The Special Interrogation Group (SIG)[a] was a unit of the British Army during World War II, formed largely of German-speaking Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine.
Disguised as soldiers of the German Afrika Korps, members of the SIG undertook commando and sabotage operations against Axis forces during the Western Desert Campaign.
[1][2][3] The inspiration for the SIG belonged to Captain Herbert Cecil Buck, MC of the 3rd Bn., 1st Punjab Regiment and later the Scots Guards,[4] an Oxford scholar and German linguist.
He was surprised by the ease of his deception and felt that, with greater planning and preparation, the concept could be used more offensively, to assist raiding parties attack key targets behind enemy lines.
Before the war, both had been members of the French Foreign Legion who had been captured in November 1941 serving in the 361st Infantry Regiment of the Afrika Korps and were subsequently recruited by the British Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC) as double agents.
During the raid, on the night of 13/14 June, Herbert Brueckner managed to run away by faking an engine problem of the truck he was driving and betrayed the Derna party, nearly all of whom were killed or captured.
In January 1999, Maurice (Monju) Tiefenbrunner, a surviving member of SIG, recorded his life story in an unpublished autobiography booklet called "A Long Journey Home".