Fermanagh war hero who captured suspected SS butcher dies at age 98

A DECORATED war hero from Co Fermanagh who came faceto-face with an alleged Nazi war criminal years after capturing him has been laid to rest.

Hugh Maguire (98), who was originally from Maguiresbridge, was buried yesterday following Requiem Mass in Scotland, where he had lived for most of his life.

He died peacefully on August 29.

A piper and bugler from the Royal Irish Regiment played in honour of the Royal Ulster Rifles veteran, who was the last surviving member of his unit to take part in the D-Day landings.

In 2015 Mr Maguire was awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest award for bravery.

He was also decorated for the courage he displayed within days of landing on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

He recalled his actions during his regiment’s advance towards Caen when he addressed the Scottish War Blinded.

“We moved on to Hill 60 and

Hugh Maguire (also right) was awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur

it wasn’t long before the German artillery opened up on us,” he said.

“A good mate of mine took a direct

hit and was blown to pieces. I was blown 12 feet in the air and had shrapnel in my back, neck and shoulders.”

When a corporal tried to send Mr Maguire for medical treatment, he said he had “never refused an order in my life” before asking if he could “take down the machine-gun position that had peppered us that morning”.

“He looked at me and said that I wasn’t to blame him if I got shot,” he added.

“I said that was OK as I wouldn’t be there to worry about it.

“I crawled my way up to the side of the machine-gun post and shouted at them to surrender. I shot two of them as they turned their guns towards me, everything happened very quickly.

“The other two surrendered, one of them an SS officer, who I marched back to headquarters.”

The Nazi captive was Anton Gecas, a platoon commander with the Lithuanian 12th police battalion, a paramilitary unit that was absorbed into the German security apparatus and was responsible for the murder of around 32,000 civilians, mostly Jews.

Mr Maguire came face-to-face with Gecas, who was going by the name Tony, almost 20 years later when they both ended up working as engineers for the National Coal Board in Scotland.

But Gecas denied the pair had ever met when confronted in 1960.

“I reported him to the police, but they told me he had immunity,” Mr Maguire previously claimed.

“What could I do? I couldn’t take a case up against him.” In 2001 a Lithuanian court granted a warrant for Gecas’ arrest, but he suffered a series of strokes and died within a few months at the age of 85.

His death sparked calls for a public inquiry to examine how a “Nazi war criminal” was allowed to live in Edinburgh for 52 years free from the fear of ever facing justice.

In September 2001 Lloyd Quinan MSP claimed Gecas had been protected because of his links with the British Secret Intelligence Service. It has also been alleged he was recruited to provide low level intelligence during the Cold War. Gecas always denied the allegations against him.