George Lane (British Army officer)
Encyclopedia
George Henry Lane MC
(18 January 1915 – 19 March 2010) was a British Army
officer in the Commando
s during World War II
, achieving the rank of Lieutenant
. He performed a number of missions behind enemy lines. Captured on one such mission, Lane was spared after he had tea with Erwin Rommel
, and later escaped.
.
At the end of the World War I
, the northern Hungarian region was transferred to the newly created nation of Czechoslovakia
. Lane, aged four, effectively became a refugee, and his family moved to Budapest, where he was educated.
Lane became a swimming champion, and he toured widely with the Hungarian Olympic water polo
team. In order to travel, but lacking funds, he took a friend’s advice to write about water polo as a freelance journalist. His articles included an eyewitness account of a Nuremburg rally.
Lane moved to England in 1935 to undertake studies at the University of London
. He was more or less adopted by the Dean of Windsor
, Albert Victor Baillie
, who enjoyed vacationing in Hungary. Lane wrote several articles about the trauma of meeting demoralized Germans in Harwich
. These articles attracted the interest of Rozsika Edle Rothschild, a Hungarian sportswoman who lived in Northamptonshire
. Rothschild wrote to Lane, but he did not respond to her letters.
began. He volunteered to join the British Army
and was accepted by the Grenadier Guards
. The Home Office, however, served him with a deportation
order.
Lane often stayed at Leeds Castle
, the home of the American-born political hostess Lady Baillie
, where he met Anthony Eden
, the future Prime Minister and David Margesson, the government Chief Whip
. With their help the deportation order was rescinded, but he had to spend a year in the Alien Pioneer Corps doing manual labour.
(SOE), the British irregular warfare
organization. After intensive training, Lane became adept in unarmed combat, weapons and explosives, parachuting, and small boat handling. He went on missions to Belgium
and Holland, but he refused to parachute into Hungary, so he transferred to No. 4 Commando
under the leadership of Lord Lovat
.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British Chief of Combined Operations, decided that better use should be made of foreigners in the British Army because of their language skills and intense hatred of Hitler. Lane and a commando captain, Bryan Hilton-Jones, identified 140 foreigners for a proposed “X Troop”, of whom 80 were selected, all them fluent in German. Largely composed of Jewish refugees from Europe, this X Troop became Number 3 Troop in No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando
, of which Hilton-Jones became commanding officer. The men of Number 3 Troop would be temporarily seconded to different units and undertook reconnaissance raids. Lane was commissioned as an officer in 1943.
For one mission, Lane had to parachute into northern France, rifle a safe in a German brigade HQ, and bring back some important papers. A top safe breaker was released from prison on the Isle of Wight
for two days and taught Lane how to crack the German safe. The prison inmate was reluctant to reveal the secrets of his safecracking trade, only doing so when Lane swore not to take this skill with him into civilian life.
For another mission, Lane was part of a small group that was dropped behind enemy lines to examine a new gun sight. A report was needed urgently, so the men tied the report to a carrier pigeon
brought along for the purpose. The pigeon flew away and was heading for home when a hawk
darted out from under the cliffs and seized it. The frustration of seeing so much effort wasted, Lane said later, nearly reduced him to tears.
. During the lead-up to D-Day
, an RAF fighter had strafed a pillbox
on the French coast. The aircraft carried a camera, and the scientists who examined the film were puzzled that the plane's rockets, which fell short, appeared to have set off underwater explosions. The Allies wanted to know if the Germans were using a new kind of mine on the beaches. Lane led a hazardous reconnaissance mission that required a two-mile approach to a heavily defended coastline. Lane's reconnaissance expedition discovered that the Germans had attached Teller mine
s to stakes in the water. These would be submerged when the tide was high and would explode on impact with a landing craft. However, the mines had no waterproofing and had corroded. They had only exploded when the rockets from the RAF fighter had hit nearby. Lane concluded that the Teller mines were only a crude improvisation, not an advanced type of mine.
officer, Roy Wooldridge, who was a mine expert. They found nothing but the Teller mines, but had orders to photograph other obstacles on the beach using infrared equipment.
