George Lane ( British Army officer ) George Henry Lane , MC ( 18 January 1915 – 19 March 2010 ) was a British Army officer in the Commando s during World War II , achieving the rank of Lieutenant . He performed a number of missions behind enemy lines . Captured on one such mission , Lane was spared after he had tea with Erwin Rommel , and later escaped . Early life . George Lane was born Gyuri Lányi on 18 January 1915 . A Hungarian Jew , he was the eldest son of Ernest Lanyi , a landowner in the northern part of Hungary . At the end of World War I , the region of Upper Hungary was transferred to the newly created state of Czechoslovakia . Lane , aged four , effectively became a refugee , and his family moved to Budapest , where he was educated . Lane became a swimming champion , and he toured widely with the Hungarian Olympic water polo team . In order to travel , but lacking funds , he took a friend ’ s advice to write about water polo as a freelance journalist . His articles included an eyewitness account of a Nuremberg Rally . Lane moved to England in 1935 to undertake studies at the University of London . He was more or less adopted by the Dean of Windsor , Albert Victor Baillie , who enjoyed vacationing in Hungary . Lane wrote several articles about the trauma of meeting demoralized Germans in Harwich . These articles attracted the interest of Rozsika Edle Rothschild , a Hungarian sportswoman who lived in Northamptonshire . Rothschild wrote to Lane , but he did not respond to her letters . World War II . Lane was studying at London University when World War II began . He volunteered to join the British Army and was accepted by the Grenadier Guards . The Home Office , however , served him with a deportation order . Lane often stayed at Leeds Castle , the home of the American - born political hostess Lady Baillie , where he met Anthony Eden , the future Prime Minister and David Margesson , the government Chief Whip . With their help the deportation order was rescinded , but he had to spend a year in the Alien Pioneer Corps doing manual labour . Commando service . Lane then joined Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) , the British irregular warfare organization . After intensive training , Lane became adept in unarmed combat , weapons and explosives , parachuting , and small boat handling . He went on missions to Belgium and the Netherlands , but he refused to parachute into Hungary , so he transferred to No . 4 Commando under the leadership of Lord Lovat . Lord Louis Mountbatten , the British Chief of Combined Operations , decided that better use should be made of foreigners in the British Army because of their language skills and intense hatred of Hitler . Lane and a commando captain , Bryan Hilton - Jones , identified 140 foreigners for a proposed “ X Troop ” , of whom 80 were selected , all of them fluent in German . Largely composed of Jewish refugees from Europe , this X Troop became Number 3 Troop in No . 10 ( Inter - Allied ) Commando , of which Hilton - Jones became commanding officer . The men of Number 3 Troop would be temporarily seconded to different units and undertook reconnaissance raids . Lane was commissioned as an officer in 1943 . For one mission , Lane had to parachute into northern France , rifle a safe in a German brigade HQ , and bring back some important papers . A top safe breaker was released from prison on the Isle of Wight for two days and taught Lane how to crack the German safe . The prison inmate was reluctant to reveal the secrets of his safecracking trade , only doing so when Lane swore not to take this skill with him into civilian life . For another mission , Lane was part of a small group that was dropped behind enemy lines to examine a new gun sight . A report was needed urgently , so the men tied the report to a carrier pigeon brought along for the purpose . The pigeon flew away and was heading for home when a hawk darted out from under the cliffs and seized it . The frustration of seeing so much effort wasted , Lane said later , nearly reduced him to tears . Tarbrush raids . In May 1944 Lane was raid commander of three missions , known as the Tarbrush raids , to examine mines on the French coast near Ault . During the lead - up to D - Day , an RAF fighter had strafed a pillbox on the French coast . The aircraft carried a camera , and the scientists who examined the film were puzzled that the plane ' s rockets , which fell short , appeared to have set off underwater explosions . The Allies wanted to know if the Germans were using a new kind of mine on the beaches . Lane led a hazardous reconnaissance mission that required a two - mile approach to a heavily defended coastline . Lane ' s reconnaissance expedition discovered that the Germans had attached Teller mine s to stakes in the water . These would be submerged when the tide was high and would explode on impact with a landing craft . However , the mines had no waterproofing and had corroded . They had only exploded when the rockets from the RAF fighter had hit nearby . Lane concluded that the Teller mines were only a crude improvisation , not an advanced type of mine . Capture by Germans . Lane was ordered to return the next night , and the next – this time with a sapper officer , Roy Wooldridge , who was a mine expert . They found nothing but the Teller mines , but had orders to photograph other obstacles on the beach using infrared equipment . The commandos were taken by surprise when star shell s illuminated the beach . Lane and Wooldridge , hiding in the dunes , came under fire from two German patrols . They were cut off from the others in the raiding party , who , unable to wait any longer , had left them a rubber dinghy and swum out to their boat . When the firing stopped , Lane and Wooldridge returned to the beach and paddled out to sea as fast as they could . Although it was dark and pouring rain , a German patrol boat spotted the two British commandos . The two men jettisoned their photographic equipment before they were taken prisoner . They were told that they would be handed over to the Gestapo and shot . German dictator Adolf Hitler had issued the illegal " Commando Order " in 1942 that required the immediate execution of all commandos on sight , irrespective of uniform , rank or whether they were trying to surrender . Lane and Wooldridge could have been executed immediately , but they were first interrogated by German Army officers to ascertain the purpose of their mission . Meeting with Rommel . For several days the two British commandos were kept in cellars at Cayeux , where they were interrogated by the Germans . Eventually , Lane and Wooldridge were bound , blindfolded and pushed into a car . They were driven to a castle , and Lane was taken to a room guarded by a ferocious dog . Lane ' s blindfold was removed