Ossie has always been a very thorough worker, and often he would take a London office and register a firm at Bush House in order to write and inquire about the sort of safe he intended to crack. Once or twice he even bought and installed the same model to practise on. Perhaps this isn't so extraordinary these days, but in the thirties it was really scientific crime.
It was in April 1939 that D.S.T. borrowed Ossie again. This time, without telling London what they intended (and very wise, too, for the Home Office would have gone out of their small minds), they sent Ossie to live in Berlin. Big expense account and an apartment in a beautiful block of flats in the Bayerischer Platz. All Ossie had to do was to study the literature of the safe manufacturers. Sometimes they would go to one of the showrooms to look at the real thing. When war began, Paris and London were fighting over Ossie and he spent the war years travelling around the world cracking safes for various Allied Intelligence organizations. All this experience meant that Ossie had made many important friends 'across the grain', as they say in Intelligence work; that is to say, he was a link between many separate organizations.
In the normal way of operations, such people disappear when their usefulness is past Ossie's influence was now great, and because of his friends he survived those fatal years for agents, 1945-8. Ossie had been back in prison several times since the war, even though the P.O. generally sent some tame V.C. along to the court to speak about his war record in what was ironically described as 'the Resistance'. In the post-war world of Intelligence Ossie had become a specialist on documents. Common crime was no longer for him; he got secret documents out of safes. The document business was booming. He would 'do' an aeroplane factory for the Yugoslav Embassy or the Yugoslav Embassy for an aeroplane factory. Ossie didn't play favourites among clients. 'It wouldn't be right,' he once told me. By now Ossie could read enough of a dozen languages to ensure that he wouldn't bring the wrong documents back. He had also studied photography at L.C.C. evening classes.
3. Operation Bernhard The idea of producing counterfeit banknotes (œ5, œ10, œ20, œ50) in order to shake confidence in British currency is said to have been inspired by the dropping of forged clothing- and food-coupons by the R.A.F. over Nazi Germany. The original plan (to drop the notes from Luftwaffe aircraft) was named Operation Andreas but later was replaced by Operation Bernhard. This latter plan was to use the money to finance secret operations.
The notes produced at Oranienburg Concentration Camp (Special Wing 19) were used to:
1. Buy arms from Balkan partisans (so making them less dangerous).
2. Finance Hungarian radio-listening service.
3. Buy information concerning Mussolini's whereabouts (in order to arrange rescue).
4. Pay Cicero (œ300,000).
5. Supply presents for Arab sheiks.
In the latter stages of the war the production centre was moved to Ebensee and to an underground factory near the village of Redl-Zipf (between Salzburg and Linz). A young S.S. lieutenant moving a consignment of the currency (and some people say the plates too) is in a difficult position when one of the lorries breaks down. Acting on orders, he tips the packing cases into the River Traun and hands the broken lorry over to the Wehrmacht. After a little distance a second lorry breaks down; it is abandoned.
When British currency comes floating down the Traun to the Traunsee Lake the U.S. Army, who are by now in occupation, investigate the second lorry. In it they find œ21 million in virtually perfect forgeries. It is accepted that the remaining lorries went to the German Naval Research Station (homing torpedoes were tested in the lake).
The sides of the lake are steep, and investigation of it rendered dangerous by a raft of waterlogged timber that hangs suspended about 100 feet below the surface of the water. Divers do not dare to go under it.
In March 1946 two bodies are found near by. Both men had been stationed at the Naval Research Station. In August 1950, another death: again an ex-member of the Naval Research Station.
Many people thought that the sites of these deaths indicated that the plates were hidden in the heights above the station rather than in the water. Rumours said that the Russians organized these attempts, but there is nothing to connect them with either.
In 1953 the Readers Digest financed an investigation, and in 1959 a German magazine financed another and claims to have found plates, notes and secret records in a near-by lake. The material was placed in such a way that it could be recovered. There have since been several more.
Operation Bernhard was run by the S.D. (Sicherheitsdienst), the S.S. Security and Intelligence Unit which evoked much jealousy among the other Nazi intelligence units for its extravagant access to so much finance.
