>Column 88 was a neo-Nazi paramilitary organisation based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in the early 1970s, and disbanded in the early 1980s. The members of Column 88 undertook military training under the supervision of a former Royal Marine Commando, and also held regular gatherings attended by neo-nazis from all over Europe.
>According to one report, "Column 88, was connected with the Gladio networks. These networks were set up after the Second World War, with the support of the US Central Intelligence Agency, by a number of powers, both within and outside NATO as anti-communist resistance bodies".[6] According to another report, Major Ian Souter Clarence, a former Special Forces Officer, "helped set up Column 88 in the 1960s as the British section of Gladio".[7]
>The group's military commander was Major Ian Souter Clarence[2][8] who had served in the Black Watch during the Second World War before becoming active as a supporter of Arnold Leese. Stories about him stockpiling weapons had been known to MI5 from as early as 1946.[9] He organised a number of camps to provide combat training to Column 88 members.[10]
>Other leading members included Joe Short, who had been involved in the National Democratic Freedom Movement,[14] Graham Gillmore, a mercenary and NF member[15] and David Myatt.[16][17][18]
>David Myatt joined Colin Jordan's British Movement, a neo-Nazi group, in 1968, where he sometimes acted as Jordan's bodyguard at meetings and rallies.[56] Myatt would later become Leeds Branch Secretary and a member of British Movement's National Council.[57] From the 1970s until the 1990s, he remained involved with paramilitary and neo-Nazi organisations such as Column 88 and Combat 18.
>In the late 1970s, the organisation allegedly carried out several bomb attacks on left-wing British organisations, including the Socialist Workers Party, the Anti-Nazi League and the left-wing Housmans bookshop, where the pacifist and anti-racist magazine Peace News was published.[20] Other bomb attacks that it was reported to have carried out included those against targets as diverse as the homes of Conservative Party members and transmission towers whilst the group also claimed a series of arson attacks on Jewish-owned businesses.[2]
>Column 88 was also said to have been involved in the establishment of a number of other far-right groups, including the exclusive League of St. George and the National Party.[2] National Party leader John Kingsley Read claimed that he received funds from Column 88 both for his own party and during his time as chairman of the National Front.[25] In 1983 Column 88 hit the headlines again when the press reported that Clarence had been "safe-housing" three German neo-Nazis terrorists Odfried Hepp, Ulrich Tillmann and Walter Kexel, who were wanted for bomb attacks on US Army bases in Germany.[26]
>In 1982, the neo-Nazi gang robbed five banks in Germany to finance later actions and captured 630,000 D-Mark. Internally, the group called itself after their leaders Walther Kexel and Odfried Hepp. According to Hepp, the group wanted to attract political attention with large terrostic attack, modeled on the IRA.
>The Hepp-Kexel group published a paper titled Farewell to Hitlerism. They called for an "anti-imperialist liberation struggle" against the US and Israel. The group rented apartments and set up weapons depots. Following the call, three car bomb attacks on US military personnel followed in Frankfurt, Butzbach and Darmstadt.
>All members, except for Odfried Hepp, were arrested in February 1983.[2] Three members surrender to the police in Frankfurt, Kexel and another member were arrested in the same month in England. Only Hepp, who had previously moved to West Berlin, and was working for the Stasi,[3] was able to escape the planned for February 19, 1983 arrest by the Berlin police by fleeing to East Berlin.[4] He was taken to Syria and given a new identity.[3]
weird, that.