The Walls Have Ears

by Helen Fry

  In October 1942, the second Battle of El Alamein pushed surviving members of Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps back into Tunisia. The campaign led to the second German general to be taken into British captivity. He was 51-year-old General Ritter von Thoma, commander of a Panzer tank division, who was captured on 4 November 1942 at Tel-el-Mapsra, west of El Alamein.5 Four days later, British and American forces landed in North Africa in Operation Torch that took place between 8 and 11 November. Under the leadership of American commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied forces successfully re-took Morocco and Algeria in an effective liberation of North Africa. Von Thoma had served in the First World War and in 1937–38, before the Second War broke out, he had been based in Spain as experimenter-in-chief of the technical and tactical aspects of tank warfare,6 often accompanying Field Marshal Brauchitsch on visits to tank factories. In 1940, von Thoma was tank commander at Dunkirk and had been assigned as a key commander for the invasion of Britain. Like Crüwell, he had seen action on the Eastern Front and, in September 1942, was transferred to Africa as a commander.

  After capture, von Thoma was transferred straight to Trent Park. In British intelligence files, he is described as ‘very intelligent and exceedingly well read, a cultured man whose hobbies included the study of art, history and politics’.7 It was noted that: ‘he has a striking personality and is violently anti-Nazi, a man who does not suffer fools gladly. He could have been a great leader if he had possessed the ability to coordinate his ideas with action.’8 Von Thoma preferred to spend time alone in his room reading books on art, politics and history than playing cards. British intelligence noted: ‘His reminiscences are as interesting as his political views and he has had many and varied contacts with all sorts of eminent people from New York, from actresses to Balkan monarchs – not to speak of the Führer!’ Von Thoma could read English well, but in conversation spoke little English.

  His conversations with Crüwell were recorded by the secret listeners and transcripts made.9 The copy of a conversation between von Thoma, Crüwell and Major Burckhardt on 18 January 1943 landed on the desk of Edward Travis, the new commander at Bletchley Park who had taken over from Denniston.10 Crüwell commented, ‘I am always worried in case they [the English] should crack our code.’ Burckhardt asked, ‘For diplomatic messages?’ to which Crüwell replied, ‘All our communications with Japan are by W/T. All the things we hear when the English are using their W/T are startling when they are worked out. They don’t worry about it at all. Of course they may be doing it purposely.’

  On 4 February 1943, reflecting on the fall of Stalingrad and after hearing about the capture of Field Marshal Paulus, Crüwell told von Thoma: ‘I should have blown my brains out. I am bitterly disappointed!’11

  THE AFRIKA KORPS

  During early 1943, the Allies continued their slow advance towards Tunisia. By early April, Axis forces found themselves outflanked and outmanned in Tunisia and by mid-month they were clearly in an intense squeeze. Finally, on 12 May 1943, the Afrika Korps collapsed and commander General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim surrendered with a staggering 350,000 men. The war in North Africa was effectively over. Also captured were all the commanders of North Africa, including Hans Cramer and Gerhard Bassenge.12 Before transfer to Britain, they were held at either 208 POW camp at Constantine, north-eastern Algeria, or in a tented camp at Boufarik. Even at these sites their conversations were bugged and copies of the transcripts sent via CSDIC Algiers to Kendrick’s headquarters.13

  After the first hours of capture, the senior officers discussed how they had suffered an honourable defeat and stated that the German air force in Tunisia had been in a sad plight.14 They believed that the Allies would invade southern Europe, but felt that they would be unable to maintain military superiority after the landings.15

  The softening-up and befriending of senior German generals and officers, so characteristic of their treatment in captivity, began already in North Africa. They were taken on a three-hour excursion and tea party at a private house.16 Only then did the generals relax and open up in conversation with their escorting officers. They discussed how the Allied barrage before the final breakthrough had been overwhelming and worse than at El Alamein17 and expressed amazement at the amount of equipment and ammunition behind Allied lines. Bassenge, an officer amongst the group on the excursion, was described as a ‘voluble talker and extremely self-confident’.18

  On 16 May, nine German generals were flown to England and landed at Hendon aerodrome.19 They were transferred straight to Trent Park with their batmen to join Generals Crüwell and von Thoma. Shown honour and dignity immediately, they were greeted in front of the country mansion by Major General Sir Ernest Gepp (1879–1964), Permanent Under-Secretary of State War Office and the director of Prisoners of War (Administration).20 Gepp was a career soldier who had joined the British army in 1900 and had four decades of distinguished military service. Standing next to him, to greet the generals, was Major Charles Corner.