4. Olterra
The Olterra was a 4,900-ton Italian tanker which sank (although leaving its superstructure above the water-line) in Algeciras Bay at the beginning of World War 2. The Italian Government offered to raise it and sell it to the Spanish Government The price was very reasonable. The Italian salvage men cut a door in the hull below water level. It then became a secret harbour for the tiny human torpedoes (called by the Italians Maiale - pigs) which had arrived dismantled among the new tubes and boilers for the Olterra. Gibraltar harbour was just across the bay.
5. Kurier
Invented by German Navy during World War 2. The original device enabled a semi-skilled operator to send high-speed signals (these could be read and decoded only by means of recording gear, it was far too fast for a human ear to interpret). The dials are set to arrange the signal, then the cylinder is attached to the transmitter and the crank turned to send a signal. During the war the messages were photo-recorded at Neumunster (Holstein). The R.N. were most anxious to acquire one. After the war this improved version was designed.
6. Lt Peterson, B.T., Court martial The front page said 'Court Martial' and then a list of contents. First the report of the Court of Inquiry that had repatriated this officer from Germany. Under that was the Circumstantial Letter (a report about the need for a court martial). Then there was a list of witnesses, warrant for holding the court, statements by the accused, and a batch of pencilled shorthand originals.
'Traitorously holding correspondence with the enemy (Germany)... having traitorously given intelligence to the enemy... traitorously given information to the enemy.' The difference between those was too subtle for me. I read on, 'having been made a prisoner of war he voluntarily aided the enemy by joining and working for an organization controlled by the enemy and known as the British Free Corps... failing to report his arrest to the C.O. of the establishment where he was born for pay as directed by Naval Pay Regulations Article 1085.'
The white spaces in the dossier had diagonal blue ink-lines across them to prevent insertions. As I read on, the scene came alive. The first winter after the war, the assembly hall with its kitchen tables covered with naval blankets, the senior officers in their shiny buttons, the accused in a newly issued uniform; Bernard Thomas Peterson, a volunteer reserve officer captured by the Germans during 'human torpedo' attacks on the Norwegian coast in 1943. The prosecution called as first witness Lt James who, as a member of the S.I.B. (Special Investigation Branch) attached to 30 Corps, arrested Peterson in Hanover on 8 May (V.E. Day). Lt James said that an order issued by the Montgomery H.Q. on 6 May made the use of German transport illegal. Acting on information received by phone, Lt James and two S.I.B. sergeants went to an address in suburban Hanover and there found Peterson. On his person Peterson had a Reisepass and a Wehrpass hi the name of Herbert Putz, and 200 R.M. These were produced hi the court. In suitcases in the room where Peterson was found were another 19,568 R.M., a sable coat, and a 9-mm. MP18 Bergmann automatic machine-gun with ammunition. Lt James said that these could be made available to the court The Judge-advocate, after consulting with the President of the Court, said that they would not be required but should be held available.
After the arresting officer discovered a blood-group number tattooed under his arm, Peterson was put under cl
ose arrest as a suspected member of an illegal organization: the S.S.
The S.I.B. went on, 'In the garage adjoining was found a Mercedes staff car with WM (Wehrmacht-Marine) registration. There were 108 litres of petrol in the garage and car. The car (which was the object of the visit) was handed over to the German Command Organization under Field-Marshal Busch in Schleswig-Holstein.' It also could be made available to the court Lt James, in answer to a question, said that Peterson's only comment on being placed under close arrest as a member of the S.S. was that 'the battle started in Seville in 1936 and it's not yet over', or words to that effect Lt James said that hi spite of Peterson's excellent English he did not suspect him of being anything other than a member of the German Armed Forces. He had encountered many German soldiers who had lived and worked in England and as a consequence spoke good English.
I turned the discoloured pages of the dossier. Peterson after capture by the Germans had been approached by two members of the 'Legion of St George' (later renamed the 'Britische Freikorps'). Its members were mostly English or Irishmen who had been in the British Union of Fascists before the war. Many of them had what are now described as personality disorders, and all were of the opinion that England would soon see sense and join a German-occupied Europe on a 'crusade' against Russia. The verbatim record said:
PROSECUTOR: You never uttered a treasonable word? PETERSON: On the contrary, England was much loved.