The commandos were taken by surprise when starshells illuminated the beach. Lane and Wooldridge, hiding in the dunes, came under fire from two German patrols. They were cut off from the others in the raiding party, who, unable to wait any longer, had left them a rubber dinghy and swum out to their boat. When the firing stopped, Lane and Wooldridge returned to the beach and paddled out to sea as fast as they could. Although it was dark and pouring rain, a German patrol boat spotted the two British commandos. The two men jettisoned their photographic equipment before they were taken prisoner. They were told that they would be handed over to the Gestapo and shot.
German dictator
Adolf Hitler
had issued the illegal "Commando Order
" in 1942 that required the immediate execution of all commandos on sight, irrespective of uniform, rank or whether they were trying to surrender. Lane and Wooldridge could have been executed immediately, but they were first interrogated by German Army officers to ascertain the purpose of their mission.
, where they were interrogated by the Germans. Eventually, Lane and Wooldridge were bound, blindfolded and pushed into a car. They were driven to a castle, and Lane was taken to a room guarded by a ferocious dog. Lane's blindfold was removed and an elegant German officer arrived with sandwiches and real coffee. Lane was then taken to a large library. Sitting at a desk at the far end was Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel
. Rommel got up and invited Lane, who was standing to attention, to join him at a table that was laid for tea. Rommel questioned Lane through interpreters. As recounted in Lane's obituary in the London Daily Telegraph, Rommel had experienced much trouble with "gangster commandos," as he called them.
In the ensuing conversation Rommel apparently relaxed enough to ask Lane, "How’s Montgomery doing?"
As described in Lane's obituary in The Times
, Lane replied, "Unfortunately I don’t know him, but he’s preparing the invasion and he’ll be here shortly," adding, for good measure, "by the shortest route."
Rommel went so far as to tell Lane he thought it was a shame that the British and Germans had not united to fight against the Soviet Union
.
David Pryce-Jones
, in the National Review
, describes a few other details about Lane's meeting with Rommel:
Later that day, Lane and Wooldridge were taken to Fresnes Prison
, near Paris
. There they were told that they would be hanged or shot. The screams from the other cells were terrifying, Lane said, but after two days the pair were sent on to the castle prison for officers at Spangenberg
, near Fulda
, Oflag IX/A-H. There were 300 British officers in the castle. They had an excellent library, and Lane studied estate management through a correspondence course.
The German advised Lane to walk to a nearby hospital and wait for American forces to arrive. When Lane arrived at the hospital, a doctor told him that the SS regularly searched the hospital. Lane, however, told the doctor that the Americans were very close and that when they arrived, the doctor would need a friend. Lane then proceeded to round up some of the sick and wounded from his PoW column and bring them back for treatment. Two days later he was able to give the Americans such a good account of the doctor that they put him in charge of the entire hospital.
Once the Americans had liberated the area, Lane caught a ride to recently liberated Paris
, where he stayed with his brother-in-law, Victor Rothschild. He asked for a hot bath. "I have lots of Chateau Lafite," said his host, "and lots of Dom Pérignon
. But I cannot provide you with a bath because there is no hot water." As with the carrier pigeon, Lane said afterwards that he could have cried.
, the renowned entomologist, when recovering at her house after an accident. Miriam Rothschild was the daughter of Rozsika Edle Rothschild, who had written Lane before the war about articles he had written. When Lane arrived at the Rothschild estate, he recognized the address. Rozsika Rothschild had died in 1940, but her daughter remembered the articles. Miriam's first words to Lane were, “Why the hell didn’t you answer my mother’s letter? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Lane and Miriam Rothschild married in 1943. After the war Lane helped to run the Rothschild estate at Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire
. Lane farmed successfully and became a successful businessman, but his marriage to Miriam broke down, and they divorced in 1957. Lane remained on good terms with his first wife, and she even attended the silver wedding lunch for his second marriage in 1986.
and studied at night school until he had passed the stock exchange examinations. He later opened offices in Cannes
, Monte Carlo
, Paris
, and Zurich
.
