after the

battle

ISSN 0306-154X
06

DULAG LUFT Number 106

9 770306 154073

£3.10
NUMBER 106
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
Editor: Karel Margry
Published by
Battle of Britain International Ltd.,
Church House, Church Street,
London E15 3JA, England
Telephone: 0181-534 8833
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© Copyright 1999
After the Battle is published on the 15th
of February, May, August and November.
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Telephone: (905) 937 3100 Fax: (905) 937 1760
Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues: During the Second World War, the inter-
Technical Book and Magazine Company, Pty, Ltd., rogation of prisoners of war was a vital WETZLAR
295 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000. part of the intelligence process and none
Telephone: 03 9 663 3951 Fax: 03 9 663 2094
New Zealand Distribution:
more important than aircrews. In Britain,
Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, P.O. Box 24486, German aviators were processed
Royal Oak, Auckland 1030 New Zealand. through the Combined Services Detailed
Telephone: 021 627 870 Fax: 9-6252817 Interrogation Centre (CSDIC), initially
Italian Distribution: located in the Tower of London; then at
Tuttostoria, Casella Postale 395, 1-43100 Parma. Trent Park, Cockfosters, until July 1942
Telephone: 0521 292 733, Telex 532274 EDIALB I
Dutch Language Edition:
when CSDIC moved to purpose-built
Quo Vadis, Postbus 3121, 3760 DC Soest. accommodation in Wilton Park and
Telephone: 035 6018641 Latimer Park in Buckinghamshire (see
After the Battle No. 70). Germany had its
own interrogation centre — known to
CONTENTS aircrews as Dulag Luft — at Oberursel
just north-west of Frankfurt-am-Main. Its
DULAG LUFT full name was Durchgangslager der Luft-
The German Aircrew Interrogation waffe or Luftwaffe Transit Camp and as
Centre 2 such all captured Allied airmen passed
WRECK RECOVERY through its gates. For example, 2nd Lieu-
Recovery of an SOE Hudson 30 tenant Leo A. Zupan was the co-pilot on
a B-17G (42-107118) Snafu Per Man of
WAR FILM the 2nd Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force,
Appointment in London 42 shot down near Ostrava, Czechoslo-
PACIFIC vakia, on August 29, 1944. Of the ten-
OBERURSAL
Return to the Darter 46 man crew, eight baled out and were
made prisoner but not until October did
IT HAPPENED HERE his sister Anna Sheya finally receive
The Secret Village 54 word from Leo in Dulag Luft via the Red
Front cover: Dulag Luft, then and now. The former Cross that he was alive but prisoner of
Kommandant’s house still stands at Oberursel but
other remaining buildings of the infamous war. (Reproduced by kind permission of
wartime interrogation centre — which after the Manuel van Eyck from his unpublished Kilometres
war became US Camp King — are about to be manuscript The Silent Heroes.) PALMENGARTEN
demolished.
Centre Pages: Recovery of Hudson FK790, 53
years after it crashed into the IJsselmeer waters
with four Dutch secret agents aboard. Top left:
Cleaning one of the aircraft's machine guns. Bot-
tom left: Annie Meijer-Bockma visits the spot
where her brother, agent Jan Bockma, perished in
1944. (KM) Top and bottom right: Burial of pilot
John Menzies, whose remains were found in the
wreck. (J. Werkhoven)
Back Cover: The Hudson's propeller, now a
memorial at Exmorra. (R. Body)
Acknowledgements: The Editor extends his appre-
ciation to Klaus Witzel and Nikolaus Fleck of the
SEWO GmbH Oberursel for permission to photo-
graph the site of Dulag Luft. For help with the SOE
Hudson story, the Editor would like to thank: Lui-
tenant ter Zee Bert de Leeuw, Public Relations Offi-
cer of the Dutch Royal Navy; Kapitein H. A. Spier-
ings and Adjutant Henry Tennison, Salvage
Officers, and Majoor Robert de Jong, Public Rela-
tions Officer, of the RNAF; Wijnand Baerken and
Piet Appelman of the OVMO, Tjeerd Gietema; Klaas
Groeneveld, Cok van Hout; Jan Werkhoven; Dun-
can Stuart, the SOE Adviser at the Foreign Office;
and Robert Body. The Editor is indebted to Pedro
Festel, a resident of Palawan, for the present-day
photographs of the USS Darter and to Richard Fol-
som for technical support and for arranging the
interview with Commander McClintock.
Photo Credits: IWM — Imperial War Museum,
London; KM — Koninklijke Marine.

2
 On the outskirts of Oberursel, 13 kilo-

DULAG LUFT
meters north-west of Frankfurt-am-Main,
stand the remains of what was once Nazi Ger-
many’s most important centre for the interro-
gation of RAF and USAAF prisoners of war.
It is difficult to locate the site as you go past
by car, because it is tucked away behind a
post-war American housing estate, but as you
peer between the blocks of flats and the
unpruned trees and shrubs, you can make
out, 300 yards away, a newly developing
housing estate and, beyond it, a series of
older, typically German timber-framed
Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe or ‘Transit
Camp of the Luftwaffe’. Although the camp By Charles Rollings
houses and buildings. underwent a number of changes in nomen-
This was the location of the transit and clature during the war, eventually rendering convenient, easy to remember and, above all,
interrogation camp which Allied aircrew the name Dulag Luft obsolete and innacu- described an experience which few prisoners
POWs knew as ‘Dulag Luft’ — short for rate, it was this name which stuck, for it was would forget.

Top: The Dulag Luft transit camp pictured in 1940-41. In the Above: The view in April 1999 looking south from the steps of
foreground is the chicken farm and the small road leading past the same building. The whole area is now overgrown and,
the main entrance to the compound. Beyond the camp is the even as we write, the camp is in the throes of being
recreation field, and in the distance Hohemarkstrasse and the demolished. The buildings dead-centre stand on the site of the
Oberursel Kunstwollfabrik (synthetic wool factory). This photo prisoner of war compound (see plan on page 12). The path in
was taken from the first floor of the Reichslehrsiedlung com- the middle foreground leads left to the old guardhouse and
munity house. right to the junction with Siedlungsstrasse.

3
 1932
7 6
5

8 4

3
N

Dulag Luft lay some 13 kilometres north-west of Frankfurt. passing through the interrogation centre each month, Dulag
Most prisoners arrived at the railway station [1] from where Luft was severely overcrowded so a new tented transit camp
ordinary street trams took them to the camp via the Arndt- was set up in the Palmengarten — a park in Frankfurt — to
strasse (now Berliner Strasse) [2], and along the Hohemark- which prisoners were moved after initial questioning. How-
strasse [3] to the Kupferhammer tram stop [4]. Dulag Luft [5] ever, locating a POW camp in the centre of a strategic target
lay between Eichwäldchenweg [6] and Siedlungsstrasse [7]. A was against the Geneva Convention, and after it was bombed
hospital, Hohemark clinic [8], lay to the west. The Oberursel in March 1944 a new compound was established 40 kilome-
Wool Works is [9]. By 1943, with an average of 1,000 prisoners tres to the north near Wetzlar (see map on page 2).
Dulag Luft was a camp which filled Allied The Siedlungshöfe (settlements) were estates managers, administrators and even
aircrew prisoners of war with dread. In founded on September 3, 1938, at Frankfurt- politicians and mayors.
escape and evasion lectures, aircrew were am-Main’s first Building and Settlement The Siedlungshöfe were to play an impor-
warned that should they ever be shot down, Exhibition. The official collective title for all tant role in the ‘spiritual education’ of people
captured and sent there, they were to be on three, in the early planning stages, had been under National Socialism. Consequently,
their guard. All Air Force prisoners were Gausiedlungshof Oberursel (Oberursel Dis- their design would demonstrate ‘conclusively
‘valuable’ to the Germans, and had to be trict Settlement), but the Exhibition up- the way in which the National Socialist ideol-
milked for every scrap of information before graded it to a Reichssiedlungshof (Reich Set- ogy influences today’s ideals of construction
being sent to a regular prisoner of war camp. tlement). The land already contained the down to its smallest ramifications, to the
Rumours of what they could expect at Dulag Insitute of Disease and Epidemic Control point of being, indeed, the sole basis of our
Luft ranged from kid-glove treatment — and the Institute of Bee-Keeping, and the contemporary architectures’.
drinks at the local inn, lavish dinner parties, new plans called for these to be incorporated Not surprisingly, the Siedlungshöfe were
prostitutes, ski-ing trips in the Taunus Moun- into three experimental farms with the task later referred to as a ‘megalomaniac’s pro-
tains — to brutal beatings and unendurable of improving animal breeding and crop- ject’. The dwellings, strung out along a Sied-
torture. The truth was less dramatic, but just growing and educating specialists who lungsstrasse (settlement road) parallel to
as sinister. Although no complete history of worked for the Rhine-Main Settlement Eichwäldchenweg, were of the mock-Bavar-
this camp has ever been published, countless Authority. These specialists included ian type popular in the Nazi film industry’s
ex-POWs have devoted chapters to it in their amongst others architects, builders, farmers, rustic romantic comedies.
memoirs, and references to stool-pigeons,
collaborators and a disturbing atmosphere
abound. Almost 30 years passed before RAF
ex-POWs received any inkling as to the
camp’s true purpose and its significance to
the Nazi war effort. But given Dulag Luft’s
origins, history and location, it is easy to see
why they felt paranoid.
At first sight, the area surrounding the
camp was pleasant and apparently innocu-
ous. It stood on the western outskirts of
Oberursel, a suburb of Frankfurt-am-Main
with about 20,000 inhabitants, on agricultural
land which sloped upwards to the Taunus
foothills in the north. To the south lay Hohe-
markstrasse — the main road in to Oberursel
— and the Oberursel Kunstwollfabrik,
whose employees used the nearby Kupfer-
hammer tram-stop. Running along the east-
ern boundary was Eichwäldchenweg, a nar-
row country lane leading northwards from
Hohemarkstrasse to the village of Eichwäld-
chen and the Oberstedter Forest. Between
the forest and Hohemarkstrasse lay 13,000
square metres of sparsely wooded grassland,
along the northern and western edges of
which sprawled three Siedlungslehrhöfe (set-
tlement teaching farms) — each comprising
an experimental farm and a model housing
estate — and a Landwirtschaftliche The model houses on the western side of the Siedlungsstrasse, which all new prison-
Hochschule (agricultural school). Cutting ers passed as they trekked uphill towards the camp. Used by the US Army and Air
through the grassland, from east to west, was Force after the war, they were given barrack numbers, as were all the buildings on
a narrow, winding stream. the site of former Dulag Luft that in American hands became Camp King.

4
 Further up the slope and dominating the
settlements was the agricultural school. Of
similar design, it was four storeys high
(including an attic and a semi-basement),
with a disproportionately narrow spire
topped by a weather-vane. This building was
often mistaken by prisoners of war for a
church. Although it was never part of Dulag
Luft, most photographs of the camp were
taken from the first floor of this building.
The whole estate, despite being described as
‘very picturesque’, could almost have been
designed by Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer,
but was in fact the work of Regierungs-
baumeister Hufnagel, an obscure govern-
ment architect.
Shortly after war broke out, the location
became an object of interest to the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High
Command of the Armed Forces), who con-
sidered its proximity to France and Luxem-
bourg of strategic importance. The southern-
most cluster of farm buildings and the open
land between them and Hohemarkstrasse The Gemeinschaftshaus (community house) of the Reichslehrsiedlung (named the
were appropriated by the OKW as a poten- ‘Zeppelinheim’ in the Nazi era, and ‘the Mountain Lodge’ by the Americans) on top of
tial interrogation centre for French army the slope to the north of Dulag Luft. Although this building had nothing to do with
prisoners. the Dulag set-up, it was from here that most views of the camp were taken.

Left: At first, the existing buildings on the site were simply con- Kommandantur where prisoners’ records were stored. On the
verted for use in the newly-established Offiziersdurch- right stands the farmhouse which was converted into a cell
gangslager. Seen from the POW compound and from across block. Right: The same road along which prisoners would have
Siedlungsstrasse, the house in the centre became the Kom- marched photographed nearly 60 years later. Fortunately these
mandant’s office, the one on the far left being used as the buildings of the pre-war Third Reich era are to be preserved.

Initially the camp — designated Offiziers-

durchgangslager (Officers’ Transit Camp) —
consisted of little more than one farmhouse,
the ground floor of which comprised a cen-
tral corridor giving onto fourteen rooms
which lent themselves to conversion into
solitary confinement cells. Twelve of these
became cells, and the others a common room
and a wash-room. Each cell was about ten
feet long and seven feet wide with plain pine
walls and a radiator. Each was furnished with
a varnished pine table, a wooden chair, a
white pine bedside cabinet and an iron bed-
stead. The casement windows in each cell
opened outwards, and to prevent prisoners
leaning out iron bars were set into the inside
window-sill and lintel. Surrounding the
building was a high barbed-wire fence, with a
gate to the south. Almost opposite the gate
stood a small cottage. This was the home of
one of the settlement managers, Herr
Avieni, who was also peace-time director of
a local steel-works. A major in the Army
Reserve, he became the camp’s first Kom-
mandant, and his cottage was used through-
out the war by successive commandants as
office and mess. Behind and to the north-east
of Avieni’s cottage were two more cottages
which were used as the Kommandantur or
administrative quarters.
During the Phoney War, the only Verneh- The farmhouse used to accommodate prisoners from October 1939 to April 1940. It
mungsoffizier (Interrogation Officer) was a then became used as a solitary confinement block until Oberstleutnant Erich Killinger,
reservist in his early sixties called Bayer, who Dulag’s fourth and last Kommandant, had a new ‘cooler’ built in 1942. From then on it
had been a businessman in Mainz, and now housed the Photographic Room, W/T Room and Medical Inspection Room. Through-
held the Luftwaffe rank of Leutnant. out the war it was surrounded by barbed wire, with a gate in the southern boundary.

5
Left: Wing Commander Harry Day, shot down in October 1939, heading. These changes were usually as a result of complaints
pictured at Dulag Luft by a photographer from Der Adler. He from the Protecting Power. But, one way or another, the form
became the Senior British Officer (SBO) from November 1939 remained in constant use throughout the war, and the German
to June 1941. Right: Specimen of the Red Cross form — the so- staff’s preoccupation with it bordered on obsession, with some
called Arrival Report Form. The pattern varied throughout the forms asking as many as 50 questions, although only name,
war, some forms omitting the red cross, and others the IRRC rank and number were required under the Geneva Convention.

For the first two months of the war the was shot down, how he was shot down, how many’s chief source of information on the
only prisoners to pass through were officers many crew manned the aircraft, his peace- relative strengths and weaknesses of RAF
of the French Armée de l’Air and the Royal time occupation, where he had been trained, units. Although not privy to secrets about
Air Force, shot down on daylight reconnais- his rate of pay, his home address, the name grand strategy, they could also unwittingly
sance missions over the Ruhr. They were and address of his next of kin — questions of reveal tactical and operational information
locked in day and night, with only an hour’s no possible interest or value to the Red which would allow Flak gunners to place
fresh-air exercise a day. Three sentries at a Cross. The form was obviously fake. Day their weapons, and assist experts in evaluat-
time were on duty in the corridor. Bayer and gave his name, rank and service number and ing the latest technical equipment and deter-
the guards were billeted in Gasthäuser in handed back the form. Shortly afterwards, he mining important targets.
Oberursel, Eichwäldchen and along the road and the French prisoners were transferred to Because most aircrew were still only oper-
half-way to Hohemark, a mile to the west. Oflag IXA/H, a fortress at Spangenberg run ating over western Germany, the camp at
The first RAF prisoner to arrive at the by the Army. Oberursel was taken over by the Luftwaffe
camp was Wing Commander Harry Day, the The Germans already had much informa- and re-named Dulag Luft. A new comman-
CO of No. 57 (Blenheim) Squadron, part of tion about RAF bases and units, which had dant was appointed, Oberstleutnant Peter-
the Air Component of the British Expedi- been provided by spies and their pre-war air paul von Donat, whose principal qualifica-
tionary Force in France. His Blenheim had attaché in London, General Wenniger, and tion was his fluency in French. It was clear,
been set ablaze by Me 109s on October 13 culled from monitoring press reports and however, that interrogation of captured air-
and his crew killed. Day himself had suffered Empire Air Days. This had been supple- crew had so far been ineptly handled and
minor burns to his hands and face and was mented by comprehensive photo-reconnais- that little of intelligence value had been
swathed in bandages. sance carried out by a unit of Heinkel IIIs gleaned. Souvenir hunters had also stripped
On the first day, when he asked for some- which, operating from Staaken airield in crashed aircraft of important parts, along
thing to read, Day was handed a pencil and a Berlin, bore civil aircraft markings while with food, and had taken parachutes, socks
wad of notepaper by Bayer, who suggested undertaking so-called ‘civil route-proving’ and white pullovers off dead aircrew.
he might wish to write home. Each night, flights. With the outbreak of hostilities, all Accordingly, the Luftwaffe implemented an
Bayer returned to collect the result of Day’s German spies in England had been interned OKW directive that the nearest Luftwaffe
scribblings, promising they would be cen- and most other sources of information had base was to be notified whenever an RAF
sored and then sent to England. But nothing dried up, although newspapers and periodi- aircraft crashed and its crew were captured.
ever reached home. cals still came in from neutral countries (it Looting of the wreckage by soldiers and
On the third day, Bayer asked him to fill in was estimated that German Intelligence civilians alike carried the death penalty. The
an Arrival Report Form bearing the heading could receive any British publication via Por- aircraft had to be placed under guard until
of the International Committee of the Red tugal within three days), and translators in the base arranged for competent Luftwaffe
Cross in Geneva. It was a lengthy question- the Interceptor Service monitored and tran- engineers to examine it. Under Luftwaffe
naire, in duplicate, one copy of which, said scribed BBC radio broadcasts. regulation D (Luft) 2706/07, personnel from
Bayer, would be retained by personnel at the By November 1939, it had become clear to this station were also to transfer the aircrew
camp, while the other would be sent to the OKW that the most up-to-date source of immediately to Dulag Luft without them first
Geneva for onward transmission to the War information on the morale of the British being interrogated locally. The job of inter-
Office in Britain. The form asked for the public, as well as the extent of the country’s rogating them was therefore given over
prisoner’s name, rank and service number, war-readiness, would be POWs — and that entirely to von Donat and his organisation.
and then went on to ask his squadron num- the only prisoners likely to be taken in the Paratroopers would also be sent there, as in
ber and base, the type of aircraft he was fly- foreseeable future would be aircrew. Newly Germany airborne forces were part of the
ing, the nature of the operation on which he captured airmen therefore became Ger- Luftwaffe, and so would naval aircrew.

6
 Von Donat was soon succeeded by Major The set-up at Dulag Luft was also in viola-
Theo Rumpel whose background and qualifi- tion of the prisoner of war Code and the Red
cations made him at first sight an excellent Cross Convention which Germany had been
choice. Beginning his military career in 1914 one of 38 powers to sign in July 1929. Article
as a regular cavalry officer, he had trans- 2 laid it down that POWs were to be pro-
ferred to the Luftstreitkräfte (the German tected by the detaining power from violence,
Imperial Air Service) during the Great War, insults and public curiosity, and must not be
eventually joining Hermann Göring’s subjected to reprisals for military actions.
squadron, equipped with the Albatross D5s. More pertinent was Article 5 which stipu-
In March 1918, Rumpel’s aircraft was jumped lated that a POW under interrogation was
by an SE5 and his right shoulder shattered by obliged to give only his name, rank and ser-
machine-gun fire. He nevertheless brought vice number, and must not be forced to give
his aircraft safely back to base, receiving information on his armed forces or his coun-
much praise from Göring. After the armistice try. Nor was he to be threatened, insulted, or
he went into semi-retirement and settled in exposed to unpleasantness or disadvantages
Batavia, in the Dutch East Indies, where he should he withhold such information. If, by
met and married a Dutch woman and com- reason of his physical or mental condition, he
bined his work as an import-export merchant was incapable of stating his identity, he was
with sending reports of Allied developments to be handed over to the medical services.
in the Far East back to Germany. In 1936 he Given the role of Dulag Luft, the imperatives
was asked to rejoin the Luftwaffe with the of wartime Germany, and the baleful influ-
rank of captain, and was back on flying duties ence of Himmler, breaches of the Conven-

Generalfeldmarschall Werner van Blomberg,

the following year. In 1938 he was sent for by tion were bound to occur.
Initially, Rumpel lived in a local hotel until
the first supreme commander of the newly- a wooden bungalow in the woods half a mile
formed OKW, and offered promotion to the above the camp was converted into living
rank of major in Abteilung V (Fremde Major Theo Rumpel, the Kommandant quarters for him and his wife. When finished,
Mächte) — the department of the Luftwaf- from November 1939 to November 1941. their new quarters contained a comfortable
fenführungsstab (Fü-Stab, Air Operations sitting-room-cum-diner, with a huge tiled
Staff) dealing with foreign affairs. Abteilung in Wiesbaden. Yet another layer of adminis- stove, which they furnished with shelves of
V was commanded by Generalleutnant Josef tration was that of the Luftwaffe, as Air books (and to which he would invite some
‘Beppu’ Schmid, a favourite of both Hitler Force camps came under the control of the POWs to dine). His office had direct lines to
and Göring. Rumpel — who was fluent in the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, which had Berlin, the Luftwaffe High Command in
English, French and Dutch languages — was divided Germany into Luftgaue, or air dis- Potsdam and the local Luftgau HQ in Wies-
to become England-Bearbeiter (England tricts, which again had commanders responsi- baden.
Analyst) in the bureau dealing with Ameri- ble for local POW camps. Rumpel foresaw that a proportion of air-
can, British, Dutch and Scandinavian affairs, Because of its intelligence function, Dulag crew prisoners arriving at Dulag Luft would
commanded by Oberst Morell. Luft had also to report to Abteilung V, as be suffering from exposure, wounds or
Rumpel had made many British friends in well as falling within the orbit of the Abwehr, injuries and would need urgent treatment.
the Far East, and did not relish the prospect the Intelligence and Clandestine Warfare (Indeed, in 1940, about 10 to 15 per cent of
of having to trick military secrets out of them. Service of the OKW, commanded by Admi- new prisoners needed medical attention.
In any case, such was the complexity of ral Wilhelm Canaris. The Abwehr’s Section This figure later rose to as much as 50 per
the Third Reich administration that Rumpel I, Group I (Lutwaffentechnik), was responsi- cent.) Fortunately, a hospital run by
was put in a difficult position. Overall control ble for collecting details on the war potential Lutheran nuns, the Kurklinik Hohemark,
of prison camps was in the hands of the of the RAF. Canaris also had a department was conveniently situated in a large park just
OKW. Within the OKW was a department known as Abteilung III, Gruppe III-KGF, off Altkönigweg, only ten minutes’ drive to
called the Allgemeines Wehrmachtsamt which concerned itself with the prevention of the west. The clinic had been a private rest
(AWA, Armed Forces General Office), espionage, sabotage and escapes by POWs. home before the war and was now a conva-
which was responsible for personnel, training However, Canaris was a favourite of nobody, lescent home for German soldiers. In
and equipment, but which also had authority and Rumpel’s only champion was Göring. December, Rumpel took over one wing so
over POWs; and within the AWA was the All three were despised by Reichsführer of that prisoners could be treated for superficial
Abteilung Kriegsgefangenenwesen im OKW the SS Heinrich Himmler, who considered wounds and burns. The Hohemark was well-
(literally, POW Office within the OKW), the Abwehr and all other intelligence organi- equipped and had a sanatorium, but lacked
which was solely responsible for POW affairs. sations interfering and dangerous rivals, and X-ray facilites and an operating theatre. As
Furthermore, the OKW also had an Inspek- itched to get control of air force camps. In far as prisoners were concerned, however, it
teur des Kriegsgefangenenwesen (Inspector 1941, 1942, 1943 and again in 1944, Himmler was more a casualty clearing house than a
of POW Affairs), who commanded all prison tried to take command of Dulag Luft. hospital proper. Its purpose was twofold: to
camps and ensured that OKW directives con- Rumpel — and, indeed, all his subordinates give immediate medical attention to the seri-
cerning prisoners were carried out. Another — were therefore being pulled in all direc- ously wounded and build up their strength
tier of administration was the Wehrkreis, or tions. Despite this, Dulag Luft managed for ready for a long journey to the prison hospi-
military district. Germany was divided into 22 most of the war to maintain an accurate pic- tal, Lazarett IXC, at Obermassfeld; and to
Wehrkreise, whose commanders were in part ture of the way the RAF was organised as treat the less seriously wounded prior to
responsible for local camps. Dulag Luft was well as up-to-date information on its their interrogation and transfer direct to
in Wehrkreis XII, which had its headquarters strengths, formation and postings. Dulag Luft.

Left: Kurklinik Hohemark, the hospital which lay a mile west of Right: It still stands today, virtually unchanged as a well-
the camp, was used to treat prisoners who arrived with wounds. equipped and busy clinic.

7
Left: Part of Major Rumpel’s relaxed regime — all designed to picture taken in 1940, the Editor tracked it down to the obser-
wheedle as much information as possible from his charges — vatory on Grosser Feldberg (880 metres) high up in the Taunus
was to allow prisoners who gave their parole to go on recre- mountains. It would have been quite a day’s walk as it is 13
ational walks. Right: Although no location was given for this kilometres away from the camp by road.

