released. Author of Bravo Two Zero (1993)

.Sergeant Vincent (Vince) David Phillips, patrol 2IC^] former Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Died of hypothermia during action, 25 January 1991

.Corporal ‘Chris “Geordie” Ryan’, (Pseudonym), MMformer 23(R) SAS. The only member of the patrol to escape capture. Author of The One That Got Away (1995)

.Lance Corporal Ian Robert “Dinger” Pring former Parachute Regiment. Captured by the enemy, later released.

Trooper Robert (Bob) Gaspare Consiglio, MM (posthumous) former Royal Marine or Parachute Regiment. Killed in action, 27 January 1991.

Trooper Steven John “Legs” Lane, MM (posthumous) former Lance Corporal of 9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers and former Parachute Regiment. Died of hypothermia during action, 27 January 1991.

Trooper Malcolm (Mal) Graham MacGown, BDSc former Australian 1st Commando Regiment. Captured by the enemy, later released. Referred to as ‘Stan’ in the books.

Trooper ‘Mike “Kiwi”Coburn’ (pseudonym) former NZSAS Captured by the enemy, later released. Author of Soldier Five (2004). Referred to as ‘Mark the Kiwi’ in the books.

BELOW IS A BRILLIANT BATTLE SCENE CLIP FROM THE BRAVO TWO ZERO FILM STARRING SEAN BEAN AS ANDY McNAB

BELOW IS A BRIEF GALLERY OF SOME OF THE PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION ITEMS FROM ANDY McNAB , CHRIS RYAN AND OTHER SAS MEMBERS NOW ON DISPLAY HERE AT THE SAS EXHIBITION WHICH ARE FEATURED IN AND AMONGST VARIOUS OTHER BRAVO TWO ZERO RELATED EXHIBIT ITEMS .

FORMER SAS BRAVO TWO ZERO HERO CHRIS RYAN SEEN PICTURED HERE WITH ANDY JONES FROM THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL

BELOW IS A HAND SIGNED PICTURE OF SAS HERO CHRIS RYAN

HAND SIGNED BY CHRIS RYAN ,

BELOW IS A LINK TO THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE ON THE COVERING OF SAS MISSION IN IRAQ DURING THE FIRST GULF WAR-  BRAVO TWO ZERO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_Two_Zero

THE HORRORS AND EVIL ATROCITIES OF RELIGIOUS WARFARE DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS WITH THE BLOODTHIRSTY CROATIAN PRO-NAZI, “USTASHA BLACK LEGION MILITIA” ,

JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP …. ONE OF THE CRUELEST AND MOST EVIL OF THEM ALL … AS FEATURED HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , UK … “LEST WE FORGET”

BELOW ARE TWO INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY INSIGHT FOOTAGE VIDEOS OF THE HORRORS WITHIN THE CAMP . NO WORDS THOUGH WE ARE SURE YOU WILL AGREE, THESE IMAGES TELL A THOUSAND OR MORE UNTOLD STORIES .

The Ustaše (pronounced [ûstaʃe]), also known as “Ustashe”, “Ustashas”, and “Ustashi”, were members of the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement (Croatian: Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret), a Croatian fascist and terrorist organization active, in its original form, between 1929 until 1945. Its members murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma during World War II in Yugoslavia

 

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

Witness drawing of the sboskek wrist knife used to quickly dispatch prisoners at Jasenovac

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

Srbosjek (literally “Serb cutter” in Croatian and Serbian, often referred to as “cutthroat”) is the colloquial serbo-Croatian term for a type of knife used for killing …

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ORIGINAL “SRBOSJEK” SERB THROAT CUTTER AS WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP DURING THE WW2 NAZI HOLOCAUST YEARS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

Heavy long handled wooden-mallet/club-used-to-crush-the-skulls-of-prisoners-at-jasenovac

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

HEAVY DUTY LONG HANDLED MALLET/HAMMER OF THE KIND THAT WAS USED BY THE USTASHA BLACK LEGION AS A PREFFERED FORM OF KILLING INMATES AT THE WW2 CROATIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS …RATHER THAN GASSING THEIR VICTIMS

