Otto Skorzeny

From Turtledove

Otto Skorzeny
Historical Figure
Timeline:	OTL
Nationality:	Germany (born in Austria)
Date of Birth:	1908
Date of Death:	1975
Cause of Death:	Cancer
Occupation:	Solider, spy
Affiliations:	Nazi Party, SS
Timeline:	Worldwar
Date of Birth:	1908
Date of Death:	1944
Cause of Death:	Shot to death

Otto Skorzeny (1908– 1975) was an Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he commanded a rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny was also the leader of Operation Greif, in which German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using their opponents' uniforms and customs. At the end of the war, Skorzeny was part of the Werewolf guerrilla movement.

Although charged with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention in relation with Operation Greif, the Dachau Military Tribunal acquitted Skorzeny after the war. Skorzeny fled from his holding prison in 1948, first to France, and then Spain. A German court denazified him in 1952.

[edit] Otto Skorzeny in Worldwar

Otto Skorzeny (1908-1944) was a Colonel in the German SS. He became something of a legend when the Race invaded Earth. He went on several missions, many death-defying, to frustrate the Race's war effort. These included a joint raid with the Soviet NKVD to recover radioactive uranium from a destroyed Lizard starship; a battle in Croatia in which he bested and killed Drefsab, the chief of the Conquest Fleet's intelligence; the rescue of Benito Mussolin from the Race's clutches, and; an undercover mission to destroy a munitions factory in occupied France. On many of these missions Skorzeny worked closely with Panzer colonel Heinrich Jäger.

After the war had officially ended, Skorzeny, (on Hitler's orders) smuggled an atomic bomb into Lodz, Poland to destroy the city and disrupt the newfound, fragile peace between the Race and the human powers. He was narrowly prevented from doing so by Jäger, Mordechai Anielewicz and Ludmila Gorbunova. Skorzeny failed to detonate the bomb and was killed on this mission--but not before exposing his three opponents to nerve gas. Gorbunova was permanently crippled by her exposure and Jäger's life-span was shortened.

With the bomb-plot halted, Germany had no choice but to allow the Race to occupy Poland.