In mid-December, Rumpel started to form On December 24, the British contingent growth of Dulag Luft was piecemeal. So was
a British and French Permanent Staff, whose received their first Red Cross food parcels, the increase in personnel, beginning with the
job it would be to acclimatise new prisoners and they invited the French to join them for appointment of an Adjutant, Hauptmann
to POW conditions and maintain internal Christmas dinner. Rumpel allowed them to Fiergutt, an alcoholic whom the prisoners
discipline. The first members of this staff buy Rhine wine from their POW pay, despite nicknamed ‘Fieryguts’. A more memorable
were brought in from Spangenberg, and the fact that the Geneva Convention forbade character was the senior NCO, a Feldwebel
consisted of Wing Commander Day; Flying the consumption of alcohol by prisoners. known by the prisoners as ‘Flak Joe’. On his
Officer Richard Baughan; Pilot Officer (This was one of the few breaches of the pass nights he would stride towards
Mike Casey; two Fleet Air Arm pilots, Lieu- Convention about which no prisoner felt Oberursel, proud and erect in his Number
tenants Richard Thurstan and Guy Griffiths; inclined to inform the Protecting Power.) Ones, only to return at dawn, a dishevelled,
Leading Aircraftman J. Nelson, Casey’s That evening, Rumpel joined them, bringing blind-drunk wreck who could hardly drag
WOP/AG, who would act as orderly; two with him two bottles of schnapps. Three himself up the road.
French Air Force Lieutenant-Colonels, weeks after New Year 1940, the prisoners Wing Commander Day’s lonely existence
Enselen and Gerardot; their respective were allowed out of the farmhouse during was otherwise enlivened by the gift of a cat
pilots, Lieutenant Berenger and Capitaine daylight to roam the compound. The guard from Major Rumpel. When a German propa-
Paul Aouach, and two other French lieu- was withdrawn from inside the building and ganda team visited the camp four weeks later
tenants, Noel and Comte des Forges. Again, stationed outside the compound gate. they took a photograph of Day and his cat,
Day found himself in the converted farm- Soon afterwards, Colonel Gerardot was which appeared in the Luftwaffe periodical
house that he had occupied in October. He returned to Spangenberg, where he became Der Adler with a caption labelling Day as
and the French colonels each had a cell to the Senior French Officer before making a ‘ein grosser Katzenfreund’. A harmless tit-bit
themselves, while the junior officers and dramatic and successful escape which would which at the time brought some brightness
LAC Nelson were accommodated two to a eventually lead to his becoming Comman- into the dull lives of the Dulagers, it was later
cell. Two guards patrolled the path to the der-in-Chief of the Free French Air Force. to be used against them as evidence of col-
cottage, which was lit with arc lamps. Meanwhile, the prisoners remaining at laboration.
Rumpel promised to make conditions as Dulag Luft awaited the completion of a new The same would apply to parole walks.
easy as possible for his prisoners. To wash compound. OKW directives called for a cell The official British view was that under no
down their first evening meal of bread and block and transit camp able to accommodate circumstances should prisoners give their
soup they were given a generous ration of up to 100 officers and 500 NCOs and other word not to escape. But Day believed that
Rhine wine. During daylight, they were ranks at any one time, with a reserve com- the indefinite restrictions of the tiny com-
allowed to walk about inside the building, pany of 115 men comprising the guard. But pound justified prisoners taking parole walks
although they were locked in their cells from construction was delayed. Up to as late as for their mental health. Escorted through the
4 p.m. to 7 a.m. A week later they were January 1940, the OKW was still in negotia- surrounding forest by an officer and one
joined by Flying Officer Peter Wimberley tion with the Reichssiedlungshof regarding armed guard, the walk parties would be
and his Wellington crew, who had been shot financial compensation for the appropriation allowed to stop at one of three large, ter-
down on December 21 and held in the Hohe- of the estate. Then there was a shortage of raced Biergärten and drink a beer each. It
mark. Wimberely would remain as a member building materials because priority was being gave the prisoners a fleeting sense of free-
of the British Permanent Staff, and his crew given to constructing military barracks and dom. Sometimes Rumpel would invite either
would stay as ‘Potential Permanents’ until installations throughout Germany and the Day or Enselen for a walk in the forest with-
moving on to Spangenberg. occupied territories. The result was that the out an armed escort.

On the way back they halted for a beer at the Gästehaus Sandplacken. Just another nine kilometres to go!

8
Left: Oberursel railway station has changed little since the either on foot, by car, or tram. Right: The tram stop still stands
Second World War. From here, POWs were taken to Dulag Luft right opposite the station.

It was on these walks that he attempted to Berliner Strasse), making its second stop at the left were a Kommandantur building and
pump them for information. The first of Portstrasse, at the junction where Hohemark- Rumpel’s office, and to the right, going off at
many such incidents took place at the end of strasse began. The tram then ran straight 45 degrees, another narrow street leading to
March 1940. On March 22, the RAF’s along Hohemarkstrasse, stopping again at Eichwäldchenweg. Just beyond Rumpel’s
recently-formed Photographic Development Kupferhammer where the prisoners alighted. office was the farmhouse cell-block in its
Unit had despatched a Spitfire PR IB from Usually they arrived at night, and did not barbed-wire enclosure. Most prisoners were
Stradishall in Suffolk to photograph north- see much of their surroundings. But after rather taken by the farm buildings with their
west Germany. The Spitfire, stripped of crossing Hohemarkstrasse they turned into window shutters painted with red and white
armament and equipped with an RAE F24 the Siedlungsstrasse, passing a pair of steep- diagonal stripes. Once in the cells, they would
camera, took its photographs at 30,000 feet roofed houses on the left-hand side, then be ordered to remove their flying clothes and
but was intercepted by German fighters on fields on either side, before climbing the slight made to wear odd, ill-fitting Polish items of
its return leg. The pilot was killed and the gradient which brought them to the camp. To uniform while theirs were being searched.
Spitfire disintegrated over Holland. The
Germans were unable to examine the wreck-
age. This was by no means the first PR Spit-
fire over Germany — Me 109s had tried
unsuccessfully to intercept one over Luxem-
bourg 20 days earlier — and the Fü-Stab was
baffled by these high-flying fighters. Oberst
Morell asked Rumpel to investigate. Rumpel
took Day for a walk, related the story and
added: ‘It is all very unfortunate and mysteri-
ous, isn’t it?’ Day agreed, although he had a
pretty shrewd idea of what was occurring.
The Germans were later to capture several
photographic reconnaissance aircrew, some
from Spitfires and others from Mosquitos,
but were never able to identify them for
what they were, and photo-reconnaissance
remained one of the RAF’s most closely-
guarded secrets of the war.
As yet, nothing of Rumpel’s operation was
known to the authorities in Britain, and even
Day knew only a fraction of what was going
on. However, this changed in March when
the first prisoners of 1940 arrived: Sergeant
Ken Say and other survivors of a Wellington
shot down by flak on a recce over the Ruhr;
and Flying Officer John Boardman and his Above: ‘Kupferhammer — all change for Dulag Luft.’ From here prisoners would cross
Whitley crew, also victims of flak, this time the road (Hohemarkstrasse) to walk to the camp. Note that these POWs are in fact
over Frankfurt. Boardman subsequently leaving Dulag Luft and about to board the tram for Frankfurt. (Bundesarchiv)
joined the British Permanent Staff, along
with one of his WOP/AGs, Sergeant William
Taylor, and Ken Say.
The transportation of newly-captured air-
crew to Dulag Luft had already fallen into a
smooth routine. They generally arrived at
Frankfurt by either light aircraft, lorry or
train, depending upon where they had been
rounded up. From the main railway station
they were taken under escort by local train to
Oberursel. At Oberursel they either boarded
a tram, went by car, or walked to the camp.
Mostly they were taken by tram. The tram
stop was directly opposite the railway station,
both of which were situated south-east of
Nassauer Strasse. On the other side of the
street was a car showroom, repair shop and
petrol station where they could obtain drink-
ing water from a fountain. (This petrol station
was memorable for its Coca Cola signs and a
local harridan who would try to drive prison-
ers away from the fountain with her walking
stick.) The journey by tram was short. After
leaving the station, the tram crossed Nassauer
Strasse and ran along Arndtstrasse (today

9
What stories these men could tell if only we knew their names. . . their ranks. . . or their numbers! (Bundesarchiv)

Looking west down the road to the hospital. The entrance to Dulag Luft lies opposite the buildings in the background.

10
 By now Rumpel had introduced a formula
for interrogation that Dulag Luft’s Verneh-
mungsoffiziere would perfect over the next
five years. Initial contact with each new pris-
oner was made by Bayer, who introduced
himself as a ‘Receptionist’ and asked the
newcomer to complete the bogus Red Cross
form. His attempts were usually feeble,
amounting to no more than whining, plead-
ing and cajoling. ‘But my dear lad, surely you
do not want your mother to worry about you
and believe you have been killed? A report
to that effect might reach England if you do
not fill in this form accurately. Be sensible.’
Bayer was usually met with an angry rebuff
along the lines of: ‘F-off, you dirty swine!’
On returning to his office, Bayer wrote an
assessment of the prisoner’s character on the
back of the form: ‘is addicted to cigarettes’,
‘is susceptible to flattery’, ‘talks a lot’, ‘is
worried about his family back home’ — and
so on. He then passed the form to either
Rumpel, Fiergutt or Heinrich Eberhardt.
A 30-year-old bespectacled blond, Eber-
hardt had been a secondary school teacher
before being compelled to join the Nazi Above: Prisoners mill around awaiting the next tram for Frankfurt — still Line 24
Party in May 1933. After studying British his- today. (Bundesarchiv) Below: Today the houses bordering the road continue all the
tory at the University of London he became way down Hohemarkstrasse into Oberursel. The one on the left is today No. 129.
a university lecturer at Giessen. In Decem-
ber 1939 he joined Dulag Luft as a civilian,
originally to censor mail and supervise the
distribution of Red Cross parcels — but
there were so few parcels and letters that he
was asked instead to interrogate prisoners.
The interrogation proper usually took
place in Rumpel’s office. Rumpel and Eber-
hardt were masters at conversing ‘as one air-
man to another’, and engaged the prisoner in
small talk about family life, personal inter-
ests, sport and weaponry, hoping that he
would feel relaxed and open up. If small talk
failed, they turned to politics, which nor-
mally undermined the confidence of RAF
prisoners because their politics were gener-
ally conventional and poorly thought-out.
Periodically, the prisoner would be asked to
complete another question on the Red Cross
form. There might be three or four interroga-
tion sessions before Rumpel and Eberhardt
were satisfied with the replies or decided the
prisoner was unproductive and gave up. But
these sessions were nothing if not wearing on
the prisoner, who was hungry for food, com-
pany and conversation and probably still in a Nazi hierarchy to urge Party leaders to pass diaries, letters and photographs — all of
state of shock from being shot down. the word that whenever enemy aircrew were which gave Rumpel and his team valuable
Once the interrogation was over, the new captured they were to be put under immedi- information about bases, squadrons, aircraft
arrivals mixed with the older prisoners and ate cell-arrest or ‘unschädlich gemacht’ — and personnel, as well as about conditions in
were debriefed by Day. He passed the infor- made harmless. Nothing of this edict was wartime Britain. This information, along
mation on Rumpel’s interrogation methods known to the prisoners themselves, and nei- with that revealed by prisoners under inter-
to the American air attaché when he arrived ther did they know that information gath- rogation, was used to supplement and
with a delegation from the Protecting Power ered at the site of their crash had been sent update the material already gathered by the
a few weeks later. to Dulag Luft ahead of them by teleprinter. Fü-Stab and which was kept in the Kom-
By the end of March, another significant Nor did they know how much was revealed mandantur — an archive of press cuttings,
step had been taken towards giving aircrew by searching the wreckage and their uni- documents, recce photos, situation maps,
POWs a special status. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s forms, which often yielded theatre or cinema squadron histories, personality profiles and
deputy, used his high position within the tickets, railway passes, ration cards, personal crash files.

NCOs and other ranks were fortunate to the extent that they were interrogated at all. Having been processed, prisoners were
possessed little knowledge of intelligence value, and were gen- then moved to permanent POW camps: officers to Stalag Lufts
erally released from interrogation after only one session, if they and Oflags, NCOs and ORs to Stalags and Stalag Lufts.

11
Once the war began in earnest it was
obvious that the facilities at Dulag Luft 1940-42
would have to be expanded. Right: On
this plan, the original farmhouse is [1],
1
Kommandant’s office [2] and Komman-
dantur [3] and [4] while the new POW
transit camp compound completed in 4
April 1940 lies on the eastern side of the
Siedlungsstrasse. The West Block is [5];
Middle Block [6]; East Block [7]; and the 12
main guardroom [8]. Sentry towers [9], 2 N
[10] and [11] are positioned at the cor-
ners. The old chicken farm is [12] and the
prisoners’ recreation ground [13]. This 3
layout remained until further expansion
took place in 1942. 8

The prisoners’ compound was at last com-

pleted in April 1940. Tucked into a corner
formed by the junction of the northern end 11
of the Siedlungsstrasse and the narrow road 5
leading east towards Eichwäldchenweg, it 6
was no more than a rectangle, about 160 7
yards in perimeter, consisting of three single- 9
storey wooden barrack blocks surrounded by
a double barbed-wire fence. The fence was TUNNEL
illuminated by arc lamps and overlooked by
sentry towers — one on the north-east cor-
ner, another on the south-west corner, and a 10
third towards the southern end of the eastern
fence. About 40 feet high, they were
equipped with machine guns and spotlights
(not searchlights) and each manned by two 13
men armed with carbines. STREAM
To the north lay a chicken farm and the
agricultural school. Across the road from the
north-eastern sentry tower was the main SIEDLUNGSSTRASSE
guardhouse. This was another requisitioned
farm building, with two floors, a semi-base-
ment and a high sloping roof of red tiles. To
the south of the compound ran the narrow
stream and open scrubland as far as Hohe- 8 EICHWÄLDCHENWEG
markstrasse. A portion of this land had been
fenced off with barbed wire to provide a
recreation field for the prisoners. It was
rightfully the property of an old billy-goat,
who inhabited a kennel-like shed near the
wire and obviously resented the intrusion of
RAF prisoners, whom he would attempt to
gore.
The prisoners from the converted farm-
house were transferred to their new barracks
during the Norwegian campaign. The West
Block, nearest the Siedlungsstrasse, con-
tained a small common-room, a bath house
and 14 rooms. Each room was furnished with
wardrobes, tables, chairs and bunks of white
pine. Day and Enselen, as senior officers,
had a room each, and the other officers
messed two or three to a room.

Top: In this picture, taken in the autumn

of 1941, the main gate to the new com-
pound can be seen between the Middle
Block (on the left) and the West Block.
Right: These wooden huts were replaced
during the post-war American tenure of
the base but now all is destined for
demolition.

12
 The East Block, opposite the guard house,
contained a mess for senior French officers, a
general French mess, a general British mess,
a large common-room, a general kitchen and
the food store. The common-room became
known as the ‘ante-room’, and was decorated
by the French with lively murals. There was
also a Propaganda Room. Furnished by the
Germans as a show-place for the benefit of
the Protecting Power, it had well-uphol-
stered armchairs and highly polished tables.
Normally it was kept locked and was only
ever used three times.
The Middle Block could hold up to 65 pris-
oners, with four men to a room. This was
reserved for new prisoners, who would
remain in the transit camp until enough had
arrived to justify a purge to a permanent
camp — which could take anything from one
day to three months
All the rooms in the West Block were
wallpapered, but this was not purely for dec-
orative purposes. Germany was ahead of
Britain in electronic surveillance, and before
completing the West Block the Luftgau tech-
nicians had installed microphones in the
dividing walls between each room, conceal-
ing them in small depressions and covering
the walls with paper. The mikes were wired
up to a distributor box in the roof and linked
to a listening post in the Kommandantur.
They also hid microphones under the win-
dow sills in the farmhouse cell-block. Con-
versations were recorded on tape and on 72
rpm bakelite discs in the first-floor rooms of
Rumpel’s cottage. Enselen and Day soon dis-
covered the microphones, and decided to
leave them undisturbed and discuss impor-
tant matters out of range. To do otherwise
might goad the Germans into taking more Interior of a room in the new West Block, occupied by a member of the British Perma-
drastic measures to elicit information. In nent Staff, drawn in April 1941.
fact, they gave up listening in after four
months: the reception was poor, particularly with altruistic motives, which would subse- Germany for inspection. Rumpel learned all
when two or more prisoners spoke at once. quently cause resentment among transient he needed to know about the bomber from
As the number of new prisoners began to prisoners and rebound on Day and his staff only one interrogation. His written reports,
increase, more rooms on the first floor of the — particularly as, when stocks were high, the often very bulky, were sent to Berlin every
farmhouse were opened up to provide fur- Permanent Staff had to throw four-course day by a Fieseler Storch flying from a nearby
ther cells. The Germans now furnished each dinner-parties to prevent food going off. aerodrome.
cell with an enamel bowl and desert spoon, a POW interrogations were still being car- After the fall of France, the German Inter-
table knife and fork, and an enamel mug. ried out by Eberhardt, Fiergutt and Rumpel. ceptor Service established a listening post at
Some of the cells contained copies of the Sometimes Rumpel conducted them in his Wissant, eavesdropping on radio messages
King James Bible and the Forces’ Prayer own office, sometimes at the Hohemark. His between British pilots and plotters at Group
Book, others books by Charles Dickens. biggest coup during this period was gathering HQ. Thus they knew the number, call sign,
At the same time, the British Permanent information on IFF (Identification Friend or leader and base of every RAF squadron, how
Staff decided that all their Red Cross food Foe), a device which enabled radar plotters many aircraft were in the air at any one time,
parcels, whether addressed to individuals or in England to establish whether or not an and their intended targets. They could direct
not, should be pooled so that the newcomers approaching aircraft was friendly. The Ger- their own fighter pilots to intercept them and
would receive extra rations and become mans successfully copied the system. Rumpel even establish how many were shot down.
acclimatised to POW food before reaching a also found out the critical speed of Rolls- Satellites of Dulag Luft were set up in Paris,
permanent camp. Anyone wishing to escape Royce aero-engines, one of which had been Chartres, at the former Carlton Hotel in
on the journey would be given additional captured and which engineers were testing. Amsterdam, and in North Africa, so that air-
rations from the Dulag stock. This was yet On another occasion, a Hampden bomber crew captured in the occupied territories
another decision, borne out of necessity and landed intact in Denmark and was towed to could be interrogated quickly.

Electronic surveillance — on the ground and in the air. While pilots ensuring that Dulag Luft was provided with up-to-date
Major Rumpel was bugging the rooms in the new West Block, details of RAF squadrons. Right: We asked David Davies of the
this listening post (left) at Wissant (between Calais and Atlantic Wall Museum at Audinghen to track down the house
Boulogne) was intercepting radio transmissions by British — it is now called La Butte on the Rue Chopin near the beach.

13
 Further additions were made that summer
to the British Permanent Staff. These
included Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, a
South African-born lawyer who had been
shot down leading No. 92 Squadron on patrol
over Calais on May 23; Flight Lieutenant
John Madge, a Fairey Battle pilot shot down
during the campaign in France; Flying Offi-
cer John Gillies, son of a distinguished plastic
surgeon and a pilot on Bushell’s squadron;
Flying Officer Alex Gould, an Australian in
the RAF; Flying Officers Vincent Byrne,
Benson Freeman, J. C. Hutchison and D. W.
Thomas; Pilot Officer Richard Hardy;
Sergeants Eric Galloway, J. F. Graham,
Michael Joyce and J. G. Slowey; Major
Richard Partridge, a Royal Marine in the
Fleet Air Arm; Lieutenant-Commander
John Casson, another FAA pilot and the son
of the famous theatrical couple, Lewis Cas-
son and Sybil Thorndyke; Lieutenant-Com-
mander Jimmy Buckley, a Swordfish pilot
with a DSC; and, finally, Major Johnny
Dodge, DSO, DSC, a relative by marriage of
Winston Churchill. Dodge, who had won his
DSC at Gallipoli in the Great War, had
rejoined the army in 1939 and had been
rounded up at Calais. Although in his mid-
forties, he had escaped and been recaptured Members of the Class of 1940. L-R: Flying Officer John Gillies and Squadron Leader
by the Luftwaffe. He thus arrived at Dulag Roger Bushell, both of No. 92 Squadron, with Flying Officer Vincent ‘Paddy’ Byrne.
Luft as an air force prisoner. Bushell, who became known as ‘Big X’ when Escape Officer at Stalag Luft 3, was exe-
As well as being related to Winston cuted after the Great Escape from Sagan in March 1944 (see After the Battle No. 87).
Churchill, Dodge had family and connections
in diplomatic posts in Berlin, Berne, Geneva Summer 1940 also saw the introduction of Dulag Luft delay or lose a letter, usually
and Lisbon, and reckoned that through them counter-intelligence measures by the prison- because they suspected that some POWs had
he could wangle repatriation in a mutual ers at Dulag Luft, with Day starting a coded- private codes.
exchange of prisoners. But first he had to letter operation which would eventually Just as Rumpel was upgrading his organi-
hoodwink the Germans into believing he had spread to every RAF prison camp in the sation, so Day upgraded his. On the purely
been neutralised and would return to civvy- Greater Reich. In the last week of July, Neil administrative level, he made Jimmy Buck-
street. In his letters home he praised Hitler for Prendergast, a sergeant pilot from No. 61 ley his Adjutant, with Hutchison as Assistant
his ability to give the Germans back their self- Squadron, arrived at Dulag and informed Adjutant; made Hardy Messing Officer,
respect. Meanwhile Dodge’s relatives were Day that he had been taught an official letter- Gillies Cookhouse Officer, Freeman Cloth-
pulling strings to get him exchanged or code by MI9, the section of the War Office ing Officer and Partridge Sport and Recre-
invalided home. But all came to nought when responsible for fostering escape and evasion. ation Officer; and appointed Slowey as Presi-
prisoner exchanges were banned by Churchill. The code, known as ‘Amy’, was based on a dent of the Mess, and Taylor NCO in charge
Dodge’s apparent pro-German attitude pocket dictionary with pages measuring no of the camp canteen. Joyce worked in the
had, however, scandalised many transients more than 2½ x 4 inches. It took less than an store, issuing extra provisions and clothes
passing through Dulag Luft. Even more hour for Prendergast to teach Day the code, from Red Cross parcels. He also drew up the
alarming was the presence of Benson Free- which could be contained in a normal, chatty officers’ laundry list, for which he received
man, a pre-war Mosleyite who made no letter. The user indicated by the manner in payment. From November 1940 onwards he
attempt to hide his contempt for Bolshevism which he wrote the date whether or not his also did the camp carpentry. But with an
and his admiration for Fascism. Roger letter contained a message. Prendergast attempted invasion of Britain imminent, Day
Bushell, among others, asked Day to order wrote to MI9, registering Day and five of his also began to think more seriously in terms
Freeman to keep his views to himself. Day officers as code operators. of his own contribution to the war effort and,
refused, on the ground that German propa- Day’s first letters were based on debriefing especially, of escape. Even if a peace settle-
gandists would have a field day if they new prisoners, explaining the circumstances ment were negotiated between Britain and
learned that British POWs were curtailing in which they had been shot down. Later Germany, Day and his colleagues would
freedom of speech amongst their own kind. messages found their way into the Air Min- remain captives for three or four years: they
But Freeman’s Fascist leanings did not istry’s Weekly Intelligence Summaries, and were potential leaders and might cause trou-
escape the notice of Eberhardt, who enabled the RAF to counter German fighter ble for an occupying power. Escape was
informed Rumpel, and who in turn invited tactics and plot the positions of flak batteries. therefore imperative. Day appointed Bushell
him for lengthy discussions in his office Prisoners were allowed to send three post- head of escape intelligence and supply.
about politics, the war and the Bolshevik cards and two letters a month. It took about Bushell spoke excellent German and his
threat to Europe. Benson’s visits to six weeks for POW mail to reach England, background as a barrister made buttonholing
Rumpel’s office did not go unnoticed by and only occasionally did the censors at guards for information almost second nature.
transient prisoners either, and before long he
was suspected of being an informer, which he Left: An unidentified prisoner pictured in front of the Kommandantur — this was the
certainly was not. But he did become more second building with that function — see [4] on the plan on page 12. (Bundesarchiv)
deeply involved with the German staff. Right: After the war it became Building No. 996 of Camp King.

14
 the tunnel, Day informed him about Byrne’s
subterfuge.
Michael Joyce, however, was subsequently
cultivated by Eberhardt and persuaded to
spy on his fellow-prisoners, which he contin-
ued to do until May 1942 when he was sent to
North Africa, in a German uniform, to inter-
rogate British POWs.
By mid-October, the tunnel had pro-
gressed under the wire and the sentry tower
and had reached the edge of the Sied-
lungsstrasse. But flooding now made it
unworkable, and Buckley decided to close it
down for the winter.
On October 22, 26 RAF prisoners were
moved to Spangenberg. Among them was
Alex Gould, who had been responsible for
siting the tunnel.
By the end of 1940, some 800 RAF and
Fleet Air Arm prisoners had passed through
Dulag Luft, most of them eventually going on
to Stalag Luft I at Barth. They had found the
atmosphere at Dulag Luft profoundly unset-
tling. The Permanents were living comfort-
ably — two men to a room, with homely
touches such as tablecloths, lampshades and
Looking north along the double barbed wire fence on the eastern side of the com- pinups — had plenty of food and spare clothes
pound. Sentry tower [11] and the guardhouse [8] can be seen in the background. and appeared to be on good terms with the
Germans. But since Barth had opened in July,
The ease with which the POWs gathered Day’s room the tunnel itself began. Digging the prisoners there had received no Red Cross
information owed itself partly to a lack of was gruelling work; it was dark and damp parcels and were subsisting on German
security-consciousness on the part of the below and the earth was full of rough, sharp rations. Most had only the clothes in which
camp staff. The function of Dulag Luft was stones and rocks. Towards the end of August they had been shot down or items of Polish
purely intelligence, and neither the OKW, the tunnellers encountered a huge boulder and French uniform supplied from the Ger-
nor the Luftwaffe High Command, nor the which would take at least two weeks to dig man stock of war booty. They lived at least six
Abwehr, nor even Rumpel, had given a out. They had hoped to break out in Septem- to a room. They were cold, hungry, bored and
moment’s thought to the possibility that the ber, while the weather was fine, but now resentful, and vented their spleen on Day and
British Permanent Staff would do anything so Christmas looked more likely. his Dulag old stagers. The Senior British Offi-
churlish as attempting to escape. No escape In mid-September, Vincent Byrne, Mike cer at Barth sent a letter through German
attempts so far had been from Dulag Luft, Casey and Michael Joyce, all of whom were channels accusing Day of ‘diverting’ personal
although in August 1940 a transient prisoner, Irish, were sent for individually and inter- and communal Red Cross parcels for the use
Flying Officer Eric Foster, cut through the viewed in the Kommandantur by a board of himself and his staff. When the letter
wire at the Hohemark, only to be recaptured consisting of a woman and two men in civilian reached Dulag Luft, the task of handing it to
by a policeman at dawn. Security was there- suits, one of whom claimed to be Irish. They Day fell to Eberhardt, who knew its contents
fore rudimentary. Hauptmann von Massow, were asked if they knew Dublin, what they and was clearly embarrassed. Day, shocked at
the camp intelligence officer, was the nearest thought about the government in Ireland, and the insubordinate tone of the letter, declined
thing to a security officer, and his duties did about conditions in the camp. It was clear to to reply.
not go beyond censoring mail and ineffectu- all three that the Germans were attempting But Day’s troubles were not over. RAF
ally probing the occasional parcel. There to recruit Irish prisoners as renegades. Intelligence had sent a coded message to
were no searches, the twice-daily Appelle All three reacted differently. Casey Stalag Luft I appointing two squadron lead-
(roll-calls) were casually conducted, and even treated the notion with the contempt it ers to conduct an inquiry into his activites
the patrolling Alsatians could be bribed with deserved. Byrne, however, proposed to Day amongst those officers who had passed
a few squares of chocolate. that he go along with the scheme, in the hope through Dulag Luft. The inquiry took some
But the layout of the camp was such that that he might eventually be landed in Ireland six months to complete, and a report was
the only avenue of escape was by tunnel as saboteur, when he would betray the rene- sent back very much in favour of the Perma-
from the West Block. Alex Gould, who had gades to the authorities. Day sent a coded nents. The case against them was closed. But
studied geology, was given the responsibility letter home seeking sanction for Byrne’s no-one — including Day, his staff, the two
of choosing the site for the tunnel, his explo- scheme, and two months later received squadron leaders, and the officers inter-
ration of the soil being explained by his approval. Worried that Byrne’s motives viewed — was told of the outcome so an ele-
newly-created role as ‘Gardens Officer’. The might be misunderstood by Bushell, who was ment of doubt about the British Permanent
entrance would be in the wash-house, adja- sensitive to anything that might jeopardise Staff remained.
cent to Enselen’s room on the eastern side of
the hut. This would enable the tunnellers to
clean up quickly after their shift below. The
tunnel would pass diagonally under Ense-
len’s room, which would provide a lighting
point, under the corridor, under Day’s room,
then under the wire, a corner of the sentry
tower, and the Siedlungsstrasse, to emerge
on the far bank of the stream which ran
through the recreation field, beneath the
road and off into the trees to the west. In all,
the distance to be dug was at least 180 feet.
Day put Buckley in charge of operations,
and all the Permanents were on the digging
roster except Dodge and Day himself, whose
absence from the compound would be too
conspicuous. This was particularly true from
August 1940, when Eberhardt became the
camp welfare and liaison officer and visited
the compound every day.
Before tunnelling began, Day climbed into
the roof of the West Block and disconnected
the microphones. There was no reaction
from the Germans. But digging did not pro-
ceed smoothly. Water lay only a few feet
below ground, so the tunnel had to run near
the surface. The diggers started by excavat- The main guardhouse still stands across the road and roughly parallel with the north-
ing a trench, spreading the dirt across the eastern corner of the camp. From here guards could observe prisoners in part of the
top-soil beneath the barrack. Once clear of recreation field.

