Missions

Ginny Mission Clip

Home

 

The “Ginny Mission” was one of the first to use an entire OG unit of 15 agents. After an initial aborted attempt, a second unit left Bastia (Corsica) on March 22 and landed with rubber boats. Shortly after landing, all members of the unit were captured by an enemy patrol. Although they were all properly dressed in US Army uniform and should have been considered and treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, the entire unit was secretly executed by the Nazis a few days following their capture.

Wehrmacht General Dostler, in charge of the Italian Territory and who ordered the execution of the 15 agents, was later tried in Rome as a “war criminal” after Germany’s surrender and sentenced to death in December of 1945. His case created the legal precedent for the Nuremberg trials.

In 1944, the OSS started supporting the Resistance with money, arms, and other materials via air drops in the center and northern parts of Italy.  The OSS also sent agents to participate in special missions with the partisans and 4,280 Allied air operations were carried out behind the lines during the course of the war.