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT AND UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM CAP BADGE

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION BELT BUCKLE REMNANT

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

GROUND DUG ORIGINAL USTASHA BLACK LEGION UNIFORM INSIGNIA

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … LEATHER BELT COMPLETE WITH IT’S ORIGINAL BUCKLE , ALONG THE TOP RIM ARE HAND SCRATCHED NOTCH MARKS PURPORTING TO BE NUMBERS OF KILLS BY THE OWNER OF THE BELT

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … HANDMADE LADY SIZED USTASHA DECORATIVE RING WITH THE LETTERS A.M. ETCHED TO THE SIDE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA CAP BADGE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA CAP BADGE

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

ORIGINAL “GROUND DUG ” FROM A USTASHA EXECUTION SITE … A USTASHA SOLDIER’S HANDMADE DECORATIVE RING MADE FROM THE REMNANTS OF A PIECE OF KRUPP BERNDORF CUTLERY WITH AN ADDED USTASHA EMBLEM .

During the Holocaust, one group of killers stood out as more vicious, murderous, and bloodthirsty than all others. The Ustasha of Yugoslavia was a Muslim-Catholic alliance of Nazi killers so beastly that even Nazi officials in Berlin were horrified. The Ustasha and three related crack divisions of Arab-Nazi Waffen SS comprised of tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers and terrorized people of all faiths in Yugoslavia. In large measure, these murder machines emerged through the efforts of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. The grand mufti was on a mission to accelerate the extermination of all Jews everywhere. His partner was Adolf Hitler. The epic story of this alliance is one that began in Jerusalem, traveled to Baghdad, culminated in the Balkans, and ultimately spread across all Europe. In many ways, the scene was set centuries ago by the Medina Extermination of 627. Medina was a largely Jewish city. When its 600 or so Jews refused to convert to the new Muslim religion, the Prophet Muhammad murdered them in a protracted ceremony, beheading the Jewish faithful one by one. This massacre became a glorious iconic event in Islamic history. After Medina, the Islamic Conquest swept across the Middle East and North Africa. In about 700, the Pact of Umar declared that Jews and Christians under Muslim control could continue as non-Muslims, but only as dhimmis – that is, second-class citizens reviled for their existence and denied many ordinary rights. Throughout the ages while dwelling in the various realms of the Muslim world, Jews and Christians were either allowed to excel and thrive or were brutally repressed and persecuted, depending on the decade and territory. But the context of their existence – whether successful or subjugated – was always as second-class citizens. Islam’s many anti-Jewish mandates were not just ancient textual relics but were often quoted by Islamic leaders throughout the centuries. When the League of Nations, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, and finally Turkey endorsed a Jewish homeland, each with a formal resolution resembling that of the Balfour Declaration, it ignited a seismic outrage among Arabs. The very thought of Jews living as equals was anathema to Palestinian Arabs. From 1920, their regular rallying call was Itbach al Yahood! – Slaughter the Jews. With knives and rifles, in small spontaneous groups and organized mobs, Arabs murdered Palestinian Jews, burned their Torahs and laid waste to their synagogues as Jews tried to rebuild a homeland. Indeed, in 1929, when Jews sat down while they prayed at the Western Wall, violating Islamic prohibitions against Jews sitting there – a mob of Arabs swarmed over Hebron sadistically killing dozens. The Jewish baker was baked in his own oven. A Jewish scholar’s brain was extricated and used as a ball. In 1937, the Peel Report concluded that two states should be created, one Arab and one Jewish, living side by side. But the Muslim world would not tolerate the notion of coexistence with Jews as equals. “Our hatred for the Jews dates from God’s condemnation of them for their persecution and rejection of Isa [Jesus], and their subsequent rejection later of His chosen Prophet [Muhammad] . Verily the word of God teaches us, and we implicitly believe this for a Muslim to kill a Jew ensures him an immediate entry into Heaven and into the august presence of God Almighty. What more then can a Muslim want in this hard world?” These were the words of the king of Saudi Arabia during a lecture to the British Foreign Ministry in 1937. The grand mufti of Jerusalem was the leader of the Palestinians. The Nazi-Arab alliance had been aggressively sought by the Arabs of Palestine since the Third Reich’s first moments in 1933. After the Peel Report, the mufti and his loyal followers launched a murderous, non-stop insurrection known as the Arab Revolt. When the British tried to arrest him, the mufti fled to Iraq where he helped foment a coup. In Iraq, the mufti found a virulent and widely embraced Arab-Nazi movement. Mein Kampf had been serialized in Arabic. Hitler Youth-style Arab regiments were well organized. On June 1-2, 1941 – after a failed Nazi-Arab attempt to exterminate the Jews of Iraq – Baghdad Nazis, the police and national military units went on a two-day murder spree. Once the British finally restored order, the