, Attorney General in the last Churchill
government.
from an office in Berkeley Square
.
A great sportsman, he loved shooting in the Scottish Highlands
and in his native Hungary. He also bred Hungarian partridge
s in Scotland.
In 1984, Lane returned to the château where he had met Rommel for an article in The Sunday Telegraph. Twenty years later he went back there for the BBC
. He always believed that Rommel had saved his life.
for his part in the Tarbrush raids on the Pas de Calais coast of May 1944.
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(18 January 1915 – 19 March 2010) was a British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer in the Commando
British Commandos
The British Commandos were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, for a force that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe...
s during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, achieving the rank of Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. He performed a number of missions behind enemy lines. Captured on one such mission, Lane was spared after he had tea with Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
, and later escaped.
Early life
George Lane was born Dyuri Lányi on 18 January 1915. A Hungarian Jew, he was the eldest son of Ernest Lanyi, a landowner in the northern part of HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
.
At the end of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the northern Hungarian region was transferred to the newly created nation of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Lane, aged four, effectively became a refugee, and his family moved to Budapest, where he was educated.
Lane became a swimming champion, and he toured widely with the Hungarian Olympic water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
team. In order to travel, but lacking funds, he took a friend’s advice to write about water polo as a freelance journalist. His articles included an eyewitness account of a Nuremburg rally.
Lane moved to England in 1935 to undertake studies at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. He was more or less adopted by the Dean of Windsor
Dean of Windsor
The Dean of Windsor is the spiritual head of the Canons of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Dean chairs meetings of the Chapter of Canons as primus inter pares.-List of Deans of Windsor:* William Mugge, 1348* Walter Almaly, 1380...
, Albert Victor Baillie
Albert Victor Baillie
The Very Rev. Albert Victor Baillie KCVO, DD was an eminent Anglican clergyman during the first half of the 20th century. He was born on 5 August 1864 and educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1888, he began his ecclesiastical career with a Curacy at St Paul’s,...
, who enjoyed vacationing in Hungary. Lane wrote several articles about the trauma of meeting demoralized Germans in Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
. These articles attracted the interest of Rozsika Edle Rothschild, a Hungarian sportswoman who lived in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. Rothschild wrote to Lane, but he did not respond to her letters.
World War II
Lane was studying at London University when World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began. He volunteered to join the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and was accepted by the Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
. The Home Office, however, served him with a deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
order.
Lane often stayed at Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle, southeast of Maidstone, Kent, England, dates back to 1119, though a Saxon fort stood on the same site from the 9th century. The castle is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds....
, the home of the American-born political hostess Lady Baillie
Olive, Lady Baillie
Olive, Lady Baillie was an Anglo-American heiress, landowner and hostess. She is best known as the owner of Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, Kent, England...
, where he met Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
, the future Prime Minister and David Margesson, the government Chief Whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
. With their help the deportation order was rescinded, but he had to spend a year in the Alien Pioneer Corps doing manual labour.
Commando service
Lane then joined Special Operations ExecutiveSpecial Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
(SOE), the British irregular warfare
Irregular warfare
Irregular warfare is warfare in which one or more combatants are irregular military rather than regular forces. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare, and so is asymmetric warfare....
organization. After intensive training, Lane became adept in unarmed combat, weapons and explosives, parachuting, and small boat handling. He went on missions to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Holland, but he refused to parachute into Hungary, so he transferred to No. 4 Commando
No. 4 Commando
No. 4 Commando was a battalion-sized British Army commando unit, formed in 1940 early in the Second World War. Although it was raised to conduct small-scale raids and harass garrisons along the coast of German-occupied France, it was mainly employed as a highly-trained infantry assault unit.The...
under the leadership of Lord Lovat
Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat
Brigadier Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and 4th Baron Lovat DSO, MC, TD was the 25th Chief of the Clan Fraser and a prominent British Commando during the Second World War...
