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this article is the 1276th original article of "burning islands", written by behemoth.

about the author: behemoth, from nanjing, jiangsu, began writing in 2014 and has published nearly 700,000 words.

the full text has 17,384 words and 34 pictures. it takes 30 minutes to read and will be first released on august 29, 2024.

this article is included in the author'sbehemoth"album, welcome to continue to pay attention.

on the morning of march 21, 1945, at the fersfield base in the uk, several mosquitoes and mustangs were ready to take off. the armorers and mechanics were busy with various preparations before takeoff. soon, they would fly to the european continent.

in another corner of the world, in copenhagen, denmark, the shellhus building is the dark heart of the gestapo in denmark. although the war is about to end, at this moment, the gestapo personnel are still resisting stubbornly, not knowing that justice is about to fall from the sky...

the "model protectorate" under the nazi iron hoof

although germany and denmark signed the non-aggression pact in may 1939, in the eyes of the "führer", these were just a pile of waste paper that he was about to tear up, and everything was just a replica of what had happened to poland. in the early morning of april 9, 1940, germany launched an invasion operation code-named "wessel exercise" in the name of preventing british and french invasion and defending the neutrality of denmark and norway. the german armored troops crossed the defense lines of denmark and the jutland peninsula, dropped paratroopers in the danish capital copenhagen and various strategic locations, and landing troops also landed in major ports. before this war, germany spent at least four years preparing for the invasion, and infiltrated a large number of spies in denmark, especially in the armed forces.

although the danish army also put up some resistance, it was obviously futile in the face of a strong enemy. they failed to stop the german invasion. in this situation, the 70-year-old danish king christian x hurriedly convened a cabinet meeting and announced his acceptance of germany's ultimatum. in this way, the german army took less than a day to occupy the entire denmark except greenland, the faroe islands and iceland (which later became independent in 1944).

figure 1. danish king christian x (1870-1947). during world war ii, christian x refused to seek asylum abroad and, through mediation, denmark was able to maintain a high degree of autonomy in the countries occupied by nazi germany. he also instructed the danish ambassador to the united states, henrik kaufman, to organize the free denmark movement, hand over iceland and the faroe islands to the allies, and required all danish merchant fleets to assist the allies.

however, after occupying the entire territory of denmark, hitler himself declared denmark a "model protectorate", and germany also declared that it would respect denmark's neutrality and avoid interfering in denmark's internal affairs. this was certainly not because of the generosity of the "führer": on the one hand, unlike france, denmark had no obvious military strategic value to germany, and denmark's rich agricultural products did not need to be obtained through forced occupation; most importantly, in the third reich's racial theory, the danes belonged to the noble aryans, and through the "gentle" occupation of denmark, the new european order under nazi rule could be shown to the whole of europe and even the world. of course, there is no free "protection" in the world. in exchange, denmark needs to dismantle its military facilities and sever all relations with the allies. however, during this period, denmark's armed forces and police were still allowed to remain intact, and the king and government were still allowed to continue to govern. whether it was intentional or not, this symbolized denmark's cooperation with nazi germany to some extent.

on the surface, the conditions offered by the germans to denmark were quite generous. however, given the consistent inconsistency of the "führer", denmark's fate was not optimistic. in order to guarantee denmark's independence as much as possible, the danish government was forced to make a series of compromises, such as prohibiting newspapers from publishing content that was "harmful to german-danish cooperation" and joining the anti-comintern pact after operation barbarossa, declaring the communist party an illegal organization and arresting communist party members in the country. the surviving communist party members joined the resistance organizations one after another. for a long time after the war, danish leaders kept this history secret. it was not until 2003 that the then danish prime minister rasmussen officially admitted for the first time that denmark's cooperation with the germans was "immoral".

facing the tyranny of the german occupying forces, most danes painfully accepted the fact of german occupation. however, not everyone was willing to accept the fate of becoming slaves of a conquered nation. whether in poland, france or denmark, "the flame of resistance should never be extinguished and will never be extinguished." a group of brave danes resolutely chose to leave their occupied homeland, go overseas, and continue to fight for the anti-fascist cause.