mufti fled again, this time to Iran where another failed Nazi takeover was thwarted. From Iran, the mufti and his cohorts escaped to Berlin to meet Hitler personally. In Berlin, a pact was sealed to provide Arab oil and battlefield military assistance sufficient to help the Nazi push into Russia in exchange for recognizing an Arab national state and exterminating the Jews. Arab military units formed from Paris to Palestine. Arabs and Muslims worldwide, on the radio and in newspapers, incessantly and openly called for the extermination of the Jews. The rallying cry was: “In Heaven, Allah is your master; on Earth, Adolf Hitler.” When Heinrich Himmler needed to fight the partisans of Yugoslavia to protect German supply lines, the mufti visited the region and helped organize tens of thousands of Muslims and Arabs into three Waffen SSdivisions. Those three divisions – the Handschar, the Skandebeg, and the Kama – formed artillery brigades, transport battalions, infantry companies, and fought a bloody trench and mountain warfare against the partisans in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, and the other Balkan territories. * * * * * Concomitantly, a Nazi murder militia known as Ustasha was created from a legion of Catholic and Muslim killers. The history is complex. In the Croatian maelstrom of ethnic and religious hatred, steered by Nazi mentors and puppet masters, Catholic Croats ironically decreed that all Muslims were Croats. This enabled the Catholic Croats to establish a majority in their enlarged territorial domain. That enlarged Independent State of Croatia was known in the dialect as Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or the NDH. The Independent State of Croatia was in fact a bi-ethnic murder regime sworn to exterminate the millions of Yugoslavians who were neither Catholic nor Muslim through the Ustasha. Although Muslims were a minority in the NDH, the Bosniak Muslim faction and the Croatian Catholics jointly ruled and jointly murdered. The NDH’s fascist extremist president was a staunch Hitler ally and former Jesuit seminarian, Ante Pavelić. His official title was poglavnik, a Croatian word that approximates der Führer.The vice president was Muslim Džafer-beg Kulenović, previously president of the Yugoslav Moslem Organization, a Bosniak nationalist organization. The Croatian minister of culture and education was Mile Budak, a rabid Catholic-Nazi who propagated the axiom of killing one-third, converting one-third and expelling one-third of all Serbs. Budak and other Catholic Croats believed Muslims were actually descendants of the ancient Bogomil people who had inhabited the Croatian lands centuries earlier. As a leader in forging the Muslim-Catholic alliance, Budak enthusiastically proclaimed in 1941, “We Croats are happy and proud of our [Christian] faith, but we must be conscious of the fact that our Muslim brothers are the purest ofCroats.” He elaborated in a speech that the NDH was “Christian. [But] it is also a Muslim state where our people are of the Muslim religion.” In July 1941, Budak openly declared that the new state must exterminate “foreign elements,” that is, Jews and Gypsies as well as the larger enemy, Orthodox Serbs. Budak hid nothing about his plans. “The basis for the Ustasha movement is religion,” announced Budak. “For minorities such as Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, we have 3 million bullets.” To cement the Muslim and Catholic killing coalition, NDH president Pavelić converted a local Zagreb museum to a huge and impressive mosque, adding surrounding minarets to its modern architecture, and naming the mosque after himself. Numerous NDH ministries were controlled or headed by Muslims. Pavelić even donned a Muslim fez to show his solidarity. Muslims were invited to join the barbaric Croatian Peasant Party and did so in significant numbers. When Muslims served in the Ustasha First Regiment, known as Black Legion, their black uniforms were the same as their Catholic co-killers. Senior officers were dressed in identical garb. Ibrahim Pirić-Pjanić and Memesaga Dzubur led their own local Ustasha-affiliated contingents. Muslim Ustasha Muhamed Hadžiefendić led his own militia in Tuzla. Hadžiefendić’s militia became so strong that Bosniaks wanted it to operate autonomously in Muslim areas of Bosnia. The Diet legislature, which passed a sequence of genocidal decrees, included 11 Muslims specifically appointed for that purpose. These decrees included outlawing Serbian and Jewish existence in Croatia, the looting of Serbian and Jewish property, and the systematic transfer to Serbian and Jewish citizens into death camps and merciless killing fields. Catholic priests commonly operated the concentration camps, enforcing the most degrading of slaughter rituals. In Sarajevo, most of the looted and confiscated property of victims went to Muslims, who raced to grab Jewish and Serbian assets before their Catholic partners. Under Croatian decrees, Jews were compelled to wear yellow Star-of-David armbands and back patches marked with a “Z” for Zidov, the Croatian word for Jew. Muslims plundered and decimated the Great Sephardic Synagogue in Sarajevo and the centuries-old synagogue in Dubrovnik. When Muslim families were moved out of their villages near the battle lines, the Ustasha evicted Jews from their homes so the Croatian Muslims could take their place. When Jews fled the November 1941 mass