Alexander’s orders to screen the thousands of White (non-rnSoviet) Russians and not to use force to compel Russians to returnrnto the Soviet Union. Tolstoy published the details ofrnthese crimes in his monumental work of scholarship, retrievingrnthe facts from obscurity and secrecy. He overcame all sorts ofrnhindrances to his research, including the removal of documentsrnfrom archives. The moment Lord Aldington filed his libelrnwrit against Tolstoy in 1987, both the British Foreign Officernand the Ministry of Defense withdrew from public access filesrnrevealing that Field Marshal Alexander and General Eisenhowerrnarranged to evacuate the Cossacks to Germany andrnthat it was this move that Aldington and his colleagues prevented.rnThe foreign secretary who ordered the withdrawal onrnAldington’s behalf was Sir Geoffrey Flowe, who went to thernsame school as Aldington and who sat on the Board of SunrnAlliance when Aldington was company chairman.rnFor his efforts to discover the ugly truth, Tolstoy has beenrnpersecuted by the British establishment. In 1989, a court triedrnto silence him with the largest libel verdict in British history—rn1.5 million pounds. The trial judge told the jury that Tolstoyrnwas a “fanatic” and a “self-styled historian,” though Tolstoy isrnrenowned in Britain and abroad for his historical and literarvrnwork. Eyewitnesses, both British and foreign, were denied anrnopportunity to testify, though many had traveled from aroundrnthe world to reveal the atrocities committed by the British VrnGorps and to explain who bore direct responsibility for therncrimes. Efforts continue in Britain to seize Tolstoy’s library ofrndocuments on the crimes. His book has been withdrawn fromrncirculation. Libraries have removed it from their shelves. Andrnas Britain lacks a First Amendment, the British press has nornmeans of exploring the events and the ongoing actions againstrnGount Tolstoy. The establishment is determined to preventrnthe world from knowing that a future British Prime Ministerrnand his minions were responsible for war crimes.rnIn Operation Keelhaul, the victims were former prisoners ofrnwar. hi the British case, they included thousands of eldedyrnmen, women, and children who were beaten by British troopsrnand forced into railway cars in the manner of Jews shipped tornAuschwitzby the Nazis. The scenes were appalling. In 1990,rnthe BBG, in a rare report on the crimes, cited cases of extremerncruelty in the roundup of White Russians: “There was an oldrnman and he was on his knees. The British were hitting him onrnthe head methodically, and the tears were mixing with thernblood.” The BBG also reported a case of soldiers turning arnflamethrower on a Gossack who had resisted. A number ofrnWhite Russians, who realized the fate awaiting them, jumpedrnto their death from a high footbridge, many with babies in theirrnarms.rnMajor “Rusty” Davie, a young Welshman assigned to thernroundup, reported that platoons of soldiers battered their wayrninto the densely packed White Russians who fiercely resistedrnbecause, as Tolstoy points out, many “had experience of therndeath camps of the Gulag or the torture cells of the NKVD.”rnDavie said that “those who suffered most were the young children.rnGhildren were torn from their mothers and thrown intorntrucks.”rnMany British soldiers were shocked and horrified by thernbrutal task assigned to them. The medical officer of one battalionrnreported that the second in command was “openlyrnweeping.” A chaplain reported that soldiers came to him laterrnin agony saying “they could not believe that this is what theyrnhad been fighting the war for.” And remember, these atrocitiesrnwere committed as a result of orders issued by Macmillan,rnGeneral Keightley, and Brigadier Low. The image of the elegant,rnsuave Macmillan is blood-stained for all time.rnThe chronology of this war crime is fascinating. On Mav 11rnthe Soviet NKVD General Vsevolod NikolaevichrnMerkulov demanded that General Keightley hand over allrnGossacks. Three days later, Macmillan flew to Austria and issuedrnthe verbal directive to Keightley for the forced transfer—rnagainst all standing orders and Ghurchill’s clearly stated policy.rnAccording to Gount Tolstoy, there are “positive indicationsrnthat SMERSH was deeply involved in the British side of thernrepatriations, and links between the British organizers of therncovert operation and the Soviet security forces went beyondrnmere illicit compliance with an official request.” GeneralrnKeightley took the extraordinary step of allowing SMERSH officersrnto accompany British patrols searching for fugitive Gossacks.rnThey were even granted license to shoot or beat Gossacksrnon British-controlled territory.rnAt the same time, Brigadier Low issued orders for the forcedrnreturn of Yugoslav prisoners to Tito. Macmillan, Tolstoy says,rnmade this parallel recommendation. In other words, Macmillanrnenabled Stalin and Tito to get their way. In doing so, hernhoodwinked his own Prime Minister and top British and Alliedrnmilitary leaders. Tolstoy goes no further than to say thatrn”Macmillan’s motive remains tantalizingly mysterious.” ButrnAmerican commentators, who have greater freedom, may wantrnto go further. For Macmillan to flout Allied policy in order tornoblige the illicit demands of SMERSH raises the darkest suspicions.rnWhat is one to make of this covert operation carriedrnout within days of the SMERSH demand?rnThe handover of Yugoslavs is equally horrifying. ArianarnDelianach, a White Russian, was at the Viktring camp whenrn3,000 Slovenes were forcibly transferred to the Titoists. She describedrnhow many wounded, “their limbs amputated or inrnplaster, many blinded, were shoved roughly into trucks.” Sherntold of a blinded Slovene: “Two English soldiers picked him uprnand tossed him head over heels into a truck. A prolongedrnscream of agony pierced the air.” The British also lied to thernYugoslavs about where they were going. Nigel Nicholson testifiedrnin court in 1989: “We had to lie to these people . . . notrnjust once but twice a day for ten days. In my view, this was thernmost shameful episode in the history of the British army.”rnThe British officers involved knew perfectly well that thevrnwere luring their charges to their deaths.rnThe British troops drove the Yugoslavs into the boxcars ofrnwaiting trains. When the cars reached the Yugoslav lines, thernTitoists gathered a mob to beat and stone the prisoners. Onrnreaching Kocevje, their hands were bound with barbed wire. Asrnthey were moved by truck, the prisoners were slashed withrnknives and some had their eyes gouged out. They heard machinernguns and terrible screaming accompanied by raucousrnlaughter. When they reached their destination, the prisonersrnwere lined up, shot, and their bodies tossed into a huge pit.rnFor years, Gount Tolstoy was handicapped in his researchesrnby the British authorities’ unwillingness to make all the archivalrnsources available and by the curtain of secrecy draped over thisrncovert operation. Today, however, the situation has changedrnwith respect to the Russians. Russian authorities have openedrnlong-secret state archives and given Iblstoy every assistance inrnhis researches. General Golkogonev, who is in charge of all Russianrnarchives, asked Tolstoy: “How is it that British officialdomrn12/CHRONICLESrnrnrn