figure 2. jorgen thalbitzer, a danish pilot serving in the british royal air force, stands on his spitfire fighter bl855. the inscription on the spitfire reads danish national hero niels ebbesen. thalbitzer was shot and captured by the german army while performing a mission near lannion, france on july 23, 1942. he escaped from a concentration camp in 1943 and drowned while trying to smuggle to sweden.

in denmark, shortly after the germans occupied denmark, anti-nazi journalist eber munk founded the first resistance organization in denmark, the league. soon after, numerous underground resistance organizations of all sizes sprang up in denmark. during the five years of occupation, the underground resistance organizations continued to grow and develop, fighting against collaborators and even almost cutting off the logistical supply line with norway. this also tied up a large number of german troops, making it difficult for them to support operations on other fronts.

figure 3. ebbe munck, leader of the danish resistance organization, was a war correspondent for denmark's oldest newspaper, radio gazette, before the war. when the war broke out, he was in finland covering the soviet-finnish war. after returning to denmark, he established secret contacts with military intelligence officials and formed a secret "league" to collect information on the movement and navigation of the german army.

at the same time that monk was setting up his intelligence network, britain also began to set up the intelligence organization soe (special operations executive) to support the underground resistance organizations in various european countries against the german occupation. sir charles jocelyn hambro, head of the scandinavian department of soe, came to stockholm to discuss with monk in person. the two sides reached a consensus on soe's action plan in denmark. the existing intelligence organizations in denmark were managed by the danes, and soe was responsible for training personnel and supplying radio equipment and weapons and ammunition to the resistance organizations as the resistance movement grew. in this action plan, soe also hoped to cut off the cooperation between the danish government and the nazi german government. however, the top priority of the resistance organization was still intelligence gathering and sabotage. of course, in order to prevent the resistance forces from attracting the attention of the germans too early, the actions must be kept low-key before the resistance forces grow stronger.

figure 4. charles harper (right, 1897–1963), born into a danish banker family, studied at eton college and sandhurst military academy. he served as a second lieutenant on the western front during world war i. after retiring, he joined the family bank and was selected as one of the heads of the bank of england at the age of 30. at the beginning of world war ii, he joined the soe's cover organization, the ministry of economic warfare, and was responsible for scandinavian affairs.

facing the powerful german occupation forces, a key factor in whether the resistance forces could succeed was whether they could awaken the danish people from their passive state, and the main propaganda channels of the resistance organizations were various underground newspapers and bbc broadcasts. as early as the first week after denmark was invaded, many underground newspapers were born. these unknown journalists, not afraid of death, turned newspapers into the most powerful weapons of the resistance organizations. in order to prevent the resistance forces from being "taken care of" by the german occupation forces too early, the bbc initially limited its reporting content to war news, the combat situation of overseas danes (when the german army attacked, some danish pilots escaped from denmark, and later these people joined the british and american armies to fight against germany, and 50,000 danish crew members served the allies) and some other aspects, without inciting destruction and resistance against the germans.

in the first year of the occupation, the danish government and germany were at peace, but after that, as the war situation became tense, the germans finally began to gradually break their previous promise to allow denmark to be autonomous and increased their garrison. when the danish government resisted, germany threatened to cut off the supply of fuel and ore to denmark (denmark was short of fuel and ore and relied on imports). the german occupation forces became more and more arrogant. when the threats did not achieve the desired effect, the germans resorted to violence, and the germans' intention was not only to destroy the danish neutrality, but also to destroy the danish resistance consciousness.

figure 5. werner best (1903-1989, with then danish prime minister erik scavenius on the left), deputy commander of the ss, nazi party membership card number 341338, ss number 23377. in 1939, he served as the head of the gestapo's first department. during the war, he served as the imperial protector in denmark from 1942 until the end of the war. after the war, he was sentenced to death by a danish court in 1948, but was later sentenced to 12 years in prison and released in 1951.

