by Helen Fry
GERMAN AIR FORCE
Luftwaffe prisoners captured in early 1942 provided tactical information, especially on the ‘Baedeker air raids’ – when Germany began to bomb sites in Britain listed in the famous Baedeker tourist guide books. The secret listeners overheard details of the number of aircraft and units employed on the raids, and the strain being placed by the raids on an already depleted German air force. It confirmed to the Air Ministry that the German air force continued to be in decline.
Prisoners talked about the flying routes employed by the Luftwaffe, the heights they used when approaching England, and the impact of RAF bombing on the major German cities of Hamburg, Cologne, Lübeck, Essen and Münster.81 It was learned that on the Eastern Front the Germans had dropped hundreds of Russian-speaking German parachutists behind the Russian lines to bring back information on the disposition of Russian troops. The Special Reports helped to understand the strength of the German air force in Russia, Finland and Italy and described the training of 5,000 German air force officers to be attached to an aerodrome in France. The flow of intelligence about new German technology continued, including the discovery that Germany was trying to develop a navigational beam that was not subject to British interference. There were several references during 1941 and 1942 to gas warfare that would be instigated on Hitler’s order.82
ARMY INTELLIGENCE
Prisoners captured in the raids on Norway and France spoke about the operations in great detail. Defenders of the Vågsøy district (Norway) agreed that the British attack had taken them by complete surprise. References to the situation in North Africa were made and there was ‘no wavering of confidence in Rommel and the belief expressed that he would in a short time be in Cairo’.83 Details were forthcoming on the deployment of German troops on the Bulgarian–Turkish border which would break through to Palestine and the Suez Canal to link up with Rommel’s forces, and also of tank reinforcements being sent by special aircraft to Rommel in North Africa.
A recurrent theme in the discussions was related to the Second Front and speculation of when and where the Allies would mount an invasion of Europe. They expressed the view that German forces in the West were inadequate to prevent defeat and should be reinforced by troops serving on the Eastern Front. Prisoners were divided on whether the threat of a Second Front was merely bluff on the part of the Allies. Conversely, talk of a German invasion of Britain declined during 1942.
Reports from Trent Park enabled commanders to gain a wider picture of the war. In particular, they brought information about resistance and acts of sabotage by the French civilian population against the German occupation. It included action by inhabitants of northern France who displayed lights to help British night-fighters. POWs taken during the Lofoten and Vågsøy raids were depressed by the hostility of the Norwegian people who carried out attacks on German troops. Kendrick’s report stated: ‘In Trondheim it was said that soldiers were found with their throats cut and a hidden arms dump discovered. In Bergen German troops fired on Norwegians who made the V sign. In Oslo, the leaders of a disturbance in a factory were shot.’84
One of the primary areas where intelligence was needed concerned conditions within Germany itself: how were ordinary Germans coping with the war? Was morale high or low? Was the nation on the brink of starvation or not? Such information enabled British intelligence to assess how far the war was affecting everyday life within Germany, and its continued fighting capability. Neither the Nazi regime nor the Allies would ever admit any weakness publicly in the media, because that could be used by the enemy to find effective strategies to further weaken the country. A number of references were made by prisoners to the use of Allied POWs and foreign workers for labour. Hitler used the SS to tighten his grip on power, with Gestapo guards stationed at key factories. Food was short in some of the larger German towns but areas that had been subjected to heavy Allied bombing were issued with a liberal amount of supplies, which were normally restricted under rationing, as a way of keeping up civilian morale. Sporadic outbursts from Communist sympathisers occurred. Although there was some resistance in Germany to the Nazi regime, there was no strong leader who could organise and activate opposition.
Special Reports during this period revealed a shift in attitude amongst the German POWs as they began to question the infallibility of Hitler. This was a marked difference from the previous six months as they began to express concern over the Russian campaign and pessimism increased over the outcome of the war. German airmen were becoming the most outspoken against the regime.