.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British Chief of Combined Operations, decided that better use should be made of foreigners in the British Army because of their language skills and intense hatred of Hitler. Lane and a commando captain, Bryan Hilton-Jones, identified 140 foreigners for a proposed “X Troop”, of whom 80 were selected, all them fluent in German. Largely composed of Jewish refugees from Europe, this X Troop became Number 3 Troop in No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando
No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando
No. 10 Commando was a commando unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The first No. 10 Commando was proposed in August 1940, using volunteers from Northern Command, however there was such a poor response that No...
, of which Hilton-Jones became commanding officer. The men of Number 3 Troop would be temporarily seconded to different units and undertook reconnaissance raids. Lane was commissioned as an officer in 1943.
For one mission, Lane had to parachute into northern France, rifle a safe in a German brigade HQ, and bring back some important papers. A top safe breaker was released from prison on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
for two days and taught Lane how to crack the German safe. The prison inmate was reluctant to reveal the secrets of his safecracking trade, only doing so when Lane swore not to take this skill with him into civilian life.
For another mission, Lane was part of a small group that was dropped behind enemy lines to examine a new gun sight. A report was needed urgently, so the men tied the report to a carrier pigeon
Carrier pigeon
A carrier pigeon is a homing pigeon that is used to carry messages. Using pigeons to carry messages is generally called "pigeon post". Most homing or racing type varieties are used to carry messages. There is no specific breed actually called "carrier pigeon"...
brought along for the purpose. The pigeon flew away and was heading for home when a hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
darted out from under the cliffs and seized it. The frustration of seeing so much effort wasted, Lane said later, nearly reduced him to tears.
Tarbrush raids
In May 1944 Lane was raid commander of three missions, known as the Tarbrush raids, to examine mines on the French coast near AultAult, Somme
Ault is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Situated on the English Channel, on the D19 road, west of Abbeville, in the southwest of the department, Ault possesses chalk cliffs overlooking a beach of pebbles . To the south of the town is a large wooded...
. During the lead-up to D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, an RAF fighter had strafed a pillbox
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
on the French coast. The aircraft carried a camera, and the scientists who examined the film were puzzled that the plane's rockets, which fell short, appeared to have set off underwater explosions. The Allies wanted to know if the Germans were using a new kind of mine on the beaches. Lane led a hazardous reconnaissance mission that required a two-mile approach to a heavily defended coastline. Lane's reconnaissance expedition discovered that the Germans had attached Teller mine
Teller mine
The Teller mine was a German-made antitank mine common in World War II. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated fuze, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As the name suggests the mines were plate-shaped...
s to stakes in the water. These would be submerged when the tide was high and would explode on impact with a landing craft. However, the mines had no waterproofing and had corroded. They had only exploded when the rockets from the RAF fighter had hit nearby. Lane concluded that the Teller mines were only a crude improvisation, not an advanced type of mine.
Capture by Germans
Lane was ordered to return the next night, and the next – this time with a sapperSapper
A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...
officer, Roy Wooldridge, who was a mine expert. They found nothing but the Teller mines, but had orders to photograph other obstacles on the beach using infrared equipment.
The commandos were taken by surprise when starshells illuminated the beach. Lane and Wooldridge, hiding in the dunes, came under fire from two German patrols. They were cut off from the others in the raiding party, who, unable to wait any longer, had left them a rubber dinghy and swum out to their boat. When the firing stopped, Lane and Wooldridge returned to the beach and paddled out to sea as fast as they could. Although it was dark and pouring rain, a German patrol boat spotted the two British commandos. The two men jettisoned their photographic equipment before they were taken prisoner. They were told that they would be handed over to the Gestapo and shot.
German dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had issued the illegal "Commando Order
Commando Order
The Commando Order was issued by Adolf Hitler on 18 October 1942 stating that all Allied commandos encountered by German forces in Europe and Africa should be killed immediately, even if in uniform or if they attempted to surrender...
