Historical person
Colin Anson
1922–2016
Colin Anson was born Claus Leopold Octavio Ascher in Berlin in 1922. After Nazi persecution destroyed his family’s security and his father died after imprisonment in Dachau, he escaped to Britain. He joined the British Army, changed his name and in 1942 was recruited into the German-speaking troop of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando commonly known as X Troop.
Anson fought in Sicily and Italy, was seriously wounded, returned to service and later operated in the Adriatic and Greece before serving in post-war Germany. Helen Fry’s Why I Became an X Troop Commando is his nonfiction biography, drawing on extensive interviews and placing his life within the history of refugee soldiers who returned to fight Nazi Germany.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring Colin Anson (2 books)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