15
The escape tunnel ran from the south-west corner of the West the road at this point, effectively hiding our view of the site of
Block across the Siedlungsstrasse to emerge close to the the wartime huts, but the tunnel would have crossed roughly
stream which ran beneath it in a culvert (see plan page 12). on the line of the zebra crossing to emerge in the foreground.
After the war, the Americans constructed a barrack block along Could the filled-in excavation on the right be significant?

During that winter, Day and his staff car- camp. Finally, Fiergutt sent an orderly to kick meant that the Kommandant had to alert not
ried on preparing for their escape. They had down the bricks, the prisoners watching glee- only the Wehrmacht, the Kriminalpolizei, the
mapped out the local paths, were in posses- fully as he ruined his highly-polished jackboots. Grenzpolizei (Frontier Police) and his immedi-
sion of train timetables, and had built up an The tunnel was completed by the end of ate superiors in the local Luftgau or Wehrkreis,
escape fund of Reichsmarks equivalent to May and the breakout was planned for 9 p.m. but also the Frankfurt Gestapo. More than
£15 sterling. Civilian duds were made of con- on Sunday, June 1. As it was Whitsun, super- 3,000 men were mobilised in the subsequent
verted blankets and items of uniform dyed vision would be minimal and there would be Kriegsfahndung (war man-hunt) to search for
with boot-polish, with buttons carved from no German staff in the transit camp. The the escapers, and Himmler took advantage of
wood and bone. Knapsacks were made from moon would not rise until midnight, allowing the situation by trying to wrest control of
trouser-legs. Griffiths, a gifted amateur the escapers three hours to sortie. Eighteen Dulag from the hands of the Luftwaffe. He told
artist, forged identity cards, pasting on pho- men were selected: Day and most of his staff, Hitler that POW security, if carried out accord-
tos from German propaganda magazines or including Baughan, Boardman, Buckley, ing to OKW regulations, was escape-proof. If
snapshots taken by willing camp staff. Bushell, Casey, Dodge, Gillies, Griffiths, 18 men had managed to escape, they must have
MI9, in response to Day’s requests in coded Madge, Partridge, Thurstan, Squadron had help. ‘The mischief-maker is this
letters, sent rice-paper maps and escape tips, Leader Nicolas Tindal, Vivian and Wimber- Anglophile Rumpel’, said Himmler. In his
and Bushell obtained information on the ley, along with three recent transients, Wing briefcase he had a collection of extracts from
Schaffhausen salient, the long narrow bulge of Commander Noel Hyde, Flying Officer D. E. POW letters complaining about conditions in
Swiss territory which jutted into Germany and Pinchbeck, and Lieutenant Peter Butter- their camps and comparing them unfavourably
was reputedly less well-guarded. Bushell and worth of the Fleet Air Arm. A week before to Dulag Luft. Hitler sent for Göring and
Flying Officer Harvey Vivien (a permanent the break, Bushell announced his own plan. Schmid. ‘How can I win a war with a defeatist
since late 1940) planned to travel there by This involved hiding in the goat-shed in the like Rumpel in a key position?’ Hitler ranted.
train. With their fluent German, they stood recreation field on the afternoon of the ‘He must be removed!’
the best chance of reaching the frontier. break, and going over the wire at nightfall to Göring rose to defend Rumpel, and molli-
Work on the tunnel resumed in March 1941. catch a train that night and be well on his way fied Hitler — at least for the time being — by
Buckley and his team had to carry out a great before the hue and cry was raised the next suggesting that Hauptmann Franz von Werra,
deal of maintenance because the stream had morning. Some of the escapers protested that the pilot who had escaped from a POW train
broken its banks and flooded the tunnel and if his bid failed it would result in a tightening in Canada and had reached Germany via the
much of the trench. Cave-ins had also of security and threaten the tunnel break. USA and Mexico (see After the Battle No. 2),
occurred. It took a month for the tunnel to dry Nevertheless, Day approved Bushell’s plan. should visit Dulag Luft to compile a report on
out and to fill in the holes left by falls. As dig- It went off without a hitch, Tindal burying its intelligence and security set-up and make
ging progressed, the clay from the tunnel was him under the floorboards and covering them recommendations. Hitler agreed. But the
dispersed under the other two huts. In with goat’s dung. Buckley arranged a mis- escapers, who were being held in the Frank-
mid-May the diggers put up a probe, made count on the evening Appell, and at dusk furt-Bockenheim gaol, would be removed
from a one-inch-diameter metal water pipe Bushell left his hiding place and escaped with- immediately to another camp.
painted white for the top two inches so that out a sound. At 9 p.m., while Flight Lieu- The day before they were due to leave,
watchers inside the compound could see it. The tenant Donald McHardy organised a noisy Rumpel visited the gaol and shook the hand
probe broke through the road surface for six or diversion, Buckley and Byrne went down and of each escaper. ‘I wish it had been anyone
seven inches just as a supply lorry was grinding opened the tunnel. Byrne, who was staying but you we escaped from’, Day told him. The
its way along the Siedlungsstrasse. Word got behind, hid under the culvert to help the prisoners were collected from the gaol by
back to the diggers, who hastily withdrew it. escapers out. The queue at the entrance was Luftwaffe coach, bound for Frankfurt station
Towards the end of the month there was controlled by Squadron Leader Eric Elliott, where they were to entrain for Stalag Luft I.
another crisis when builders began to construct who would succeed Day as SBO. Buckley was Among the rations for the journey was a case
a brick support to the culvert under the Sied- first to go, followed by Vivian. Day was sixth of champagne, ‘with the compliments of
lungsstrasse. The water in the stream rose to on the list, followed by Dodge and Hyde. Major Rumpel’.
such a level that it was seeping into the tunnel. All the escapers were recaptured — most, When von Werra visited Dulag Luft, his
Day and Bushell spent days persuading the except for Buckley, Bushell and Vivian, within assessment of the camp’s security set-up and
adjutant, Fiergutt, that the dammed water 20 or 30 miles of the camp. But it discredited intelligence gathering was largely negative. He
would create a breeding ground for mosquitoes Rumpel’s organisation and nearly ruined his had been interrogated by RAF Intelligence at
and all manner of disease-carrying flies and career. An escape involving more than five Trent Park in Cockfosters, a procedure which
bugs that would threaten the health of the prisoners was technically a mass escape, and relied on the compilation of thoroughly-

16
researched dossiers on enemy aircrew contain-
ing details which were so personal as to be 1942-43
embarrassing. His interrogator had used these
files as a basis for questioning him, systemati-
cally assassinating his character and sapping 23
his morale. No such thing occurred at Dulag
Luft. The organisation was amateurish. Von
Werra recommended that British methods be
incorporated into the Oberursel operation.
The Abwehr were brought in to make regular
barrack and personal searches, and a gun-post
was set up in the recreation field. From then
on, escaping from Dulag Luft become more
16
difficult. Transient prisoners considered likely
to escape were quickly moved on, and future
Permanents were chosen from among those
prisoners inclined to take captivity more pas- 14
sively. John Casson remained on the staff as 15
Elliott’s Adjutant and chief of the camp’s cod-
ing operations.
24
Rumpel and Fiergutt continued to interro-
gate prisoners until the arrival of new person-
nel. These included Major Gerhardt and
Hauptmann Müller. Gerhardt was a handsome
pilot who had fought in the Great War and was
an expert in electronics. Another expert was a 21
32-year-old civilian employed by the German 17
Air Ministry, Gustav Bauer-Schlichtegroll,
who joined Dulag on October 1. Bauer — as he
was commonly known — initially interrogated GUNPOST
on technical subjects, but later on questioned
bomber crews and Special Duties aircrew who
had dropped arms and agents for the resistance
movements. By the end of October 1941, the
German staff comprised more than 50 mem-
bers, including four full-time interrogators. N
Sometimes other specialists would be brought
in from Berlin on an ad hoc basis. 20
The methods of Bauer and his fellow-inter-
rogators took advantage of the new prisoner’s 22
fragile state of mind after sudden and violent
action, his shame at being captured, his desire 18 19
for friendly conversation and to leave his
lonely cell, and his anxiety about his family
back home. All the while he stuck to the for-
mula ‘name, rank and number’, his interroga-
tor denied him fresh-air exercise, Red Cross
rations, washing facilities, books and compan-
ionship — and refused to inform his family In November 1941, following several more escapes, Major Rumpel was replaced by
whether he was dead or alive. The sooner he Oberstleutnant Erich Killinger and at the same time the interrogation centre was
filled in his Red Cross form and gave the infor- renamed Auswertestelle-West (Western Evaluation Centre) although the actual transit
mation required, the sooner he would receive camp remained Dulag Luft. With the entry of the United States into the war, plans were
some concessions. Moreover, he was haunted laid to expand the facilities yet again with the addition of a new administration block [14];
by the spectre of a possible beating and the a cell block [15]; store room [16]. German quarters were officers’ [17]; other ranks’ [18]
threat of being handed over to the Gestapo and [19]; security officers’ and NCOs’ [20]; and a combined interrogation and prison block
should he be unable to prove his combatant for the Gestapo [21] nicknamed ‘The Shelter’. The camp gates are [22] to [24] .
status. In fact, the interrogators at Dulag Luft
hardly ever resorted to violence, and generally Sometimes he was told that his comrades had way. Between the wars he was a buinessman,
resisted pressure from the Gestapo. According already talked, and his squadron’s dossier and in 1939 was called up as a reserve officer
to a report prepared on November 1, 1945 by was thrown on the desk for him to read. in the Luftwaffe, at first flying in the Polish
the US War Department Military Intelligence But escape attempts continued. During the campaign. Because of his age — he was in his
Service, the treatment of prisoners under summer of 1941, four prisoners broke out of late forties — he was given a ground posting
interrogation was ‘correct’, as far as physical the Hohemark. In September, three officers, as a Luftwaffe welfare officer before being
violence was concerned. ‘An occasional inter- Lieutenant-Commander David Lubbock, appointed Kommandant of Dulag Luft.
rogator, exasperated by polite refusals to give RN, and Flight Lieutenants Peter Tomlinson By the time Killinger arrived, Dulag Luft
more than name, rank, [and] serial number or, and Peter Gardner, were discovered working had been given a new name. A similar opera-
more occasionally, perhaps by an exception- on a tunnel. They were purged immediately tion had been opened in the East with the
ally “fresh” PW may have lost his temper and to Oflag XC, the Army camp at Lübeck. name of Auswertestelle-Ost (Evaluation Cen-
struck a PW. It is not believed that this ever In addition, the Red Cross had produced a tre East), and accordingly the interrogation
went beyond a slap in the face dealt in the heat booklet which painted a glowing picture of centre at Oberursel became Auswertestelle-
of anger — certainly physical violence was not the camp: ‘An airman’s life at Dulag Luft in West (Evaluation Centre West), while the
employed as a policy. On the other hand, no the mountains has its advantages’, it ran. transit camp remained a Dulag Luft.
amount of calculated mental depression, pri- ‘The men are provided with four good meals Despite von Werra’s recommendations and
vation and psychological blackmail was con- a day, can walk in the country, and go out to the appointment of Killinger, escapes contin-
sidered excessive.’ meals at inns.’ ued. In February 1942, a Fleet Air Arm offi-
Once they confronted a prisoner, the inter- In November, Rumpel was finally re- cer, who had given his parole for church
rogators relied on intelligence, experience moved from his post at Dulag Luft. ‘I cannot parade, escaped en route. Most prisoners, Per-
and subtlety. All were academics or former win this war by relying on defeatists’, Hitler manents and transients alike, were appalled at
businessmen who spoke good English and declared. Rumpel was promoted to Oberst- this breach of honour, and felt he was lucky
had spent some time in England or its leutnant and put in charge of the Luftwaffe not to have been court-martialled upon recap-
colonies, and all had a political education. headquarters at Görlitz, the command centre ture. In April, a Hampden pilot, Flight Lieu-
There was nothing like an innocuous chin- of a complex of flying training fields. tenant Robert Kee, hid in the roof of Middle
wag about Henley Regatta or a heated politi- His replacement at Dulag was Oberstleut- Block, his intention being to fool the Germans
cal barny (which the interrogators nearly nant Erich Killinger. He was in many respects into believing he had escaped. He would then
always won) to put a prisoner off his guard. a better choice than Rumpel. A naval airman be spirited out of the compound, hide in the
Once a prisoner had accidentally answered in the Great War, he had been shot down over goat-shed and go over the wire at night, just as
one question, he was kept in solitary confine- Russia in 1915 and taken prisoner. He Roger Bushell had the previous year. John
ment until he answered others and was escaped from his prison camp in Siberia and Casson tried to dissuade him, telling him the
warned that, if he did not comply, word reached Germany after a hair-raising journey Germans were already wise to this ruse. But
would reach his comrades that he had talked. through Manchuria, Japan, the USA and Nor- Kee went ahead and was soon discovered.

17
 By then things were becoming difficult for The cell block (above) was opened in October 1942 providing solitary confinement for
the British Permanent Staff, and after a series more than 100 prisoners. This on-the-spot drawing (left) by one of the prisoners
of rows, generally inspired by the presence of shows Cell 1B (see plan opposite). Note the heater under the window.
Freeman and Joyce, some were asked to sign
a document requesting their removal from filled palliasse. Near the ceiling on the out- The set-up was known as ‘Y’ Kompanie. As
the camp. Casson and McHardy were purged side wall was a casement window 9ft 6in the operation grew, it fell under the control of
to the newly-opened Stalag Luft III at Sagan square with frosted panes and iron bars on higher-ranking officers, and Barth became
(see After the Battle No. 87). The new Adju- the outside; the windows could be opened disillusioned. In spring 1942, he escorted a
tant was Flying Officer D.W. Thomas. A inwards by inserting a key in a square lock. group of pilots shot down in France to
Dutchman in the RAF, Pilot Officer Peter Along the top was a fanlight window which Oberursel and while there toured the camp.
van Rood, was briefly attached to the staff as was also locked. In the wall near the door ‘’There I met the Kommandant and his staff
Medical Officer as he had studied medicine leading to the central passage was a wooden and I soon realised I had followed the call to
before the war. knob, which prisoners turned to release a Auswertestelle-West’.
In May, Michael Joyce went to North red signal-arm outside and attract the atten- With him he brought almost his entire
Africa to interrogate British prisoners. tion of the guards. All the cells were fitted staff, all of them linguists: Kaspar, Schröder,
Finally, in September, he reverted to his with electric heaters. Schwartz and Weyland. Barth set up a W/T
RAF identity and returned to Germany. While the new cooler was under construc- room on the first floor of the old farmhouse
With the aid of the Gestapo he effected an tion, Killinger’s staff was supplemented by cell-block, which now became part of the
escape from a farm near Koblenz and joined Major Horst Barth. A graduate of the Uni- intelligence set-up. His team of linguists
an escape line in order to infiltrate it and versity of Leipzig, he had joined the German worked round the clock listening to all R/T
turn its members over to the Germans. He Merchant Marine in the early 1930s as a radio communications between aircraft and air-
reached Gibraltar, and was repatriated to operator, but volunteered for the Interceptor craft and base. They recorded and tran-
England, where he was awarded the Military Service when Germany started to re-arm. He scribed conversations, and listed the radio
Medal and given a commission. After the had many forward-looking ideas about the frequencies along with their places of origin.
war, when Eberhardt was captured and inter- potential of radio, and developed the moni- Two more Interceptor Service NCOs moni-
rogated, Joyces’s duplicity was revealed. toring and interpreting of radio transmissions tored BBC broadcasts, transcribed them and
Joyce confessed and was stripped of his emanating from Britain. German Signals sent the information therein to Killinger,
medal. Shortly afterwards he resigned his Intelligence permitted him to set up an exper- who then cut out the unpalatable facts and
commission. imental station 15 kilometres north of Emden passed the expurgated reports to his interro-
Benson Freeman left Dulag Luft at in north-west Friesland. It was so successful gation officers. The W/T room was later
roughly the same time, staying for three that when the listening-post at Wissant was linked to another listening post in the moun-
months on a farm ostensibly owned by Eber- established he was moved there with his staff. tains above the camp.
hardt before joining the German Foreign
Office as a script-writer for the ‘Germany The wooden huts were demolished by the Americans after the war. This present-day
Calling’ service. In 1944 he joined the Waf- comparison was taken from the roof of the administration block.
fen-SS, finally surrendering to US forces in
south-west Germany in May 1945. After the
war, Freeman was sentenced to ten years’
imprisonment. He told his lawyer: ‘This
shows just how rotten this democratic coun-
try is. The Germans would have had the hon-
esty to shoot me.’
Under Killinger, Auswertestelle-West ex-
panded and the intelligence organisation
was stepped up. His first major step was the
building of a wooden ‘cooler’. Construction
started at the end of July 1942 and the cooler
was ready for use by October. It contained
103 solitary-confinement cells, a guardroom,
a first-aid room, a communal shower-room,
a latrine, a laundry and a powerful heating
system. Each cell, on average, measured 9ft
9ins long, 6 feet wide and 9ft 2ins high. The
walls were lined with fibre board about half-
an-inch thick and filled with from two to
four inches of insulating material. The floor
was of timber boards one inch thick. The
close-fitting doors, with only a tiny crack
near the floor to allow a flow of air, were
four inches thick and also insulated. Furni-
ture consisted of a wooden table and chair,
and an iron or wooden bed with a straw-

18
 PLAN OF THE CELLS IN 1943

Next door to the W/T room was the photo- Although it was now difficult to leave the Next came Otto Boehringer, who was 48
graphic room, where staff developed and country, he decided to return overseas, and when he arrived at the centre in 1943.
printed all film found on prisoners, along was helped by Killinger. When the second Boehringer, the owner of a factory in
with that recovered from the camera guns war broke out he was representing the Ger- Mannheim, had been a Hauptmann in a bal-
salvaged from their aircraft. man aircraft industry in Peru. Two years loon barrage unit from the outbreak of the war
Over a period of months, Killinger brought later, he returned to Germany and was then to May 1940, when he left the service to return
in several of his old cronies to oversee the sent as assistant air attaché to Buenos Aires. to his works. In November 1942 he heard that
expansion and improve interrogation meth- He was back in Germany in 1942 and was Killinger, whom he had known in Java, was
ods. The first was Major Heinz Junge. sent to Dulag Luft at Killinger’s request to be Kommandant of Dulag Luft, and went to visit
Already 50 years old, Junge had served as a chief interrogator. Junge spent three months him. Killinger proposed that he remuster and
field artillery officer from 1911 to 1914 and as learning the ropes before becoming de facto join him there as a specialist in commercial
a pilot in the Great War, finally being shot head of the interrogation department. interrogations. Boehringer agreed on the pro-
down and captured by the British in February Horst Barth, as well as running the W/T viso that he be allowed to visit his factory two
1918. After his release in November 1919 he room, became the head of the fighter interro- days a week. He joined the staff on January 1,
emigrated to South America, working as a gation unit, with Schröder and Weyland inter- 1943, but he had difficulties with the English
commercial traveller. In 1932, while in Peru, rogating USAAF fighter pilots. In the bomber language and was taken off interrogations at
he joined the Nazi Party because of his hostil- branch were Ulrich Haussmann, Oberleut- the beginning of April and instead became
ity to Communism. He returned to Germany nants Arthur Gabrielson and Wiebach, and Killinger’s Executive Officer in charge of
in 1935 and realised he had made a mistake. Leutnants Horn and Karl Schmidt-Luders. increasing the establishment.

Left: Major Horst Barth arrived in the summer of 1942 to set up the old farmhouse [1]. This provided first-hand information on
a radio intercept station in a room (right) on the first floor of Allied air activities and primed the interrogation staff.

19
 In November 1942, the Luftgau construc- The administration block ([14] on the plan on page 17) as it appeared early in 1999.
tion unit had started building a new adminis- It was built in the winter of 1942-43 and housed the Interrogation Room, the Records
trative block along the western edge of the Section, the Map Room and the Situation Rooms.
Siedlungsstrasse, a long wooden barrack into
which Boehringer now moved his new estab- Map Room. In this room, a large collection technical reports compiled by previous inter-
lishment. Between them, Boehringer and of maps was kept for interrogators and docu- rogators, and a museum of flying instru-
Junge divided the information held in the old ments experts. All the rooms dealing with ments, radar equipment, etc. (But the Ger-
Kommandantur into specialist areas and documents, files, squadron histories and mans did not excel in his field, and this
gave each its own room as follows: maps came under the heading of Records department was one of the weakest.)
Document Evaluation Room. This pro- Section, the commander of which was Crash File Room. This existed to plot all
duced 80 per cent of Auswertestelle-West’s Hauptmann Kurt Schneidewindt. RAF and USAAF crashes in Germany and
information by scouring Allied newspapers, Attack Room. Each day a new map was the occupied territories. Each crash was
periodicals and books; searching the pockets prepared displaying British and American given a number, and a file was opened con-
of captured aircrew, and salvaging material air operations during the past 24 hours. taining the type of aircraft, location of crash,
from aircraft that came down in German ter- Based mainly on German radar trackings and whatever details of the crew and their
ritory. This section was known as the BUNA, and Observer Corps reports, it showed tar- squadron that emerged through interroga-
short for Beute Und Nachrichten Auswer- gets, routes, results of missions, numbers of tion and the examination of aircraft mark-
tung (Booty and Information Evaluation), aircraft involved and even cancelled actions. ings. The information the Red Cross
and was led by Feldwebel Bert Nagel. A for- Information gleaned from interrogations in received concerning missing, dead and
mer professor at Heidelberg, he was one of progress was incorporated in the display so imprisoned aircrew was largely the result of
Germany’s foremost experts in literature, that each interrogator had access to the work the work carried out in this room.
particularly Goethe and Faust, and liked to of others. The walls of these rooms were of fibre-
quote from Hamlet as he searched through Situation Rooms. There were two such board, similar to that used in the construc-
prisoners’ possessions. rooms, one for the RAF and one for the tion of the cooler. Interrogations were car-
Yellow File Room. Collecting biographical USAAF. Each displayed maps showing the ried out in Room 47, which differed from
information on Allied personnel from news- locations of recent raids, the progress of raids most of the rooms in that it had panelled
papers, magazines, awards lists, radio broad- still taking place, and the front lines of walls.
casts and censored POW mail, Yellow File opposing armies. The maps also showed Outside the northern wire of the transit
staff carefully filed it all on index cards for details of ferrying flight and transport move- camp, towards the end nearest the Sied-
quick reference. The Yellow Card Registry ments. lungsstrasse, another block was built as a
was led by Unteroffizier Gomman. Press Evaluation Room. A staff of trans- store-room for prisoners’ clothing and
Squadron History Room. Here, staff gath- lators went through all copies of Allied news- toiletries. Two more barracks were erected
ered information on every RAF and USAAF papers for pertinent information, which was south of the recreation field for the German
squadron — their past and current bases, then passed on to the Yellow File Room and senior officers and the female staff. (Junior
leading personalities, postal addresses, and the Squadron History Room. officers continued to live in hotels in the
the special equipment they were known to Technical Room. As an aid to technical nearby villages.) A tarmac path was laid
operate. This department was run by Frau interrogations, staff in this room maintained down leading from the main guardhouse to
Biehler. a library on Allied equipment, including the new barracks.

Left: The main corridor and right Room 47 where prisoners were interrogated. The windows have been smashed by vandals.

20
Part of the new security measures introduced at the beginning of the extension to the admin block which was added later that
of 1943 included surrounding the entire camp with barbed year. Right: Another entrance gate [24] lay on the Eichwäld-
wire. Left: This was the site of the entrance gate [22] on the chenweg — it still survives albeit with a modern sentry box.
Siedlungsstrasse. The building on the left is the southern end The main guardhouse [8] can be seen in the distance.