" in 1942 that required the immediate execution of all commandos on sight, irrespective of uniform, rank or whether they were trying to surrender. Lane and Wooldridge could have been executed immediately, but they were first interrogated by German Army officers to ascertain the purpose of their mission.
Meeting with Rommel
For several days the two British commandos were kept in cellars at CayeuxCayeux-sur-Mer
Cayeux-sur-Mer is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is a seaside town, situated on the D102 road, some northwest of Abbeville.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, where they were interrogated by the Germans. Eventually, Lane and Wooldridge were bound, blindfolded and pushed into a car. They were driven to a castle, and Lane was taken to a room guarded by a ferocious dog. Lane's blindfold was removed and an elegant German officer arrived with sandwiches and real coffee. Lane was then taken to a large library. Sitting at a desk at the far end was Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
. Rommel got up and invited Lane, who was standing to attention, to join him at a table that was laid for tea. Rommel questioned Lane through interpreters. As recounted in Lane's obituary in the London Daily Telegraph, Rommel had experienced much trouble with "gangster commandos," as he called them.
"You must realize," [Rommel] said, "that you are in a very tricky situation. Everyone seems to think that you are a saboteur."
"Well, if the Field Marshal believed that I was a saboteur he would not have done me the honour of inviting me here."
"So you think that this is an invitation?" Rommel rejoined.
"I do, sir, and I must say I am highly honoured." The Field Marshal smiled, the atmosphere became relaxed and the two men had a long conversation.
In the ensuing conversation Rommel apparently relaxed enough to ask Lane, "How’s Montgomery doing?"
As described in Lane's obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Lane replied, "Unfortunately I don’t know him, but he’s preparing the invasion and he’ll be here shortly," adding, for good measure, "by the shortest route."
Rommel went so far as to tell Lane he thought it was a shame that the British and Germans had not united to fight against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
David Pryce-Jones
David Pryce-Jones
David Eugene Henry Pryce-Jones FRSL is a conservative British author and commentator.- Career :He was educated at Eton and read History at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied under A.J.P...
, in the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, describes a few other details about Lane's meeting with Rommel:
When the blindfold was removed [Lane] found himself facing Field-Marshal Rommel and other German generals in their headquarters at La Roche Guyon. Rommel then interrogated him about his mission, saying that he suspected the Allies were about to invade. George of course spoke German but stuck to English, to be on the safe side. The more George hedged, the more Rommel played the good-cop role. But then one of the other generals butted in. If George was the British officer he claimed to be, why did he speak English with a foreign accent. “Because I am a Hungarian Jew,” was not the right answer in the circumstances. George said, “Because I am Welsh.” Oh, of course, the generals all nodded. George was given a cup of tea, and then sent to prison in Paris, and deported — not to a concentration camp as might have been the case, but to an officers' prison. As for Rommel, a few days later he and his car were shot up by the RAF, so he played no part in D-Day, and then he was accused by Hitler of being part of the July bomb plot, and forced to commit suicide. George was surely the last non-German to see him alive.
Later that day, Lane and Wooldridge were taken to Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne South of Paris...
, near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. There they were told that they would be hanged or shot. The screams from the other cells were terrifying, Lane said, but after two days the pair were sent on to the castle prison for officers at Spangenberg
Spangenberg
- Geography :Spangenberg lies in the Schwalm-Eder district some 35 km southeast of Kassel, west of the Stölzinger Gebirge, a low mountain range. Spangenberg is the demographical centrepoint of Germany.- History :...
, near Fulda
Fulda
Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...
, Oflag IX/A-H. There were 300 British officers in the castle. They had an excellent library, and Lane studied estate management through a correspondence course.
