22-3-18 Operation Greenup- Secret Jewish Soldiers Behind Enemy Lines - Dark > .
Frederick "Fred" Mayer (28 October 1921, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Germany – 15 April 2016, in Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia) was a German-born Jew who became an American spy as an OSS agent for the United States during WW2. He negotiated the surrender of the German Army in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1945 after he was captured in "Operation Greenup".
Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency William J. Casey called Operation Greenup "by far the most successful of OSS operations mounted from Bari". The operation included three men: Mayer, Wijnberg, and Franz Weber, a former Austrian Wehrmacht officer. Their task was to scout "the heavily fortified area of Austria's 'Alpine Redoubt'".
It was decided the men should be parachuted near Innsbruck, but all flat areas were occupied by the military. Mayer recalled a small lake between two peaks that was frozen in February. It wasn't an easy place to fly to, especially in the winter conditions, but finally a pilot named Billings volunteered. "If they are crazy enough to jump there, I will be crazy enough to take them there." On February 26, 1945, the men jumped in the darkness. They found themselves at the ridge of a glacier at a 10,000 feet elevation. They found all but one container that was dropped with them. Unfortunately their skis were in that missing container. They had to walk down the slope in waist-deep snow.
Eventually they reached Weber's family. With their help, Mayer posed as a German Army officer. He actually stayed in the officers' barracks in Innsbruck for several months. The information he collected was promptly radioed back by Wijnberg. After three months Mayer decided to pose as a French electrician, who supposedly was fleeing from the advancing Soviet forces.
Mayer was arrested when a black market racketeer he dealt with was caught by the Gestapo and named him as a spy. As soon as his interrogation became physical, the black marketer revealed that he knew a high ranking American agent. Mayer spoke only in French, and tried to convince the Gestapo that he was what he pretended to be. He was tortured to force him to talk.
It was decided the men should be parachuted near Innsbruck, but all flat areas were occupied by the military. Mayer recalled a small lake between two peaks that was frozen in February. It wasn't an easy place to fly to, especially in the winter conditions, but finally a pilot named Billings volunteered. "If they are crazy enough to jump there, I will be crazy enough to take them there." On February 26, 1945, the men jumped in the darkness. They found themselves at the ridge of a glacier at a 10,000 feet elevation. They found all but one container that was dropped with them. Unfortunately their skis were in that missing container. They had to walk down the slope in waist-deep snow.
Eventually they reached Weber's family. With their help, Mayer posed as a German Army officer. He actually stayed in the officers' barracks in Innsbruck for several months. The information he collected was promptly radioed back by Wijnberg. After three months Mayer decided to pose as a French electrician, who supposedly was fleeing from the advancing Soviet forces.