roundups in Sarajevo, preparatory to planned extermination, a number of them escaped only by disguising themselves under Muslim veils. At the same time, many of the Jews who did survive the Jew-hunts did so by appealing to merciful neighbors in the Muslim quarter that took them in and hid them until they could escape safely. Many Muslims in Sarajevo rejected the Bosniak Ustasha horror and tried – in vain – to protest to their co-religionists. Serbs suffered enormously. As Serbs were being forcibly converted to Catholicism, some 450 Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished and their religious icons defiled. Orthodox priests were gruesomely tortured and their families shipped to concentration camps where they were subjected to every inhumanity. * * * * * Pavelić declared early on, “This is now the Ustasha and Independent State of Croatia. It must be cleansed of all Serbs and Jews. There is no room for any of them here. Not a stone upon a stone will remain of what once belonged to them.” He later said, “The Jews will be liquidated within a very short time.” To this end, more than 20 Ustasha concentration camps were established for the killing process, manned by combined Catholic and Muslim forces. The most notorious of these camps was the hellish complex known as Jasenovac, considered by many to be more sadistic than Auschwitz. The Ustasha’s barbaric methods for exterminating Jews and Serbs included sadistic group killing by cracking heads open with hammers until the cranial cavity was exposed. That was for adults. Children were commonly marched into the forest where their heads were crushed with long mallets. Sometimes children were thrown live into flaming furnaces. Decapitation or dismemberment with giant lumber saws was frequent. All too often, these Ustasha atrocities were not committed in fits of mad rage, but for sport, with the gleeful perpetrators smiling for the camera over the helpless victim waiting to be brutalized. Mass throat-slittings at great velocity were achieved with a small hand blade wrapped tight to the wrist and dubbed the Serbcutter. One night, guards at Jasenovac wagered among themselves to see who could cut the most throats with their Serbcutters. Guard Petar Brzica, a Franciscan priest, was determined to prove his skill, which he did by slicing the throats of an estimated 1,360 inmates. Guard Mile Friganović was close behind the winner, murdering about 1,100 Serbs that night. But Friganović was also known for an unspeakable incident in which an old man was asked to shout a salute to Croat president Ante Pavelić. When the old man hesitated, Friganović systematically and gleefully cut off his ears first, then his nose and tongue, after which he gouged out his eyes and then extracted the victim’s heart – and only after all that did Friganović end it all by slitting the prisoner’s throat. Friganović called the experience one of “ecstasy.” Groups of shivering Jewish children were brought into a camp one day. For sport, one guard began spinning a child above his head as the other guards slashed at him with their bayonets. Eventually, the guard was left with nothing but the child’s hand as a trophy. Other Ustasha trophies included eyeball collections, stored in wicker baskets for show and sometimes worn strung up in necklaces. NDH president Pavelić himself once showed a journalist a wicker basket filled with some 40 pounds of eyeballs. Pavelić joked that he could make an oyster stew with them. “A good Ustasha,” Pavelić told his troops, “is he who can use his knife to cut a child from the womb of its mother.” Cruel and inhumane as the Nazis were, they retreated in wide-eyed astonishment when they learned of the joint Catholic-Muslim Ustasha atrocities. German General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, commanding officer of the region headquartered in Zagreb, reported back to Berlin, “According to reliable reports from countless German military and civil observers during the last few weeks, the Ustasha have gone raging mad.” He added: “The most wicked [concentration camp] of all must be Jasenovac, where no ordinary mortal is allowed to peer in.” Hermann Naubacher, Hitler’s personal assistant for the Balkans, called the Ustasha exterminations “a crusade that belongs among the most brutal mass-murder undertakings in the entire history of the world.” Naubacher somberly added, “According to the reports that have reached me, my estimate is that the number of those defenseless slaughtered is some three-quarters of a million.” Eventually, the Nazis fell. Their allies in the Ustasha and the three Waffen SS divisions faced postwar justice in many cases. But too many melted into the turbulent history of the Cold War. The mufti escaped and became a revered icon of the Palestinian people. The legacy of Islamic and Arab hate that spurred the Farhud burned broad enough to help Hitler get ever closer to his goal of exterminating all Jews. But the Third Reich fell. And those in the Arab-Nazi movement went on to form the post-war geopolitical Middle East that prevails in the current century. Edwin Black is the author of “IBM and the Holocaust.” This article is adapted from his just-released book “The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance During the Holocaust” (Dialog, 2010). He will lecture on the topic on January 31 for the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History in New York City.

