About the Project
How many (exiled) Austrians served as British special forces in the so-called ‘No. 3 Troop’ during World War II? What was this mysterious unit all about? And how were its members, almost all of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime, deployed?
Scope of research
Great Britain was one of the most important destinations for people from all over Europe who were forced into exile by the Nazi regime. In order to give suitable (male) refugees the opportunity to take part in special operations against the German Reich, the British Army set up No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando in June 1942. It consisted of three Belgian and two French detachments as well as one Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Yugoslav and ‘British’ contingent each. The latter, also known as No. 3 (Miscellaneous) Troop, was in fact made up mainly of Germans and Austrians who, after thorough security checks, had been recruited from the Pioneer Corps – for a long time the only unit in which they had been allowed to serve given their status as “enemy aliens”. For understandable reasons, their true origins were concealed, so the soldiers of No. 3 Troop were given aliases and fictitious family histories, which sometimes caused confusion among the British comrades they encountered in the field due to their often strong accent.
This freely accessible and bilingual online portal contains the names of all Austrians who belonged to No. 3 Troop or No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando for a longer period of time or even just temporarily – which is not always clear from the available sources. A short biography of each soldier, an essay covering the genesis of the British commandos in general and its most secretive unit in particular, as well as a database including statistical analyses can be digitally explored, shedding light on a hitherto little-known chapter of Austrian exile history and of British-Austro relations.
Sponsors and supporters
The biographical online project commando soldiers of Austrian origin in the British Army during World War II was funded by the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria as well as the Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government, Department of Science and Research, and was carried out at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on Consequences of War (project leader: Robert Lackner) in co-operation with the University of Graz.
Thanks are due to Ander Broadman, Eliot Broadbridge, David Carson, Rhodri Clark, Tracy Fish, Owen Fullarton, Werner Fulterer, Leah Garrett, Karin Graf-Boyko, Philipp Lesiak, Pete Rogers, Michael Georg Schiestl, John Starling, Barbara Stelzl-Marx, Martin Sugarman and Florian Traussnig for the numerous valuable suggestions, the unique photographic material as well as the technical and administrative support.