Carefully selected information from CSDIC reports was passed to the Foreign Office and used in propaganda by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE).85 This propaganda work was based at Milton Bryan, not far from Bletchley Park, under the directorship of former journalist and fluent German speaker, Denis Sefton Delmer. Regular and reliable information gained from prisoners’ conversations, via the M Room, provided gossip and rumour about the personal lives and salacious habits of Nazi functionaries and Wehrmacht officers that could be utilised to great effect by the PWE as a powerful propaganda tool.86 One particular clandestine radio station called Gustav Siegfried Eins, actually operated by the PWE, purported to be run by a disaffected German army officer. It revelled in berating named Nazi Party leaders for their debauched and corrupt lifestyles. Details of lavish parties in Gauleiters’ palatial country estates, paid for through profits made from the war effort, were often angrily denounced by the radio station.
British intelligence had no idea how effective this propaganda campaign was until the recordings from Trent Park confirmed that the programmes were being widely listened to by German forces. German airmen were tuning in to receive news about comrades missing in action because the PWE radio station announced their names as a hook to increase its listeners among all those eager for news of friends and loved ones at a time when news was scarce.87 British intelligence had the confirmation it needed: that via radio broadcasts it had an extremely powerful tool at its disposal. It meant that phoney radio stations could be set up, masked as German radio stations broadcasting within Germany.88
CHAPTER 5
The Spider
In July 1942, Kendrick moved the headquarters from Trent Park to Latimer House. Former interrogator Dr John Whitten described Latimer House as: ‘a very secret place. The prisoners entered and left in closed vans, so they never knew where they were.’1 It became officially known as Camp 30 or No.1 Distribution Centre (No.1 DC). The prisoners were told that they were being held in ‘Camp 7’ – a fictitious title for Latimer House. After capture and transfer to England, the prisoners were processed via one of the ‘cages’ (slang for interrogation quarters) at Lingfield, Kempton Park or the London Cage.2 These cages were part of the Prisoner of War Interrogation Section (PWIS) under Colonel Alexander Scotland – who had established interrogation quarters at Cockfosters at the outbreak of war.3 At the ‘cages’, the prisoners were assessed and swiftly interrogated. If deemed to have special intelligence or knowledge (especially on technology or secret weapons), they were transferred to Kendrick’s sites for detailed interrogation and were subject to the eavesdropping operation. MI9 had expanded to such an extent that in 1942 it divided, with Kendrick’s unit and PWIS becoming the newly-formed MI19.4
When prisoners first arrived at Latimer House, they were taken to a green building in Ley Hill Road which housed the fumigation plant. Rumours of a plague on the Eastern Front necessitated fumigation precautions to be taken. The Latimer estate was enclosed by a barbed wire perimeter fence and two checkpoint entrances. Photography was strictly forbidden and no one could enter without a special permit. The main entrance was guarded by a security barrier across Ley Hill Road, with a second gated entrance located further up the road to the north.
Wilton Park, now No.2 Distribution Centre, opened in December 1942, under commandant Lieutenant Colonel Leo St Clare Grondona. Prisoners at Latimer House and Wilton Park usually stayed for only a few days or a week depending on thei
r intelligence value, maybe longer if necessary. The lower-rank prisoners now also went through these two estates. When CSDIC felt they could provide no further useful intelligence they were transferred to one of the numerous regular prisoner-of-war camps around Britain where they spent the rest of the war, often working the land or carrying out forestry duties until repatriation at the end of hostilities.
Ten thousand lower-rank prisoners passed through Kendrick’s bugging sites up to 1945. Their personal files or index cards either no longer exist or have not been declassified for the National Archives. As these prisoners came from lower military grades, information on their backgrounds is fairly limited in MI19 files. This is not the case for the individual files of those generals who were held at Trent Park; a personal profile was compiled for each general and senior German officer held by MI19. Kendrick increased the staff across the three CSDIC sites to 967 personnel, of which 167 were ATS.5 The sheer volume of intelligence necessitated this increase in ATS officers to maintain continuity and cope with the workload. He was supported by two assistant commandants: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Corner (Intelligence) and Lieutenant Colonel F. Huband (Administration).