in november 1942, dr. werner best was appointed as hitler's plenipotentiary representative in denmark. as a legal expert in the ss, he knew that necessary conciliatory measures were needed to stabilize the order in the occupied areas. if the danes were overly provoked, it would arouse their resistance. therefore, compared with the previous forced occupation, he was more inclined to adopt a moderate policy towards the danes. if his proposal was approved, then the "order" in the danish occupation area would be greatly improved. however, his proposal was rejected by berlin.

in january 1943, the british air force began bombing targets in denmark. on january 27, the burnmeister & wain shipyard in copenhagen, the capital, was bombed. the factory was manufacturing diesel engines for u-boats at the time. attacking the factory played a certain role in defeating the german "wolf pack" and maintaining the safety of the atlantic route. these air raids were welcomed in denmark, and the danes made no secret of their pro-allied tendencies. it wasn't long before sabotage activities in denmark escalated, undermining german military production there.

at this point, soe's cooperation with the danish underground resistance became less important, as monk's organization did not want to be involved in sabotage activities, and they were too weak to be sure of their fate if the germans took action against the danish army (which they did). in view of this, soe changed its strategy and decided to give more support to civilian groups. these groups received weapons shipped from the british and received training from the british. then a national resistance organization was formed, and the british side was responsible for providing them with support from 18 soe agents.

in the summer of 1943, relying on the stable supply of weapons from britain, the resistance organization's own underground arsenal, and the stolen and seized weapons of the german occupation forces, the resistance organization obtained sufficient weapons and continued to grow. in july of that year, an average of three sabotage incidents occurred every day, and by august, this number had doubled. faced with the increasingly fierce resistance activities, the germans sent gestapo personnel to denmark to help suppress the resistance organization and monitor the danes. although the gestapo took many high-pressure measures, the resistance of the danish people was not stopped. on the contrary, the germans found that their "trouble" was increasing day by day.

figure 6. an unfinished sten submachine gun replica made by the danish resistance organization

figure 7. another completed imitation sten submachine gun. note the unique grip shape of this gun.

figure 8. resistance members are producing guns

the devil's heart: shell house building

faced with denmark's growing resistance, germany sent its most evil and capable force - the gestapo. in may 1943, the gestapo entered copenhagen. at first, the gestapo set up its center in dagmarhus in the center of copenhagen, but in march 1944, as the gestapo expanded in denmark, they needed more space, so they requisitioned the nearby shell house building and some other surrounding buildings. in addition, there are branches of the gestapo in denmark in other cities such as odense and aarhus.

the shell house building was built in 1934. it is a reinforced concrete building with a capital "u" shape. several rows of huge glass were installed at the corners of the building to improve indoor lighting. the building has five floors and an attic above the fifth floor. the gestapo also set up barbed wire on the outside of the building.

figure 9. shell house building before the airstrike

from september 1943, karl heinz hoffmann began to serve as the head of the gestapo in denmark, but in terms of command over the german police, he was constrained by the police leader, ss deputy commander günther pancke, who reported directly to himmler, and the notorious ss flag captain otto bovensiepen, who reported to kaldenbrunner. with the help of intelligence experts, they began to collect information about the resistance. they established an index system to store the names, basic information, photos, aliases and other details of all danes suspected of participating in the resistance and under the care of the gestapo. all arrested persons were held in cells in the western prison and sent to the gestapo headquarters for interrogation. at first, the torture of uncooperative prisoners was carried out in the basement to prevent their screams from disturbing the gestapo staff working there, but later, their torture was changed to the fourth and fifth floors of the building. some danish nazi members assisted the gestapo here, and some were trained here to infiltrate the resistance organization to collect intelligence to attack their compatriots. here, few people could escape the gestapo's torture unscathed. for this reason, strict discipline was established within the resistance organization. as long as a member was arrested, all codes, addresses and meeting places would be changed immediately. therefore, the gestapo paid special attention to the interrogation within 48 hours after the arrest, because they knew that after that time, any intelligence they obtained would become meaningless.

