Private Edwin Thomas Weaver
Edwin (left) whilst on training in Iceland
|
106893 Private Edwin Thomas Weaver took part in Operation 'Loyton' with other members of 2nd. Special Air Service Regiment.
This operation ended abruptly for Edwin and many others from 2 SAS as they were captured and as Prisoners of War were later executed by the Gestapo on the orders of Hitler.
Edwin was last known to be alive on the 15/16th. October 1944 and his body was eventually interred in Durnbach War Cemetary - Bayern 3-K-6, alongside his comrades.
Reprisals of a savage kind were frequently extracted by the Wehrmacht after SAS attacks, both on French civilians and any SAS soldier taken prisoner. Nowhere was this more evident than in the aftermath of Operation 'Loyton' in the Vosges mountains on the border between France and Germany.
As originally conceived, the operation should have started before D-Day. In fact it did not begin until late August, by which time it had become a principle axis of German retreat and defence of the fatherland. It was, like most areas immediately to the rear of such a position, saturated by soldiers. The result was that the teams from 2 SAS were harried night and day from one unsafe base to another and finally, in late September and early October, straggled back to Allied lines in small numbers. Two survivors buried their weapons and dressed as women to elude capture.
One village, Moussey, fed and concealed the SAS throughout those unpleasant six weeks. The German revenge was to remove the entire male population - over 200 men and boys - to concentration camps. Of the 70 who returned after the war many died from the effects of starvation and torture.
Of the SAS involved, over 30 were either killed, taken prisoner or officially "missing in action". Most of these were shot by the Gestapo, some after barbaric torture.
Yet even 'Loyton' was not an absolute failure; numerous vehicles had been ambushed, railways cut, SS Headquarters and fuel dumps destroyed. The total effect on enemy morale in these rear areas was devastating as the SAS struck.
Edwin will not be forgotten.
|