  In the coming months, the generals and their batmen would become key characters in a series of disputes and personal rivalries, yielding at the same time excellent intelligence for the British. The house was run along military lines in which the batmen, whose duties included making the beds and polishing the boots of the generals, were also expected to dine separately.

  A week later, two more captured generals and a colonel joined the prisoners.21 On 30 May, four more generals arrived from North Africa by sea at Plymouth, Devon. They were temporarily housed at Wilton Park, before being transferred to Trent Park on 2 June.22

  In their conversations, the generals speculated on the course of the war and tried to analyse the next Allied military plans. Crüwell, von Thoma, Cramer and von Vaerst discussed together the consequences of the Allies overrunning the Romanian oilfields which, in their opinion, would mean that Germany could not last a year. General Fritz von Broich expounded the view that the British would not invade Italy because the only benefit would be gaining access to the airfields in southern Germany and the British would be left to deal with the logistics of supplies and feeding the Italian population.23 Others discussed a possible Allied invasion via Spain and southern Greece, raising the question of whether they knew about the deception of Operation Mincemeat – in which British intelligence had floated a dead body off the coast of Spain in June 1943 with fake invasion plans to make the Germans think the invasion would occur in Greece.

  Whilst at Trent Park, General von Arnim received a letter from his wife in Germany in which she reassured him how no one at home blamed him for the failure of the Tunisian campaign.24 Von Arnim was often found playing cards or chess with Crüwell or Krause. He was a keen gardener and asked his minders if he could have a window box to plant seeds from the walks around the grounds. As these defeated but proud military men discussed politics and military strategy, little did they know that they were about to receive some very special treatment at the hand of British intelligence.

  Lower-rank German prisoners captured in North Africa were taken to Latimer House or Wilton Park where they too were subjected to the special bugging treatment. The intelligence files note that these particular prisoners took time to recover from the first shock of their defeat and the depression that followed capture.25 They watched events in Russia with growing interest, with many voicing their belief that Germany’s victory would soon be won and the war would be over. The listeners also noted: ‘The Afrika Korps men have been greatly impressed by the fairness both of our fighting and of our and the Americans’ treatment of them as prisoners of war.’26

  The overall impression was of a war-weary army. After hard fighting in Tunisia, many prisoners admitted relief that the war was over in Africa. One prisoner, Willi Liebig, was overheard saying: ‘May the time come when we get over these days of terror; not hatred and discord, but a common creative effort can alone lead to sound reconstruction.’27 Many of their letters home to Germany expressed how hard the last days were in Tunisia, fighting against superior
Allied forces. Prisoner Karl Stiglbauer wrote to his wife: ‘You can have no idea how glad I am that I have not to see Africa again. I know how you worried, but anyhow now you have the certainty of seeing me again and the anxiety that I might be killed is now over.’28 For the senior officers, Trent Park with its park and surroundings, offered ‘a haven of retreat to weary, disillusioned men who have suffered bitter defeats.’29

  ‘A GENTLEMAN’S CLUB’

