As it's almost 30 years since he passed away I've been thinking a lot about my grandfather. He was a huge influence on my childhood and I loved him very much yet actually know very little about his wartime service sorry from a few things.
He very, very rarely spoke about his time in the war, hatred all war films and always said that we (the British) did truly horrific things too when ever us grandkids brought things up (this was the 70's so not that long after the war)
He also refused all of his medals, sung that he didn't want to be rewarding for the shit he had to do, was demobbed 2 years after all the other men and some of the few things he told us was that he used to parachute behind enemy lines and wait hidden, sometimes for days to liaise with the partisans.
At some point he was shot parachuting and had the shrapnel in his leg for the rest of his life.
We know that he was in Tunisia and Italy and my grandmother used to have a photo of him riding a white stallion fun when he was based at some place that he did they had taken from Cossacks and had a stable of horses. Grandad said the horse was an Arab but it looked more like Spanish type breeds to me, more square and muscular. I know that the Spanish riding school horses were rescued from the Germans at some point but don't think that was it as I'm sure he would have mentioned it.
One of the things he brought home was a sword that he said he also took from Cossack in battle, after his death my uncle sent it to Sotheby's to be valued and identified, they said it was a Nepoleanic French officer's sword and quite valuable, however not long after that my uncle died in a car crash and we lost touch with his family as his wife remarried so have no idea what happened to it.
My ex husband was obsessed with military and the SAS in particular and believed that grandad had been in the early SAS, however my grandad insisted he wasn't but instead the secret service. He did not long before he died open up a little to my ex showed him his wings and told him a few things that I can't remember of the top of my head right now (long term CFS brain fog)
He also told us about Mussolini being hung from his heels and I'm a bit hazy about this but I think he said he was present either when he was taken or killed or maybe just saw the body, but I could be remembering that wrong. I told my history obsessed son when he was young and when they did some stuff about Mussolini in junior school he put his hand up and told the teacher he had been hung by his heels and was ridiculed by the teacher for it but a few years ago I googled it and Mussolini and some others were actually displayed, hung by their feet after death from a petrol station.
After grandad passed my other uncle sent away for his service records and medals. Most of the records were blacked out even then at that time but they did show that he had spent time in Lincoln too. Strangely after he died all my grandfather's photos and bits and bobs to do with the war went missing. The house was empty for a few weeks whilst my gran stayed with my parents. We don't know if my uncle that died took them or someone else but that is probably me with my tinfoil hat.
That's all I can remember for now, my memory is frustrating bad but if I remember anything else I'll add it here. Thank you for your time and getting to the end of this really long post.
Based on the information given (like redacted service records), it is plausible that your grandfather worked as SOE agent. The SOE certainly also operated in both Tunesia and Italy.
As for Mussolini's death: According to the official history, no SOE agent ever saw this as it happened. Also, Mussolini was shot at Villa Belmonte in Dongo outside Milan, while he was hung upside down on Piazzale Loreto in Milan some time later.
It is potentially possible for a SOE agent to have seen Mussolini hanging on Piazzale Loreto since Milan was a major centre for the North Italian resistance movement (CLNAI) which the SOE was very involved with with SOE agents attached as liaison officers.
A later sighting could also be possible since US troops (1st. Armoured Div.) took down Mussolini's body the same day and placed it in a morgue for an autopsy. There exist colour photos of this, so it is not unlikely that lots of curious people had a look.
The pictures of the dead dictator and his mistress hanging upside down was widely circulated and must be considered quite well known. Film footage also exist.
Assuming your grandfather operated in Northern Italy in 1945 he would have several chances of encountering Cossack units. Eg. in the summer of 1944 more than 35.000 cossacks was evacuated from the East and settled in Northern Italy. The military staff was located in Tolmezzo with 2800 officers and 20.000 men. (Müller, p.211) These Cossack units fought against Italian partisans in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. In April 1945 they formed the "Independent Cossack Corps" with a total strength of around 18.000 men. The very day Mussolini was executed (28. April), these formations and their civilian entourage retreated into Austria, where they were later disarmed by the 8th British Army. (Thomas, p.40) The XV Cossack Cavalry Corps also surrendered to the 8th British Army in Austria. The interesting bit being, that according to one source, SOE agents had become attached to the 8th British Army (Dorril, p.122). I guess that the SOE agents attached to the Italian partisan units got swept up by the advancing 8th Army, when they where no longer needed as liaisons officers
Both surrenders could have given ample opportunity to an SOE agent in the 8th British Army to secure Cossack horses and sabres.
As for the missing photos and medals and war time records; such items that are related to persons in interesting military units or organisations like SOE are rare, and are highly priced among certain collectors. I am sorry to say that organised theft of such items are far from being unknown.
Dorril, Stephen: "MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service", 2002
Müller, Rolf-Dieter: "An der Seite der Wehrmacht", 2007
Thomas, Nigel (PhD): "Hitler’s Russian & Cossack Allies 1941–45", 2015
It sounds like he might have been an SOE operative from what you describe however the part that confuses me is the cossack. The Cossacks did not play a huge part in WW2 and the absolute majority of those that did serve, mainly Kuban cossacks, served for the Soviet Union against which the SOE did not, to my knowledge, undertake any operations. It is of course possible that the cossacks in questions could have been Axis collaborators but those were relatively few and served mostly on the eastern front where the SOE did very little, at least that we know of. Other than that the details here match well with an SOE operative.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!