On the advice of Killinger’s new Chief of sometimes had to wait a day or two, espe- Elliott, who sent a formal complaint to the
Security and Intelligence, Hauptmann Offer- cially if the clinic was overcrowded. Protecting Power.
mann, a barbed-wire fence was thrown up Perhaps because of the presence of the Heinz Junge was on leave when the inci-
round the entire site. It started 300 yards Gestapo — and particularly of Braeder, who dents took place, and Boehringer was stand-
north of Hohemarkstrasse, running in an was a thoroughly nasty piece of work — ing in for him. When Boehringer heard of the
east-west direction; ran up the western side interrogation techniques became tougher, over-heating he reported it to Killinger.
of Eichwäldchenstrasse; past the main guard- with some prisoners being subjected to Killinger called it a ‘bloody scandal’ and sent
house and the chicken farm to the north of intense heat-treatment from the radiators a message to Junge ordering it to be stopped.
the transit camp, then down in a north-south which turned the cells into sweat-boxes. The Towards the end of 1943, Killinger received a
direction behind the old cooler building, the first such incidents, according to evidence vaguely-worded letter of complaint from the
Kommandant’s office and the cells. presented at the Dulag Luft trial at Wupper- British Government, and asked his assistant,
The main entrance was through a double tal in November and December 1945, took Unteroffizier Herbert Böttner, to draft a
gate across the Siedlungsstrasse, 300 yards in place between May 16 and 19, 1943. The reply. This said that as no names and no con-
from Hohemarkstrasse. The gate was now sweat-box victims were Squadron Leader crete details had been given, it was impossi-
overlooked by a guardroom and the security James Cairns and Warrant Officers Victor ble to investigate the complaint. But there
officers’ and sergeants’ quarters. Another Bain, Gerald Clarke, John Gale, Robert had been ‘a technical defect of the heating
gate at the northern end of the Sied- Lang and Norman Rees, all of whom were system arising from the bombing of Frank-
lungsstrasse led to the model housing estates subject to varying degrees and lengths of furt or some place in the neighbourhood’.
and agricultural school. At the eastern end of heat-treatment from the 1½-kilowatt heaters, After the war, at least three other ex-
the narrow road leading past the transit and some of whom were also denied medical POWs claimed to have been subjected to
camp and the main guardhouse was another attention. All testified or sent affidavits stat- heat-treatment: Flying Officer I. Tweddell,
double gate giving on to Eichwäldchen- ing that the cell windows were locked shut; Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams and Major
strasse. that the heat was so intense that all metal Jerry Sage of the Office of Strategic Services.
On the eastern side of this road, towards objects, such as the bedstead, were too hot to Tweddell passed through Oberursel at the
the southern end, another sentry tower was touch; that they were dripping with sweat; same time as John Gale, and his claim is
built and, opposite the gate, another wooden and that the atmosphere was so stifling that credible. However, Williams passed through
hut, containing Gestapo offices, interroga- they had to strip, lie on the floor and try to in December 1942, and Sage shortly after-
tion rooms and more solitary confinement breath air through the crack at the foot of the wards, months before the recorded over-
cells. It was referred to by the prisoners vari- door. In some cases, the treatment only heating incidents occurred. Significantly, nei-
ously as ‘The Bunker’ or ‘The Shelter’. Here stopped after prisoners had given away infor- ther Williams nor Sage offered any evidence
members of the Frankfurt Gestapo, led by mation; in some cases the let-up was inexplic- at the Dulag Luft trial, only referring to the
Oberst Braeder, were occasionally permitted able. On reaching the transit camp, these treatment in their memoirs, published years
to interrogate prisoners. The Gestapo liaison prisoners complained to Squadron Leader afterwards.
officer at Oberursel was Walther Schmidt.
On May 12, 1943, the medical arrange-
ments at Auswertestelle-West were put in
the charge of Dr Ernst Ittershagen, a 35-
year-old orthopaedic specialist from Frank-
furt. He became chief doctor for prisoners at
the Hohemark and visited the medical
inspection room in the camp almost every
morning, staying for three hours. He also
arranged with the Luftgau at Wiesbaden to
use the Luftwaffe hospital in Frankfurt to
carry out X-rays, blood tranfusions and oper-
ations and to use the facilities in another hos-
pital in Bad Homberg. His staff at the Hohe-
mark consisted of three German medical
orderlies and four British. None of them had
much training and mostly they just dressed
wounds.
According to testimony given by Itters-
hagen after the war, there were another four
German MOs on round-the-clock duty at the
camp, and every new arrival in the cells was
seen by a medical orderly ‘within a very short
time of arrival’. They placed a red cross on
the cell-door of each prisoner requiring
treatment. Sometimes Ittershagen visited
these cells himself. Either way, he listed all
sick and wounded prisoners and gave the list
to Junge for approval. Severely wounded The isolated Gestapo ‘Shelter’ or ‘Bunker’ [21] lay outside this gate on the eastern
prisoners were taken to the Hohemark side of the road. It has since been demolished and this building, constructed for
immediately, but the walking wounded American use, now occupies the site.

21
 In August 1943, the interrogators at
Oberursel ‘turned’ another RAF sergeant, 1943-45
an air-gunner from North Wales called Ray-
mond Hughes. Threatened with the Gestapo,
he broke down, not only filling in his own
Red Cross form but also agreeing to help
complete others. Known from then on as
Herr Becker, he was transferred to Berlin in
October where he was offered a commission
in the British Freikorps and did radio broad-
casts in Welsh to the Welsh regiments serv- 27
ing in North Africa. At his court-martial in
August 1945, he was found guilty on five
counts of treason and sentenced to five years
in gaol.
Auswertestelle-West, in the meantime,
was suffering from overcrowding. By the end 8
of 1943, an average of 1,000 prisoners a
month were passing through the interroga-
tion centre, and the number of German offi-
cers on the intelligence staff had risen to
nearly 50. In 1944 this would increase to 65, 24
with up to 100 other ranks; the administra-
32
tive staff, comprising one guard company
and one Luftwaffe construction company,
numbered about 240 personnel. Also
attached to the establishment were represen-
tatives of the Kriegsmarine and the Luft-
waffe equivalents of Fighter Command,
25
Maintenance Command and Technical 26

To accommodate this further increase in

Training Command.

prisoners and personnel, another round of

construction work was undertaken in the
autumn of 1943. The stream running across
the camp was laboriously filled in and a new 31
administrative block was built a few metres
to the south of the original one, the two
being linked by an overhang creating a pas- 30
sage between them from the Siedlungsstrasse
to the cooler. Three new wings were added 22
to the cooler, one containing a further 24 29 28
cells, and the others a new POW reception
room, a room for the strip-searching of pris-
oners, and a semi-basement with additional
cells for the overflow of prisoners awaiting
interrogation. The semi-basement was
known by them as ‘The Snake Pit’. The Med-
ical Inspection Room became the crew room,
where the receptionists attempted to per-
suade prisoners to queue up behind their Additions in the big building programme in the autumn of 1943 included extending
respective aircraft captains. A new sick bay the administration block to the south [25]; adding new wings [26] to the cooler;
was opened up on the first floor of the con- a canteen/officers’ mess [27] and additional barracks [28], [29] and [30].
verted farmhouse.
To the north of the cells a combined canteen air raids. Oberursel’s warning siren sounded Another raid on February 8, 1944 resulted in
and officers’ mess was built for staff which 539 times during the war — on average, once Flak inadvertently hitting Waldlust, only 900
Boehringer ran until the end of the war. Three every three days — and although Oberursel metres to the west of the camp. On March
more barracks were erected at the southern was not always the target, raids became more 21, six bombs and six heavy mines were
end of the camp — a new barrack for officers frequent and dangerous as the war pro- dropped near the Hohemark, hitting the for-
and two for the female staff. Unaccountably, gressed. Oberursel had suffered its first air est and badly damaging 25 houses, and on
in view of the increase in the number of pris- raid of the war on the night of June 5/6, 1940, September 29 a further 56 houses were dam-
oners, the eastern side of the recreation field but had emerged relatively unscathed. How- aged when bombs fell on Liebfrauenstrasse,
was made out of bounds and fenced off. ever, a heavy raid took place on August not far from Oberursel station and the tram
Killinger, however, was becoming increas- 24/25, 1942, destroying several houses and stop where prisoners began their journey to
ingly worried about the frequency of Allied blowing out the windows of a local church. the camp. At the end of December 1944,

Left: This was the entrance gate [31] from the Siedlungsstrasse Right: The gate lay here, at end of the new extension to the
into the new POW reception area and cell block. administration block.

22
reserve fuel tanks jettisoned from fighter air- Auswertestelle-West, as it was then called, in 1944. Another view taken from the
craft fell on the motor factory in Hohemark- Reichslehrsiedlung community house and kindly provided to us by Mozart Kaufman
strasse, causing considerable damage and (ex-USAAF and author of Fighter Pilot) who obtained it in 1945. To the left lay three
killing one of the workers. Two more work- blocks of the original camp with the recreation field, the security officers’ and
ers — one German and one French — were sergeants’ barracks beyond. To the right, the old Kommandantur buildings, with the
killed in a low-level attack on a machine fac- admin block and the cooler behind.
tory on March 2, 1945. A few days before the
end of the war, on March 20, Kupferhammer
was attacked by Typhoons, seven rockets hit-
ting another factory and a forced-labour
camp holding 250 Russian and Polish prison-
ers; one child was killed.
Dulag Luft itself was not hit in any of these
raids, but Killinger had the roofs of the build-
ings painted with the letters ‘POW’ so as to
prevent the RAF and USAAF from bomb-
ing the camp and, he hoped, Oberursel.
Frankfurt, on the other hand, was suffering
heavily. It was bombed by the RAF 13 times
from 1939 to 1941; six times in 1942; seven
times in 1943; and eleven times in 1944. The
USAAF bombed it in October 1943, and 12
times in 1944. Citizens were being evacuated
in their thousands.
Rumours reached the ears of the British
Permanent Staff that the transit camp would
soon be relocated, and several put in for
transfers to permanent camps. In fact, RAF
Permanents had been dropping out gradually questioning new prisoners were transferred November 15, 1943 stated: ‘This visit leaves a
during the past year, including Warrant Offi- in batches to the Palmengarten to await bad impression because of the new situation
cer Taylor, who had left in February 1943, transportation to permanent camps. of the Dulag, so exposed to attacks from the
and their places were being taken by The new transit camp was a mile north- air, which is not in conformity with Article 9
USAAF officers and non-coms. On Septem- west of the main railway station. Until new of the Convention.’
ber 10, 1943, the transit camp at Oberursel barracks were built, the prisoners lived in By February 1944, most of the Permanent
was closed and this side of the operation was tents. Although the obstensible reason for Staff were American. In March, the new
transferred to the Palmengarten park in the the move was congestion at Oberursel, it is transit camp was bombed by the Allies
centre of Frankfurt-am-Main. From that clear that it was also done to deter Allied air (killing one prisoner and no Germans) and a
time onwards, Oberursel was an interroga- attacks on Frankfurt. The Protecting Power new, bigger compound was opened further
tion and evaluation centre only, and after visited the camp, and their report dated north, near the cathedral town of Wetzlar.

Left: The passage [32] between the old [14] and new [25] admin archway was Camp King’s prison block appropriately occupy-
blocks. The building number emanates from American days ing the site of the wartime cooler. Right: The entrance from the
when, we are told, the building seen on the far side of the passage to the new block.

23
Left: Obergefreiter Hanns-Joachim Scharff — the Luftwaffe’s extracts is the US top scoring ace, Lieutenant Colonel Francis
master interrogator whose story was told by Raymond Toliver Gabreski, who crash-landed after the propeller of his P-47 hit
in The Interrogator published in 1997. We are indebted to Ray- the ground while strafing Bassinheim airfield seven miles east
mond for allowing us to use a number of pictures from his of Coblenz on July 20, 1944, and Colonel Hubert Zemke, the
book including those reproduced on these pages. Scharff main- brilliant leader of the 56th and 479th Fighter Groups whose
tained a log book of his interrogations — listed on these P-51 broke up in a storm near Celle on October 30, 1944.

But the overcrowding at Oberursel did not manufactured cars, tanks and aircraft. When new transit camp at Frankfurt as an inter-
ease off. The average monthly intake dou- the war broke out, he was on holiday with his preter. When the transit camp was moved to
bled to 2,000 in 1944. The peak month was wife and children in Germany. His exit visa Wetzlar, he went with it. But because he had
July, when 3,000 Allied airmen and para- was revoked and he found himself, at the age lived in America, had married an American
troopers were processed. Despite OKW of 32, pressed into the Wehrmacht as a woman and learnt to fly there, he was consid-
directives, Oberursel only had the capacity to Panzergrenadier. In February 1943, Scharff ered likely to mollycoddle prisoners. Threat-
accommodate 200 men at any one time, but was about to be sent to the Russian Front ened with a posting to the Russian Front, he
the POW strength on any one day sometimes when his wife persuaded a German general phoned Scharff from Wetzlar, and with
exceeded 250, and often as many as five men to transfer him to a Dolmetscher-Kompanie Horst Barth’s help, Scharff arranged a trans-
at a time were occupying the solitary-con- (Interpreters’ Company) and thence, in Jan- fer to Oberursel.
finement cells. The Hohemark was also over- uary 1944, to Oberursel. Once Hanemann had been trained by
burdened, with stretcher cases arriving In May 1944, Schröder and Weyland went Scharff, they divided the work between
straight from Oberursel station, and Itters- on a joy-ride in a Fieseler Storch with a them, Hanemann dealing with pilots from
hagen only managed to requisition another fighter pilot from the base at Eschborn. The fighter groups of the US Twelfth and Fif-
five beds for POWs. Because of the heavy air aircraft crashed into some trees, killing all teenth Air Forces and the South African Air
raids on Frankfurt, it became impossible to three, and Scharff was put in charge of inter- Force, operating from North Africa and
do X-rays there except at night. rogating American fighter pilots. With Dulag Italy, and Scharff dealing with those cap-
Thus, despite the proximity of Hohemark Luft’s thick dossiers at his finger-tips, he tured in north-west Europe. From then on
clinic and the medical room on the camp site, developed a technique that almost invariably Scharff’s assistant was Otto Engelhardt,
prisoners suffering from shock received no achieved results and made him the darling of known as ‘Wild Bill’ because of his pre-war
treatment, and neither did those with minor the Luftwaffe’s intelligence community. experiences in the Canadian Rockies.
wounds. Some POWs arrived at permanent Scharff’s first assistant was Feldwebel Walter Another interrogator, Leutnant Günther
camps still wearing dirty field-dressings Hanemann. A former Stuka pilot who had Haas, who spoke English and French, took
which had not been changed at Oberursel. flown in the Polish and French campaigns, he frequent trips to Paris to question pilots shot
Other breaches of the Geneva Convention had been wounded in combat and sent to the down in France.
occurred. While most prisoners remained in
solitary for only a few days, surly prisoners
were held as long as 30 days, the maximum
time allowed by the Convention as a punitive
measure. One USAAF officer, Captain
William N. Schwartz, was imprisoned for 45
days. The behaviour of interrogators became
more threatening and their language violent.
It was not uncommon for interrogators to
shout at prisoners, call them ‘murderers of
children’, keep them on starvation rations
and threaten to keep them in the cells indefi-
nitely. Some were threatened with death as
spies unless they identified themselves as air-
crew by revealing technical information on
such subjects as radar or air combat tactics.
Sometimes fake firing-squads assembled out-
side the cells and ‘shot’ the comrades of
intransigent prisoners.
Such intimidation was found to yield poor
results, and the interrogators reverted to the
‘kid gloves’ approach. This was partly due to
the arrival of another interrogator, Oberge-
freiter Hanns-Joachim Scharff, who had ini-
tially joined the staff at Oberursel as assis-
tant to Schröder and Weyland. Born in
Greiz, near Leipzig, in 1907, Scharff later
married the daughter of a British air ace
from the First World War, Lieutenant-
Colonel Claude Stokes, DFC, who had been Scharff’s snapshot of Gabreski, centre, and Captain Kenneth Smith, ex-335th Squadron,
killed by one of von Richthofen’s squadron. 4th Fighter Group, who had recently undergone a skin graft on his face at the Hohemark
In peace-time Scharff was the director of the clinic. Scharff had taken both airmen to the outdoor swimming pool in Oberursel to try
Johannesburg division of Adlerwerke, which to soften them up. On the left is one of the Luftwaffe guards, NCO Schröder.

24
 Obergefreiter Scharff would later become This series of pictures of American airmen in the reception area at the southern end
famous as the Luftwaffe’s ‘master interroga- of the cooler was taken by Scharff from his office window in the admin block.
tor’. He was well-named: Scharff, in English,
means ‘sharp’ — and this he certainly was. Before long, Wallschmidt’s team was received no Red Cross parcels. Underfed
He always wrested some information out of ordered to move again, this time to and sleeping in the open in overcrowded
his prisoners, yet few of them knowingly Altenburg. They were trying to make their conditions, thousands starved or froze to
gave information, and none knew what its way there when they were captured by US death. Finally, Scharff was released, fleeing
value was to the German war effort. One ex- forces. The Americans denied German pris- to Western Germany to escape the Rus-
prisoner reckoned that Scharff ‘could have oners proper POW status, re-classifying sians, who had put a price on his head as a
wrung a confession of infidelity out of a nun’. them as ‘Disarmed Enemies’ so that they ‘Capitalist’.
Because he seldom wore uniform, but a
grey suit, few prisoners realised he was only a
corporal; thus he was accorded the respect
due to an officer. This was undoubtedly a
useful weapon in his arsenal. Another was
the camp’s collection of photos taken at
Allied airfields, showing not only aircraft
with their squadron markings but also many
famous fighter pilots. He would often point
to one of the photos and say: ‘Isn’t that a
great picture of Hubert Zemke?’ ‘No,’ the
prisoner would reply, ‘that’s not Zemke.
That’s Francis Gabreski’. When these Amer-
ican fighter aces were eventually captured,
Scharff immediately picked them out from
the crowds of incoming prisoners.
As far as is known, Scharff never once bul-
lied, threatened, swore or shouted at a pris-
oner. Instead, Scharff encouraged him to
question the worth of the ‘name, rank and
number’ formula. This was particularly effec-
tive if the prisoner had been captured in
civilian clothes while being aided by an
escape line. Name, rank and number were
not sufficient to prove his identity as a com-
batant. For all Scharff knew, he could be a
spy — or even a German deserter posing as
an American prisoner in order to sit out the
rest of the war.
Throughout the latter half of 1944,
Killinger and his interrogators had come
under increasing criticism from the Gestapo Note the ‘Jolly Roger’ slogan on the jacket which added fuel to the efforts of the Ger-
for ‘Anglophile tendencies, defeatism and man propaganda machine to portray US bomber crews as ‘Luftgangsters’.
transgression of Service rules’. Once again,
the SS was demanding punishment of the
offenders and attempting to take over the
interrogation centre. The chief of the Frank-
furt Gestapo, Braeder, cooked up 15 charges
of fraternisation and defeatism against
Killinger and was all set to have him tried
before the dreaded People’s Court. But
Killinger’s immediate superior at the Fü-
Stab, General Rudolf Wodark, forestalled
Braeder by having Killinger tried before a
Luftwaffe tribunal instead. The tribunal took
place in November 1944, and he was acquit-
ted. However, his Adjutant was transferred.
Böttner took his place.
On March 19, 1945, as Patton’s Third US
Army advanced upon the Rhine, Luftwaffe
headquarters decided to disperse the intelli-
gence operation from Oberursel. Major
Wallschmidt took one team, comprising
Hauptmann Tobler, Scharff, Dr Nagel, two
other sergeants and two secretaries, north-
east to Weimar. Another team, led by
Killinger himself, evacuated to Nürnberg-
Buchenbühl. They burnt most of their
records and carried the rest with them.

25
Dulag Luft taken by the US 7th Photo As Auswertesteelle-West was already an interrogation centre, the Americans quickly put
Group on March 13, 1945. The roofs have it to use as the HQ of the 513th Intelligence Corps Group. When the centre was renamed
been painted to identify it as a POW camp. Camp King, many well-known German prisoners passed through its gates including
Twelve days later it was captured by US several of its former masters. Here (L-R) Bauer-Schlichtegroll, Eberhardt, Boehringer,
forces advancing north of Frankfurt. Junge and Killinger stand accused of ill-treating British prisoners at Dulag Luft.

Buchenbühl was liberated by the US Sev- were also interrogated there. In August 1946 During the Cold War, US intelligence used
enth Army on April 16, when Killinger and Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s top commando, was Camp King for much the same purpose as the
200 German guards fell into the hands of held in solitary at Oberursel while on his way Germans had during the 1939-45 war, for it
soldiers from the 45th Division. Earlier, on to trial at Nuremburg. His Adjutant, Karl was from here that radio messages from East-
March 25, American troops had overrun Radl, was also there, and one night was ern Germany were monitored and here that
Hohemark and Oberursel. They found allowed to share his cell. Radl was to appear refugees from the East were debriefed. It was
Auswertestelle-West no longer a going con- as a prosecution witness in Skorzeny’s trial. regarded as ‘an oasis within Germany’. But as
cern, and used it as a POW and DP camp. In October and November 1945, Killinger, it was monitoring the East, Camp King was
When the US Military Government set up its Junge, Boehringer, Eberhardt and Bauer- also under observation from the Stasi, the
District Bureau, the site became the HQ of Schlichtegroll were prosecuted by a British East German state security service, who had
the 513th Intelligence Corps Group, who military court sitting at Wuppertal for over- planted microphones there and listened in on
renamed it Camp King. One of their first heating the cells and denying prisoners med- conversations and interrogations.
prisoners was Killinger, who was discovered ical treatment. Killinger and Junge were In 1951, the American District Bureau was
in an Army cage and returned under escort found guilty and each sentenced to five annulled, but Camp King continued as a US
to the scene of his former triumphs. Wernher years’ imprisonment; Eberhardt was sen- Army installation. Such was its influence that
von Braun, Hitler’s rocket scientist, and tenced to three years; Boehringer and Bauer the US Army, rather than the local Bürgermeis-
Reinhard Gehlen, head of the OKW’s were acquitted. Although the victims of the ter, was the de facto town mayor. Camp King
Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) heat-treatment had been bomber crews, no still played an important role in the educational,
intelligence section, and in later years to charges were brought against those inter- vocational and social life of the town. The chil-
become chief of West German Intelligence, rogators from Oberursel’s bomber branch. dren of American base-troops were educated at

By the ‘fifties, many of the wooden buildings had been demol- Block of the original 1940 camp, and all of the cooler. Picture
ished including the East and West Blocks and half of the Middle taken looking south-west in 1953. (SEWO)

26
the Frankfurt International School, situated in Above: Camp King under US tenure — as seen from ‘Mountain Lodge’ (Stadtarchiv
Waldlust between Hohemarkstrasse and Oberursel). Below: Looking north-west with the US housing blocks along the Hohe-
Altkönigstrasse, and fetes, sporting events and markstrasse in the foreground. (US Army)
prize-givings were held regularly at the camp.
In 1962, Camp King planned the hijacking
of a MiG-21 of the East German Air Force,
but the scheme was aborted when an aircraft
inadvertently fell into Western hands. Camp
King eventually became the HQ of the 4th US
Army Transport Group. The cooler and the
German officers mess were torn down and
replaced with a transport pool, repair shop
and gas station; the old transit camp was
replaced with modern, multi-storey living
quarters; the barracks previously used by
German officers and the female staff were
rebuilt in breeze-blocks and stucco. The sup-
ply hut, the old officers’ quarters, the security
offices and sergeants’ quarters and all the sen-
try towers were demolished.
All that remained of the original Aus-
wertestelle-West were the farmhouse the first
prisoners had occupied in 1939, the cottage
which the successive commandants had used as
office and mess, the two cottages that had been
part of the Kommandantur, the old guard-
house, and the long wooden administrative
block. Most of the southernmost block was
turned into a kitchen and dining room. ‘The
Shelter’, once occupied by the Frankfurt
Gestapo, was replaced by a cosy residential
bungalow, and a modern housing estate was
built around the southern perimeter of the camp The author would like to acknowledge the Leader David Kay, RAF (Retd.), for provid-
at right-angles to Hohemarkstrasse. In Septem- help of Martin Ohm, his interpreter and guide ing an early map of Dulag Luft; and to Ray-
ber 1973, a fire in the camp caused DM 100,000 during the research for this article; the mond F. Tolliver for providing illustrations
worth of damage, mostly to the dining room. Stadtarchiv at Oberursel; Isabel Frick for from his excellent book The Interrogator,
Camp King remained an air transport base translating German documents; Squadron published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
until 1989. Its last two commanders were
Colonel Jimmy D. Ross, from 1978 to Janu-
ary 1980, and Colonel James Howard Dunn,
a Vietnam veteran, who oversaw the disman-
tling of the organisation and the withdrawal
of its personnel. On April 1, 1995, the last US
personnel moved out. The Americans
stripped the camp of almost everything except
electric wiring, telephone wall-jacks, light fix-
tures, showers, toilets, sinks, plumbing and
wall and pipe insulation.
Negotiations took place to sell the site to
Bonn, but these collapsed because the town-
ship of Oberursel wanted to keep the houses
built on Hohemarkstrasse. Finally, on January
1, 1998, the camp was bought for DM 23.7
million by the town of Oberursel, with the
intention of turning it into a housing develop-
ment. The model cottages and other buildings
of the former Siedlungshof have been declared
protected buildings and will be preserved but
the administrative block — the only wartime
building to survive so long — and all the
American-built blocks will be pulled down to
make way for new housing. But running diag-
onally across the Siedlungsstrasse is a dip in
the road exactly following the trajectory of
Wing Commander Harry Day’s tunnel that The entrance to Camp King at the point where the Siedlungsstrasse joins Hohemark-
broke in 1941. No amount of filling-in could strasse. The apartment blocks along Hohemarkstrasse are the only US-built struc-
stop the soil from constantly compacting. tures that will survive the complete renovation of the site.

