The Torch Betrayal

by Glenn Dyer

  In chapter 23, Father Sean Sullivan mentions Longworth’s letter writing, most notably to Bishop Augustus Heinz, the “Brown Bishop.” This character is based on Bishop Alois Hudal, also referred to as the “Brown Bishop.” The Austrian Hudal was strongly anticommunist, as was the Catholic Church. He was named rector in 1923 of the Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria dell’Anima, a theological seminary for German and Austrian priests. In 1937, he wrote The Foundations of National Socialism, praising the policies of Adolf Hitler while taking aim at some Vatican policies. After the war, Hudal assisted former Nazis in their efforts to relocate to other countries. While the real Brown Bishop lived until 1963, I took the greatest creative liberty in seeing that the character based on his persona did not survive the scene on the bridge over the River Tiber.

  Saint Ermin’s Hotel, the setting for chapter 27, was indeed the home to the Special Operative Executive for a spell during the war. The SOE occupied an entire floor of this beautiful hotel. The Caxton Bar was frequented often by agents from MI6, MI5, and Naval Intelligence. One of the Cambridge Five, Guy Burgess, used the bar to hand over top-secret files to his Soviet handlers.

  Eleanor Roosevelt arrived in England on a goodwill trip on October 23, 1942. She toured factories, hospitals, and camps, where she met with American servicemen. For purposes of suiting my timeline, I moved up the date of her arrival.

  In chapter 32, Churchill tells Thorn and Bright that D’Arcy Osborne, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See from 1936 to 1947, was in London to be knighted by King George VI. Osborne was actually conferred the KCMG (Knights Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George) by King George VI sometime between April 6 and June 18, 1943. The plotline for this story required Osborne to be away from his office for an extended time. The awarding of his knighthood fit that need, but I again had to adjust the timing of this event to suit the story.

  Conor Thorn, Emily Bright, and Sean Sullivan hitched a ride to Rome with Myron Taylor in chapter 49. FDR appointed Taylor, a Protestant and former chief executive officer of US Steel, his representative to the Holy See. Taylor was to act as the channel of communication between FDR and Pope Pius XII. Taylor made several trips to the Vatican. One such trip had Taylor leaving New York for Lisbon on September 2, 1942, arriving in Rome several days later, on September 17. He was met at Littorio Airport by the papal limousine and was driven to Vatican City with, to Taylor’s great surprise given that he did not have formal diplomatic status, cars belonging to the Italian security police leading and trailing the limousine. I used this scenario to get Thorn, Bright, and Sullivan into Rome but, again, altered the date to suit the timeline of the story. My research for this particular aspect of the story took me to the fascinating eyewitness account of Harold H. Tittmann, Jr., Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. This book chronicled Tittmann’s service as an assistant to Taylor and his family’s life in Rome during the conflict.

  Menzies, in the epilogue, stonewalls Thorn when he presses him on why they left Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris on the bridge in Rome. A supporter of Hitler until 1937, it is well known that Canaris became quite disillusioned with Hitler and his policies. What is less well known is Canaris’s attempts to reach out to the Allies, more specifically to Sir Stewart Menzies, head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. In Heinz Höhne’s tome Canaris: Hitler’s Master Spy, Höhne gives details of a meeting in the summer of 1943 in Santander, Spain, between Menzies, Donovan, and Canaris. (There was a mention in Richard Bassett’s Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Betrayal that a meeting between Menzies and Canaris took place in December 1942.) Canaris presented his peace plan, which involved a cease-fire in the West, a deposed Hitler to be eliminated or handed over, and a continuation of the conflict in the East. But FDR swiftly squashed any chance that the plan would move forward, urging Donovan to stand down.

  Menzies downplayed his meeting with Canaris. It is not clear if the short-circuiting of these efforts was due to Churchill and Roosevelt’s agreement reached at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, which laid out the necessity for Germany, Japan, and Italy to accept an “unconditional surrender” or if it was due to the fear that news of the liaison reaching the ears of the Soviets would upend the already-shaky cohesion of the three Allies. To be clear, the Soviets’ greatest fear was that the US and Britain would sue for peace and then turn their forces on Stalin’s armies. The opposite fear was embraced by FDR and Churchill.

  Lastly, it was noted in Bassett’s Hitler’s Spy Chief that, while the Abwehr did take blame for not uncovering Allied plans for Operation Torch, some sources implied that Canaris had in his possession but did not pass along knowledge of the operation to the German High Command. It would follow, after hearing Canaris’s peace plan in Santander that Menzies, as well as Donovan, would want to leave Canaris, an avowed Hitler opponent, in place, fearing that he would have been replaced by someone like Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am indebted to quite a few people who provided much needed guidance, inspiration, and just plain help in completing The Torch Betrayal.

  Firstly, Jennifer Blanchard, author, writing coach, speaker, book marketing expert—just what can’t she do? Jennifer provided extremely valuable assistance in fleshing out the first draft. It was a messy process that produced note upon note from numerous phone calls and email exchanges.

  Susanne Lakin and John Paine provided excellent editing advice for drafts two through six. They gently pushed me to dive deeper into characters and to devise more imaginative plot twists and turns. I hope I delivered, if only somewhat.

  And a great deal of thanks goes to Gretchen Stelter, for her finishing touches to the final draft. She has a sharp eye and ear that proved to be invaluable.

  Early comments from J. R. Olsen, a novelist himself and a former officer in naval intelligence, were quite enlightening and helped smooth out some rough passages.

  For someone who knows little about guns, the firearms expertise of Chris Grall from Tactiquil was indispensable. The action sequences in this novel are sharper for his input.

  Then there’s the talented Jane Dixon-Smith, who designed the interior and the cover art for the book. It was quite a thrill to open the email attachment to see the first mock-ups of the cover, and the process from there was an absolute pleasure.

  Lastly, to my loving and supportive wife, Christine, and my three wonderful kids, Thomas, Michael, and Riley, all of whom have been nothing but supportive and encouraging of a dream that was long in development.