The name of Nelson was invoked on every side, as were the names of all Britain's heroes. PROS. : You felt that Britain was being deliberately misled by its leaders. PETERSON : I did sir. PROS. : Even though these leaders were elected by public free ballot? PETERSON: Yes. PROS. : A ballot which your German masters never thought it expedient to institute in Germany or any of the small nations it conquered. PETERSON : France wasn't a small nation. PROS. : No further questions.
The defence requested permission to offer as evidence the details of Peterson's task in the Norwegian operation but this was denied. He admitted joining the Britische Freikorps and going to their training unit at Hildesheim. The transcription said:
PROS. : And what were you wearing at this time?
PETERSON : The uniform of the B.F.K.
PROS. : I put it to you that you were wearing the uniform of the Nazi S.S., a uniform that the members of this court have cause to remember with disgust and loathing.
PETERSON : It was...
PROS. : A uniform which had the notorious Death's Head symbol as its cap-badge, did it not? PETERSON : Yes, but we wore a Union Jack armband. PROS. : In other words, you wanted to serve two masters at once, you wanted the best of both worlds. You wanted to be on the winning side - a Hauptsturmfuhrer SS and a Lieutenant R.N.V.R. PETERSON : No, certainly not. PROS. : The court will no doubt form their own opinion. I shall be returning to that point later.
Much of the trial dealt with the technical knowledge that Peterson put at the disposal of the German Navy, who came to the frogman and human torpedo scene very late in the war.
The German Navy had first seen a 'frogman style' demonstration at the Olympic swimming pool, Berlin, in the spring of 1943. Peterson was screened after his capture and went to a block of flats that the German Navy had in Berlin. There he met Loveless, John Amery, and Joyce (Haw-Haw), 'but they considered themselves Germans', while 'we were loyal Englishmen anxious to convert our fellow-countrymen into allies of Germany'. Peterson was persuaded by Loveless to give his services to the Germans as a frogman-instructor. He said O.K. soon enough to be at Heiligenhafen, at the eastern end of Kiel Bay in the Baltic, when the first of K force (Kleinkampfmittel-Verband: Small Battle-Weapon Force) was formed in January 1944. Peterson translated the British Commando Regulations and other textbooks for them and taught them how to pronounce English swear-words with impeccable accuracy to throw sentries off their guard. By this time Peterson had a German naval officer's uniform and, since K force had discarded rank badges to foster good relations, he was accepted by newcomers as a German naval officer.
PROS. : I put it to you, that you at this time had become a German naval officer.
PETERSON: No.
PROS. : You were wearing a German naval officer's uniform. Yesterday you said that the German Navy 'relied on you'. I am quoting: 'relied on you in their training of K force'. Did you say that, or didn't you?
PETERSON : Yes, but...
PROS. : You said it. Very well. As an officer of the Royal Navy you were drawing pay. That is to say that you knew that pay was being credited to you.
PETERSON: Yes.
PROS.: Furthermore, this pay was not just the pay of a Lieutenant R.N.V.R. of the Executive Branch, but included an extra allowance payable to you in respect of the hazard of undersea warfare and the technical nature of those duties.
PETERSON : (No answer.) PROS. : Is that not so?
PETERSON : I suppose so.
PROS. : The same technical knowledge that your new German masters were so anxious to learn. Knowledge that they 'relied on you' to impart.
PETERSON: Yes.
PROS.: What is the name given to citizens who grant reliable aid with the declared aim of overthrowing then-own lawful government?
PETERSON: (Inaudible.) PROS. : Speak up, Herr Hauptsturmfuhrer Putz, or should I say Lieutenant Peterson?
PETERSON : Traitor, I suppose you mean.
PROS. : That's right, Sub-Lieutenant Bernard Thomas Peterson, R.N.V.R., it's called Constructive Treason.
The result was penal servitude and cashiering. I flipped through the accompanying documents; a certified true copy of the sentence signed by the President of the Court; and the confirming officer's letter after agreeing the sentence.
I closed the file.
The End
Len Deighton - Harry Palmer 02 - Horse Under Water Page 24