A VERY SECRET PLACE
The main mock-Tudor red brick house served as the Officers’ Mess for all three services. Except for its slender chimneys, the house could not be seen from the wartime complex at the back of the King’s Walk. The comings and goings in the mansion house remained largely secret from personnel working on the other side of the site. Kendrick held regular meetings there with intelligence chiefs and commanders without the knowledge of any of the other staff or non-commissioned officers. On one side of the house, a temporary wartime building was constructed as living quarters for the female Naval Intelligence officers. A room on the first floor of the country house became Kendrick’s office, while the other rooms were used by female staff for typing up classified reports.
Wartime buildings which housed the interrogation block, M Room and cells, were built within a walled area at the far end of the estate. In this complex of buildings, cell blocks were constructed parallel to a long north-south corridor, divided down the centre by a breeze block wall, making the corridors rather narrow. At each end was a telescopic, steel-slatted security grille. A central watchtower with gun slits overlooked the whole complex. Prisoners were kept two to a cell, to enable the secret listeners to distinguish between their voices during the recording of conversations. They were usually from different services, in the hope that they would confide to each other about what they failed to tell British officers during interrogation.
Secret listener Jan Weber had less glamorous recollections of Latimer House as
… a dilapidated, rat infested building with outhouses, some of them added by the Military to house the guard troops commanded by a fierce looking Sergeant Major. There were officers, male and female from all three services, but mainly army. The women were typists. Their principal job was to transcribe recordings of conversations between prisoners, and between prisoners and stool pigeons.6
Denys Felkin relocated to Latimer with Kendrick to continue as head of the Air Intelligence section. The prisoners knew Felkin only by his cover name, ‘Oberst King’ (Colonel King). He was as much a part of the softening-up process as Kendrick: ‘He [Felkin] knew his Germans and he would supplement friendly persuasion by leaning forward to give a touch on an arm or leg. His technical interrogations were often crucial in the “battle of the Boffins”.’7 Former Air Intelligence officer, Joan Stansfield, who worked in an office next to Felkin, wrote: ‘POWs were seen from time to time crossing from the compound under escort. We had right of way and ignored their presence. If one had to cross through the grilles inside the building, the warders did not open them if there were POWs in the corridors.’8 The clocks and calendars on site were changed to cause some disorientation for the prisoners.
A section called Marshland was run by Captain (later Major) Norman Marsh, and located in an annexe below the windows of the Editorial Section. It issued papers on prisoners’ attitudes on matters political, religious, moral and professional. Attached to Marshland was the army psychologist, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Dicks, who was engaged in psychological studies of the prisoners at the site.9 All this was located just at the top of the King’s Walk, named after a tradition that King Charles I once hid on the estate before his execution. During the Second World War this charming secluded walkway (which still exists today) was used by Kendrick’s intelligence officers to take a German general for a walk to befriend him and chat before his transfer to Trent Park. It was hoped that a mutual understanding might lead to him inadvertently giving something away about Nazi Germany. Individual profiles held by MI9/MI19 for each general list whether he was first brought to Latimer House or Wilton Park before long-term transfer to Trent Park’s ‘special quarters’.
By now, the unit required its own photographic section after an urgent request was received for an enlargement of operational maps.10 The section was given the necessary facilities to enlarge maps and photographs, as well as equipment for the development and quick drying of film.11 It was also equipped with cameras and copying equipment to take photographs of POWs for the records, copy documents, maps and plans and to photograph captured documents, maps and people.
