22-05-2025
'Impossible' escape of SAS commando from Hitler's Gestapo revealed after 80 years: How lone WWII hero killed six Nazi soldiers to make mountain dash for freedom from surrounded farmhouse
The heroics of an SAS commando who achieved the 'impossible' escape from the Gestapo after blowing up a German train can be revealed 81 years on.
Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant John Alcock appeared doomed when nearly 40 enemy troops surrounded the French farmhouse he was hiding in.
But he orchestrated a daring escape during a close quarters shoot-out, killing six of the enemy and leaping over a wall with his adversaries in close pursuit.
He then lay in wait in dense woodland and picked off the enemy one by one before carrying on towards the Allied lines on the French-German border.
The final dash for freedom saw him weave his way through German frontline positions in the Vosges Mountains, the most heavily defended lines in all of Western Europe, undetected.
Then he made the unorthodox decision of capturing an American machine gun post facing the German lines to prevent being shot in a 'friendly fire' incident.
The Dunkirk veteran's story has been told for the first time after 30-year-old manuscripts his son Graham wrote from conversations with his father about the mission came to light.
Graham Alcock also kept hold of his father's wartime archive and showed it to the historian and author Damien Lewis.
He carried out further research by trawling through the National Archives at Kew and has now published his latest book, SAS Great Escapes Four.
Mr Lewis said: 'It is one of the most epic SAS escapes of World War Two - an impossible getaway.
'There are so few veterans still alive today so it gets more and more difficult to tell these stories and it is a privilege to do so.'
Sergeant Alcock, a former 'butcher's boy' from Goole, East Yorkshire, was dropped behind enemy lines near Audviller in Alsace-Lorraine on September 15, 1944 as part of Operation Pistol.
The mission was to hit nearby railway lines and communications, then make their way to the American lines.
Sergeant Alcock led a four-man team, also consisting of Corporal Holden, Corporal Hannah and Private Lyczak, behind enemy lines with no transport and minimal supplies.
They did not have functioning radios and a storm which blew them off course meant they parachuted onto farmland with no cover to hide from the enemy.
Friendly farmers sheltered them before they planted explosives on a vital railway line which blew up a train near Insming, severing a German supply line and killing two officers.
The daring act meant they were firmly on the Gestapo's radar and relentlessly hunted from that moment forward.
They were hiding out in another farm when a couple of Polish workmen betrayed them and revealed their whereabouts to the enemy.
An hour later, two trucks full of German troops turned up at the farm and surrounded the farmhouse, leaving them outnumbered almost 10 to one.
Sergeant Alcock, knowing they would have to shoot their way to freedom, swiftly organised his men in the rear hallway.
Two Polish girls, who were loyal to the Allies and were staying at the farm, went out the front door to provide a distraction.
This crucially drew the Germans who had been hiding at the rear of the farmhouse away from their positions.
Seconds later, the Germans stormed into the farmhouse through the front door.
Sergeant Alcock and his men, with their pistols loaded, burst through the rear hallway door into the kitchen and shot at least six of them dead.
They then dashed out of the back exit and hurdled a wall before running into the forest.
When they got a certain distance inside, Sgt Alcock ordered them to take their positions and shoot anyone approaching.
Three more Germans were killed in the ambush, which put other pursuers off from following them into the trap.
But they then heard two gunshots which were the Polish girls who had helped them being executed.
Sergeant Alcock knew that under Adolf Hitler's Commando Order, were they to be captured they would suffer the same fate.
On October 1, after two weeks behind enemy lines, and by now wearing civilian clothes given to them by a French farmer, they reached the German frontline positions.
Sergeant Alcock led them down a stone track and they crept across a canal before weaving a route around enemy trenches towards No Man's Land.
At this point, they spotted a hill in the distance which Sgt Alcock was convinced was held by the Americans.
But fearful that the American machine gunner on the hill would open fire on them, Sgt Alcock decided the best option was to capture the post.
Two of his men drew his fire while the others approached from the sides and captured the gunner, whose partner was sleeping alongside him.
They woke the sleeping soldier up and explained to their new prisoners that they were on the same side.
At Sergeant Alcock's request, he was taken to the US high command where he divulged valuable information about the German positions they had just passed.
The team had carried on doing sabotage operations, including cutting communication wires, right up until they reached the Allied lines.
Mr Lewis, whose book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was made into Guy Ritchie's film of the same name, said: 'Somehow, against all odds, Sergeant Alcock had done it.
'He had let his men to safety through the lines, evading the enemy at every turn.
'It had been a little short of miraculous that they had managed to navigate their way through.
'Since they had been dropped neae Audviller on the night of September 15, their mission had been plagued by bad weather, lack of supplies and terrain that was crawling with the enemy.
'Even so, they had successfully blown up a train, causing an important German supply line to be severed, and had emerged carrying priceless intelligence on key enemy positions.
'And while they accounted for at least 11 enemy dead or wounded, not a single man on Alcock's patrol had suffered so much as a scratch.
'Operation Pistol had, in the main, been a success, scoring victories and gathering vital intelligence.
'Its sister mission, Operation Loyton, would become infamous, as 32 SAS soldiers were taken prisoner, and duly murdered under Hitler's Commando Order, many of them personal friends of Alcock.
'The courage, tenacity and strength of will displayed by Alcock and his comrades typified the esprit de corps of the SAS during the Second World War.
'There was no other unit quite like it.
'For the freedoms we enjoy today, we owe such individuals an immense debt of gratitude.'
Sergeant Alcock, who was Mentioned in Despatches for Operation Pistol, remained in the Army until 1966.
He then worked for the East Riding Education Service before his retirement in 1983, spending his final years in his beloved Yorkshire.
Sergeant Alcock died aged 78 in 1997.