27
In July 1997, 53 years after it crashed into the waters of the craft in question had been on a special secret mission, namely
IJsselmeer inland sea in the Netherlands, the wreckage of a to drop four secret agents into occupied Holland. The agents,
Hudson Mk IIIA light bomber was lifted from the sea-bed. Since all of Dutch nationality, had been trained by the Special Opera-
the war, the Dutch have recovered many aircraft wrecks from tions Executive (SOE) and sent out by its Dutch counterpart,
the IJsselmeer — the majority of them from land reclaimed the Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten (BBO). The salvaging opera-
from the sea (see After the Battle No. 12). What made this par- tion also solved the fate of the Hudson’s pilot, the one member
ticular recovery stand out even more was the fact that the air- of the RAF crew whose body had never been found. (KM)

On the night of July 5/6, 1944, a Lockheed

Hudson Mk IIIA of No. 161 (Special Duties)
Squadron took off from RAF Tempsford in
Bedfordshire with the mission to drop four
secret agents of the Special Operations Exec-
RECOVERY OF AN SOE HUDSON
utive (SOE) into the occupied Netherlands.
About an hour later, the Hudson crashed
story of these four Dutch agents is little
known. Similarly, not all questions surround- By Karel Margry
into the waters of the IJsselmeer inland sea, ing the last flight of Hudson FK790 could be
killing the four-man RAF crew and the four solved after the war, the most important water, the wreck of the aircraft was found
SOE agents, and putting an abrupt halt to being the fate of the one missing member of and, in an operation involving the Dutch
the latter’s planned missions. Wrapped, like the crew. The answer came only in 1997 Navy, Air Force and Army, lifted from the
all secret operations, in a veil of mystery, the when, 53 years after it disappeared under the sea-bed.

One of the most-important US aircraft

purchased by Britain for use in World War
II, the Lockheed Hudson was designed at
short notice specifically to meet British
requirements. During 1938, the British
Purchasing Commission in America was
seeking a light bomber aircraft for coastal
reconnaissance and Lockheed rapidly pro-
duced a proposal based on its two-
engined Model 14 civil transport. Britain
placed an order for 250 of the Model 214s,
as the military version was known, while
it was still on the drawing board. The
main difference with the civilian type was
the addition of a large power-operated
Boulton-Paul two-gun turret in the rear
fuselage, and the mounting of two more
.303 machine guns in the nose. The first
Hudson, as the RAF named the type, flew
on December 10, 1938, and deliveries to
Britain began in February 1939, most
Hudsons going to RAF Coastal Command.
The Hudson III differed from earlier mod-
els in that it had more powerful 1200-hp
engines, two additional beam gun posi-
tions and, after the first 150, additional
fuel capacity. The Coastal Command Hud-
sons operated on offensive patrols well
into 1943. Thereafter, many were modi-
fied to serve a transports. (IWM)

30
 brigade’s fledgling parachute company, gain-
ing his parachute wings in April 1942. In
October, he also completed a demolition
course. On April 2, 1943, he left the brigade
to begin training as an SOE agent. Owing to
the unclear situation in Holland, he was not
sent out in 1943, and became one of the first
agents to be recruited by BBO in March
1944. Verhoef had been given the agent’s
training name of ‘Pleun Vorstman’; his mis-
sion code-name was ‘Racquets’; his name in
the field ‘Eitjes’; and his identity papers
named him ‘Pieter Vermaas’.
Of the two wireless operators, Johannes
Walter was born on October 7, 1922 at
Djombang on Java in the Dutch East Indies.
The son of a mixed marriage, he had strong
Asian looks. Having joined the Dutch Royal
Navy on January 1, 1942, he was transferred
for training to Britain, where he arrived on
May 3. After training as a wireless operator
at an RAF school in Blackpool, he was
assigned to No. 320 (Dutch) Squadron. In
June 1943, SOE asked him to join their
Pieter Kwint (‘Fives’), trained to act as Johannes Walter (‘Bowls’), assigned to organisation as a W/T operator. Like with
resistance circuit organiser. Kwint as his wireless operator. Pleun Verhoef, his employment in the field
was held back by the winding down of the
THE MISSION January 19 through intermediation of the Englandspiel, enabling BBO to take him
After the disaster of the so-called ‘Eng- Dutch consulate, Kwint and some 100 others over as one of their first W/T operators in
landspiel’ spy and wireless game, which were put on a train to Portugal where they March 1944. Walter had been given the
between March 1942 and September 1943 — boarded the ship Onduna for Britain. Arriv- agent’s training name of ‘Johannes Wees’,
through a combination of bad luck and unbe- ing in Liverpool on March 16, he underwent his mission code-name was ‘Bowls’; his name
lievable blunders and carelessness on the part the usual interrogation at the Royal Patriotic in the field ‘Albertus’; and his false identity
of SOE — had led to the arrest by the Ger- School in South London after which, because ‘Johannes Kamp’. Of the four agents, he was
mans of 61 Dutch SOE agents, the capture of of his resistance record, he was asked to the only one married. During his stay in Eng-
great quantities of air-dropped arms, and the become a secret agent for BBO. land, he had married an English girl, who
penetration of almost every Dutch resistance Like any SOE agent sent out to occupied was pregnant with their first baby when he
organisation, the Allies had no choice but to Europe, Kwint would be known under at left for Holland.
make a complete break with their previous least four different names: firstly, his agent’s The second operator, Jan Bockma, had
activity in Holland and start all over again training name (assigned to each agent when been born on August 31, 1921 at IJlst in the
from scratch. Recognising the need for a he first entered the SOE school); secondly, north of the country, but his family had
fresh start, the Dutch government-in-exile in the code-name of his particular mission; then moved to Heerlen in the south when he was
London had dissolved the secret service his so-called ‘name in the field’ — i.e. the still young. His father being an important
organisations which had hitherto been SOE’s Christian name to be used in his contacts Resistance leader in the province of Zuid
Dutch counterpart and set up two new organ- with resistance people and fellow-agents in Limburg, the son had soon become involved
isations: the Bureau Inlichtingen (BI) for occupied territory; and finally the name on in underground activities too. Wanting to
espionage and intelligence operations his (forged) identity papers. In the case of join Allied forces in England, he had left
(already set up in November 1942), and the Pieter Kwint, his agent’s training name was Holland on May 16, 1942 — against the
Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten (BBO) for ‘Pieter Krant’, his mission name was ‘Fives’, advice of his father, who judged his under-
sabotage operations and the training of resis- he would be known in the field as ‘Barend’, ground work in Holland more useful. He
tance groups (set up in February 1944). and his identity card gave his name as ‘Pieter made his way to Vichy France where he
Working in close co-operation with MI6, MI9 Nijhof’. enlisted in the Foreign Legion. At an oppor-
and SOE, these agencies embarked on The second agent, Pleun Verhoef, was tune moment, he deserted and managed to
rebuilding an agent network in the Nether- born on November 30, 1919 at Vianen. When board a Norwegian ship bound for Britain
lands. By the beginning of July 1944, BI had the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940, where he arrived on May 16, 1943 — exactly
sent out 26 agents and BBO (which had only Verhoef had been a private in the Dutch 6e one year after he had left Holland. He served
become operational in March) eight. Regiment Infanterie stationed near Breda. in the Dutch Royal Navy until early 1944
The four agents to be sent out in BBO’s Caught up with others of his unit in the when BBO recruited him as one of their first
next mission were Pieter Kwint, Pleun Ver- Allies’ chaotic retreat through Belgium and wireless operators. Bockma was given the
hoef, Johannes Walter and Jan Bockma. As France, he managed to be evacuated across agent’s training name of ‘Jan Borel’; his mis-
was usual in SOE missions, they would work the Channel to Britain. Assigned to the new sion code-name was ‘Halma’; his name in the
in pairs made up of one agent/circuit organ- Royal Dutch Brigade Prinses Irene in field ‘Hubertus’; and his ID card gave his
iser and one wireless operator. Kwint would August 1941, he volunteered for that name as ‘Jan Boersma’.
team up with Walter, and Verhoef with
Bockma. All four men were of Dutch nation-
ality and in their early twenties; before they
joined BBO, each had already been through
many adventures.
Pieter Kwint was born on August 4, 1922 at
Meppel. A student at Amsterdam University
since 1941, when in March 1943 the German
occupier demanded that all Dutch students
sign a so-called ‘declaration of loyalty’ to
Germany, Kwint had refused to sign. Instead,
he went into hiding near Driebergen where
he soon became deeply involved in under-
ground work. Deciding to make his way to
England, he had left on November 8, 1943,
travelling under false papers to Paris and
from there across the Pyrenees into Spain.
Arrested by the Spanish police on November
19, he spent six weeks in a filthy and badly
overcrowded prison at Figueras. On Decem-
ber 29, he and a group of fellow-prisoners —
hand-cuffed in pairs and under heavy guard
— left on a six-day train journey which, after
overnight stops in prison cells at Barcelona,
Reus and Saragossa, ended on January 3,
1944 in the internment camp for foreign Pleun Verhoef (‘Racquets’), the second Jan Bockma (‘Halma’), Verhoef’s wire-
nationals at Miranda de Ebro. Released on circuit organiser. less operator. (Portraits from SOE files).

31
 All four agents were sent out to contact A Hudson Mk I of No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron makes a low pass over RAF
and work for the Raad van Verzet (Council Tempsford in 1943. No. 161 Squadron was formed in February 1942 by Wing Com-
of Resistance — RVV), which was one of the mander E. H. Fielden out of the King’s Flight, King George VI’s personal Hudson
main resistance networks in occupied Hol- together with seven Lysanders forming its nucleus. By July 1944, the squadron had
land. Founded in April 1943, some of the thirteen Lysanders and six Hudsons. Together with No. 138 Squadron (formed in
RVV’s cells had been penetrated in the past, August 1941), No. 161 had borne the whole burden of special operations until the
but SOE and BBO correctly believed that its autumn of 1943, by which time other squadrons joined them in their work. (IWM)
head executive was still sound. On April 1,
1944, BBO had sent out a first mission to the the Eurekas to operate. As he himself would sole mission was to act as radio link between
RVV tasked with communicating to them not have time to operate the sets throughout the RVV sabotage organisation and London.
the Allied Commanders’ directive for future whole moon periods, Verhoef was to select The RVV was not to involve them in any of
action. The RVV, being very security- and train two RVV men who would do noth- their other activities, and use only the special
minded, had refused to receive these agents ing else but operate the Eurekas. code on the One-Time Pad which Walter and
until they had satisfied themselves of their Kwint and Verhoef were given strict Bockma would give them and teach them
bona fides. When they were eventually instructions not to overburden their W/T how to use. Up to that time, the RVV had
received, it was too late because the agents operators with too many or too long mes- communicated with London through a sepa-
had in the meantime contacted several other sages. Since their mission was sabotage and rate organisation called the Radiodienst
organisations, had become known to Ger- not intelligence, they were not to pass on (Radio Service), but Walter and Bockma
man counter-intelligence, and all been espionage reports or other intelligence mat- were to inform the RVV that all messages
arrested between May 17 and 20. The RVV ter unless asked to do so by London. They relating to armed resistance and sabotage
had reported their capture and asked for new were not to send their messages direct to must from now on come through their chan-
men to be sent. their operator, but give them to the RVV nels. The RVV was to arrange for houses
The primary task of the two agent-organis- who would then pass them on. They were to from which they could safely transmit, and
ers, Kwint and Verhoef, was to act as sabo- do all the encoding and decoding of their the operators were to change these as fre-
teur-instructor or reception committee messages themselves, never show their codes quently as possible. The extra W/T plan and
leader, depending on the RVV’s immediate to anyone else, always destroy that part of code given to them was for use by a new
requirements. In addition, they were to their One-Time Pad already used, and keep operator: if they or the RVV could find a
deliver to the RVV a large amount of money no records of messages exchanged. On the man who was considered absolutely trust-
— 50,000 guilders (approximately £5,000 but first, second and third days and the two Sun- worthy, they could train him and advise Lon-
worth over £100,000 in today’s value) — days following their arrival, the BBC would don when he was ready to operate.
which the organisation could use to finance broadcast a message known to them — this All four agents were instructed to always
its operations. Kwint and Verhoef would would serve to prove their bona fides to their observe the security instructions given to
each carry half of this sum — 25,000 guilders Dutch contacts. them by the RVV and under no circum-
in banknotes of 100 — on their body camou- The two wireless operators, Walter and stances disclose to anyone other than their
flaged in a wash-leather money belt. The man Bockma, would each jump with a W/T trans- contact person that they had come from
to whom they were to hand over this money mitter in a small leather suitcase, and three Britain. They were not to make contact with
would identify himself by asking for 50,001 sets of One-Time Pad codes: one for them- other organisations or persons unless this
guilders — the extra guilder being a check selves, one for the RVV and one spare. Their was arranged by the RVV. The men who had
that the money was going to the right person. gone to Holland on April 1 had made all
For the reception committees (for the The crew of Hudson FK790: these mistakes, hence their arrest. For their
dropping of arms or the delivery of other
agents), Kwint and Verhoef were only to
recruit people in whom they had complete
trust and make sure that, should one of them
be arrested, he or she could not compromise
the position of others. Once a committee had
been formed, the agents themselves were not
to attend any of their meetings unless
absolutely necessary. Their task was to
advise London when the committee would
be ready to start work, how many containers
it could handle safely at one time, and to sug-
gest at least two suitable dropping points.
Verhoef had been given one additional
task. He had been trained in the use of the
Eureka, a portable radio beacon for guiding
aircraft. Two Eurekas would be dropped to
the RVV separately at the ‘Bertus’ reception
ground near Nijkerk on the Veluwe. Verhoef
was to claim these sets from the RVV, and
put them in operation at pin-points, the coor-
dinates of which he would receive after he
had notified London that he was in posses-
sion of the sets. The Eurekas were to facili-
tate RAF dropping operations in Holland
and bomber operations in Germany. Ver-
hoef was given a list of code signals for each
set, and code messages broadcast by the
BBC would indicate when London wanted Flight Lieutenant John Menzies, pilot. Flying Officer Kenneth Bunney, navigator.

32
 CRASH

DROP ZONE
TEMPSFORD

The planned flying route of FK790 on the night of July 5/6. As waters of the IJsselmeer (the former Zuider Zee). Hitting Dutch
was common practice for aircraft wanting to keep their flying mainland just north of Nijkerk, this would leave a mere four
time over enemy-occupied territory as short as possible, the miles to the agents’ drop-zone at Appelsche Heide. However,
crew flew north-east across the Channel as far as the Wadden shortly after making its inland turn, the aircraft was shot down
Islands, then made a right hook in order to continue over the and crashed into the IJsselmeer.

part, the agents were to insist that the RVV tion, which the operator was to pass to his themselves to retrieve them. The men were
arrange for their safe houses, and that they agent partner as soon as convenient. then to proceed to their first contact address,
organise their sabotage organisation in such The four agents would be dropped on the the Van der Zalm farm on the grounds of the
a way that it would never clash with or com- first favourable night in the July moon Landbouw-School (Agricultural School)
promise their other activities. period. Their drop zone would be the which was about one kilometre from their
All four agents carried with them 5,000 Appelsche Heide, an expanse of heath dropping point. Their password would be ‘Ik
Dutch guilders for their personal use, plus between Nijkerk and Voorthuizen in the kom voor de volkstelling 1945’ (I come for
2,500 Belgian francs and 2,500 French francs centre of the country. (Although several the census of 1945). From there, the RVV
for use in case of emergency. Of this, they published accounts say that the dropping was to take each man to a separate safe
had 150 guilders in small money in their point was near the village of Exmorra in the house. After that, they were never to com-
pockets, the rest was camouflaged in their northern province of Friesland, the original municate with each other, unless via a ‘cut-
money belt. As personal baggage, all agents annex to the agents’ orders clearly states out’ (intermediate persons who did not know
carried a brown paper parcel, except their dropping point as the Appelsche each other). Once settled in, each agent was
Bockma who would have a brown leather Heide.) Immediately upon landing, they then to go to his personal contact address
briefcase (this would also contain Hfl. 4,500 were to bury or destroy their parachute, given in his orders, and the person there
of his Dutch money). Kwint and Verhoef in jumpsuit overall and jump helmet. The two would put him in touch with the heads of the
addition jumped with a carrier pigeon which suitcases containing the wireless equipment RVV.
they could use to notify London of a safe were to be buried separately in such a way The first favourable moon night came on
landing. In each of the wireless suitcases was that a third person would be able to find July 5/6. That night, four Hudson aircraft
a silent .32 pistol with 50 rounds of ammuni- them in case it was unsafe for the agents stood ready at RAF Tempsford, for in addi-
tion to the mission to Appelsche Heide,
there would be three other secret missions to
Holland going out. One would drop another
BBO party of three men near Epe on the
Veluwe, one would drop two BI agents near
Laren in Gelderland, and the third was to
drop one SOE agent near Roosendaal (the
latter aircraft would run into bad weather
and compass problems and return prema-
turely).
Kwint, Verhoef, Walter and Bockma
would fly in Hudson FK790 (MA-R), the
crew of which consisted of Flight Lieutenant
John W. Menzies (pilot), Flying Officer Ken-
neth R. Bunney (navigator), Sergeant Den-
nis J. Withers (wireless operator) and
Sergeant Eric M. Eliot (air gunner). Menzies
was an experienced pilot, having completed
30 bombing missions with No. 101 Squadron,
followed by stints of target-towing, ferry and
air-sea rescue flying, before joining No. 161
(Special Duties) Squadron.
The last to depart, Hudson FK790 took off
at 2350 hours. The plan was to take a north-
easterly course towards the Frisian Wadden
Islands, then turn south-east to come in
between the islands of Texel and Vlieland,
thus ensuring that most of the route to the
Sergeant Dennis Withers, radio operator. Sergeant Eric Eliot, air gunner. (R. Body) dropping point would be over the relatively

33
 KORNWERDERZAND

MAKKUM
EXMORRA

AFSLUITDIJK
CRASH SITE
GAAST

IJSSELMEER

safe waters of the IJsselmeer. The aircraft came down just beyond the Afsluitdijk causeway which closes off the
Although the exact circumstances are IJsselmeer from the North Sea. After the crash, the bodies of all but two of the
unclear, it is certain that somewhere over the aircraft’s occupants were recovered. Air gunner Eliot washed ashore at Gaast on July
Wadden islands the aircraft was hit — either 12. So did radio operator Withers near Makkum on the 15th, and navigator Bunney
by Flak or, more likely, by a German night- near Kornwerderzand on the 26th. Three of the four agents were found floating in the
fighter. Whatever the cause, the Hudson water by fishermen: Johannes Walter on the 14th, Pieter Kwint the following day,
caught fire, and fell into the IJsselmeer, some and Jan Bockma on the 24th.
400 metres beyond the Afsluitdijk (the 30-
kilometre-long causeway which separates the eral Cemetery. Next morning (July 15), a 1922, at Djombang, Java, Dutch East Indies.
former Zuider Zee from the North Sea) at a German military doctor came to Makkum to The man had a bullet wound in the head, and
point some four kilometres south-west of the carry out a further examination of the this was put down as the cause of death.
causeway fortress of Kornwerderzand, where corpse. Present at the inquest were Because of the aircrew uniform, and because
it sank in seven metres of water. Hoofdwachtmeester Kuipers and his col- he could find no indication of rank on it, the
Between July 12-26, the bodies of six of league, Opperwachtmeester Abele Scheep- German doctor concluded that the man must
the eight occupants of the Hudson were vaart (who was deeply involved in resistance have been a trainee flyer in the Royal Air
either washed ashore or found in the water. work, and had already realised that the dead Force. Scheepvaart knew better but said
(As it happened, the three RAF crewmen all man was a secret agent). In the inside pocket nothing. After the post-mortem, Johannes
washed ashore whereas the three agents of the civilian suit, the German doctor found Walter was buried in the General Cemetery
were all found floating.) First to be found of a Dutch identity card naming the dead man in Grave O-33.
the aircrew, near Gaast on the 12th, was as Johannes Albertus Kamp, born October 7, That same day (July 15), Pieter Kwint was
Sergeant Eliot, the air gunner. Sergeant
Withers, the wireless operator, was found
near Makkum on July 15, and Flying Officer
Bunney, the navigator, on July 26 near Korn-
werderzand. All three were buried at
Makkum General Cemetery in Row O,
Graves 32, 34 and 38 respectively.
The first agent to be found was Johannes
Walter. On July 14, around noon, fisherman
Eelke van der Laan from Makkum found a
body floating in the IJsselmeer near Korn-
werderzand. Brought to Makkum, the corpse
was investigated aboard the fishing boat by
the commander of the local Dutch police
post, Hoofdwachtmeester der Marechaussee
Andries Kuipers, who established that the
dead man wore an English-made aircrew
overall, with a brown civilian suit under-
neath. Kuipers ordered the corpse, which
was in a state of advanced decomposition, to
be put in the mortuary of the Makkum Gen-

Right: All three drowned agents were

brought ashore to Makkum where the
Germans conducted post-mortem inves-
tigations on them. Only at the third, that
of Jan Bockma, did the Germans dis-
cover that the dead men were all in fact Opperwachtmeester der Marechaussee
secret agents. The post-mortems were Abele Scheepvaart who was present at
carried out in this small room inside the the German post-mortem inquests of the
old Makkum church, which was then in agents’ corpses, and later passed a
use as the cemetery mortuary. report of these to the Dutch resistance.

34
The three British airmen were buried at Makkum Churchyard, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission created a sepa-
where they still lie today. Their graves were relocated when rate plot after the war.

found. Around noon, fisherman Andries heitsdienst returned to Makkum and dug up chance please. I shall prove my sincerity.
Koornstra from Makkum discovered a dead the bodies of all three men. Cutting open the What must you know about me to prove
body dressed in flying clothes floating in the clothing with sharp knives, they discovered myself. Shall come back thirty first at pre-
water. The same routine unrolled. Brought the money belts. In that of Kwint, they found scribed time and await your answer then.’
ashore, the corpse was investigated by the 25,000 guilders. In Walter’s belt, and No security checks were used in this mes-
Opperwachtmeester Scheepvaart and put in much more important to them, they found a sage. Although SOE thought the chance of
the mortuary awaiting further post-mortem small tightly-soldered tin which contained his the man proving genuine very small, it was
by the German doctor. This took place on radio frequency crystals, code and W/T plan. decided to play along. On July 30, they asked
July 17, again in the presence of Scheepvaart Delighted with their finds, the SD men took him to supply his full name, date of birth and
and Kuipers. Again, the body was found to pictures of the three men, and put the agents’ dates of his residence in Argentina and the
wear a civilian suit under the flying overall. clothing in sacks to be taken away for further USA, the names of the three drowned
Papers found on him named the man as examination. Seeing that curious civilians agents, the number of the set he was using,
Pieter Nijhof, born June 29, 1920, at Amster- were watching the procedure, one of the and details of arrested agents sent from Eng-
dam. Again, because of the absence of any Germans drew a pistol and fired over their land in the last six months.
rank indications, the doctor’s verdict was heads, chasing them away. ‘Bowls’ replied two days later (August 1),
that he must have been an RAF flyer under- By now, the Sicherheitsdienst knew that giving his name as Johann Blanke, born on
going training. As there were no visible there were still two persons missing from the July 20, 1904, in Leipzig, Germany, and stat-
injuries, it was assumed the man had aircraft, and therefore they made arrange- ing he had worked in Buenos Aires from
drowned. That evening, Pieter Kwint was ments for the plane to be lifted and exam- 1922 to 1926 and in New York from 1926 to
buried next to Walter in Grave O-35. ined. 1938. The dead agents were Pieter Nijhof,
A week elapsed before the next agent, Jan Meanwhile, back in England, there was Johannes Kamp and Jan Boersma. Crystals
Bockma, was found. On July 24, fisherman great anxiety. When the Hudson did not but no sets had been found. Could it be
Jan Bootsma spotted a body in flying clothes return from its mission, it was clear that arranged for him to send and receive
floating off Kornwerderzand. The dead man something had gone wrong, but of course between 1300 and 1500 hours every second
was in fact still linked to the drowned aircraft nobody at SOE or BBO could tell what. One or third day as this would be more conve-
by the static line of his parachute, and he had could assume that the aircraft had crashed, nient? Two days later (August 3), the man
a brown briefcase tied to him with a scarf. but was this before or after the agents had
Bootsma freed the corpse and brought it jumped? If before, had any of the occupants
back to Makkum, where Scheepvaart and survived? Had they been able to make good
Kuipers duly reported the new find to the their escape or been captured? What about
German authorities. The post-mortem in the their secret codes and radio sets? Nobody
mortuary was carried out that same evening, could tell. The fact that neither of the
however this time not by the military doctor pigeons that were to report the agents’ safe
who had done the previous two, but by an landing arrived back in England was cer-
expert of the Sicherheitsdienst (German tainly a bad sign. To be on the safe side, all
Security Service — SD) from Leeuwarden. four agents were presumed to be dead.
He proved to be much more suspicious. Then on July 28, three weeks after the
Finding civilian clothes underneath the flying agents’ departure, SOE received a radio
overall, he proceeded to strip the body message which made use of ‘Bowls’s (Wal-
naked, taking all clothing and equipment ter’s) code and W/T plan, purporting to be
with him for further examination. Next sent clandestinely by an anti-Nazi who had
morning (July 25) the as yet unnamed man been forced to help the Gestapo in their
was buried in the General Cemetery in counter-espionage work. The message read:
Grave O-37. ‘Have been for over 15 years in Argentina
Although the Sicherheitsdienst notified and USA. Was pressed into service with the
the Makkum police on July 31 that they had Gestapo at war begin while visiting Germany
found no clue as to the dead man’s identity, and among others got to be entrusted with
in actual fact they must have found translating your agents’ materials, registering
Bockma’s false identity card (for it is known and filing picked up agents’ sending sets.
that they knew his alias, Jan Boersma). The Have since learned sigs in gabithavildu [sic].
lie was probably only to hide the fact that Been looking for a contact chance as I got
they had discovered that he was a secret utmostly disgusted with this damned Hit-
agent — either from finding his camouflaged lerism and life amongst these idiots. Have
money belt or from material contained in the just been translating material from three of The three SOE agents were buried at the
briefcase. your agents who were found drowned on same cemetery. Today, only the grave of
Realising that the other two men found July 14 at Makkum. Am considered stupid Johannes Walter remains, the others
with civilian clothes under their flying suit enough to be harmless. Shall show them. having been re-interred in their home
were probably also secret agents, the Sicher- Want to help and work with you. Give me a towns after the war.

