Once in England, Muller still has to prove himself. Due to his background, he speaks excellent German and so might as well be a Nazi spy. “I was taken to a kind of camp. People who had just arrived were interrogated to see what their intentions were and to find out whether they were not spies.” Muller says he will be questioned for 72 days in German, English and French.
Muller ends up in England with the French armed forces. “Initially I wanted to become a pilot, but that was not possible. The training lasted two years and was in America. Then I decided to become a parachutist.” In fact, he is advised against one para to become. “That was for the scum of the ledge. Well, then I’ll be scum, I thought,” laughs Muller. “Because they are certainly the first to be deployed in occupied territory.”
Muller obtains a Polish, British and French certificate. “After a tough, intensive training, the paratroopers were transferred to the British Special Air Service.” To say that the training is tough is an understatement. “Even today you still have to complete extremely physically demanding workouts,” he explains. “I remember when I returned to base, the blood came through the holes in my shoelaces. If you gave up, you were removed from the group. We had only one goal in mind and that was to participate in the liberation of France and the rest of Europe.”
SAS soldiers special forces. No guys to mess with. “We learned everything: map reading, walking day and night, avoiding ambushes and attacking at night.” In the center is a so-called hit and run. Hit and go. “The English said that a dead SAS man didn’t matter. He had to be alive. So it came down to being able to kill without being killed yourself.”
At that time, the SAS consisted of five battalions: two British, two French and one Belgian. Muller is assigned to the fourth battalion. He starts out as a soldier, but rises to the rank of private first class. “At the time of the first landing I was a corporal.”