Löwer, Hans-Joachim Als Saboteur zum Brennerpass. Das Partisanen-Abenteuer des US-Agenten Roderick Hall 1944/45

The fate of the US agent who parachutes into northern Italy during the Second World War sometimes bears traits of a James Bond film, but is ultimately one of immense tragedy. A 29-year-old adventurous giant who spent several weeks skiing and climbing in the Dolomites as a student in 1937 offers the newly founded American secret service "Office of Strategic Services" (OSS) to destroy all important north-south supply routes of the German troops on the southern edge of the Alps. In the OSS, a special division is being set up to drop daring desperadoes behind enemy lines. They are to support partisans operating against the German troops with information, weapons and explosives. Hall's grand plan is to attack and block the road and rail links over the Brenner Pass. From August to December 1944, he travels through the province of Belluno with partisans, sometimes carrying out more, sometimes less successful acts of sabotage, but then separates from his fighters in frustration. Now, single-handedly, with explosives in his backpack, he first wants to blow up a transformer station near Cortina d'Ampezzo in order to paralyse the Dolomite railway from Dobbiaco to Calalzo. Then, hoping for support from the air, he wanted to advance further in the direction of Brenner. In January 1945, he set off across the mountains on skis, got caught in a snowstorm, got frostbite on his right foot, and finally collapsed near Cortina. A priest finds him half unconscious in the snow in front of his church. A forestry worker reports the incident to the police, who take Hall to the SS in town. A few days later Hall is taken to the Gestapo in Bolzano. Gestapo chief August Schiffer has his henchmen strangle Hall in the boiler room of the Corpo d'Armata quarters. They hang the body in his cell in such a way that it looks like suicide. Four Gestapo men who were present at the execution stand trial before an American court martial in Naples in early 1946. Three of them are sentenced to death, one aide to life imprisonment. In July 1946, the three murderers are hanged in Livorno. This book follows the bloody trail of the 29-year-old solo saboteur from Friuli to South Tyrol.