Special Interrogation Group

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Special Interrogation Group

The Special Interrogation Group (SIG) (some sources interpret this acronym as Special Identification Group or Special Intelligence Group) was a British Army

British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
unit organized from German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
-speaking Jew

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish volunteers from the British Mandate of Palestine. The SIG performed commando

Commando

In military science, the term commando denotes an individual soldier, a military unit, and a raid . Contemporarily, commando identifies ?lite light infantry and special forces units specialised in parachuting, rappelling, and amphibious warfare to conduct and effect attacks....
and sabotage

Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy, oppressor or employer through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction....
operations against Axis forces in the Western Desert Campaign

Western Desert Campaign

The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War was the initial stage of the North African Campaign of World War II.From the start, the Western Desert Campaign was a continuous back-and-forth struggle....
during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Formation
The idea to create the SIG belonged to Herbert Cecil A.

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Encyclopedia

The Special Interrogation Group (SIG) (some sources interpret this acronym as Special Identification Group or Special Intelligence Group) was a British Army

British Army

German language

Jew

Commando

Sabotage

Western Desert Campaign

World War II

Formation

The idea to create the SIG belonged to Herbert Cecil A. Buck, MC of the Punjabi Guards and Scots Guards

Scots Guards

The Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland....
, an Oxford scholar and German linguist who was captured and escaped from Egypt using German uniform. He subsequently became the SIG commander.

In March 1942, Col. Terence Airey (Military Intelligence Research at the War Office

War Office

The War Office was a former department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence ....
in London) wrote that "a Special German Group as a sub-unit of M[iddle] E[ast] Commando... with the cover name 'Special Interrogation Group', to be used for infiltration behind the German lines in the Western Desert, under 8th Army... the strength of the Special Group would be approximately that of a platoon... The personnel are fluent German linguists... mainly Palestinian (Jews) of German origin. Many of them have had war experience with 51 Commando..."

Some personnel was also recruited directly from the Palmach

Palmach

The Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine....
, Haganah

Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
and the Irgun

Irgun

Irgun was a militant Zionism group that operated in Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was established as a militant offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah ....
. Other recruits came from the Free Czech Forces, the French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique unit separate from the regular French Army, established in 1831. The legion was specifically created as a unit for foreign volunteers, to be commanded by French officers; it is however also open to France citizens, who amount to 24% of recruits....
and other German-speaking Jewish troops. The SIG was a part of D Squadron First Special Service Regiment. Its strength deviated between 20 and 38, according to various sources.

Training

According to a SIG member Maurice Tiffen, their first training base was located near Suez

Suez

Suez is a seaport town in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as As Suways Governorate....
. The SIG were trained in desert navigation

Navigation

Navigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks....
, unarmed combat, handling of German weapons and explosives. They were given fake German identities, were taught German marching songs. For their missions, they were supplied with German pay books, cigarettes, chocolates, and even love letters to fictitious sweethearts in Germany.

Walter Essner and Herbert Brueckner, two non-Jewish Germans, had been conscripted from a POW camp to train the SIG. Before the war, both were former members of the French Foreign Legion who had been captured in November 1941 serving in the 361st Regiment of the Afrika Korps and were subsequently recruited by the British Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre

Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre

The term Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre was used for facilities in the UK, the continent , the Middle East, and South Asia. They were run by the British War Office on a joint basis involving the British Army and various intelligence agencies, notably MI5 and MI9....
(CSDIC) as double agent

Double agent

"Double agent" is a counterintelligence term for someone who pretends to spy on a target organization on behalf of a controlling organization, but in fact is loyal to the target organization....
s.

Operations and betrayal

On June 3, 1942, the SIG was assigned its first mission: to assist the SAS

Special Air Service

The Special Air Service is a special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model for the special forces of other countries....
, led by Lt. Col. David Stirling

David Stirling

Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling Distinguished Service Order Order of the British Empire was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service....
in destroying Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
airfields 100 miles west of Tobruk

Tobruk

Tobruk or Tubruq is a town, seaport, municipality, and peninsula in northeastern Libya, near the border with Egypt, in North Africa. The town of Tobruk has a population of 110,000 ,...
in the Italian colony of Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, which were threatening the Malta Convoys

Malta Convoys

The Malta Convoys were a series of Allies of World War II supply convoys to sustain the Siege of Malta during the Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres of World War II of World War II....
.

The SIG drove captured German vehicles behind German lines near Bardia

Bardia

Bardia is a geographic region in the Kingdom of Nepal.Bardia comprises a portion of the Terai, or lowland hills and valleys of southern Nepal....
, set up roadblocks and carried out acts of sabotage. Dressed as German military police

Military police

Military police are normally the police of a military organization.Military police may refer to:* a section of the military solely responsible for policing the armed forces ...
, they stopped and questioned German transports, gathering important military intelligence

Military intelligence

Military intelligence , is a military service that uses List of intelligence gathering disciplines which informs the commanders' decision making process by providing intelligence analysis of Intelligence from a wide range of sources including forecast environmental changes , and opposing force intentions....
.

During one raid, Herbert Brueckner managed to run away and betrayed them. Essner, closely guarded by Tiffen throughout the raid, was given to the Military Police and was later shot.

Disbandment

On September 13-14, 1942, the SIG participated in Operation Agreement

Operation Agreement

During World War II, Operation Agreement consisted of ground and amphibious attacks by British, Rhodesian and New Zealand forces and Special Interrogation Group on German and Italian-held Tobruk , Benghazi , Jalo oasis and Barce launched on 13 September, 1942.....
, the raid on Tobruk to destroy German Afrika Korps vital supply port. The SIG were to play the role of German guards transporting three truckloads of British POW's to a camp at Tobruk. The assault failed and the British forces lost three ships and several hundred soldiers and Marines.

Surviving SIG members were transferred to the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps.

Partial list of SIG members

Herbert Cecil A Buck, MC
Maurice "Tiffen" Tiefenbrunner (formerly of the 51st Middle East Commando and SAS)
Ariyeh Shai
Dov Cohen (former Irgun
Irgun

Irgun was a militant Zionism group that operated in Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was established as a militant offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah ....
member)
Bernard Lowenthal
Herbert Delmonte-Nietto-Hollander (Attached From Tower Hamlets Rifles now London Regiment
London Regiment

The London Regiment is a Territorial Army regiment in the British Army. It was first formed in 1908 in order to regiment the various Volunteer Force battalions in the newly formed County of London, each battalion having a distinctive uniform....
)
Israel Carmi (later an officer in the Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade

The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the World War II. Although the brigade was formed in 1944, some of its experienced personnel had been employed against the Axis powers in Greece, the Middle East and East Africa....
)
Karl Kahane (served in the regular German army for 20 years, had an Iron Cross
Iron Cross

The Iron Cross was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Frederick William III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau ....
from WWI, a Town Clerk in Austria until forced to flee after the Anschluss
Anschluss

The ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 unification of Austria into Gro?deutschland by Nazi Germany.Austria was merged into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938....
)
Dolph Zeintner
Philip Kogel
Walter Essner (German POW)
Herbert Brueckner (German POW)

Special Interrogation Group

Formation

Training

Operations and betrayal

Disbandment

Partial list of SIG members

See also

Further reading