Escape
As the Allies closed in, the prisoners were moved out under guard. On the second night, Lane escaped by slipping into a deep ditch. He then hid in a tree, but then saw a German soldier climbing up behind him. The German turned out to be a deserter.The German advised Lane to walk to a nearby hospital and wait for American forces to arrive. When Lane arrived at the hospital, a doctor told him that the SS regularly searched the hospital. Lane, however, told the doctor that the Americans were very close and that when they arrived, the doctor would need a friend. Lane then proceeded to round up some of the sick and wounded from his PoW column and bring them back for treatment. Two days later he was able to give the Americans such a good account of the doctor that they put him in charge of the entire hospital.
Once the Americans had liberated the area, Lane caught a ride to recently liberated Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he stayed with his brother-in-law, Victor Rothschild. He asked for a hot bath. "I have lots of Chateau Lafite," said his host, "and lots of Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon (wine)
Dom Pérignon is a brand of vintage Champagne produced by the Champagne house Moët & Chandon and serves as that house's prestige champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover...
. But I cannot provide you with a bath because there is no hot water." As with the carrier pigeon, Lane said afterwards that he could have cried.
Marriage to Miriam Rothschild
During the war, Lane met Miriam RothschildMiriam Rothschild
Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild DBE, FRS was a British natural scientist and author with contributions to zoology, entomology, and botany.-Early life:...
, the renowned entomologist, when recovering at her house after an accident. Miriam Rothschild was the daughter of Rozsika Edle Rothschild, who had written Lane before the war about articles he had written. When Lane arrived at the Rothschild estate, he recognized the address. Rozsika Rothschild had died in 1940, but her daughter remembered the articles. Miriam's first words to Lane were, “Why the hell didn’t you answer my mother’s letter? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Lane and Miriam Rothschild married in 1943. After the war Lane helped to run the Rothschild estate at Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. Lane farmed successfully and became a successful businessman, but his marriage to Miriam broke down, and they divorced in 1957. Lane remained on good terms with his first wife, and she even attended the silver wedding lunch for his second marriage in 1986.
United States
Lane moved to the United States in 1955. He joined a firm of stockbrokers in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and studied at night school until he had passed the stock exchange examinations. He later opened offices in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
.
Marriage to Elizabeth Heald
In 1963, Lane married his second wife, Elizabeth Heald, the daughter of Sir Lionel HealdLionel Heald
Sir Lionel Frederick Heald, QC, PC, was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician.At the 1950 general election, Heald was elected as Member of Parliament for the Chertsey constituency in Surrey...
, Attorney General in the last Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
government.
Later life
After Lane remarried in 1963, he lived in London, travelled widely, and pursued a number of business interests. He opened the London office of the Economic News Agency, reporting on precious metals. Later, with a Hungarian partner, he secured financing for projects in the CongoCongo Basin
The Congo Basin is the sedimentary basin that is the drainage of the Congo River of west equatorial Africa. The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands...
from an office in Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a town square in the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent...
.
A great sportsman, he loved shooting in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
and in his native Hungary. He also bred Hungarian partridge
Partridge
Partridges are birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are a non-migratory Old World group.These are medium-sized birds, intermediate between the larger pheasants and the smaller quails. Partridges are native to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East...
s in Scotland.
In 1984, Lane returned to the château where he had met Rommel for an article in The Sunday Telegraph. Twenty years later he went back there for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. He always believed that Rommel had saved his life.
Awards
Lane won the Military CrossMilitary Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
for his part in the Tarbrush raids on the Pas de Calais coast of May 1944.
Death
George Lane died on 19 March 2010 at the age of 95. He was survived by his second wife, and his son and three daughters from his first marriage.Further reading
- Ian Dear (1987), Ten Commando 1942–45, London: Leo Cooper Ltd, p. 169. ISBN 0850521211. Lane's citation for the MC.
- Russell MillerRussell MillerRussell Miller is an award-winning British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.-L. Ron Hubbard biography:...
(1993), Nothing Less than Victory: An Oral History of D-Day, London: Michael Joseph, pp. 72–78. ISBN 0718133285. Operation Tarbrush and Lane's interview by Rommel. - Peter Masters (1997), Striking Back – A Jewish Commando Writes, London: Presidio Press. ISBN 0891416293. A history of 3 Troop.