35
Pieter Kwint now lies at the Municipal Jan Bockma’s grave is at the General Pleun Verhoef, whose body was not found
Cemetery at Meppel. Cemetery at Heerlen. until November 1945, rests at Vianen.

reported the names of six agents who had still rests in Makkum. as part of a B2 (3 Mark II) set of the type
been arrested since February (including that used by SOE agents.
of one of the BBO agents sent out on April 1 THE RECOVERY On Thursday, July 10, the OVMO and
to the RVV). He added that it was extremely For nearly 53 years, the case of Hudson Miramar returned for a second exploration
dangerous for him to continue using his pre- FK790 remained as good as closed. Then, in of the wreck, Baerken (a professional diver
sent set and code, and asked whether there the summer of 1997, a Dutch aircraft himself) now taking part in the dive. Nothing
was any chance of obtaining another set, research and recovery group, the Stichting of substance was brought up, but the divers
code, transmission plan and poem. Onderzoek Vermiste Oorlogsslachtoffers reported the aircraft half buried in sand and
London replied the following day, thank- (Missing War Victims Investigation Founda- great quantities of ammunition lying around
ing him for the names of the arrested men tion — OVMO) located the wreckage in the it.
but adding that the list was not complete and IJsselmeer. The OVMO is an aircraft recovery group
that, in order to gain their confidence, he Although it was generally believed that which prides itself on doing things according
should give particulars or code-names of the whole of the aircraft had been salvaged to the book and on its good co-operation
wireless sets working with London and which in 1945, the OVMO had long had informa- with the authorities, so the following day,
were known to be in Gestapo hands. His tion that in fact only a small part had been July 11, Baerken telephoned Rijkswaterstaat
dangerous position was appreciated and he lifted and that the main wreckage still lay on (the State Water Authority — RWS) and the
should keep his transmissions to a minimum. the sea-bed somewhere. Back in the 1950s, municipality of Wonseradeel (Wûnseradiel),
When London was satisfied, a scheme would when fishing on the IJsselmeer was still informing them about the aircraft find and
be worked out for delivering new materials. allowed, fishermen had already caught their reporting the presence of a large amount of
Although SOE continued to regard this nets in some wreckage in the northern corner ammunition, TNT explosives, and possibly
wireless link with Holland with great suspi- of the inland see, and had learned to avoid bombs, and the likelihood that one member
cion, on August 11 a decision was made to the spot. The OVMO was aware of these of the crew was still in the wreck. The
keep it open, as the man’s cables might yield stories, and from their own research knew deputy-mayor of Wonseradeel, Gerrit
useful information. The radio game contin- that no other aircraft than the SOE Hudson Draaijer, not wanting to take any risk, noti-
ued for another six months, until February 8, had crashed in that area, although they did fied the Kustwacht (Dutch Police Coast
1945, when SOE sent a cable breaking off the not know the precise location. It was a tip by Guard) who in turn informed the Royal
contact. (After the war, it was confirmed that fisherman Fimme Bootsma from Makkum Dutch Navy. A hectic series of phone calls
the German Sicherheitsdienst had been (the son of the fisherman who had found and faxes between the various authorities
behind the ‘Bowls’ transmissions. The man agent Jan Bockma’s corpse in 1944), who involved led to a decision that the first prior-
responsible for it was SS-Oberscharführer remembered his father’s tales about the inci- ity should be the removal of any live ord-
Otto Houbrok, who had run the game under dent and knew the location himself, which nance by the Navy’s Mijnendienst (Mine
the code-name ‘Saskiaspiel’. Johann Blanke finally led them to the correct spot. Counter-Measures Service).
really existed: he was an SS-Scharführer on The search began in earnest when sports Early on Saturday, July 12, Rijkswater-
the SD staff in The Hague.) diver Winfried Walta of the Miramar Diving staat motor boat Elise — with RWS environ-
Even though they were suspect, the mes- Club from Leeuwarden contacted the mental inspector Pieter Wagemakers and
sages from ‘Johann Blanke’ of July 28 and OVMO chairman, Wijnand Baerken, about OVMO secretary Martijn Bannink aboard
August 1 gave SOE the first indication of the the wreck. On Saturday July 5, Miramar and — sailed from Breezanddijk to the crash site
fate of Hudson FK790. Confirmation came the OVMO went out in two boats hoping to to begin a sonar search of the sea-bed. At
that same week through a cable from find the aircraft. They had two pieces of 1250 hours, salvage ship HMS Cerberus
another agent, Bert de Goede (‘Rummy’) — equipment to help them with their search: an arrived at the crash site from the Navy port
a member of the other BBO party that had earth scan and a magnetometer. At first they of Den Helder, with a team of divers from
left Tempsford on the same night as the ill- were unsuccessful but, as luck had it, Fimme the Navy’s Duik- en Demonteergroep (Div-
fated Hudson and had made a successful Bootsma was out with his fishing boat, and ing and Dismantling Group — DDG)
jump — who reported that the aircraft had he quickly led them to the right spot. Here, aboard. At 1330 hours, they began work and
indeed crashed and its occupants drowned. both the earth scan and the magnetometer soon the first belts of .303 machine-gun
A fuller report reached London as well. confirmed the presence of an aircraft wreck ammunition were brought to the surface.
From information supplied by Abele beneath the waves at 53°02’6902N The further search concentrated on a case of
Scheepvaart, the Dutch Underground com- 05°15’7294E. ammo which the Miramar divers had
piled a report on the Allied airmen found in At that point, the OVMO had to return to reported after their first dive.
the IJsselmeer, which listed the three RAF shore because of a leak in their boat, but Meanwhile, the Bergingsdienst (Salvage
flyers and gave details from the post-mortem Miramar stayed to make a first dive on the Service) of the Royal Netherlands Air Force
inquest of ‘Kamp’ (Walter), ‘Nijhof’ (Kwint) wreck. That afternoon, one of them brought — the agency charged with salvaging military
and the unidentified third man (Bockma). up a piece of wireless equipment. It had not aircraft in the Netherlands — had been
This report, dated October 15, 1944, reached been timed as such on purpose, but it was alerted too. Arriving that afternoon, Adju-
London some time later. exactly 53 years to the day after Hudson dant Henny Teunissen explained the likeli-
The body of the fourth agent, Pleun Ver- FK790 had crashed. hood that the Hudson, in addition to the four
hoef, was not found until after the war. On Since the official records indicated that agents, had also carried containers of arms
November 21, 1945, a part of the Hudson FK790 had already been recovered back in and ammunition for dropping to the Resis-
was salvaged from the water, and his remains 1945, the OVMO wanted to make absolutely tance, and that therefore the amount of
were found in the wreckage. The body of the sure that the wreckage they had found was explosive ordnance in the wreck might be
pilot, Flight Lieutenant Menzies, was not indeed that of the SOE Hudson, the more so considerable. He advised to contact the
found and he remained listed as missing. since they knew that the remains of the pilot, British military attaché in The Hague to see
After the war, Pieter Kwint was re- Flight Lieutenant Menzies, were then very whether he could find out more precise
interred at Meppel, and Jan Bockma at likely to be still inside. A first confirmation details of the aircraft’s load.
Heerlen. Pleun Verhoef was buried in Via- came when OVMO’s Piet Appelman, who is At the end of that first day, an accident
nen on December 21, 1945. Johannes Walter an expert radio ham, identified the wireless occurred when the outboard engine of one

36
July 1997, and recovery vessels Jumbo and Cerberus are in both because of the danger of possible live ordnance and the
place ready to lift the crashed Hudson from the bottom of the suspected presence of the remains of the pilot in the wreck.
IJsselmeer. Immediately after it was rediscovered, the Dutch Expert branches of the Dutch Navy, Air Force and Army were
authorities decided to mount an operation to raise the aircraft, all involved. By July 18, everything was ready. (H. Tennissen)

of the DDG rubber boats accidentally

started throwing two divers overboard and
wounding three, one them seriously. The
injured men were taken to Breezanddijk and
from there to a hospital in Den Helder.
While the Elise returned to harbour for the
night, the Cerberus stayed in position at
anchor.
Next day, Sunday July 13, diving was
resumed, but no more ammunition was
found, and at noon all ships returned to port.
By now, the crash site had been declared a
restricted area and a square kilometre
around the wreck been cordoned off with
buoys.
At further meetings on Monday and Tues-
day between all parties concerned, a decision
was taken to salvage the wreck. The Air
Force’s Bergingsdienst would have overall
direction of the operation, but the job of
actually lifting the aircraft was given to the
civilian salvaging company BTS from
Lelystad; the Navy’s Mijnendienst would
handle all the ammunition and explosives
found; and the Army’s Gravendienst (Grave
Service) would be called in if any human
remains were discovered. As the crash posi-
tion lay astride the main shipping route to
the Kornwerderzand sluices, Rijkswaterstaat
would stand by to direct shipping traffic. By far the biggest part brought up that first day was the rear fuselage, complete with
On Wednesday (July 16), the Elise tail wings and landing wheel. (KM)
returned to the crash position with a diver
from BTS, Herman van Vugt, to carry out a end of the aircraft and from there work its Thursday July 17. The position of the wreck
survey of the wreck in order to determine the way forward to the cockpit. was marked with buoys to facilitate exact
best way of salvaging it. On arrival, they Preparations for the recovery began on mooring of the salvage vessels. Meanwhile,
found that someone had marked the position two BTS divers operating from the Elise
with a small floating flag — evidence that recovered small aircraft parts and, at 1600
clandestine diving had probably taken place. hours, a batch of 450 machine-gun rounds.
This was confirmed when diver Van Vugt At 1630, BTS’s multi-purpose recovery ves-
found a wireless set and oxygen equipment sel Jumbo, pushing a large floating pontoon
beside the wreck — items which had not on which stood the long-armed crane,
been there before. To prevent more illegal arrived and moored beside the position.
diving, the Navy put a tighter security around The main operation began on Friday, July
the position. Van Vugt reported that the 18. At 0810 hours, the Cerberus arrived with
wreck consisted of a mangled composition of the DDG divers. A first hitch occurred
rusted scrap, partly buried in the sand, and when it was found that the shovel crane,
he precluded any possibility of it being when its scoop was filled, was unable to lift
recovered in one piece. As if to prove it, at it. A decision was quickly made to obtain
1005, he brought up a first small piece of the another crane from shore, but meanwhile
fuselage. It was decided that the best salvage the recovery would proceed using the
method would be to put a pincer-shovel smaller crane on the Jumbo. At 0935, a
crane with an extra-long arm on a floating major part of the rear fuselage, complete
pontoon. This could then scoop up the sea- with tailplane and landing gear, was brought
bed, hopefully bringing up intact portions of up, followed minutes later by one of the
the aircraft, after which the sand deposited three-bladed propellers. The stencilled ser-
on the pontoon would be searched for ial number FK790 on the fuselage, faded
smaller bits. The crane would start at the rear after 53 years in the water but still visible,
ascertained that this was indeed the SOE
Right: Still visible after all these years in Hudson lost on the night of July 5/6, 1944. A
the water was the aircraft’s serial num- 2cm shell hole in one of the propeller blades
ber below the tailplane: FK790 (KM) gave clear confirmation that the aircraft had

37
 been shot down, not crashed owing to some
mechanical malfunction.
Over the next two hours, parts of one of
the Wright-Cyclone engines were recovered,
followed by a piece of wing and part of a sup-
ply-dropping parachute. Meanwhile, BTS
had managed to repair the pontoon crane
and, at 1330, it began work, scooping up sand
and aircraft parts onto the Jumbo. Items
brought up included another 100 rounds of
small-calibre ammunition, part of a main
wing with landing wheel and undercarriage,
and fuselage skin.
At 1600 hours, there was an emotional
moment when the Elise brought Annie
Meijer-Bockma (67), sister of secret agent
Jan Bockma, to the pontoon. Mrs Meijer —
who today lives at Hardegarijp near
Leeuwarden, just 30 miles as the crow flies
from the crash site — was accompanied by
deputy-mayor Draaijer of Wonseradeel; Lui-
tenant-ter-Zee 1e Klas Gerrit Boonen, head
of Navy Diving and Demolition Affairs; Wij-
nand Baerken and Martijn Bannink of the
OVMO, and two newspaper reporters. In a
short ceremony, Mrs Meijer placed a wreath
in memory of her brother and the others who
had died in the crash. Adjudant Teunissen,
The crane of the Jumbo brings up one of the Hudson’s propellers. (H. Tennissen) the salvage leader, presented her with two

Later in the day, the pincer-shovel crane with the extra-long on the left is the Navy recovery vessel HMS Cerberus. Visible
arm — repaired after its initial breakdown — joined in. Moored on the horizon is the Afsluitdijk causeway. (KM)

pieces from the aircraft, a fragment of the

gun turret and a door latch.
Although the salvage operation attracted
great attention from the press, for safety rea-
sons no other reporters or television news
teams were allowed on any of the salvage
vessels. However, permission was given for
their boats to cover the operation from out-
side the buoyed area.
The recovery continued over the next four
days, July 19-22. Items scooped up by the
crane on Sunday included another piece of
tail, one of the aircraft’s .303-calibre machine
guns (serial number BY 45155), a Very pistol
and signal ammunition, a fire-extinguisher,
Left: Each scoopful of sand is meticu-
lously searched for bits and pieces of the
aircraft, which are then collected in the
wooden crates on the right. (KM)

38
Right: Adjutant Henny Teunissen of the
RNAF Bergingsdienst, the salvage project
leader, presents Annie Meijer-Bockma,
the sister of secret agent Jan Bockma,
with a part from the aircraft. (KM)

map-reading lamp, flashlight, hand compass,

blocks of a mouldable yellow substance
(assumed to be plastic explosive), some 10
sticks of dynamite, pieces of leather shoes,
and an oxygen mask. By Sunday afternoon,
the shovel had reached the cockpit area,
where remains of the missing pilot were
expected. Soon, numerous human bones
were found and by the time the operation
was finished, 80 per cent of the skeleton had
been recovered, including an intact set of
teeth. The latter would later help to confirm
the dead man’s identity as that of the pilot,
Flight Lieutenant Menzies. Personal items
found in the cockpit area included a pocket-
watch, a wrist-watch and a cufflinks.
On Monday (July 20), a DDG diver filmed
the sea-bed with an underwater camera, after
which a BTS diver searched the area worked
over by the cranes the day before. Prominent
among the items recovered that day were a
second machine gun (serial number BY
62656), a rubber dinghy, another parachute,
a crash-hatchet, a wallet containing a magni-
fying glass, a radio crystal, a comb and a
glove.
On Tuesday (July 21), three experts from
the Army’s Gravendienst arrived to examine
the human remains found. During the morn-
ing, the assembled press was given an oppor-
tunity to view the operation from close by.
Picked up from Breezanddijk by RWS sur-
vey boat Heffesant, they were moored along-
side the salvage vessels (with strict instruc-
tion not to board any of them) and given a
briefing by Adjudant Teunissen and Lui-
tenant-ter-Zee Boonen. Artifacts recovered
that day included the earphones from a fly-
ing helmet, a black-out lamp, and another
hand compass.
On Wednesday (July 22), the only thing
found, by a diver, was another part of a main
wing. By then, the crane was bringing up
nothing but clean sand, and at 1100 hours the
operation was closed down. Buoys were
lifted, and the Jumbo left for Urk to unload
the aircraft remains. From there, lorries
would take everything to the Bergingsdienst
base at Woensdrecht — everything except
the propeller which, it had been decided,
would be set up as a memorial at Exmorra.
The operation had been a complete suc- Two of the .303-calibre machine guns were recovered. One gun was found to have a
cess. All that remained of the Hudson had round in its chamber, which was carefully removed by one of the Royal Dutch Navy
been lifted and the remains of what was ordnance experts. (H. Tennissen)
almost certainly the one missing member of
the crew recovered. Although some explo- ammunition, and in the end the ordnance terms, the whole operation had cost some
sives had been found, there had been no sign harvest was much lower than had been 250,000 guilders (about £78,000), 120,000 of
of any supply containers filled with arms and expected and feared beforehand. In financial which was to be paid by the municipality of

Ordnance recovered from the wreck included sticks of dynamite Found on the fourth day of the salvage operation was this
and blocks of plastic explosive issued to the secret agents. almost intact parachute. (H. Tennissen)

39
Above: On May 13, 1998, a memorial at Exmorra was based on a mistake,
incorporating the Hudson’s propeller namely the assumption that this was
was unveiled at Exmorra, a small village where the four BBO agents were to have
three miles inland from Makkum, where dropped if their plane had not crashed.
in the last months of the war there had This despite the fact that former mem-
been a field (code-name ‘Washstand’) for bers of this field’s wartime reception
arms drops to the Dutch resistance. committee could not recall ever having
Right: Relatives of the crew and agents received any message that agents would
place wreaths at the memorial. (T. be dropped on their field. This is not sur-
Gietema) Centre: A plaque nearby ex- prising as in actual fact the FK790’s tar-
plains the story of Hudson FK790. Actu- get was a DZ on the Appelsche Heide,
ally, the decision to place the memorial nearly 60 miles further to the south-east.

Wonseradeel and the remainder by the

Dutch Exchequer.
The Hudson propeller was unveiled at
Exmorra (where there had been a dropping
field for arms drops in 1944-45) on May 13,
1998. The ceremony was attended by rela-
tives of agents Kwint, Verhoef and Bockma;
Robert Body, a nephew of pilot Menzies
(who had spent years trying to unravel his
uncle’s fate); a son and daughter of air gun-
ner Eliot; a representative from the British
Embassy; and representatives from the

The question of what caused the Hudson to crash has been the subject of some con-
jecture. Suggestions in the past ranged from mechanical failure, to a pilot’s error (one
theory being that the aircraft came in so low that it hit the IJsselmeer causeway) to
the aircraft being shot down by Flak or by a night-fighter. That FK790 was in fact shot
down was already suggested by the observation in 1944 that one of the dead agents
recovered from the water showed a gunshot wound, and would appear to be proven
beyond doubt by the cannon shell hole found in the propeller salvaged in 1997 (left).
Less clear is whether the Hudson was shot down by Flak or by a night-fighter. The
case for a night-fighter is weakened by the fact that the only Allied bomber claimed
shot down over Holland that night, by a Bf 110 of III./NJG 1 from Leeuwarden, was a
four-engined bomber downed at 0121 hours — which at first sight seems to rule it
out as a candidate, as a Hudson had two engines. However, visual aircraft recogni-
tion in the dark under combat conditions is reputed for its unreliability, and the Ger-
man pilot may well have erred in his identification. Also, the time of the Hudson’s
crash was later assumed to be 0130 hours (from the watches found on the dead
bodies which had stopped at this time), and this comes remarkably close to 0121. All
factors weighed, the night-fighter seems the most probable cause, although Flak
remains a possibility.

40
The final act. On October 21, 1998, the
remains of Flight Lieutenant John Men-
zies were buried beside his three fellow-
crew members in the CWGC plot in
Makkum Churchyard. The interment was
preceded by a commemoration service
in the old church. (J. Werkhoven)

organisations which had salvaged the air-

craft.
The last act took place 15 months after the
plane’s recovery. His identity having been
positively established, on October 21, 1998,
Flight Lieutenant John Watherston Menzies
was buried with full military honours in
Makkum Cemetery, alongside the three
other members of his crew. Present at the
funeral were Menzies’ sister, especially flown
in from Australia; Robert Body (who had co-
ordinated the ceremony with the Common-
wealth War Graves Commission) and Rick
Body; the widow of wireless operator With-
ers with her daughter and grandson; the son
and daughter of air gunner Eliot; relatives of
agents Kwint, Verhoef and Bockma; the

The coffin is lowered into the grave. (J. Werkhoven)

41
 The release in 1954 of Michael Anderson’s
film The Dam Busters thrust No. 617
Squadron, its leader Wing Commander Guy
Gibson, together with Dr Barnes Wallis and
his ‘bouncing bomb’ into the British — if not
the world’s — popular consciousness.
But February 12, 1953, had seen the
London premiere of an earlier homage to
APPOINTMENT IN LONDON
Broadly, Appointment in London was pho-
tographed at two locations: RAF Upwood in By Trevor Popple
RAF Bomber Command, in the form of Huntingdonshire, then a heavy bomber base,
Philip Leacock’s Appointment in London — and home to Nos. 7, 148 and 214 Squadrons, ‘on loan to Mayflower Pictures Corp’ for the
a reference to a pending investiture at Buck- each operating the Avro Lincoln, and Shep- second week of June. It has to be assumed
ingham Palace — starring a youthful Dirk perton Studios in Middlesex, where sets were that the location was Upwood.
Bogarde as Wing Commander Tim Mason, a built for most of the interior scenes, one The three B.VIIs carried the same colour
bomber pilot three operations away from exception being the party sequence in the scheme in Leacock’s picture as they would
completing his third tour. Set in a single Officers’ Mess, which was photographed at later in The Dam Busters, complete with light
month in 1943 on a fictitious bomber station, Upwood. propeller spinners, and the appropriate
the picture features the equally fictitious Four Lancasters, NX673, NX679, NX782 roundels and fin flashes for 1943. Code
No. 188 Squadron, equipped with the Avro (all Austin Motors-built B.VIIs) and TW862 letters IH were allocated, and identified
Lancaster. (an Armstrong Whitworth B.1) were pre- examples include: TW862 as IH-S, NX673 as
And it is the collection of Lancasters pared for the picture by No. 20 Maintenance IH-B and NX782 as IH-V, Bogarde’s
assembled for Leacock’s film which forms a Unit at Aston Down in Wales, and sent to machine, V-Victor. For Appointment in
link with The Dam Busters (see After the Bat- Upwood during the last week of May, where London, however, the B.VIIs retained the
tle No. 10). It is of course well known that they remained during June, and for part of American-made Martin dorsal turret with
three machines were brought out of storage July. The movement cards record them as all twin .50-calibre machine guns, which was
and modified for that picture, being joined being back at No. 20 MU by the 25th, by peculiar to the mark, that two (NX673 and
by one, or possibly two, others. But in the which time Leacock and his cast and crew NX679) were to certainly lose for the later
summer of 1952, five had been dusted off for were wrapping up at Upwood and making picture. TW862 retained its more traditional
use in Appointment in London, with three of ready to shoot interiors at Shepperton during Frazer-Nash dorsal turret.
them going on to appear in The Dam Busters, August. The fifth machine, TW883, also an In preparing four of the ‘old ladies’, as
two of which were modified to carry the film Armstrong Whitworth B.1, and stored at Leacock dubbed them, to look their best
version of the mine designed by Wallis. No. 38 MU, was, to quote its movement card No. 20 MU did their job perhaps too well,

Top: You can’t see the join: one of the B.VIIs being towed into possibly going in 1952, and TW862 certainly going towards the
position at the end of the line with three of her sisters for the end of 1954, followed by the three B.VIIs in July 1956. RAF
impressive No. 188 Squadron line-up at Upwood, prior to Upwood ceased to be an operational base when its Canberra
Bogarde’s 90th mission. This set-up was only seen briefly before squadron was disbanded in 1961, becoming instead a training
dissolving through to the next shot. In this photograph the mov- centre for clerical and finance students within Support Com-
ing truck on the tarmac effectively covers the point where the mand. In December 1981 RAF ownership ceased, with the airfield
Lancasters and the Lincolns meet, though in the film the joint is being passed to the USAF until 1995 when it reverted to British
actually by the other truck parked further away. The five Lancast- government control. The flying field was sold to a local farmer
ers were later sold for scrap like so many others, with TW883 while the fenced off technical site (above) awaits disposal.

42
Left: The beginning of the film: it’s August 1943, and a moment scrounged a ride on the operation, even replacing Bogarde’s
of sobering reflection upon his own mortality for Wing Com- wounded rear gunner, Baker questions his mortality too. The
mander Tim Mason (Dirk Bogarde, right), after being handed a Lancaster is probably NX782, though the rudder from which the
buckled piece of airframe, just removed from his Lancaster’s metal is retrieved in a separate shot has a post-war fin flash,
port rudder, following his 87th mission. Major ‘Mac’ Baker, the which would suggest that it belonged to a Lincoln. Right:
USAAF liaison officer (William Sylvester), looks on. Having Upwood lies eight miles north of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.

because in order to create an image of In an interview given just before he died in Squadron, before becoming CO of No. 105
squadron strength, these dames had to be July 1990, Leacock had the following to say Squadron, operating the Mosquito — and
supported at Upwood by Lincolns in some of about his film. ‘Appointment in London was also becoming one of the Premier Path -
the ground scenes. This ruse generally my first big-budget picture, and Dirk Bo- finder pilots. As a consequence there is one
worked well enough: as an example, a garde and I got on extremely well. It was a school of thought which believes that
Lincoln would be seen from the rear quarter very hard working picture, with a lot of night Bogarde’s character, Wing Commander
parked in the middle distance behind a shooting; I was incapable of handing over to Mason, is based upon Gibson, whereas
Lancaster. A truck would in turn be parked a second-unit director, out of pride or what- another has it that Mason is based upon
in front of the Lincoln to hide the anachro- ever, so I was working two shifts at one point Wooldridge himself.
nistic post-war fin flash, large serial number, when we were on location. We got wonderful Leacock assembled a cast of players who
and most of the Type D fuselage roundel. In co-operation for all the planes and so forth.’ all became very familiar faces on British
yet another scene, a Lincoln’s upper wing Nearly ten years later he directed another screens during the course of the 1950s and
Type D roundel is distinctly in evidence, as is wartime aviation film, The War Lover, fea- 1960s, with each performing his or her
its serial, RF344. For this machine, an Arm- turing Steve McQueen. In addition to film stereotypical rôle with competence. Bogarde
strong Whitworth-built MkII, appearing in work he also moved into American televi- was the exception inasmuch as he was des-
the film was the closest it would ever get to sion, directing episodes of series such as perate to break away from his screen image
serving in a squadron during the course of its Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Hawaii Five-0. at that time as a petty villain or ‘spiv’ ‘being
12-year existence. Having been shunted from Aubrey Baring, co-producer of Appoint- chased by coppers nightly through the tun-
MU to MU, or OCU, and having spent time ment in London (with Maxwell Setton), and nels of Mornington Crescent Underground’
with English Electric and A. V. Roe during Leacock had served in the RAF during the as he put it. As a contract player for the
the late 1940s, it was sent to Upwood in May war, but it was John Wolldridge, the film’s Rank Organisation, who had pigeon-holed
1952 to join the Station Flight, which hap- script writer and composer of its original him as ‘working class’, he had had no choice
pened to be just in time for the film’s loca- score, who — with Robert Westerby — but to accept a procession of what he called
tion shooting. During the next five years it really brought authority to the story. ‘cloth cap and raincoat’ parts, the most
continued its nomadic existence before being Woodridge had served as a Flight Com- remembered being PC George Dixon’s killer
sold for scrap in August 1957. mander under Guy Gibson in No. 106 in The Blue Lamp.