for the sake of "safety" (to make the allies afraid to act rashly), the gestapo built the cells under the attic, together with the kitchen, storage room and laundry facilities. 22 of the cells were used to hold captured hostages, while the remaining 6 were double rooms for prisoners. in order to extract intelligence from the prisoners, the gestapo sometimes mixed danish spies into the cells. the living conditions in the cell were extremely poor. there was only a small window of 20 cm long and 10 cm wide in the narrow space of 3 meters long and 2 meters wide. the only furnishings inside included a double bed, a table with drawers, two wooden stools and a 15-watt electric lamp.

the germans were so impatient when it came to using the cells that they immediately put the arrested people in them once they were built, even though the cells next door might still be under construction! in this way, the germans turned the shell house building into a living hell.

the truth is revealed

shortly after the gestapo entered copenhagen, armed uprisings broke out in several towns near odense, esbjerg, and aalborg, and the attacks soon spread to copenhagen. by this time, the germans' patience had finally reached its limit, and berlin instructed best to depose the danish government. on august 28, 1943, the german army launched a large-scale operation across denmark. when most danes woke up on august 29, 1943, they found that german soldiers were standing around various public buildings. the king was almost a prisoner. except for the police, the danish army and navy were also prisoners. of course, the danes did not do nothing in this - before the germans entered the royal dockyard, the workers of the shipyard managed to sink several ships and sail other ships to sweden - almost a replica of what happened in toulon in 1942. ironically, this was exactly what soe had hoped for - the germans had finally made a clean break with the danish government.

the danish government was deposed by the germans, but this brought a side effect - without the constraints of government decrees, the danes began to act spontaneously. the germans once tried to support a puppet government in denmark similar to the norwegian quisling government, but suffered a shameful failure. in order to maintain the normal management order, the germans had to agree to let all civil servants retain their original positions. after the danish government was abolished, some danish patriots established the "freedom committee" on september 16, 1943 to lead the struggle against germany and danish nazis. although the members of the committee changed frequently because of continuous arrests and people fleeing to sweden, in the next two years, this committee successfully infiltrated all aspects of denmark and became a shadow government that competed with the german occupation authorities.

on october 1 of that year, the "final solution" for the jews finally reached denmark, and the germans began to detain jews in denmark. but at this time, a dramatic scene occurred. georg ferdinand duckwitz, an officer under best, learned about this from best and leaked the news to the danish resistance organization, allowing most jews to hide (there are also claims that this was intentional by best, because best was very opposed to this plan and believed that it would undermine germany's occupation of denmark). on october 3, adolf eichmann came to denmark to personally deploy the work. by the end of october, a total of 472 jews had been captured. of course, anyone with a discerning eye can see that there are still many fish that slip through the net - about 7,000 jews have escaped capture. in order to catch these people, the danish german army's highest military commander, general of the infantry hermann von hagen (hermann konstantin albert julius von hanneken), ordered the release of previously arrested danish senior officers, but these danes refused to cooperate with the invaders. despite this, hagen soon released thousands of soldiers, a decision that backfired - it provided a large amount of fresh blood to the danish resistance.

on june 6, 1944, the allies landed in normandy. in order to support the allied operations, the soe instructed the danish resistance to launch large-scale operations in denmark. in one of the attacks, the globus factory in copenhagen was completely destroyed. in response, the germans brutally executed a large number of captured resistance members and innocent hostages. best declared a state of emergency in copenhagen and imposed a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am. this immediately triggered a strike by about 10,000 workers at the burnmeister & wain shipyard. best immediately declared the strike illegal, but this inspired other workers to join the strike. soon, the whole of copenhagen was almost in riots. thousands of people gathered in the streets, looted pro-german shops, erected roadblocks on the road, and even attacked german soldiers. the germans intended to stop the attack, but the only one who was able to respond was the "freedom committee". the "freedom committee" offered the germans conditions, including ending the state of emergency and returning the strikers to their original jobs.