SAS “WHO DARES WINS” & “OPERATION NIMROD, IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE EXHIBITION” … HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL. FEATURING AMONGST OTHERS,RUSTY FIRMIN & PETE “SNAPPER ” WINNER, a.k.a SOLDIER “I” , ONE OF THE SAS HERO’S OF THE 1972 BATTLE OF MIRBAT & THE 1980 IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE, LONDON, FINAL ASSAULT.

WWW.SOLDIERISAS.COM

Above and Below : Pete Winner – Soldier I , during a visit to The Crime Through Time Collection at Littledean Jail, dressed in his SAS Black-kit

WWW.SOLDIERISAS.COM

FROM LEFT : PETE “SNAPPER” WINNER AND ANDY McNAB PICTURED TOGETHER AT AN EVENING WITH ANDY McNAB EVENT AT THE CHEPSTOW DRILL HALL. 

BELOW: PETE WINNER TALKS ABOUT THE “BATTLE OF MIRBAT “

WWW.SOLDIERISAS.COM

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PLEASE DON’T FORGET OUR OWN EVER GROWING …

SAS “WHO DARES WINS” AND UK SPECIAL FORCES EXHIBITION HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL , UK

ABOVE IS A TRIBUTE  COLLAGE POSTER RELATING TO THE STORMING OF THE IRANIAN EMBASSY ON THE 5 MAY 1980 SIGNED BY PETE WINNER,  NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE BOTH AT PETE WINNER EVENTS AND ALSO AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

WINNER EVENTS AND ALSO AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

ABOVE IS A GREAT OPERATION NIMROD TRIBUTE VIDEO

BELOW IS A GALLERY OF IMAGES FROM A RECENT MEDIA LAUNCH AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL   … SAS WHO DARES WINS AND UK SPECIAL FORCES EXHIBITION ….. ALSO BEING  IN ADVANCE OF AN EVENING EVENT WITH SAS HERO PETE “SNAPPER” WINNER – SOLDIER i , iAT THE OAKLANDS SPORTS AND SNOOKER CLUB , CINDERFORD , FOREST OF DEAN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE , UK.