  Bringing the generals to Trent Park began one of British intelligence’s most cunning deceptions of the war. The generals expected to be held in a rudimentary prisoner-of-war camp with Nissen huts and barbed wire, exactly the kind of surroundings that would lead the generals to behave like prisoners and give very little away. British intelligence knew that direct interrogation of them would not be feasible because of their status.30 Instead, the generals found themselves living a life of relative luxury at, they believed, the generous behest of the King and according to their status as military commanders – and this played right into their sense of self-importance. Their every need was catered for and they began to relax into their surroundings. Trent Park could be likened to a traditional privileged, exclusive gentleman’s club in central London. The three most senior generals, Crüwell, von Thoma and Cramer, were given a bedroom and adjoining sitting room. Cramer was allocated a particularly large room. Other generals were allocated a single room with no sitting room, and the batmen were accommodated two to a room.31

  A room was set aside for creative activities – for painting and drawing, playing cards, table-tennis and billiards.32 The generals devoted time to learning languages and studying other subjects. They had freedom to roam the house and grounds, they received newspapers and were able to listen to BBC radio broadcasts. One officer wrote home to his wife that he would love his family to stay there with him, but without the barbed wire.33 Little did they suspect that even the billiard table had a bugging device hidden in it. Kurt Köhncke commented: ‘Our involuntary hosts are thoroughly gentlemanlike.’34

  The Director of Military Intelligence wrote to Colonel Gatesby (Chief of Prisoners at the war branch MIS-X – the American equivalent of MI9 in Washington) and told him:

  The camp is a large country house in a fine park of its own. The fact that it happens to be ‘fitted’ by us is just too bad … We are, unfortunately, having lovely weather and these blasted generals will spend a lot of their time out of doors instead of in their rooms. It makes our job much more difficult, and I pray nightly for rain.35

  One German general was enamoured of the gardens and parkland with its beautiful old woods, ancient oak trees and lime tree avenue, but he was not so polite about the house: ‘The old manor house with its high gabled roof constructed in the Lower Saxony style, lends itself better to the countryside than the showy, tasteless stone box which passes for a castle.’36

  The generals did not realise that everything that could be bugged was – from the light fittings to the fireplaces, plant pots, behind the skirting boards, under floorboards of the bedrooms, and even the trees in the gardens. The hidden microphones were wired back to the M Room in the basement where teams of secret listeners worked from the time the generals woke until the time they went to sleep. A British officer would even sit on a bench outside for a chat with a general, carefully placed near a hidden microphone so their conversations could be recorded.

  The secret listeners never saw the generals; they only heard their voices through the headphones and came to recognise their individual voices so they could distinguish who was speaking. The listeners were able to record the raw, unadulterated opinions of the generals on a range of political, technical and strategic information. It also gave an insight into the mind-set of the enemy, enabling British intelligence to understand them and fool them into a false sense of complacency. A secret staircase led down from Kendrick’s office into the basement, which was sealed at each end of the house by a clever use of false walls and panels to prevent any of the generals taking a wander down there.

  During the first week, there was a feeling of constraint, but soon they began to reflect on whether they were in any way responsible for the defeat in Tunisia and North Africa. Some blamed the Italians for not using their fleet; others felt the responsibility lay with German High Command. Von Arnim expressed the opinion that reports of the true military situation had been withheld from Hitler. His real allegiance was somewhat of a mystery to British intelligence as he continued to profess a belief in a German victory, was fervently anti-Jewish and anti-Bolshevik, but with no overt evidence of strong Nazi views while at Trent Park. Bülowius and Krause were depressed by the turn of events and their capture, but soon became resigned to their situation. The intelligence summary for this period reported:

  Their present abode, with its park and lovely surroundings, appears to afford a haven of retreat to weary, disillusioned men who have suffered bitter defeats. They are devoting their time largely to learning or perfecting their English. Reading newspapers or entering into conversation with the English officers who accompany them on walks, helps them in this.37

  Perhaps in a gesture to lift their spirits, the generals were offered the opportunity of having their portraits painted by an official war artist. They discussed the matter amongst themselves. Von Arnim, who had been appointed camp leader by the other generals, told the British army officers that permission would not be given for it.