during the riots, several german divisions were being transported from denmark and norway to france to block the allied offensive, but the transportation of these divisions was seriously delayed due to the railway workers' strike and the destruction of the railway network in jutland. in order to prevent damage, twice as many troops were arranged every 200 meters along the railway. due to the shortage of troops stationed in denmark, more troops were required from germany. for safety reasons, the germans even directly abandoned the railway network in north jutland.

but this does not mean that the resistance organization can sit back and relax. fleming muus, one of the liaisons between the "freedom committee" and soe, managed to warn georg dukwitz through underground channels that the gestapo had already obtained a lot of intelligence about him and his work. the resistance organization was also seriously damaged at this time. on september 2, 1944, aage schoch, a member of the "freedom committee", was arrested and immediately taken here. he thought he would be executed, but he was later taken hostage by the gestapo and survived. on october 14, another member of the "freedom committee", mogens fog, was also arrested and came here. of course, by this time, some shrewd gestapo officials had realized that germany was about to lose the war, and they were no longer as ruthless to the prisoners as before, which also allowed many of the prisoners to survive the war.

meanwhile, on december 1, a report sent from bovenspere to berlin was intercepted by the resistance, indicating that the gestapo was well aware of soe's organization in denmark, and that mons's identity had been discovered by the gestapo, who already knew his real name. in order to ensure his safety, soe ordered mons to evacuate denmark and return to the uk immediately. herman dedichen transferred him as soon as possible, and then, in february 1945, ole lippmann smuggled him back to the uk.

figure 10. öl lippmann (1916-2002) was born in copenhagen. he joined the danish resistance in 1943 and then the soe in 1944. as an important contact between the soe and the danish resistance, he played a key role in operation carthage. in addition, he helped nearly 6,000 danish jews escape from denmark via sweden. he was the last surviving senior member of the freedom committee.

it was clear that by this time the danish resistance was in a critical situation and had to take action. if the germans were allowed to continue their actions, the consequences would be disastrous.

straight to huanglong

1. the special mission of mosquito

throughout world war ii, when talking about the bomber force of the royal air force, most of the images that come to people's minds are the overwhelming "lancaster" and "halifax" flying across the night sky of germany, dropping countless heavy bombs. compared with these magnificent large-scale air raids, another type of mission performed by the royal air force - low-level bombing missions (low-level mission) is much less known. most of these missions were completed by the "mosquito" type, known as the "wooden miracle". they used their high speed to fly low over enemy-occupied areas and perform various precision strike missions. among them, there were many air raids on german concentration camps.

in january 1944, the french resistance informed the british intelligence that more than 100 captured british air force pilots were held in a prison in amiens, france. in order to rescue these pilots, on february 18, 1944, under the escort of the typhoon of the 198th squadron, 18 mosquitoes from the 21st, 464th and 487th squadrons took off from hunston, forming three attack waves of six aircraft each, flying over the english channel at an ultra-low altitude. their target was a prison in amiens, france, where about 700 prisoners were held. in addition to the pilots, most of the others were captured members of the french resistance. according to the mission plan, they would destroy the outer wall of the prison, allowing the prisoners to escape. the air raid was so successful that when the last wave of attack aircraft flew over the target, the target had been destroyed. according to reports from the french underground resistance, 258 prisoners managed to escape, while 102 died, most of them shot by prison guards while trying to escape.

the news of the successful attack spread quickly throughout europe, and soon after, resistance groups in other countries began to make similar requests. shortly thereafter, on august 11, 1944, six mosquitoes attacked the gestapo archive center in the hague, the netherlands, destroying a large number of records stored there. for the resistance groups in jutland, the situation was even more dangerous, and they were in danger of being "wiped out" at any time. obviously, something had to be done. prior to this, the danish resistance launched several fierce attacks on the gestapo headquarters in a requisitioned university in aarhus, because there were a large number of documents and archives stored there, and about 100 gestapo staff worked there. in order to completely eliminate this evil center, the resistance group asked the british army to bomb the center. on october 31, 1944, the 21st, 464th and 487th squadrons, which participated in the bombing of amiens, sent 24 mosquitoes to bomb the place again. this bombing was very successful. not only did it raze the building to the ground and destroy all the records stored there, but it also yielded an unexpected gain - the gestapo in jutland was holding a meeting here at the time, and the sudden air raid caused them to suffer heavy losses.