BELOW IS A UNIQUE COLLAGE DEPICTING PETE WINNER AND HIS EQUALLY HEROIC COLLEAGUES WHO FOUGHT IN THE SAS OPERATION STORM AT BATTLE MIRBAT 19 JULY 1972. THESE ARE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AT PETE “SNAPPER” WINNER EVENTS AND ALSO AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL  (PLEASE NOTE …. THIS PARTICULAR POSTER WAS SIGNED TO ADVERTISE AND PROMOTE AN EVENING WITH EVENT BACK IN 2014 , ALL OTHER SIGNED POSTERS WILL NOT HAVE THIS WORDING INCLUDED , AND CAN BE PERSONALLY DEDICATED BY PETE )

BELOW IS A VIDEO INTRODUCTION INTO SOME OF THE HEROIC ANTICS OF SAS TROOPER… PETE WINNER  TAKEN FROM HIS WEBSITE , DO VISIT IT DIRECTLY FOR MORE INFORMATION (LINK HERE … http://www.soldierisas.com/ )

ABOVE IS A TRIBUTE  COLLAGE POSTER RELATING TO PETE WINNER IN HIS SAS BLACK KIT,  SIGNED BY HIMSELF  AND NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE BOTH AT PETE WINNER EVENTS AND ALSO AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

BELOW IS AN EXTRACT TAKEN FROM PETE WINNER SOLDIER “I” WEBSITE  ( http://www.soldierisas.com/ ) I first became aware of the Special Air Service Regiment when I was a young sapper serving with 10 Airfield Construction Squadron Royal Engineers during the emergency in Aden in 1967 – my first operational tour of duty. The SAS, in 1967, was a secret organization and there were all sorts of rumours flying around about what “The Regiment” was up to. I was intrigued. It seemed far more exciting than repairing bulldozers, getting covered in oil and grease all day long. Little did I know that in less than five years I would be part of this elite unit and facing hundreds of Communist shock troops at the Battle of Mirbat. I withdrew from Aden in November 1967 on one of the last flights out before the Communist regime took over. Tactical withdrawal they called it. To me it was abject surrender. I also felt I could no longer continue in the Royal Engineers, my enthusiasm for this kind of soldiering had gone. I made my mind up there and then that when I got back to the UK I would find out more about the SAS and how I could join. Back in the UK the regimental chief clerk of 10 Field Sqn. explained to me the procedure for applying for SAS Selection. I immediately lodged my application and within a few months found myself on the Brecon Beacons taking part in a series of gruelling Bergen (backpack) marches over very rough terrain. Mentally and physically I was well prepared because there was no way I was going back to the bullshit and drill that was the Royal Engineers and after three weeks of exhaustive tests I cracked the greatest physical challenge of my life – the Endurance March – forty-six miles across the Brecons with a fifty-five pound Bergen in twenty hours. To pass this final march guaranteed you a place on Continuation Training. This training included weapons and explosives, first aid, resistance to interrogation training and one month in the Far East on jungle training. All with the pressure of knowing that one mistake and you could still end up back in the Engineers.
SUCCESS! The prize was mine. After six months of intense training I became the proud owner of the famous badge and SAS wings. Out of the original 135 runners who had put themselves forward for Selection only 17 made it to the Colonel’s office for the presentation of the beret and wings. I was now badged and posted to 8 Troop, Land Rover Troop, “B” Squadron. I was pitched straight into squadron life and briefed on an operation that was going to take place in a few months; to retake Dhofar – a province in southern Oman – from Communist insurgents. My first SAS operation and I was going to get a crack at the regime that humiliated the British Army back in 1967! At the time I was not to know that in less than two years it would all end up with me fighting in the last conclusive battle against Communism that would help to bring down the Berlin Wall seventeen years later. The Battle of Mirbat, 19th July 1972, was a well planned, determined attack by hundreds of Communist shock troops against nine SAS soldiers – a modern day Rorke’s Drift that became famous in military circles but because it was part of a secret war it was a relatively unknown event in the eyes of the public. Eight years later I was involved in another spectacular “B” Squadron result when we achieved what many considered the impossible – the rescue of the hostages at the Iranian Embassy Siege in May 1980. For my part, I felt immense personal satisfaction and pride at being involved in two of the greatest SAS Operations of modern times. Both Operations would live forever in Regimental history. Both victories had been gained through faultless teamwork, immense physical courage and flexibility in the face of overwhelming odds. Pete Winner, August 2010 HERE BELOW ARE A FEW IMAGES OF SOME OF THE PERSONALLY CONTRIBUTED EXHIBIT PIECES  THAT SPECIFICALLY RELATE TO SAS TROOPER PETE WINNER AKA “SOLDIER “I” … THESE BEING ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL IN AMONGST OUR EVER EXPANDING SAS WHO DARES WINS & UK SPECIAL FORCES ” EXHIBITION .