  General von Thoma took another approach. Interested in art, he suggested that the artist may be glad of a model and that he, von Thoma, had all the time in the world and would welcome the entertainment. He was the most highly decorated general in the camp, and although en---titled to wear his medals, he declined. He had received decorations from Spain (Franco), Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph and the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, awarded for bravery and meritorious leadership in battle. When the question arose of what he would wear for the portrait, he said he preferred to be painted in his bush shirt without badges of rank or decorations, just as when captured in the desert.38 Von Arnim disapproved strongly of von Thoma sitting for the artist.

  The most important dimension of the scenario created at Trent Park was that it provided British intelligence with the unguarded conversations of Hitler’s top military commanders. The place was, in essence, nothing more than a location to garner secrets – everything else was a façade, a theatrical stage set created by Kendrick and his immediate boss, Major Arthur Rawlinson. The personal mannerisms of the generals were noted by MI19 on their personal files to build a physical and psychological profile of each of them. Understanding their characters would enable British intelligence to make the most of ‘the guests’ (as they were called in intelligence reports) and create scenarios which would facilitate unwitting disclosure of the closely protected secrets of the Third Reich.

  THE FAKE ARISTOCRAT

  On arrival at Trent Park, the generals were escorted by military vehicle through the beautiful parkland with their first glimpse of the impressive country house that Sir Philip Sassoon had remodelled in the 1920s using red bricks from the dismantled Devonshire House in Mayfair. How could they not fail but be impressed by it? Standing in front of the imposing black door to greet them was a certain Lord Aberfeldy.39 He was, they were told, their welfare officer – an aristocrat of distinguished Scottish ancestry and a second cousin of the King. His role was to gain the generals’ confidence and raise questions without arousing suspicion.40

  The generals were led to believe that the King had instructed him to look after their every need and to ensure they were treated according to their status as military commanders. Lord Aberfeldy was, in fact, a fictional character whose true identity was never discovered by the generals. They genuinely believed him to be of distinguished Scottish ancestry, but he was no aristocrat. He was one of Kendrick’s intelligence officers, Ian Thomson Munro, who was exceedingly good at acting.41

  The small market town of Aberf
eldy lies on the river Tay, home to Aberfeldy Whisky and in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. The town is not far from Castle Menzies which once belonged to the ancient Menzies clan. From 1939 to 1952, Sir Stewart Menzies was the head of MI6, and, although there was no obvious connection between him and Menzies Castle, Stewart Menzies’s grandfather was a whisky distiller. Was this pure coincidence or deliberate humorous name-play on the part of British intelligence?

  Munro was born in Dundee in 1913, educated at a Gymnasium in Kassel, Germany, and graduated with an MA (hons) in French Language and Literature from St Andrews University in 1934. He spoke fluent German and French, with some knowledge of Spanish and Italian, and attained a postgraduate diploma in Business, Economics and Administration. His childhood had not been without tragedy: his father died when he was two years old, two siblings died in childhood and his mother never remarried. Whatever his background, Munro clearly enjoyed and was extremely good at his role as an aristocrat.

  When he enlisted in April 1939 at the age of 26, Munro was working as a bank clerk in London. His enlistment form states that he had lived and worked extensively in Europe. In October 1940, he was badly injured in an air raid and had to have a leg amputated. Perhaps his wooden leg gave him ample excuse for a rest during the frequent walks with the generals, and always sitting close to a hidden microphone.

  After being wounded, he was drafted into the Intelligence Corps and served initially in the Prisoner of War Interrogation Section (PWIS) of MI9, under the command of Colonel Alexander Scotland.42 In August 1941, he was promoted to Captain and two years later, on 18 January 1943, was posted to CSDIC (UK). He first appeared at Trent Park as the generals’ welfare officer, Lord Aberfeldy, in May that same year.43

  Interrogator Matthew Sullivan knew Ian Munro/Lord Aberfeldy and wrote of him: ‘A delightfully outgoing and intelligent Scot, he was the prototype of the officer and gentleman and his contribution to the war was to act this out to the full. He took his guests on walks, to restaurants, galleries and shops in London, disarming not a few with his snob appeal and his assumed title.’44