The section enabled the swift copying of sea-stained and damaged photographs found on POWs – items which could provide clues for intelligence purposes. These could be enlarged and introduced during interrogation, so a prisoner would give up trying to hide information, believing that the British already knew everything there was to know. The section also treated and cleaned films that had been exposed to the sea – found floating on the water or retrieved from U-boat survivors who were pulled out of the sea.12
Kendrick’s unit may have shifted vast amounts of paperwork, but one of his most important jobs – and one that he was exceedingly good at – was hosting lunches and dinners. In the comfortable surroundings of the library and dining room he frequently wined and dined his guests as if they were at a gentleman’s club, but one where the nation’s secret operations could be discussed in total privacy. Pink gin was reputedly one of the favourite cocktails on the terrace – a habit acquired from the Naval Intelligence section. Over a fine luncheon and alcohol, Kendrick discussed the progress of the war and the latest intelligence gathered from his prisoners. In turn, the intelligence chiefs primed him on the kind of information that they needed, especially to confirm rumours of new technology being used on U-boats or German aircraft, or the latest German developments in weaponry. After a visit by General James Marshall-Cornwall, the head of MI9, Brigadier Norman Crockatt received a letter which praised ‘the excellent lunch’. Marshall-Cornwall told him: ‘I thought that you and Kendrick had organised a marvellously good show … Kendrick is an old-stager on our side of the house.’13
After another visit, Commodore Edmund Rushbrooke (the then Director of Naval Intelligence) told Kendrick:
I was very much impressed with all I saw. You obviously have a most efficient organisation, and the inter-team work is of the highest order. I only hope my visit did not throw your busy machine out of order for half a day. Anyway, I assure you that I much appreciate the kindness of yourself and your staff. If at any time there is anything I can do to help in regard to the Naval side of your organisation, you may be sure of my best efforts.14
Kendrick continued to hold regular briefing meetings with Bletchley Park to share intelligence and corroborate material which the code-breakers were gathering.15 Only a few personnel at the CSDIC sites knew about the existence of Bletchley and vice versa.16 Kendrick facilitated the interrogation of special Axis prisoners at the CSDIC sites by using interrogators sent from MI8/Bletchley Park.17 These prisoners were divisional intelligence officers, wireless station officers and officers dealing with German cyphers and high-grade cryptographic communications.18 The reports which were generated from these interrogations were highly classified and only shared initially with Kendri
ck’s unit; a special note on them read: ‘This report is Most Secret and should not be passed beyond the list distribution without previous reference to MI8.’19
A lengthy interrogation of Gefreiter Pzuiara by Captain Heller of MI8 produced information on German traffic and codes.20 He was shown an Enigma machine by Heller and asked how it differed from the one he had used in Hanover.21 Pzuiara replied that there were some variations.22 He also described how to encode a message on it and how a daily code was changed. A copy of the interrogation was sent to Commander Travis, Harold Fletcher and other key figures at Bletchley Park.23
WILTON PARK
By December 1942, the site at Wilton Park was finally ready for operations. It too masked as a supply depot and was known as No.2 Distribution Centre. Its commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Leo St Clare Grondona, was an Australian, born in 1890, who had studied at St Patrick’s College.24 He left Australia in 1916 to serve in France, and was wounded in action with a fracture to the left leg and gunshot wound to the right leg. In 1923, he was appointed a delegate to the Imperial (Economic) Conference in London and stayed on in the capital as a journalist and writer for the Sydney Bulletin. In 1940, he was given an emergency commission and joined Kendrick’s team at MI9.
Major Le Bosquet headed the interrogation section. Wilton Park’s adjutant, Kenneth Morgan, carried out interrogation duties from time to time and later at the London Cage in Kensington under Kendrick’s colleague, Colonel Alexander Scotland.25 Captain Victor Lang was the Intelligence Liaison Officer in charge of the German generals at the White House at Wilton Park.26 Born Ludwig Victor Langstein (c.1885), he had served in the First World War, fighting with the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division on one of the bitterest battlefields at Gallipoli. Listed as wounded in 1915 in the Dardanelles, shrapnel in his left eye led to its removal in Dreadnought Hospital – hence the patch over the eye in later photographs.27 At the outbreak of the Second World War he was given an emergency commission and attached to Kendrick’s unit.