PETE WINNER SIGNED POSTER

PETE WINNER SIGNED POSTER

IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE FINAL ASSAULT SIGNED ILLUSTRATION

REAR OF IRANIAN EMBASSY AT TIME OF THE FINAL ASSAULT , SIGNED BY PETE WINNER

PETE WINNER SIGNED POSTER

COPY OF ORIGINAL HAND DRAWING RELATING TO SIEGE BY PETE WINNER ALSO SIGNED BY HIM

PETE WINNER SIGNED COLLAGE

S6 GAS RESPIRATOR AND HOLDALL SIGNED BY PETE WINNER

S6 GAS RESPIRATOR SIGNED BY PETE WINNER

PETE WINNER SIGNED POSTER

SAS SIGNED BY VARIOUS TROOPERS, POSTER

FRONT ELEVATION ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ROOF ACCESS AND INTERNAL ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ROOF ACCESS AND INTERNAL ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ROOF ACCESS AND INTERNAL ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ROOF ACCESS AND INTERNAL ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ROOF ACCESS AND INTERNAL ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

REAR AND INTERNAL SIDE VIEW OF IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE FINAL ASSAULT

REAR ELEVATION ASSAULT OF IRANIAN EMBASSY

ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER FEATURING THE FINAL ASSAULT ON THE IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE

COMMEMORATIVE SAS OPERATION NIMROD PLATE AND MUG

COMMEMORATIVE SAS OPERATION NIMROD PLATE AND MUG

Personally signed (and original) signatures on this 9×6 print which depicts the SAS soldier known as Soldier 1 who survived ther Battle of Mirbat , was an Iranian Embassy Siege Assulter and parachuted into the seas off the Falklands during that Conflict with the Argentinians, assulting the Embassy from the back plus also signed by Pete Scholey (author of the Joker and SAS Heroes) who was with the Advance Party and helped install surveillance equipment

BATTLE OF MIRBAT 1972

The Battle of Mirbat took place on 19 July 1972 during the Dhofar Rebellion in Oman, which was supported by Communist guerrillas from South Yemen. Britain assisted the Omani government by sending elements of its Special Air Service both to train soldiers and compete against the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf (PFLOAG) guerrillas for the “hearts and minds” of the Omani people

At 6 am on 19 July 1972 the PFLOAG attacked the British Army Training Team (BATT) house, which housed the nine SAS soldiers, based just outside the Port of Mirbat. The PFLOAG (locally known as the Adoo) attacked the SAS BATT house knowing that to be able to reach the Port of Mirbat they would first have to defeat the SAS guarding the approach to the town in Jebel Ali, a series of small desert slopes leading to the Port.

The Officer in Command, Captain Mike Kealy observed the waves advancing on the fort, but did not order his men to open fire because he thought it was the “Night Picket” coming back from night shift, which were a loyal group of the Omani Armypositioned on the slopes to warn the BATT house of Adoo troop movements. Realising that the Night Picket must have been killed, due to them not warning the SAS of the assault Mike Kealy ordered his men to open fire. Mike Kealy along with other members of the team took up positions behind the sand-bag parapet on the roof of the BATT house, firing at the Adoo withL1A1 SLR battle rifles, with one man firing the Browning M2HB heavy machine gun, with a further two men on ground level operating and firing an infantry mortar surrounded by sand-bags. The Adoo were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, and were mortar bombing the area around the BATT house. Kealy ordered the signaller to establish communications with SAS Headquarters at Um al Quarif, to request reinforcements.

