LAST MAN TO BE EXECUTED IN THE TOWER OF LONDON

[Gil Boyd]

A very interesting story of a German spy who parachuted into England in 1941 only to be exposed by his own accident on landing!!

Not commonly known is that 3 out of the five members of the Scots Guards firing squad had their rifles pre loaded with blanks!

Josef Jakobs - 1898-1941: Story of Josef Jakobs

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[Ovidio]

Very interesting story, albeit a bit strange. That guy was not fluent in English, as it appears. At least it does not seem that he could have been taken for an Englishman if he'd had to talk to someone.
I thought the Germans were using extremely well trained people for such missions, as shown during the Ardennes offensive.
In any case, I always get the shivers when I think about someone being executed. It really must be a horrible experience...

[Gil Boyd]

I spoke to the Police Sergeant who had retired by the time I joined after Army service, who actually took him into custody. He landed in a remote area outside the village of Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in the depths of winter, and as he had broken his ankle on landing, he knew his time was limited in bleak weather conditions, so he fired his pistol in the air to attract attention of some farmers, who then handed him over to the Home Guard.

Whilst waiting for transport to Huntingdon Police Station, he admitted that he had been tasked to look very closely at RAF Upwood which was then an RAF Pathfinder Squadron just freshly setup operating Stirling Bombers, and report back daily by radio. Sadly his short lived spy career ended abruptly, and he became famous, insofar, he was the last man to be executed in The Tower of London, which was sadly a great honour, when you consider its past in executing many Kings/Queens and noblemen in our illustrious past.

Might have to start that again if they don't get BREXIT right

[Ovidio]

Well, get ready then, my friend.
The outlook on that doesn't seem to be that good at all.
I must say that, when I heard about the results of the vote, I was delighted, because Europe needed a slap in the face like that. But I hoped for a good management of the process.
I imagine that it must be a terribly difficult task, but the way it's been handled so far has caused many Europeans to revalue the "Soviet European Union".
This, without any real improvement on the EU side yet. So this is a really big damage to all remaining countries and to the UK as well.
The classic lose-lose situation.
What a pity.

[fjruple]

Sounds like the worst possible candidate to conduct espionage. The Germans probably used him as a "dangle" to get MI5 do something they wanted.

[browningautorifle]

I think it was more like he was released from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on a promise to perform certain duties for the Abwehr. A no lose opportunity for them...appears they didn't train him at all.

[Gil Boyd]

Jim,
Exactly to the point and what I thought at the time, a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter.

[browningautorifle]

Example, an hour in hand, you could instruct a man to do a simple static line jump and probably come out in decent shape.

[Gil Boyd]

Jim agreed. He was dropped literally at the end of the runway. How he expected to never be found...................only history could tell. Luckily for the newly formed RAF PATHFINDERS he was injured and couldn't continue. I know of other stories locally where, flashing torch lights were seen signalling German bombers from the top of church towers........beggers belief what they knew during the war and who was out there sending the intelligence on the ground doesn;t it. His sad occupation and task sadly was disclosed through a bad landing and the injuries he incurrred??.......................Thank God who knows what he could have passed on!!!

[Sunray]

"...3 out of the five members..." Usually just one with blanks or just one with a live round. Not that it'd matter. Anybody would know they fired a live round or a blank by the recoil or lack thereof.