C HAPTER 4
A TREA SURE TROVE
I N M ARCH 194 4 , T H E CR AGGY PE A K S SU R ROU N DI NG T H E ANCIENT Cathar fortress of Montségur in southern France reverberated with the grinding gears and revving engines of military machines. The trucks and command cars belonged to a battalion of Nazi SS troopers led by Adolf Hitler’s top commando, SS Standartenfuehrer Otto Skorzeny. Standing six feet and four inches, Skorzeny was larger than life among his comrades, and his exploits during World War II only enhanced this reputation. An old dueling scar creased his face from the left cheekbone to his chin, earning him the nickname Scar. Born in Vienna in 1908, Skorzeny had joined the Nazi Party in 1930 while studying in Germany. By 1939, he had been accepted as a member of Hitler’s personal bodyguards. Sent home from the Russian Front in 1942 due to wounds, Skorzeny soon was directing secret agents in other countries. But worldwide attention became focused on Skorzeny in September 1943, when he led a glider assault by commandos on a mountaintop hotel where the dictator Benito Mussolini was being held captive following a coup in Italy. In a daring daylight operation, Skorzeny and his men liberated Mussolini, who had been contemplating suicide, and whisked him