Upwood then; Upwood now. Another appointment in London: bear it. Taken on charge in July 1940, the Morris-built Moth, in
the film’s romantic interest was the competition between its post-war overall silver scheme and Type D roundels, is
Bogarde and Sylvester for the favours of Eve Canyon (Dinah T7187, which had been at Upwood since the end of December
Sheridan), an attractive WRNS officer who had been widowed 1950. The Moth’s pilot remains anonymous, but one cannot
at the time of Dunkirk. Sylvester looks elated as he packs his help but wonder whether he is the film’s flying co-ordinator,
luggage aboard the Station Flight’s Tiger Moth for a ren- Squadron Leader Peter Landon, the CO of No. 214 Squadron,
dezvous with Sheridan, whilst Bogarde has to merely grin and one of the three Lincoln units then based at Upwood.

43
 When Rank undertook to make The Cruel
Sea, Bogarde saw this as a golden opportu-
nity to demonstrate his skills as an actor by
securing a rôle as an officer, or a gentleman,
or both. But all his pleading, groveling and
begging was to be of no avail, as was his offer
to do the film without a salary. They instead
offered him ‘a good little moment in a
lifeboat’ as an able seaman, which he
declined. Shortly after, Mayflower Produc-
tions, the small production company for
whom Leacock was making Appointment in
London, asked if Rank would loan Bogarde
to them to play the lead in the film. They
consented, taking half of his salary for them-
selves in the process.
But for Bogarde this was something of a
turning point; subsequently the critics
enjoyed his performance, with one relieved
to see him with a haircut and a shave. Also
this was the first picture in which he was able
to use his own accent and that, together with
his RAF officer’s uniform, presented the
audience with a very different image. ‘(It)
was the first time I actually made any kind of
impression for good on the screen’, he
remarked in his autobiography.
Dinah Sheridan was cast as WRNS officer
Eve Canyon, the film’s romantic interest, vis-
iting from Naval Intelligence in Whitehall.
And in addition to Appointment in London,
1953 also saw the release of Genevieve which
became her most well-known film, which It’s good to talk: the briefing scene on the set at Shepperton with Bogarde relating
co-starred John Gregson, Kenneth More and the planning details for what will be his 90th operation. Seated left on the platform is
Kay Kendall. actor Harold Siddons, veteran of both Appointment in London and The Dam Busters
Other key figures in the cast were Bryan — off the telephone for once. He also served as a Hurricane pilot in Pimpernel
Forbes as Pilot Officer Peter Greeno, des- Squadron in the Battle of Britain picture Angels One Five (see After the Battle No. 30).
tined to die returning from a raid; the ubiqui- Next to him sits Ian Hunter playing Group Captain Logan. Beyond Bogarde is the
tous Sam Kydd as a cockney ‘erk’; William Navigation Officer (uncredited), and extreme right is the brilliant Richard Wattis as
Sylvester, an American actor who did a lot of Pascal, the Signals Officer. During a long career Wattis did his share for the war film
British films and TV in the ‘fifties and ‘six- genre with The Colditz Story, The Longest Day and Operation Crossbow.
ties, as Major ‘Mac’ Baker, an amorous
USAAF liaison officer who vies with ger! It’s gone!’ when he receives the message From an aerial action point of view,
Bogarde for Dinah Sheridan’s affections; and that the Möhne dam has been breached. Appointment in London is well served by the
Bill Kerr as Australian pilot Flight Lieu- There were a few other faces who had standards of the 1950s, keeping archive
tenant Bill Brown, seemingly almost rehears- appeared in both films, too minor to men- footage to an absolute minimum. Shots of
ing for his rôle as ‘Micky’ Martin in The Dam tion, though Nigel Stock, who plays Gibson’s Lancasters taxi-ing, taking off and landing,
Busters. bomb-aimer, Flying Officer Spafford, dies in sharply edited to create the illusion of
Another link with that film is actor Harold a crash on the airfield in Appointment in greater numbers, are used to illustrate
Siddons, who, whilst hardly a household London. This was effected by setting the the squadron’s departure and return for
name, was to spend his time in both pictures camera up to look along a shallow rise on the Bogarde’s three penultimate operations.
in the Operations Room on the telephone, runway. After making a low pass over the The picture concludes with his 90th mis-
either reporting on Bogarde’s 90th mission field, Stock’s damaged aircraft — one of the sion during which he takes over as the master
and his returning Lancasters, or relating the B.VIIs — attempts to land and disappears bomber. The desire to show the raid in some
progress of the dam’s raid to Air Marshal from view behind the rise. A shot of an detail meant that Leacock had to assemble a
Harris and Barnes Wallis, in the form of explosion on the same spot is then seen via mixed formation of at least seven Lancasters
Basil Sydney and Michael Redgrave respec- an edit to create the loss of the machine and and Lincolns, including one of the latter
tively. It is Siddons who exclaims: ‘It’s Nig- those aboard. acting as camera-mount, the camera being

Left: RAF personnel in the watch office at Upwood towards the drafted in to appear either with minor speaking parts, or as
end of the picture, as Bogarde’s Lanc comes in to land after his extras. Due to a lack of WRAFs some of the officers’ wives
final mission: this scene being one where Leacock followed the were fitted out in costumier’s uniforms. In fact, director Philip
‘real-people-in-real-jobs’ style of film-making in the fashion of Leacock seems to have been influenced by Harry Watt’s pic-
the wartime documentaries, such as Target for Tonight — the ture, as a lot of the scenes at the beginning of Appointment in
officer in the background also appearing in one of the film’s London are very derivative. Right: The control tower has been
earlier scenes, incidentally. Numerous airmen at Upwood were demolished and the land claimed by sheep!

44
fitted in the dorsal turret. These scenes were
shot as ‘day-for-night’ in order to match with
the cockpit shots, and the archive inserts. Of
necessity, archive footage of marker flares
and a burning city at night was used, coupled
with the destruction of a model target in the
vein of Target for Tonight (see After the Bat-
tle videocassette No. 20). One clip of Ger-
man ack-ack gunners actually comes from
that film. Harry Watt, its director, revealed
in an interview with the author some years
ago that he had dressed British gunners in
costumiers’ uniforms for the shot.
Leacock was quite right to praise the level
of co-operation that the production company
received from the Air Ministry and the RAF.
Serving aircrew from the three squadrons
based at Upwood flew both the Lincolns and
the Lancasters as required under the supervi-
sion of Squadron Leader Peter Landon, the
CO of No. 214 Squadron, who usually flew
NX673 during the filming. Squadron Leader
‘Lofty’ Hayes, CO of No. 148 Squadron, flew
NX782, with Flight Lieutenant George
Fletcher of No. 7 Squadron flying the third of
the B.VIIs, NX679. TW862 was handled by
Flying Officer Reg Wareham, whilst the fifth
Lancaster, TW883, was used for some
ground sequences only — perhaps cockpit
close-ups — though its serial is not evident in
the film.
When the film was premiered at the
Leicester Square theatre in the presence of
the Duchess of Gloucester on February 12, The Officers’ Mess filled with extras: the only recognisable faces are Bill Kerr and
1953, according to the Daily Sketch seven Bryan Forbes by the table to the right of the steward, shortly before being sum-
RAF holders of the VC were in attendance, moned to Bogarde’s office to learn that they’ve both been awarded the DFC, with
though none were named. Critical reaction Bogarde getting a bar to his DSO. In a month’s time, they will go to London to
to the film was generally favourable. Group receive their awards from His Majesty the King — hence the film’s title.
Captain Hugh Dundas writing in the Daily
Express commended the picture saying that comment, then why did the British war film virtually smothered out of existence by The
it was about time that Bomber Command got genre with all its stock characters, casts and Dam Busters, which of course has been
its fair share of the limelight, having been recurrent themes last as long as it did? sustained by the legend of Gibson and
overshadowed by the media’s preoccupation Rarely seen on television for many years, No. 617 Squadron in spite of what the revi-
with Fighter Command for too long. Britain’s Channel Four have tended to run sionists might have to say about the raid
There were one or two mildly unfavour- Appointment in London from time to time today. And this is unfortunate, because
able passing comparisons with Twelve during weekday afternoons along with other Appointment in London is a very good
O’Clock High from 1949 in which Gregory fairly obscure British war pictures. But British war film of the 1950s, which provides
Peck had succumbed to the stresses that whereas the film made people sit up and take all the ingredients that one expects from a
Bogarde is struggling to contain in Appoint- some notice of Bogarde’s performance and picture of that era. Its production team, par-
ment in London, claiming that the earlier ‘new’ image (though Rank never com- ticularly John Wooldridge, brought an air of
American film had been more powerful. And mented, according to his autobiography), authenticity to the screenplay, and the level
another reviewer commented critically upon some of the film’s aeronautical ‘stars’ were of co-operation with the RAF and the Min-
the film’s stereotypes in the forms of only allowed one more appearance on the istry probably could not have been bettered,
Bogarde’s ‘Wing Commander heading for a big screen for Michael Anderson before which when put together with the film’s
nervous breakdown’ and Sylvester’s ‘amor- being consigned to the scrap heap. highly professional cast of familiar faces per-
ous American liaison officer’. What is inter- And in a sense the same fate has befallen forming to type, all blend together to present
esting is that if by 1953 these characters were Appointment in London. There is no getting an ideal TV entertainment for a ‘nineties
already looking stale enough to arouse away from the fact that the picture has been autumn Sunday afternoon.

Left: Flight Lieutenant Bill Brown (Bill Kerr, left) tells Pilot Offi- prominent Frazer-Nash dorsal turret. Because of these features
cer Greeno, nick-named ‘the Brat’ (Bryan Forbes), that he’s in it is easily recognisable in the formation assembled for Lea-
hot water and has been summoned to go to Wing Commander cock, and flown to depict Bogarde’s 90th operation. Right: The
Mason’s office immediately. Greeno had been sending a morning after his flight in Upwood’s Tiger Moth, William
telegram to his wife (Anne Leon) after each mission, which Sylvester meets Dinah Sheridan at her Whitehall office build-
Bogarde regards as a breach of security. The airman looking on ing as she comes off night duty. Ultimately, Sylvester’s over-
apprehensively is Sam Kydd, a prominent member of Britain’s confident approach fails, with Sheridan falling for Bogarde’s
legion of veteran war film actors from the 1950s. Greeno’s Lan- quiet charm. The romantic interlude is to be a brief one, how-
caster was S-Sugar played by the B.1 TW862, distinctive beside ever: taken off bombing operations Bogarde is posted to the
the B.VIIs because of its H2S ventral radome and more Far East at the film’s end.

45
 During the Second World War a total of
52 submarines were lost by the United States
Navy, or nearly 18 per cent of all submarines
that saw combat. Total personnel losses were
374 officers and 3,131 enlisted men, or 16 and
13 per cent of operational personnel respec-
tively.
RETURN TO THE DARTER
Island, is only 30 miles wide in some areas
As with the loss of personnel and equip-
ment in any theatre of the war, the causes of
and contains many navigational hazards.
Dangerous Ground, a large area west of
By D. C. Sangerhausen
submarine losses varied. Of the 52 sub- Palawan Island, contains regions of shallow
marines lost, 48 were lost due to enemy water, shoals, rocks, and reefs. The most On Monday, October 9, Darter entered
ships, aircraft, mines, friendly fire, or accurate charts available of the area at the her assigned area and submerged for patrol
unknown enemy action. The remaining four, time were provided by the Royal Navy; how- in Palawan Passage. Submerged patrolling
S-27, S-36, S-39, and USS Darter (SS-227) ever, even some of these (surveyed during was chosen because this part of the passage
were lost due to stranding during combat the previous century) were outdated. was narrow enough to permit sighting of any
operations. convoy attempting passage at the midway
Darter began life in Groton, Connecticut, point, and because the airfield at Puerto
on October 20, 1942, her keel being laid by Princesa on the east side of Palawan was held
the Electric Boat Company. With an overall by the Japanese.
length of 311 feet 9 inches, a beam of 27 feet, By Thursday 12th, Darter had made con-
and displacement of 1,525 tons surfaced tact with a nine-ship convoy heading north
(2,410 tons submerged), the Darter, a Gato- for Balabac Strait. At 0924 hours, four low-
class submarine, was launched on June 6, power Mark 14 torpedoes were fired at two
1943 by the ship’s sponsor, the wife of the overlapping tankers at a range of 6,000 yards
Electric Boat Company’s shipbuilding man- and six minutes later three hits were heard.
ager, Mrs Edwin B. Wheeler. On September Timing suggested two hit the forward tanker
7, Darter was placed in commission by Com- and one hit the other. At 0934 hours, the
mander W. S. Stovall, Jr. who had already fourth torpedo was heard to explode as it
made three war patrols on the Gudgeon (SS- reached the end of its run. A minute later
211). Darter was attacked by seven aerial bombs
After she had completed two war patrols exploding close by, but no damage was sus-
(one freighter was damaged during the first, tained. Although a 10,000-ton tanker was
and another was sunk during the second), severely damaged during Darter’s attack, it
command of Darter was given to Lieutenant was not sunk. This same convoy was later
Commander David H. McClintock on June attacked by Dace which sunk a 10,000-ton
15, 1944. tanker, a 7,500-ton transport, and crippled a
During Darter’s third patrol (June 21 to second tanker.
August 8) in the eastern Celebes Sea, she Darter picked up a news broadcast on the
was credited with sinking the large Japanese Allied invasion of the Philippines at mid-
minelayer Tsugaru with two torpedo hits out night on October 20/21 and she immediately
of the six bow shots that were fired. headed for Balabac Strait to watch for heavy
units. It was assumed that the Japanese were
FOURTH WAR PATROL aware of the planned invasion, and the Sin-
After being refitted and repainted in gapore —Balabac—Mindanao Sea route was
design 32/9SS (dark grey), Darter began her the shortest for any Japanese fleet which
fourth and final patrol on September 1, 1944 Top: The Darter, a Gato-class submarine, might head for Leyte Gulf.
with USS Dace (SS-247) commanded by was launched on June 6, 1943 in Groton, Darter and Dace met at midnight on Sun-
Bladen D. Claggett. Both subs, known as the Connecticut. (via Admiral E. P. Wilkin- day, October 22. With a line thrown
Double Ds to their crews, left Brisbane, Aus- son) One year later, following two war between, the vessels cruised 50 feet apart at
tralia, for patrol in the Palawan Passage and patrols under Commander W. S. Stovall, five knots. While the commanders planned
the area known as Dangerous Ground. The she was given a new captain: Comman- the remainder of their coordinated patrol,
Palawan Passage, which runs north and south der David H. McClintock (above). (US movies were exchanged between the two
between Dangerous Ground and Palawan Naval Academy Memorial Foundation) crews. Sixteen minutes later the radar opera-

46
tor passed the word of a contact at 131 The Japanese force opposing General Douglas McArthur’s Leyte invasion fleet was
degrees, and 30,000 yards, ‘probably rain’. commanded by Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita aboard the heavy cruiser Atago (above).
McClintock went down the conning tower to
have a look for himself and decided to pur- ahead of the right. McClintock’s plan called Thomas C. Kincaid, commanders of the US
sue. for Darter to dive ahead of the left column Third and Seventh Fleets respectively, at
By 0020 hours (October 23) McClintock and Dace to get in position five miles north 0425, McClintock, picked the fourth and last
was certain the contact was a convoy because on the opposite side of the right column. ship (the battleship Nagato) in the port col-
the contact bearing changed to the left. Both When Darter attacked, it was reasoned that umn because it presented the biggest radar
subs began chasing at full power as the tar- the column would turn towards Dace to blip. Battle stations was sounded at 0452, and
gets headed up Palawan Passage. A contact evade. In addition, this arrangement placed at 0500 the targets sped up to 16 knots and
report was sent giving an estimate of a task both subs in an attack position regardless if zigged away placing the chosen target out of
force of 11 heavy ships. This was based on the target made a course change in either range. Noticing the absence of a destroyer
the targets’ high speed (22 knots) and the direction. screen, McClintock decided to target the lead
long radar ranges obtained. The tracking Having sent three contact reports to Rear ship with the bow tubes and the second ship
party felt that attaining attack position would Admiral Ralph W. Christie of South West with the stern tubes. At 0509 Darter reversed
be hopeless due to the high speed of the tar- Pacific Submarine Command, who passed course, headed toward the port column and
gets. However, as Darter continued to pursue them on to Admirals William F. Halsey and submerged.
at an average of 19 knots, the target speed
began to slow, until eventually reaching 15
knots. Darter and Dace could now, in time,
overtake the targets.
Darter was to attack the left-flank column
first, with Dace about five miles up the track
to attack the starboard column. It was con-
sidered vital to see and identify the force
which was probably on its way to interfere
with the Leyte invasion. McClintock knew
that there could be no radical zig during the
night due to the size of the force and narrow-
ness of the Passage, therefore an attack was
planned for dawn.
The Japanese force being tracked by the
Double Ds was the Imperial Second Fleet
under Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita. The fleet
was led by the largest battleships in the
world, Yamato and Musashi. As part of
Operation ‘Sho-Go’, the Japanese defence of
the Philippines, Kurita was ordered to
demolish American General Douglas
McArthur’s invasion transports whatever the
cost, for this was the Japanese Navy’s last
chance. Loss of Leyte would mean loss of the
Philippines; loss of the Philippines meant the
loss of all East Indies oil; loss of this oil
resource would mean the end of the Japan-
ese Navy.
After departing Singapore and fueling at
Brunei, Kurita’s fleet divided into two task
forces. Under Vice-Admiral Shoji Nishi-
mura, two battleships, the cruiser Mogami,
and four destroyers were to swing south of
Palawan, head across the Sulu Sea and meet
Vice-Admiral Kiyohide Shima’s Formosa
Fleet in the Mindanao Sea. The combined
force would then make their way into Leyte
Gulf through Surigao Strait. Meanwhile, the
main body, under Kurita, was to cross the
Sibuyan Sea after rounding Palawan Island
to the north, head through San Bernardino
Strait, and then down to Leyte Gulf. This
group consisted of five battleships (including
the two previously mentioned), a dozen
cruisers and 15 destroyers.
During the night the two subs had gone
from being 17 miles abeam of the Japanese
force to a position 20,000 yards dead ahead. Kurita’s task force comprised seven battleships, a dozen cruisers and 19 destroyers.
It had been determined that the fleet being After refuelling at Brunei on October 22, 1943, the force split into two, the major con-
tracked was in two columns approximately voy proceeding along the western coast of Palawan Island. All this time the ships
two miles apart, with the left column slightly were being tracked by two US Navy submarines, the Darter and Dace.

47
 McClintock reasoned it may have struck the
third cruiser. In fact, only two of Darter’s tor-
pedoes hit Takao, the first hit the starboard
side under the bridge, and the second hit the
stern. The latter shot hit the rudder and two
outboard propellers, and almost immediately
she began to list 10 degrees to starboard. She
lost power to three boilers that had flooded
and went dead in the water.
With his flagship sinking beneath him,
Kurita and 206 of his crewmen were taken
aboard the destroyer Kishinami and at 0636
he gave orders that he was transferring his
command and staff to the battleship Yamato.
Kurita then continued north with the
remainder of his armada, skirting the
Caiamian Islands north of Palawan and
swinging eastward to clear the southern tip
of Mindoro.
The convoy’s destroyers began their
depth-charge attack at 0539 but the attack
was inaccurate. Within a few minutes
Darter’s crew began to hear breaking-up
noises through the hull and in all compart-
ments. The noises increased in intensity until
they seemed to be right overhead, at times
they shook the ship violently, but caused no
damage.
At 0550 Darter heard four distant explo-
sions and McClintock rightly assumed they
were from Dace’s torpedoes. Dace had fired
a salvo of six torpedoes at the heavy cruiser
Captain McClintock’s opposite number in the Dace was his former classmate, Com- Maya, which was the sister ship of Takao.
mander Bladen D. Claggett. Four of the six shots hit the ship on the port
side: one in the chain locker forward, a sec-
By 0517 it was light enough to see shapes Four torpedoes were heard to hit Takao, ond opposite number one gun turret, the
through the periscope. Darter was dead and McClintock felt certain that four would third in number seven boiler room, and the
ahead of the port column but could not iden- sink her too. However, the fourth hit was 25 fourth in the after engine room. No amount
tify any of the ships. Visibility was better to seconds later than it should have been, and of effort made by Maya’s crew could help her
the east where battleships and cruisers could
be seen several thousand yards away. Also,
two destroyers were noted to the east, both
drawing left but not echo-ranging.
At 0525 Darter made ready all ten tubes.
Depth was set for ten feet. Two minutes later
she changed course to the right to parallel
the column and be able to fire all tubes. The
first four ships were now identifiable as
heavy cruisers and the fifth a battleship. 1
At a range of 780 yards to the first cruiser 20
and an angle on the bow of almost zero, the
targets zigged in a ship’s left, to course 350
degrees. Darter’s fire-control party quickly 4
scrambled to obtain new set-ups and at
0532 she began firing the bow tubes at the 2
5
lead cruiser. After firing two torpedoes, an 19
additional spread was fired ahead of the
target and the remainder inside the target’s 6
length. 10
When the last torpedo left the forward 3
tube, Darter swung hard left to bring the
stern tubes to bear and started getting a fir- 11 15
ing set-up on the second cruiser. While in the
7
turn, torpedoes began hitting the first
cruiser. Five hits were heard and McClintock 12
swung the periscope back to the first cruiser.
8
Dense black smoke covered her from stem to
stern, and bright orange flames shot into the 16
air from all areas topside. She was still going
ahead but her number one turret was already 9
cutting the water. 13
The rapidly sinking cruiser was the Atago,
Admiral Kurita’s flagship. Kurita was in his
cabin having tea with his chief-of-staff Rear- 14 17
Admiral Koyanagi. Kurita was rising out of
his chair when he was flung back as the ship
lurched. The first torpedo struck the bow 18
causing the ship to immediately slide forward
as if going downhill. The ship’s Captain,
Araki, immediately ordered hard left rudder At 0532 hours on October 23, the Darter launched her attack on Kurita’s force,
away from the first explosion. His orders singling out his cruiser for the first salvo of torpedoes. This illustration by Sachiko
were too late and the remaining four torpe- Williams shows the position of the formation when Darter’s attack began. At a range
does struck the side of the ship with the last of 2,880 yards to the first cruiser and an angle on the bow of almost zero, the targets
striking the stern. zigged in a ship’s left to course 350 degrees. The Darter’s fire-control party quickly
Almost simultaneous to the torpedoes scrambled to obtain new set-ups and at 0532 she began firing the bow tubes at the
striking Atago, the stern tubes were fired at lead cruiser. After firing two torpedoes, an additional spread was fired ahead of the
the second cruiser Takao. At a range of 1,525 target and the remainder inside the target’s length. [1] Noshiro, [2] Okinami, [3]
yards, the torpedoes were spread over the Naganami, [4] Atago, [5] Takao, [6] Chokai, [7] Nagato, [8] Asashimo, [9] Shimakaze,
center 3/4 of her length. Darter started deep [10] Myoko, [11] Haguro, [12] Maya, [13] Yamato, [14] Musashi, [15] Hayashimo, [16]
and evaded on a base course of 220 degrees. Akishimo, [17] Hamanami, [18] Fujinami, [19] Kishinami, [20] Darter.

