Jacket, Service Dress: Major, Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Jacket Khaki open-collared single-breasted four pocket jacket. Jacket has four brass 'GS' buttons to the front; one to each breast-pocket and each of the two epaulettes. The breast pockets are unpleated. To the epaulettes are fitted two detachable metal rank 'Crowns,' indicating the rank of major; two bronzed metal General Service Corps collar badges are fitted to the step collar. To each upper arm is sewn the cloth embroidered shield-shaped formation sign of the 21st Army Group; being a blue 'Christian' cross on a red field, with two crossed yellow swords, hilts uppermost, superimposed. Above the left breast pocket are three medal ribbons: the 1939-45 Star; Italy Star; & the France & Germany Star. Directly above these is sewn the badge of a qualified army parachutist. The jacket is fully lined in khaki cotton and has an open pocket fitted to the inside right skirt, for a first shell dressing. There is an internal pocket fitted to the left chest, with the tailor's label sewn to the inside.

Walter Freud was born on 3 April, 1921 in Vienna. A grandson of the renowned Jewish founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, Walter escaped to England with some of his family after the German annexation of Austria in the 1938 'Anschluss.' Following the fall of France Walter was interned as an enemy alien and later shipped briefly to Australia. After Hitler's invasion of Russia, and Britain's reconsideration of the internment policy, Walter was released and returned to England in August 1941. He joined the British army and served in the only unit that accepted former enemy-aliens, the Pioneer Corps, until the Austria Country Section of the SOE recruited him in 1943. Following a year of intensive training, Lieutenant Freud was posted to Italy by the summer of 1944, and, in the spring of 1945, was parachuted into Lower Austria: his mission to encourage anti-Nazi resistance; commit acts of sabotage; and to establish a British presence before the Russian advance into the area. By error, the pilot of their aircraft dropped the small team of SOE agents at a height of 10,000 feet instead of the prescribed 1,200 feet. Consequently Freud was separated; both from his comrades, the supplies and the communications equipment. After weeks alone in the Styrian mountains he made his way to Scheifling. Audaciously he entered the mayor's office and dressed in uniform, falsely claimed that he was the advanced guard of the British 8th Army. He requested to be taken to an airfield at Zeltweg in order to secure it before the Russians arrived. The mayor assisted by conveying Freud in the only serviceable vehicle at his disposal; the town's fire engine! The following day Freud attended a meeting between various military and Nazi Party officials, and they agreed that he should be escorted to meet General Lothar Rendulic, Chief of Army Group South, to discuss the handover of the airfield. However, on driving to the Zeltweg with a German Major, both were held up and 'arrested' by Austrian former soldiers who insisted that they be handed to the Americans. Recognising his celebrity status, the Americans entertained Freud until he was flown back to England, where he arrived on VE Day, 8 May 1945. Following his Austrian adventure, Lieutenant Freud was finally assigned to the War Crimes Investigation Unit at Bad Oeynhausen, the HQ of British Army of the Rhine (west of Berlin), and was demobilised in September 1946 with the rank of Major.

Standard British army officer's service dress jacket, although it has the unusual distinction of not having pleated breast pockets; this being a more common feature of Service Dress worn by Foot Guards officers. The bronzed metal collar badges of the General Service Corps were worn by all officers who had been recently trained awaiting posting to a field force unit, and those selected as operatives of the SOE. The jacket also features the army parachutist's qualification wings, not on the right upper arm as was the normal convention, but on the left chest. This was a distinction of the SOE, signifying at least one operational descent into enemy territory and a successful return to the UK or friendly forces.

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