Y No. 3 Troop a oedd yn rhan o’r No. 10 Commando (Rhyng-Gynghreiriol) (yr X Troop)
Ffurfiwyd y No. 3 Troop, a oedd yn rhan o’r No. 10 Commando (Rhyng-Gynghreiriol), ym mis Gorffennaf 1942. Syniad yr Arglwydd Louis Mountbatten oedd y corfflu hwn (pennaeth Gweithrediadau ar y Cyd ar y pryd), a oedd eisiau defnyddio sgiliau iaith ffoaduriaid Almaenig ac Awstriaidd fel rhan o gorfflu comando dirgel i weithredu y tu hwnt i linell flaen y gelyn. Dan arweiniad myfyriwr iaith graddedig o Gaergrawnt, sef y Capten Bryan Hilton-Jones a oedd yn wreiddiol o Gaernarfon, roedd y corfflu’n cynnwys 130 o ddynion (87 ohonynt yn ffoaduriaid Almaeneg eu hiaith) a gafodd eu hyfforddi yn Aberdyfi yng nghysgod mynyddoedd Eryri.
Iddewon oedd pawb bron ac roedd rhai wedi brwydro yn Rhyfel Cartref Sbaen flynyddoedd ynghynt. Roedd pump ohonynt wedi cael eu halltudio i Awstralia cyn hynny ar fwrdd yr enwog HMT Dunera a’u caethiwo yn Hay, De Cymru Newydd. Am naw mis, bu’r recriwtiaid yn hyfforddi ar dirwedd anodd, gan fabwysiadu enwau a oedd yn swnio’n Brydeinig er mwyn peidio codi amheuaeth a dileu unrhyw arlliw o’u bywydau blaenorol (gan gynnwys cael gwared ar wrthrychau gweddïo Iddewig megis y tefilin a’r talis). Oherwydd y fath gyfrinachedd fe gawsant eu llysenwi’n X Troop gan Winston Churchill.
Roedd Colin Edward Anson (ffoadur Iddewig o’r Almaen o’r enw Claus Leopold Octavio Ascher yn wreiddiol) yn aelod o’r X Troop ac roedd yn cofio bod yr hyfforddiant elfennol “yn eithaf heriol… yn fwriadol felly yn ôl bob tebyg er mwyn digalonni’r rhai nad oedd yn rhoi o’u gorau”.
Gwrandewch ar stori Colin yma (Allanol)
Roedd llawer o’r recriwtiaid wedi bod yn aelodau o’r corfflu di-ymladd, y Pioneer Corps, cyn hynny. Gogleisiwyd Tony Firth (a adnabuwyd ynghynt fel Hans Fürth) pan ddywedwyd wrtho yn ei gyfweliad ar gyfer yr X Troop y byddai’n derbyn uwch hyfforddiant ffrwydron ac arfau. Meddai yn ei gofiant: “Teimlai braidd yn rhyfedd nad oedd gen i’r hawl i ddefnyddio unrhyw beth mwy peryglus nag ysgubell un diwrnod a’r diwrnod nesaf roedden nhw’n dweud wrtha i ’mod i’n mynd i fod yn ysbïwr dros Brydain.”
Roedd hyfforddiant yn Aberdyfi yn cynnwys crefftau maes, cuddliwio, brwydro stryd, torri i mewn i dai ac agor cloeon hefyd. Ar un adeg, gorchmynnwyd recriwtiaid i dorri i mewn i Gastell Harlech (dan oruchwyliaeth y Gwarchodlu Cartref) i gasglu dogfennau (am fod gofyn i rai catrodau wneud hyn yn ystod ymgyrch Dieppe ym mis Awst 1942).
Roedd y mwyafrif o’r comandos yn ddysgedig iawn ac yn gwrtais i’w gwesteiwyr, ac roedd y gymuned leol yr un mor groesawgar, yn trefnu dawnsfeydd wythnosol a thrafodaethau a dadleuon achlysurol. Roedd un comando, Max Lewinsky (a adnabuwyd yn ddiweddarach fel Max Laddy), wedi bod yn ddawnsiwr proffesiynol yn ôl ym Mhrâg. Gwerthfawrogwyd ei ddawn fel dawnsiwr yn fawr iawn gan un o’r trigolion lleol: priododd Margaret Rees o Aberdyfi yn 1943. Roedd Lewinsky eisoes wedi treulio cyfnod byr yng Nghymru cyn ymuno â’r X Troop, yn gweithio fel gwas fferm ym Machen Isaf ger Casnewydd, cyn cael ei gaethiwo a’i alltudio i Awstralia yn 1940.