48
Extract from the US Hydrographic Office Chart No. 559 used by Shoal west of Palawan Island arrowed. It was here that the
Commander McClintock during the war with the Bombay Darter ran aground just after midnight on the 23rd/24th.

after sustaining such damage. She began to At 2400 Darter had about one hour to run applying the brakes in an automobile. The
sink immediately and was completely under to gain attack position. She was approxi- Captain said: ‘She rose up, came down, rose
within eight minutes of the first hit. mately 18,000 yards from the target and mak- up again and back down. After the third time
From 0600 to 0604 Darter recorded ing 17 knots, and had not been able to take a she settled down.’
‘Tremendous explosions, probably maga- navigational fix for 30 hours. Throughout the McClintock immediately sent the message
zines. It is estimated that from 0600 on, our previous battle, evasion tactics, and subse- to Dace, ‘We are aground’. Without hesita-
targets’ breaking-up noises began to com- quent attempts to finish off the cruiser, tion Claggett gave up his attack on Takao
bine with those of Dace’s target.’ Darter had been navigating by dead-reckon- and set course for Darter at maximum speed.
At 0605 Darter began to be depth-charged ing, a navigational process involving time, The damage reports from all compartments
once again, with the last of an estimated 36 speed, and distance. For example, once an were good, and with a few exceptions, the
charges exploding at 0630. Four destroyers accurate fix on the ship’s position is boat was intact and no leaks could be found.
could be heard echo-ranging, and Darter obtained, the navigator dead-reckons the With high tide due at 0140, Darter’s crew
continued to evade until 0820 when she came ship’s position by tracking the ship’s course, began lightening the ship.
to periscope depth. Darter could see the speed, and amount of time traveled. Based Within ten minutes of striking the reef,
Takao at 12,000 yards listing slightly to star- on these figures a calculation is made to Naganami (the starboard destroyer defend-
board and dead in the water. Three destroy- determine distance traveled and therefore ing the cruiser) began closing on Darter. It
ers could be seen near the cruiser and three the ship’s position. Although not the most was assumed Naganami must have heard the
aircraft were circling the vicinity. accurate method of navigation, it was sub hit. While some of the Darter crew began
At 0900 battle stations were secured, giv- Darter’s only option. to busy themselves destroying secret and
ing the crew a chance to eat and to reload Five minutes later, with the Officer of the confidential matter and gear, the remainder
Darter for further attacks. A half-hour later Deck and the Captain on the bridge, and the of the crew continued to lighten the boat.
one destroyer, believed to be rescuing sur- navigator plotting in the conning tower, the By 0030 the range to the destroyer was
vivors, departed to the north. Darter started boat’s bow began to rise out of the water. At 12,100 yards. McClintock and his officers
in again on the cruiser Takao at 1100. Think- the same time the stern was pushed under were convinced that if the crew were taken
ing that the destroyers would attempt to tow water all the way up to the after engine room prisoner, they would surely be tortured if not
the crippled ship towards Palawan Barrier hatch. A deafening roar and the sound of executed once the Japanese discovered
Reef, McClintock ordered Claggett to take scraping metal was heard. McClintock’s first Darter was responsible for the recent
attack position on a bearing of 150 degrees assumption was that Darter had been torpe- destruction to their fleet. Therefore orders
and ten miles from the cruiser, while Darter doed. But as the boat settled with a 3 degrees were given, and the crew began to man the
would assume a position ten miles and 50 up angle and 3 degrees port list, and sound- guns in anticipation of battling it out. Shortly
degrees from the ship, thereby forming a ings showed 9 feet from the bow to abaft the thereafter, the destroyer’s range steadied for
pincher. conning tower and 18 feet at the stern, it a few minutes, then began to open. By 0100
At 2200 Takao got underway on a course became more than apparent Darter had run Darter lost radar contact with the destroyer.
of about 220 degrees and at a speed of from aground. All efforts continued to be made to lighten
four to six knots. Her course was quite In fact, the submarine had run 150 feet up, the ship, and all fuel oil, except enough to
erratic, and it appeared as though she was and onto, Bombay Shoal. The shoal, approx- keep the ship going for a few days, was blown
steering by alternating her outboard engines imately 50 miles from Eran Bay on the west overboard. The crew also removed all fresh
and screws. side of Palawan Island, is bowl-shaped and water, variable water, lube oil, the anchor,
Over the next 11 hours Darter tried several runs for a mile and a half. The opposite side ammunition, and commissary stores. At 0140
times to approach and finish off the Takao. of the shoal from where Darter hit is rela- Darter was challenged by Dace’s radar.
However, each attempt was pre-empted by tively open though still quite shallow. Fortu- High tide arrived at 0146 and McClintock
the searching radars of the destroyers. nately for the crew she hit a little more than began attempts to remove Darter from the
Therefore, another message was sent to Dace an hour before high tide which allowed her reef but none of the engines would run
that told her to attack when ready and that to ride up on the reef instead of colliding because all saltwater intakes were plugged
Darter was ending-around to starboard for with it. Also, if it had been full high tide at with coral. Therefore he attempted to back
an attack at radar depth. Full speed was the time of the grounding, Darter in all prob- the boat using full battery power. At the
ordered on all four engines as the sub per- ability would have ridden over the ridge of same time, he ordered the crew topside and
formed its end-around at a range of 15,000 the shoal and been trapped in the middle like had them gather in a group on the stern in
yards from the target. McClintock’s new plan a fish in a bowl. Crew members described the effort to break the ship’s bow free of the
called for an attack at 0100 (October 24). experience as being similar to someone coral. When the first attempt failed, McClin-

49
tock ordered some of the crew to race When the critical moment arrived at 0455,
forward of the stern and then back aft while only a light explosion was heard. The bow of
other members of the crew ran back-and- the sub, which should have been blown to
forth across the deck in an attempt to rock pieces, was still intact. It was apparent that
the ship in conjunction with the backing some of the 50-pound demolition charges may
power of the main motors. After three min- have exploded, but the torpedo warhead in
utes the ship had not moved and her heading the forward torpedo room had not. McClin-
remained the same. tock and Claggett now mused about their next
After a short break, McClintock tried step. The conclusion reached was that the
again to free the ship. Some of the crew charges were bad, and that Dace should now
looked over the side and saw water rushing try to torpedo the stranded ship. Therefore, at
forward past the hull and for a few minutes it 0510 Dace took up position on Darter’s beam
appeared as though their efforts were suc- and fired two of her remaining four Mark 23
cessful. Unfortunately this was only an illu- torpedoes. By this time the tide was rather
sion created by water being pushed forward low, and both shots struck the reef before
by the churning propellers. After 20 minutes reaching Darter. Claggett then positioned
all efforts were ceased. It was 0230, the tide Dace astern of the beached sub where there
was beginning to recede, and the tops of the was a bit more water. Again, before reaching
boat’s propellers were cutting air. McClin- their target, both torpedoes exploded.
tock knew for sure his ship was going Dace’s only remaining resource were her
nowhere and all efforts were now concen- deck guns. Her gun crew opened up with the
trated on destroying the remaining confiden- 4-inch deck gun putting three common and
tial gear. 18 high-capacity hits on Darter along the
Since it was still dark, and the weather water line. Although the gun crew was hit-
conditions were clear and calm, three fires ting Darter, it appeared as though the high-
were set below decks, one in the forward capacity shells had only penetrated the outer
engine room, one in the radio shack, and hull and not the pressure hull. One of the hits
one in the officers’ shower. The fires were blew up one of the normal fuel-oil tanks and
used to destroy paperwork and before long may have started a fire in the forward bat-
the smoke and fumes became so intense When all attempts to free the submarine tery, but this was not enough to seriously
that destruction work could only be per- had failed, demolition charges were pre- damage the ship.
formed for a few minutes at a time before pared and set and the crew were taken As daylight approached, and many Dace
personnel had to go topside for fresh air. aboard the Dace. As he walked through and Darter men stood on the deck watching
Some manuals and recognition books were his sub for the last time, Captain McClin- the shelling, an observer spotted a Japanese
so thick they could only be burned a few tock thought about what he would like ‘Betty’ bomber. Dace made a quick dive as
pages at a time. to take with him as a souvenir. He finally men scrambled through any open hatch to
While the fires continued to burn, other selected this wardroom ashtray en- get below. Claggett was uncertain if there
crew members took up damage control ham- graved ‘USS Darter’, and placed it in his was enough water, but with the inbound
mers and began smashing equipment. Any- front pocket. Japanese plane, he had no choice but to dive.
thing that would have given the enemy infor- When the bomber arrived at the scene
mation about the ship’s capabilities was ward torpedo room (the charges were rigged Dace’s deck was awash, but from the air
destroyed. The electricians in the maneuver- to a torpedo warhead), the after torpedo Darter looked liked a surfaced sub and not
ing room ‘flashed over’ the generators (a room and the control room. While walking one that was aground and crewless. The air-
process of reversing the electrical polarity, through the sub for the last time Captain craft attempted to drop two bombs on Darter
then applying a voltage which destroys the McClintock thought about what he would at 0558 but missed with both. The bomber
generator armatures), thereby making the like to take with him. He came across the continued to circle until 0710.
generators useless. The torpedomen broke wardroom ashtray engraved with ‘USS Claggett and McClintock began to discuss
all the interlocks on the forward and aft Darter’ and placed it in his front pocket. the possibility of reboarding Darter at night-
tubes. Since the ship was in salvageable However, this was not perhaps the best selec- fall to install the demolition charges from
waters, breaking the interlocks would pre- tion. Over the years to come, whenever this Dace. However, shortly after 1000, the
vent the Japanese from opening the inner particular subject would come up, his wife soundman heard an echo-ranging ping com-
and outer doors should they be able to would tease him about taking the ashtray ing from 170 degrees. Dace surfaced and
refloat the sub. and leaving her photograph! both captains could see a mast heading for
At 0245 a line was thrown from the Dace With the final demolition connections Darter. It was the Japanese destroyer
over to the stern of Darter, and using two six- made and witnessed by McClintock and his Naganami which had received orders to
man rubber boats, one from each sub, the Gunnery Officer, the timer was set for 35 leave the Takao and attack enemy sub-
Darter’s crew began to leave their ship at minutes. At 0435 the Commanding Officer marines near Bombay Shoal.
0304. Despite the swift currents, Claggett was the last to abandon ship. All hands were Once within gun range, Naganami began
kept the line taught by holding Dace steady aboard Dace at 0439 as she started backing shelling Darter. After about three minutes,
within 50 yards of Darter’s stern. away. Not a single crewmember had been with fires still burning below decks, a small
As the crew began evacuation, 50-pound injured in the grounding or during the trans- crew of Japanese sailors boarded Darter with
demolition charges were set up in the for- fer operation to Dace. orders to retrieve anything of value while a

This is the earliest known photo of the grounded Darter. It was Navy demolition team which boarded the submarine to deter-
taken in the spring of 1945 by one of the members of the US mine why her explosive charges had not gone off. (US Navy)

50
‘Betty’ circled overhead providing air sup- On January 2, 1952, a party under the command of the Area Salvage Officer from the
port. With no torpedoes remaining, Dace US Naval Forces Command assigned to the Thirteenth Air Force at Clark Air Force
missed a grand opportunity to eliminate the Base in the Philippines was ordered to undertake the disposal of the seven torpedoes
destroyer. and four mines which were known to be still aboard Darter, and to remove every-
While on board, the Japanese found the thing of a classified nature or of intelligence value. This photo was taken during that
rough quartermaster’s log. Because the log operation. (Karl Fleischer USN (Ret))
had fallen behind the chart table, it was over-
looked by the Darter crew during their THE INQUIRY or delay the attack just because no sights had
attempt to destroy all valuable documents. October 24, 1944 was a date that would been obtained for 30 hours. The best esti-
The log contained information as to subma- become known as ‘Black Tuesday’ for the mate of position had to be used. In the opin-
rine evasive maneuvers and tactics following US Submarine Fleet. On that date, in addi- ion of the Commanding Officer, the risk of
torpedo attacks. It is uncertain, but consid- tion to the loss of Darter, Shark II (SS-314) grounding, like the risk of depth charging,
ered probable, that the information gained was lost with all hands in Luzon Strait, and had to be accepted.’
from this log helped the Japanese in the lat- Tang (SS-306) sank in Formosa Strait with a A commander who had lost his ship could
ter part of the war in their anti-submarine loss of 78 crew members when hit by her last only be exonerated by a court. It was com-
measures. torpedo that had made a circular run. mon knowledge that if the Navy did not hold
Dace stayed out of sight until nightfall Captain McClintock wrote in his last a court-martial concerning Darter’s loss,
when she again returned to Darter with the Darter patrol report: ‘No one regrets more Captain McClintock intended to request one.
intention of reboarding with her own demoli- than the Commanding Officer the loss of The Navy acted, and a court of inquiry was
tion outfit. As Dace closed to within 2,000 this, his first command. Yet he feels that held in Fremantle.
yards, close echo-ranging was heard on the every possible measure for safe navigation The five-member board convened and
sound gear and by both commanders on the was carried out by the Darter during the 24 began the questioning process, most of which
bridge. Since the ping was so loud, the imme- hours prior to the grounding, during which concerned the navigational abilities of Lieu-
diate thought was that it came from their time she was in constant contact with the tenant Commander Ernie Schwab and
own sound gear. Told that Dace’s sound gear enemy. The whole patrol was spent west of Schwab’s navigating assistant, Quartermas-
was secured, Claggett gave orders to reverse Palawan, and in the Dangerous Ground, ter First Class Robert B. Gallic. The ques-
course and clear the area. The night was which areas are filled with shoals, the area tions centered on knowledge of the ship’s
brightly moonlit (favourable conditions for a was navigated with extreme caution; but position at the time of the grounding, infor-
periscope attack), and Dace had no radar when in contact with the enemy, the Com- mation available and the navigational prac-
contact on any other ship. Therefore, the manding Officer did not see fit to slow down tices followed just prior to the grounding.
source of the ping was assumed to be an
enemy submarine setting up for an attack on
Dace. Later that night, Dace received orders
to proceed to Fremantle. She was carrying
165 men. Dace moored along the starboard
side of USS Lapon (SS-260) at Berth No. 4,
North Wharf, Fremantle, Australia, on
November 6, 1944.

AFTER THE GROUNDING

After Dace’s withdrawal on October 24,
two further attempts were made to destroy
Darter. The first was made by the USS Rock
(SS-274) on the 26th. Rock fired six bow-
tube shots, none of which exploded aside
from the sixth. All torpedoes fired ran errati-
cally with the first and fifth missing right, the
second, third, and fourth missing left, and the
sixth striking and exploding on the reef at
Darter’s stern.
Later on the same day Rock brought her
stern to bear and fired three more torpedoes
set to a depth of zero. All exploded either
hitting the ship or the reef underneath. At
2000 hours, Rock sent her attack reports and
resumed her normal patrol duties off
Palawan Island.
The second attempt was made on the
evening of October 31, by the USS Nautilus
(SS-168). Nautilus used her 6-inch deck guns
to score 55 hits out of 88 rounds fired. The
Commanding Officer of Nautilus, Lieu-
tenant-Commander E. Sharp reported: ‘It is Not being able to approach the submarine in their LCM, the demolition party
very doubtful that any equipment in Darter, obtained a rubber boat and balsa life-raft for transporting gear to the wreck. The
at 1131 this date, would be of any value to equipment was placed in the boat and raft which were then pulled by personnel
Japan — except as scrap.’ along the mile and a half of reef perimeter. (Commander D. H. McClintock)

51
 The inquiry concluded that the loss of the
Darter was one of the unfortunate losses that
must be expected during wartime, and that
Captain McClintock understood fully the
dangers involved in the end-around maneu-
ver during which his ship ran aground. The
incident was, and is still considered, a classic
example of calculated risk in pursuit of the
enemy. Additionally, her loss was well bal-
anced by the discovery of the Japanese task
force, the loss of two cruisers and the damage
done to the third. Neither McClintock nor
any other Darter crew member was held at
fault for the grounding.
Though running aground and becoming a
war casualty herself while trying to sink
Takao, Darter’s actions were not in vain.
Nine months after Darter’s loss, Takao
(while laid at anchor in Singapore Harbour
undergoing repairs from Darter’s attack) was
sent to the bottom by limpet mines on July
30, 1945. The mines were attached to the
ship’s hull by crew members from two British
midget submarines, the XE1 and XE3. Lieu-
tenant I. E. Fraser and Leading Seaman J. J.
Magennis, the men who laid the mines, were
each awarded the Victoria Cross for their
remarkable feat.
USS Darter earned four Battle Stars on
the Asiatic-Pacific Area Service Medal for
participating in the following operations:
Truk Attack, February 16-17, 1944; Battle of The torpedoes in the tubes could not be accessed by the demolition crew due to
Surigao Strait, October 24, 1944; Submarine heavy corrosion on the doors and the difficulty in working from the outside in the
War Patrol, March 22-May 23, 1944; and heavy surf. Therefore, as shown here, a forced entry was made down through the
Submarine War Patrol, June 21-August 8, deck forward of the torpedo room and 64lbs of composition C-3 explosive was placed
1944. on the platform deck in the outer hull and along the forward side of the torpedo room
USS Dace continued to make three more bulkhead. (Commander D. H. McClintock)
war patrols after the Darter rescue resulting
in the sinking of one 1,000-ton supply ship, sion out of curiosity and to film the stranded The light transport USS Mark, towing a
and one 1,391-ton cargo ship. While docked boat. A silent colour film exists, and medium landing craft (LCM) arrived at
at Tanapag Harbour on August 15, 1945, she although lasting only a few minutes, shows dawn on January 7. In heavy seas the LCM
was notified of the end of hostilities. various features of the ship and the boarding was loaded with gear and personnel. Upon
After being exonerated by the court-mar- crew inspecting items found.) reaching the Darter they found it impossible
tial, Commander McClintock arrived at The mission experts concluded that the to take the LCM alongside due to the heavy
Pearl Harbor and requested a new subma- wire connecting each of the explosives had surf. It was also impossible to take the LCM
rine with the Darter’s crew. Although his been wrapped around a number of interior into the lagoon and approach from the lee-
crew had been split up and placed on other metal fixtures as it was run from one end of ward side because of the lack of water over
boats, he was able to persuade the powers the boat to the other. Subsequently, the heat the reef. The party returned to the Mark and
that be, and he was given a brand-new boat, from the fires used to destroy confidential obtained a rubber boat and balsa life-raft for
the USS Menhaden (SS-377), then under materials had been so intense, that it blis- transporting gear to the wreck. The gear was
construction in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and tered the paint in the area of the officers’ placed in the boat and raft which were then
the majority of his original crew. head, and melted the insulation from the pulled by personnel along the mile and a half
Menhaden’s keel was laid on June 21, wire. Once the insulation was gone, the wires of reef perimeter. On their way, the party
1944, and she was launched down the ways had shorted against the metal fixtures, waded through water waist to shoulder deep
five days before Christmas that same year. prohibiting detonation of the explosives. and encountered many boulders and coral
Menhaden and McClintock were in Panama heads.
enroute to the Pacific when word came that POST-WAR Upon reaching Darter at 1130, they
the war was over. On January 2, 1952, a party under the entered through a huge hole under the con-
In the spring of 1945, a crew of US Navy command of the Area Salvage Officer from ning tower. Though no one was aboard, the
personnel made up of demolition experts, the US Naval Forces Command assigned to wreck bore indications of recent visits. A
along with movie director John Ford, the Thirteenth Air Force at Clark Air Force thorough search was made and torpedoes
boarded Darter with the mission of deter- Base in the Philippines was ordered to dis- were found loaded in forward tubes 1, 3, 5, 2
mining why the demolition charges placed by pose of the seven torpedoes which were still and 6, with a sixth one on the port side of
Darter’s crew had not gone off. (Although aboard Darter, and to remove all matter of a the forward torpedo room. No other explo-
the reason for Ford’s presence is unknown to classified nature and/or of intelligence sives, intelligence, or classified matter was
the author, it is assumed he joined the mis- value. found.

The demolition and salvage officers were taken aboard the explosion which occurred at 1530 hours on January 7, 1952.
LCM which hove to about two miles from Darter to observe the (Commander D. H. McClintock)

52
The explosion resulted in the entire bow forward of the after- that almost two tons of explosives were involved in the blast.
bulkhead of the torpedo room being blown off. It is estimated (Commander D. H. McClintock)

The crew began placing demolition

charges by packing 16 pounds of composition
C-3 explosive around the warhead of the
accessible torpedo. The torpedoes in the
tubes could not be accessed due to heavy
corrosion on the doors and the difficulty in
working from the outside due to the heavy
surf. Therefore, a forced entry was made
down through the deck forward of the tor-
pedo room. A total of four charges were laid
and tied into a circular primacord set-up,
which in turn was tied to a charge that had
been placed on the loose torpedo warhead in
the forward torpedo room. A lead was
stretched aft to the conning tower where it
was in turn attached to a detonator and 48
feet of miner’s safety fuse. A total of 96
pounds of composition C-3, 150 feet of
primacord safety fuse, and one non-electric
detonator were used.
By this time, the LCM was laying off the
wreck and the fuse was lit at 1450. The demo-
lition and salvage officers were taken aboard
the LCM which hove to about two miles
from Darter to observe the explosion which
occurred at 1530. The detonation blew off
the entire bow forward of the torpedo During the interview Commander McClintock related the following story. While on
room’s after-bulkhead. It is estimated that patrol, Darter officers held poker games in the wardroom, McClintock feeling it better
almost two tons of explosives were involved that the officers were occupied with thoughts of losing their money at poker than
in the blast. their lives at war. Wins and losses were recorded, and once back on shore, debts
Commander McClintock returned to the were settled. After setting sail. aboard Dace, McClintock joined his officers to resume
US in May 1946 and remained in the Navy their gaming ritual, reflecting on the circumstances noting ‘an ill wind blows nobody
holding various positions including duty on good’ and lamenting the loss of the book that had tracked their poker progress.
the staff of the National Security Council About then, Lieutenant E. P. Wilkinson (later the skipper of the first US nuclear sub
under President John F. Kennedy in Wash- Nautilus) revealed the one item he saved from the Darter — the poker book.
ington, DC. After retiring in 1965, he
returned to his home town of Marquette, Captain McClintock considers that his of which is located in Marquette County.
Michigan, and was employed at Northern most important work since his retirement The system and its transmissions allow
Michigan University as Director of Capital has been his support of the Navy’s subma- communications to be made to US sub-
Outlay and Campus Planning. He retired in rine communication system, known as ELF marines at very deep depths throughout the
1976, and still lives in Marquette. (Extremely Low Frequency), the main part world’s oceans.

This comparison, taken on June 22, 1998, is from almost the and numerous scavengers have taken their toll over the past
same port-side perspective as the one taken in 1952. The sea 54 years.

53
 Deep in the woods of the Falkenhagener
Heide, about ten miles north-west of Frank-
furt-am-Oder, lie the rotting remains of an
unnamed village surrounded by a double
bank of barbed-wire fences with its two
lonely security guards. From the air or from a
map it could have been any other communal
farm in the former German Democratic
THE SECRET VILLAGE
shell five metres thick to prevent any intru-
Republic. But this is where the secret head-
quarters of the Group of Soviet Forces in
sion from the water table in order to remain
perfectly dry. It was envisaged that the whole
By Tony Le Tissier
Germany (GSFG) were located for the con- production process as far as loading the fin-
duct of nuclear or biological warfare in con- ished product in steel containers on railway Considerable effort was given by the Ger-
junction with their Warsaw Pact allies. Not, wagons would take place underground. mans to camouflaging the site from aerial
as one might have expected, in the under- However, it would take time to complete the observation. Transportation was by a special
ground facilities captured intact from the construction of the bunker, for which it was narrow-gauge track connecting with the
Wehrmacht at the end of the Second World stipulated that only German-born nationals main lines at Briesen. These tracks followed
War beneath the massive compound later could be employed, so some above-ground the contour of a new concrete road through
developed by the Soviets at Zossen-Wüns- laboratories and plants were erected to the forest built to detour local traffic away
dorf around their overt headquarters com- enable the preliminary development of the from the site and were countersunk in the
plex, nor anywhere near that place, but some manufacturing process from laboratory to road surface to conceal their profile. Produc-
60 miles away in a ‘Permanently Restricted factory-scale production. In fact the con- tion also required a heavy consumption of
Area’ off-limits to the Western Allied Mis- struction of the bunker was to take until electrical power, and immediate post-war
sions based in Potsdam. 1943, a full five years to complete. One maps show a line of overhead pylons stop-
The location was in many ways a sensible delaying factor was the difficulty of meeting ping abruptly a considerable distance from
choice, for few outsiders could have known the manpower requirements at the height of the site. This clue to something unusual in
what was there when the decision was made the war. the vicinity that would merit such a supply
in the 1970s to convert a massive German When Albert Speer became the Minister was later removed. During the war, the Ger-
wartime underground factory into a com- for Armaments and Munitions in 1943, he mans continued to rely on camouflage for
mand bunker proof against nuclear and bio- decided to implement the production of the protection of the site and no anti-aircraft
logical warfare. Sarin II, a later generation of nerve gas, at guns were deployed that might have
The factory had been built as the result of the same site. The two products and those attracted attention to it.
a decision made by the Wehrmacht’s concerned with them were kept completely The upper level of the five-storied factory
Heereswaffenamt (Army Ordnance Depart- separate. A small satellite camp of the Sach- was concealed under a natural hill in such a
ment) back in 1938 to go in for the manufac- senhausen concentration camp was set up way that a railway line ran right through it in
ture of chlortrifloride for the recently discov- that year in the woods north of the site, but a tunnel. Three ventilation towers projected
ered nerve gas Tabun. Chlortrifloride, or whether the inmates were employed in the above the hill below the height of the tops of
N-Stoff, as it was called, is an aggressive, construction of the Sarin II installations, or the trees that covered it.
highly inflammable substance that needs used in the assembly of V-weapons in part of During the brief period the factory was
very special handling. The factory needed a the underground factory remains uncertain. operational between October 1944 and Feb-

Top: The outer guardroom on the narrow concrete road lead- old German laboratories on either side of the railway line lead-
ing to the formerly top secret headquarters for Soviet forces in ing to the underground HQ. Right: Massive entrance doors
Germany, established in the Wehrmacht’s nerve-gas factory were installed by the Soviets inside the tunnel to seal off the
north of Frankfurt-am-Oder. Left: The eastern entrance with the bunker from nuclear attack.

54
 German Soviet
TO FALKENHAGEN Buildings Buildings
0 500
W TABUN
Metres
3
W
TO DÖBBERIN

4
1 5
W

W SARIN II
9 W
2

10 7

8
6

10

BUNKER

FRANKFURT-AM-ODER FALKENHAGENER HEIDE

TO PETERSHAGEN

ruary 1945, about 22 to 30 tons of chlortri- The Secret Village. The original German underground bunker is [1] and the original
floride were finally produced. By this time accomodation block [2]. Soviet additions to the site are: [3] hotel; [4] accommodation
the site was under SS control and it seems block; [5] dining hall; [6] fire station; [7] Officers’ Club; [8] Cultural Centre; [9] school
that V-weapons were also assembled here. and married accommodation, and [10] new married quarters.
When the Red Army established bridge-
heads across the Oder river at the beginning ities overlooked by control cubicles, with a they used for basketball and the original
of February 1945, production was hastily hospital installed close behind. accommodation building. But they did build
abandoned and the satellite concentration Down below, the various production cham- officers’ quarters, a large accommodation
camp disbanded. By early April, Grenadier- bers were converted into the control bunker block and a hotel with a separate, communal
Ersatz- und Ausbildungs-Regiment 209 had role with raised floors under the communica- mess hall, all within the outline of the origi-
established its command post in the bunker tions rooms allowing easy access for the tech- nal structures. They also built a cultural cen-
as part of the deployment of the 156. Ersatz- nicians, a special wall-papered, self-contained tre, an officer’s club, family accommodation
und Ausbildungs-Division, a static reserve suite for the C-in-C, and other facilities for and a school, and even some new family
formation forming part of the German 9. the senior officers. The soldiers appear to accommodation blocks immediately before
Armee facing the 1st Byelorussian Front. A have been allocated collapsible bunks hinged their departure in 1992. Had it not been for
new member of this regiment, passing to the corridor walls denoted by painted the Four plus Two Agreement, it seems that
through to complete his training in the front numbers. The main operations room has a the army of the new Russian Federation had
line, saw the abandoned V-weapon work- false ceiling reducing its original height. been prepared to stay and maintain its capac-
shops in the underground factory, where he From interpreters that took part, it is ity for a nuclear or biological strike.
stayed the night. known that Warsaw Pact exercises were con- To what extent the Anglo-American intel-
Clearly the factory and site would have ducted here, and from 1988 onwards heli- ligence complex on the Teufelsberg in Berlin
been stripped by the Soviets of everything copters were heard landing at the site. were able to analyse the role of this location
removable in 1945 as part of their repara- The Soviets left the original production has not been disclosed, but it would be inter-
tions scheme. Having no further interest in structures alone, apart from two halls that esting to know!
the complex at that time, the Soviets handed
it back to the local authorities and it was not
until the 1950s that the Soviet Army
returned to establish a unit there that had
regular contact with the local residents. In
this connection, it is believed that the princi-
pal communications facility for GSFG at
Zossen-Wünsdorf was moved here following
the Anglo-American spy tunnel intercept
from the south-east corner of the American
Sector of Berlin being discovered in April
1956 (see Berlin Then and Now, pages 372-
373).
Then in the 1970s work was begun on con-
verting the factory into the GSFG command
bunker. One of the ventilation towers was
filled with filters for use in case of a biologi-
cal attack, when the other two could be cut
off. The railway tunnel was blocked off at
either end and airproof personnel entrances
installed incorporating a series of three mas- This model shows the extent of the underground factory-cum-nuclear headquarters.
sive steel doors about a metre wide, two A local resident and physicist, Dr Heini Hofmann, has made a thorough study of the
metres high and half a metre thick. Between site and currently conducts tours of it from the Museum at Seelow that commemo-
these doors were built decontamination facil- rates the 1945 battle for the Seelow Heights.

55