There were also a small number of Omani Intelligence Service personnel in the BATT House, a small contingent of Pakistani soldiers and a member of British Military Intelligence seconded to the OIS who joined the team on the roof and fired on the Adoo with SLRs and other small arms.  Initially some of the Pakistani soldiers were reluctant to join the defence of the fort because their roles with the BATT were largely administrative, but they obeyed orders from Mike Kealy and the British Military Intelligence Corporal

Overflying the BATT House, Mirbat.

Knowing that the SLRs would not be of full use until the Adoo were closer than the weapon’s range of 800 metres, and lacking more heavy firepower, Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba made a run for the 25 Pounder Artillery Piece which was positioned next to a smaller fort which stationed nine Omani Army Special Forces soldiers, who had not played a part in the battle. The Omani policeman who was guarding the weapon had been seriously wounded. Talaiasi Labalaba managed to operate the weapon, which is a six-man job, himself and fire a round a minute at the approaching Adoo, directing their attention away from the BATT house. Kealy received a radio message from Talaiasi reporting that a bullet had skimmed his face, and was badly injured, and was struggling to operate the gun by himself. At the BATT house Kealy asked for a volunteer to run to Talaiasi’s aid. Trooper Sekonaia Takavesi volunteered to go.

Sekonaia Takavesi ran from the BATT house, with the remaining men providing covering fire, in an attempt to distract the Adoo. Sekonaia ran the 800 metres through heavy gunfire, and reached the gun emplacement. Sekonaia tried to give aid to his injured friend, while firing at the approaching Adoo with his personal weapon. Realising that they needed help, Sekonaia tried to raise the small number of Omani soldiers inside the smaller fort, and Walid Khamis emerged. The only Omani Gendarmerie Officer in the Mirbat Fort was Lieutenant Hassan Bin Ehsan Bin Naseeb. The remaining Omani soldiers in the fort engaged the enemy with small arms fire from firing positions on the roof and through the windows of the fort As the two men made it back to the emplacement, the Omani soldier fell wounded after being shot in the stomach with a 7.62 mm bullet. Adoo continued to advance upon the BATT house, and artillery emplacement. At one point, the Adoo were so close Sekonaia and Talaiasi fired the weapon at point blank range, aiming down the barrel. Talaiasi crawled across a small space to reach a 60 mm Infantry Mortar, but fell dead after being shot in the neck. Sekonaia, also shot through the shoulder and grazed by a bullet to the back of his head continued to fire at the approaching Adoo with his personal weapon. The squad signaller sent messages through to the main Forward Operating Base, to request air support and medical evacuation for the men in the gun emplacement.

Inside the BATT House at Mirbat

Captain Kealy and Trooper Tobin made a run to the artillery piece. Upon reaching it, they dived in to avoid increasingly intense gunfire from the Adoo. Sekonaia continued to fire on the attackers, propped up against sand bags after being shot through the stomach (the bullet narrowly missing his spine). The Adoo threw several hand grenades, but only one detonated, exploding behind the emplacement with no one injured. During the battle, Trooper Tobin attempted to reach over the body of Talaiasi. In so doing, Tobin was mortally wounded when a bullet struck his face. By this time, BAC Strikemaster light-attack jets of the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force had arrived, and began strafing the Adoo in the Jebel Ali. With a low cloud base making for low altitude attack runs, only machine-guns and light rockets were used. Reinforcements arrived from G Squadron and, defeated, the PFLOAG withdrew at about 12:30. All wounded SAS soldiers were evacuated, and given medical treatment, Trooper Tobin eventually died in hospital not due to the multiple gunshot wounds but to an infection in his lung caused by his splintered tooth which he had aspirated when his bottom jaw was blown off by an AK-47 round.

BELOW IS A TRIBUTE VIDEO PERFORMED BY SWEDISH HEAVY METAL BAND – SABATON  FEATURING AN INSIGHT INTO THE BATTLE OF MIRBAT . 

USED WITH KIND PERMISSION FROM SABATON