Er na wnaeth yr X Troop fyth frwydro fel uned, cafodd yr aelodau eu secondio i gatrodau comando eraill a’u hanfon i’r Eidal, Groeg, Iwgoslafia, Albania, yr Iseldiroedd, Gwlad Belg, Ffrainc a’r Almaen. Roedd eu harbenigedd, a seiliwyd ar drefn hyfforddi heriol, yn werthfawr iawn yng ngolwg eu cadlywyddion. Anafwyd Colin Edward Anson yn ddrwg yn Sisili a gorfu iddo gael llawdriniaeth ar ei ymennydd, ond ailymunodd â’r rhyfel ar ynys Vis yn Iwgoslafia rai misoedd yn ddiweddarach. Ar ôl y rhyfel, llwyddodd i ddod o hyd i’w fam yn yr Almaen a’i helpu i symud i Brydain.
Cymerodd pedwar deg pump o aelodau’r X Troop ran yn y glaniadau D-Day yn Normandi ar 6 Mehefin 1944, a lladdwyd, anafwyd neu collwyd 27 ohonynt. Lladdwyd Max Lewinsky ar gwch glanio ochr yn ochr â’i gyd-aelod Ernest Weinberger. Roedd gwraig ifanc Lewinsky, yn Aberdyfi, yn feichiog pan fu farw ei gŵr. Roedd George Lane (a gafodd ei eni’n György Lányi yn Hwngari Uchaf, sydd erbyn hyn yn rhan o Slofacia fwy neu lai) yn aelod o gangen y Special Operations Executive (SOE) a chafodd ei gipio gan yr Almaenwyr yn Ffrainc. Anodd credu efallai ond llwyddodd i beidio â datgelu ei fod yn ffoadur Iddewig drwy ddefnyddio’i acen Gymraeg orau (a ddatblygodd wrth gael ei hyfforddi yn Aberdyfi) pan gâi ei holi gan y Cadlywydd Almaenig Erwin Rommel.
Cafodd deunaw o gomandos yr X Troop eu comisiynu yn ystod y rhyfel a phedwar ohonynt yn derbyn comisiynau maes y gad. Llwyddodd un ohonynt, Manfred Gans, i weld ei rieni hefyd ar ôl dod ar eu traws yn Theresienstadt. Fodd bynnag, yn achos y mwyafrif o aelodau’r X Troop, nhw oedd yr unig aelod o’u teulu i oresgyn y rhyfel. Cofiodd arweinydd yr X Troop, Hilton-Jones, yn ddiweddarach, “Er gwaethaf anawsterau niferus a difrifol, llwyddodd y criw gwirfoddol yma o ‘elynion estron’ i ennill enw da cwbl haeddiannol iddynt eu hunain, a hynny’n bennaf yn sgil diffuantrwydd ac ymroddiad pob aelod o’r criw i’r gwasanaeth. Yn eu hachos nhw yn fwy na neb arall efallai, roedd yn fater o hunan-barch a hunan-gyfiawnhad.”
Cafodd y gatrawd ei dileu’n ffurfiol ym mis Medi 1945 ond fe arhosodd nifer o’r comandos yn yr Almaen er mwyn defnyddio’u sgiliau unigryw yn ystod y broses o ddadnatsieiddio. Er gwaethaf ychydig o oedi, cafodd aelodau’r X Troop eu derbyn maes o law yn ddinasyddion Prydeinig, er mai fel ‘gelynion estron’ y cawsant eu hadnabod er 1939. Dychwelodd rhai aelodau i Gymru yn y pen draw; bu Konstantin Goldstern (a adnabuwyd fel Robert Kenneth Garvin) yn byw yma weddill ei oes tan ei farwolaeth yng Ngheredigion yn 1981. Yn 1999, codwyd cofeb yn Aberdyfi i gofio’u haberth, ochr yn ochr â Gwely Rhosod Comando. Llwyddodd dros ugain o gyn-filwyr i fynychu’r seremoni.
Darllen pellach
‘3 Troop (‘X’ Troop)’, Commando Veterans Archive (http://www.commandoveterans.org/book/export/html/986)
Leah Garrett, X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II (London: HMH Books, 2021)
Steven Kern, ‘Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in the British Army, 1939-45’ (PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2014)
Cai Parry-Jones, The Jews of Wales: A History (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2017)
Martin Sugarman, ‘World War II: No. 3 (Jewish) Troop of the No. 10 Commando’, Jewish Virtual Library (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/no-3-jewish-troop-of-the-no-10-commando). Martin yw archifydd a hanesydd Cymdeithas y Cyn-filwyr Iddewig; diolch iddo am yr wybodaeth am yr X-Troop
No. 3 Troop of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando ("X Troop")
The No. 3 Troop of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando was formed in July 1942. It was the brainchild of Lord Louis Mountbatten (then head of Combined Operations), who wanted to use the language skills of German and Austrian refugees as part of a clandestine commando force for operations behind enemy lines. Led by a Cambridge language graduate from Caernarfon named Captain Bryan Hilton-Jones, the troop consisted of 130 men (87 of whom were German-speaking refugees), who were billeted at Aberdyfi in the shadow of the Snowdonia mountains.
