Slovakia in 1944
In the late summer of 1944 the Czech Intelligence Service operating from London learned from contacts in the Czech partisan forces that several Allied prisoners of war were in an area liberated from the Germans. When the OSS was apprised of the situation it decided to send OSS agents to supply and train the partisans, participate in their activities against the Germans, and bring the former prisoners of war back to England. A pair of B-17s landed on an airstrip in the liberated area, delivered supplies and two OSS teams, and evacuated the prisoners.
The teams were to report to the OSS field office at Bari, which would forward their reports to London. In October three more teams, of three or four men each, were inserted, as well as civilian agents. One of them was an Associated Press correspondent named Joseph Morton. Morton was to report on the evacuation of fliers, with the permission of the OSS, which wanted the good publicity which would ensue. Morton’s report was killed by censors in the theatre and the Associated Press never heard from Morton again, as he was unable to file any further stories of partisan activities.
In mid-October the OSS teams were again reinforced with additional members by B-17 bombers, which landed to discharge the agents and cargo. The Czech resistance was beginning to crumble by that time, dissolving into small, disorganized bands operating independently despite the efforts of the OSS agents to organize the partisans into a coherent fighting force. The 37 OSS men split into four groups, and with the support of some Czech partisan fighters began to withdraw in the direction of the Eastern Front, hoping to reach the Russian lines.
Throughout November German Army and SS troops gradually captured most of the OSS men as they attempted to escape through the bitter cold of the mountains. By December 18 OSS and Czech fighters were living in a shack north of Palomka when they were surrounded by the Germans and after fighting until their ammunition was exhausted they surrendered. They were taken by the Germans for interrogation, and all were subjected to torture by the Gestapo and the SS. By the end of January, 1945 the Germans were confident that they had extracted all of the information regarding OSS and partisan activities that they could.
All of the prisoners were then stripped of their uniforms, issued prison uniforms, and executed by SS personnel, under direct order of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. They were executed at Mauthausen. Joseph Morton, a civilian who wore the uniform required of war correspondents, was one of the men executed. On January 24 Allied Headquarters in London intercepted a message broadcast from Berlin that the 18 prisoners from the OSS operation in Slovakia had been executed, but were unaware of the identity of the dead until after the war.