figure 11. basel empoli (1902-1977), born in gloucestershire, england, joined the air force in 1921 and served under "bomber" arthur harris. on may 26, 1940, he was shot down and captured by ground anti-aircraft fire, and then returned to his country via spain. in 1943, he joined the second tactical air force and led the unit to carry out a series of special missions including destroying v1 missile launch sites and precision strikes on gestapo targets.

the squadron that participated in the aarhus raid was from the second tactical air force (2taf) commanded by sir basil edward embry. he was the most capable aircrew in the british air force at the time. after comparing every aircraft equipped by his unit, he decided that the mosquito vi was the best choice. soon after, he had all six squadrons under his command equipped with this model. based on his previous experience in commanding raids, he believed that low-level operations needed better training and preparation. he set up a special department in his unit to build miniature models of targets. based on these models, he explored an effective training method: when attacking a single target, he asked the aircrew to squint and observe at a small angle, giving them the feeling of flying close to the ground. in addition to making the aircrew better familiar with the target during training, the target model photos issued to the aircrew participating in the battle would also help them better locate the target. in addition to the photos, the aircrews also received maps with detailed markings of the attack routes and the locations of enemy air defense facilities.

2. operation cathage

several gestapo agencies in denmark have been blown up, and the next one is the most critical shell house building. it seems that this operation has many similarities with many operations carried out in the past two years. however, since the target is located in the city center, the difficulty is greatly increased. therefore, a more detailed and comprehensive plan is required. during the investigation, they found that the germans camouflaged the building because it was the only building with brown and green stripes in the area, which was too eye-catching, which brought some uncertainty to the plan. what's more dangerous is that since the cells holding the arrested persons are located on the top floor, they may be affected when the building is destroyed. however, if the various archives of the gestapo can be destroyed and the senior officials of the gestapo can be killed, then more people may survive.

despite this, the danes continued to send in information about the shellhouse building, including its structure and the gestapo's use of the internal offices. maps and images of the various operations were sent to london on 7 december 1944, as well as a route map showing the best route over zealand and to the city centre. some of the surrounding buildings and some prominent landmarks along the route of the raid were also described in detail. in addition, they managed to collect information about the german air force bases in kastrup and værløse, considering the possibility of interception by the luftwaffe. based on these considerations, the best time to attack was set between 11am and noon, so as to avoid interception by german fighters. the mission was commanded by colonel bob bateson and major edward 'ted' sismore. sismore had participated in the planning of the raid on amiens and had previously participated in the raid on aarhus. according to the plan, their plane will serve as the pilot of the entire formation. in order to obtain first-hand picture data, sismo has been inquiring whether there are pictures of the building taken from the bridge on lake st. jorgen since november 1944, so as to better analyze the target. this request was soon passed to denmark. this time, the danes used a trick under the noses of the germans-on the front page of the "broadcast gazette" on december 2 (the newspaper where monk worked before the war), a message was published: the government department will invest 10 million kronor to build an office building, and the picture is just such a photo. when the germans saw the newspaper, they immediately arrested the editor-in-chief, but then the editor-in-chief argued that the newspaper had been reviewed by the german censorship department. the germans had nothing to say and could only release him. in this way, the intelligence carried by the newspaper entered sweden and was sent to london.

figure 12. the commanders of the operation: colonel bob bateson (right) and captain edward 'ted' sismore

after studying the intelligence, empoli's technical officers made a miniature model of the shell house building and the surrounding urban landscape. the model was very realistic, with every house, lake, and park nearby restored to the maximum extent possible. air defense facilities were marked with red dots, and the target of the air raid, the shell house building, was painted in its camouflage color. in addition, in order to deepen the pilots' understanding of the german air defense forces in the area, they also specially made models of the german airfields and air defense facilities on east and west lan.