Almost all were Jewish, and some had fought in the Spanish Civil War years earlier. Five of them had previously been deported to Australia aboard the infamous HMT Dunera and interned at Hay, New South Wales. For nine months, recruits trained in the difficult terrain, adopting British-sounding names to prevent suspicion arising and destroying all traces of their previous lives (including removing Jewish prayer objects like the tefillin and tallis). This secrecy led Winston Churchill to dub them “X Troop”.
Colin Edward Anson (a German Jewish refugee whose name was originally Claus Leopold Octavio Ascher) was a member of X Troop, and remembered the basic training as “quite demanding…probably intentionally off-putting in some ways in order to weed out those whose heart wasn’t really in it”.
Listen to Colin’s story here (External)
Many recruits had previously been members of the non-combatant Pioneer Corps. Tony Firth (AKA Hans Fürth) was bemused when he was told at his interview for X Troop that he would be given advanced explosives and weapons training. He wrote in his memoir that “I found it rather odd that one day I could not be trusted with anything more lethal than a broom stick and the next I was told that I was going to be a spy for the British.”
Training at Aberdyfi also involved fieldcraft, camouflage, street fighting, housebreaking and lockpicking. At one point, recruits were ordered to break into Harlech Castle (guarded by the Home Guard) to retrieve documents (as some troops were required to do during an operation at Dieppe in August 1942).
Most of the commandos were highly educated and polite to their hosts, and the local community reciprocated, organising weekly dances and occasional discussions and debates. One commando, Max Lewinsky (AKA Max Laddy), had been a professional dancer back in Prague. His prowess on the dancefloor was clearly appreciated by one local: he married Aberdyfi resident Margaret Rees in 1943. Lewinsky had already spent some time in Wales before enlisting in X Troop, working as a farmhand in Lower Machen, near Newport before being interned and deported to Australia in 1940.
Although X Troop never fought as a single unit, its members were seconded to other commando formations and deployed in operations in Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany. Their expertise, honed by the gruelling training regime, was highly prized by commanders. Colin Edward Anson was badly injured in Sicily, requiring a brain operation, but rejoined the war on the island of Vis in Yugoslavia some months later. After the war he managed to find his mother in Germany, who he then helped move to Britain.
Forty-five members of X Troop participated in the D-Day landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944, of which 27 were killed, wounded or reported missing. Max Lewinsky was killed on a landing craft alongside fellow member Ernest Weinberger. Lewinsky’s young wife was pregnant back in Aberdyfi when he died. George Lane (born György Lányi in Upper Hungary, now mostly part of Slovakia) was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who was captured by the Germans in Occupied France. Incredibly, he managed to avoid detection as a Jewish refugee by putting on his best Welsh accent (which he had acquired after being billeted at Aberdyfi) while being questioned by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Eighteen X Troop commandos were commissioned during the course of the war, with four receiving battlefield commissions. One of them, Manfred Gans, was even able to reunite with his parents when he found them at Theresienstadt. Most X Troopers, however, were the only family members to survive the war. X Troop leader Hilton-Jones later recalled that “Despite many and serious difficulties, this band of ‘enemy alien’ volunteers earnt for itself a not unflattering reputation, the achievement of which was in no small measure due to the sincerity and wholeheartedness put into his service by every member of the troop. For them perhaps more than for any others it was a question of self-respect and self-justification.”
The troop was formally disbanded in September 1945, but many commandos remained in Germany to use their unique skills during the denazification process. Although there was some delay, the X Troopers were subsequently naturalised as British citizens, having been classified as ‘enemy aliens’ since 1939. Some members eventually returned to Wales; Konstantin Goldstern (AKA Robert Kenneth Garvin) lived there until his death in Ceredigion in 1981. In 1999, a memorial was erected in Aberdyfi commemorating their sacrifices, alongside a Commando Rose Bed. Over twenty veterans were able to attend the ceremony.
Further reading
‘3 Troop (‘X’ Troop)’, Commando Veterans Archive (http://www.commandoveterans.org/book/export/html/986)
Leah Garrett, X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II (London: HMH Books, 2021)
Steven Kern, ‘Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in the British Army, 1939-45’ (PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2014)
Cai Parry-Jones, The Jews of Wales: A History (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2017)
Martin Sugarman, ‘World War II: No. 3 (Jewish) Troop of the No. 10 Commando’, Jewish Virtual Library (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/no-3-jewish-troop-of-the-no-10-commando). Martin is the archivist and historian for the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen; thanks to him for providing more information on X-Troop