and an elegant German officer arrived with sandwiches and real coffee . Lane was then taken to a large library . Sitting at a desk at the far end was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel . Rommel got up and invited Lane , who was standing to attention , to join him at a table that was laid for tea . Rommel questioned Lane through interpreters . As recounted in Lane ' s obituary in the London " Daily Telegraph " , Rommel had experienced much trouble with " gangster commandos , " as he called them . " You must realize , " [ Rommel ] said , " that you are in a very tricky situation . Everyone seems to think that you are a saboteur . " " Well , if the Field Marshal believed that I was a saboteur he would not have done me the honour of inviting me here . " " So you think that this is an invitation ? " Rommel rejoined . " I do , sir , and I must say I am highly honoured . " The Field Marshal smiled , the atmosphere became relaxed and the two men had a long conversation . In the ensuing conversation Rommel apparently relaxed enough to ask Lane , " How ’ s Montgomery doing ? " As described in Lane ' s obituary in " The Times " , Lane replied , " Unfortunately I don ’ t know him , but he ’ s preparing the invasion and he ’ ll be here shortly , " adding , for good measure , " by the shortest route . " Rommel went so far as to tell Lane he thought it was a shame that the British and Germans had not united to fight against the Soviet Union . David Pryce - Jones , in the " National Review " , describes a few other details about Lane ' s meeting with Rommel : When the blindfold was removed [ Lane ] found himself facing Field - Marshal Rommel and other German generals in their headquarters at La Roche Guyon . Rommel then interrogated him about his mission , saying that he suspected the Allies were about to invade . George of course spoke German but stuck to English , to be on the safe side . The more George hedged , the more Rommel played the good - cop role . But then one of the other generals butted in . If George was the British officer he claimed to be , why did he speak English with a foreign accent . “ Because I am a Hungarian Jew , ” was not the right answer in the circumstances . George said , “ Because I am Welsh . ” Oh , of course , the generals all nodded . George was given a cup of tea , and then sent to prison in Paris , and deported — not to a concentration camp as might have been the case , but to an officers ' prison . As for Rommel , a few days later he and his car were shot up by the RAF , so he played no part in D - Day , and then he was accused by Hitler of being part of the July bomb plot , and forced to commit suicide . George was surely the last non - German to see him alive . Later that day , Lane and Wooldridge were taken to Fresnes Prison , near Paris . There they were told that they would be hanged or shot . The screams from the other cells were terrifying , Lane said , but after two days the pair were sent on to the castle prison for officers at Spangenberg , near Fulda , Oflag IX / A - H . There were 300 British officers in the castle . They had an excellent library , and Lane studied estate management through a correspondence course . Escape . As the Allies closed in , the prisoners were moved out under guard . On the second night , Lane escaped by slipping into a deep ditch . He then hid in a tree , but then saw a German soldier climbing up behind him . The German turned out to be a deserter . The German advised Lane to walk to a nearby hospital and wait for American forces to arrive . When Lane arrived at the hospital , a doctor told him that the SS regularly searched the hospital . Lane , however , told the doctor that the Americans were very close and that when they arrived , the doctor would need a friend . Lane then proceeded to round up some of the sick and wounded from his PoW column and bring them back for treatment . Two days later he was able to give the Americans such a good account of the doctor that they put him in charge of the entire hospital . Once the Americans had liberated the area , Lane caught a ride to recently liberated Paris , where he stayed with his brother - in - law , Victor Rothschild . He asked for a hot bath . " I have lots of Chateau Lafite , " said his host , " and lots of Dom Pérignon . But I cannot provide you with a bath because there is no hot water . " As with the carrier pigeon , Lane said afterwards that he could have cried . Marriage to Miriam Rothschild . During the war , Lane met Miriam Rothschild , the renowned entomologist , when recovering at her house after an accident . Miriam Rothschild was the daughter of Rozsika Edle Rothschild , who had written Lane before the war about articles he had written . When Lane arrived at the Rothschild estate , he recognized the address . Rozsika Rothschild had died in 1940 , but her daughter remembered the articles . Miriam ' s first words to Lane were , “ Why the hell didn ’ t you answer my mother ’ s letter ? You ought to be ashamed of yourself . ” Lane and Miriam Rothschild married in 1943 . After the war Lane helped to run the Rothschild estate at Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire . Lane farmed successfully and became a successful businessman , but his marriage to Miriam broke down , and they divorced in 1957 . Lane remained on good terms with his first wife , and she even attended the silver wedding lunch for his second marriage in 1986 . United States . Lane moved to the United States in 1955 . He joined a firm of stockbrokers in New York and studied at night school until he had passed the stock exchange examinations . He later opened offices in Cannes , Monte Carlo , Paris , and Zurich . Marriage to Elizabeth Heald . In 1963 , Lane married his second wife , Elizabeth Heald , the daughter of Sir Lionel Heald , Attorney General in the last Churchill government . Later life . After Lane remarried in 1963 , he lived in London , travelled widely , and pursued a number of business interests . He opened the London office of the Economic News Agency , reporting on precious metals . Later , with a Hungarian partner , he secured financing for projects in the Congo from an office in Berkeley Square . A great sportsman , he loved shooting in the Scottish Highlands and in his native Hungary . He also bred Hungarian partridges in Scotland . In 1984 , Lane returned to the château where he had met Rommel for an article in " The Sunday Telegraph " . Twenty years later he went back there for the BBC . He always believed that Rommel had saved his life . Awards . Lane won the Military Cross for his part in the Tarbrush raids on the Pas de Calais coast of May 1944 . Death . George Lane died on 19 March 2010 at the age of 95 . He was survived by his second wife , and his son and three daughters from his first marriage .