Adolf to Azov

Column 88 was a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, that only lasted a decade but had better leadership than most of neo-Nazi at the time, due to its leader being an ex-Royal Marine Commando, Major Ian Souter Clarence and another veteran named Leslie Eric Lutz Vaughan. The group claims to date back to 1945, with them claiming to be a secretive German Nazi cell, but their actual activities only date back as far as the 1970’s.

Clarence served the British during WW2 against the Germans. However, as early as 1946, he started stockpiling weapons for Column 88. Years later, in the 70’s Clarence had functioning training camps set up and running, in order to train fellow neo-Nazi how to be paramilitary men. Lutz acted as the funder of the organization. Column 88 also had Anthony Reed Herbert as their lawyer. This made Column 88 a very professional organization with a focus on paramilitarism rather than politics, making Column 88 much more friendly, and well connected, to other neo-Nazi groups. They could normally recruit member from the ranks of other neo-Nazi groups.

Column 88 would then get involved in a bombing campaign which would lead to multiple members being arrested. The attacks were aimed at rival political parties of the neo-Nazi movement. However, they did attack a transmission tower as well.

Column 88 would be disbanded, but it’s interesting to look at how the high levels of the leadership of Column 88 are connected to the British government. For example, Clarence was able to smuggle guns, while MI5 knew about it 20 years?