by S C Brown
As Smithens was about to walk towards the aircraft he suddenly stopped and walked back to Berner and Eve. ‘What page?’
Berner gave a little laugh. ‘Well, I will give you one guess. You’re MI6, yes?’
Smithens smiled a thank you and looked around, savouring every moment of being back on enemy territory.
‘It’ll be good to have you onside, Walter, but from now on, you do everything she tells you.’ Smithens pointed at Eve. ‘And you, madam, will do everything I tell you, understand?’
Eve nodded.
Smithens shook both their hands and turned to get into the aircraft.
‘Regards to Maud!’ Eve shouted. Smithens pretended not to hear but gave Eve a mischievous smile and a wink as RAF blue arms reached out to drag Smithens into the aeroplane.
The aircraft taxied quickly down towards Clement and his men. Saxon, on a stretcher, was pushed through the hatch. Clement had only a moment to wish him bon voyage.
Everyone watched the Hudson take off and turn sharply north as the sun continued to rise. Clement watched the man and woman, who seemed like old friends, get into a black staff car and disappear.
* * *
Saxon lay in the back of the Hudson with a roughed-up Wehrmacht Colonel. He also studied the British Lieutenant Colonel, sat further down, flicking through the pages of a book. Saxon watched the Colonel stop at a page at the start of the book, bring the book right up to his face to inspect the page carefully, before putting the book down and smiling.
The aircraft climbed away from France and into the dawn. Saxon asked the British Colonel over the noise of the engines, ‘Didn’t I see you in Dieppe, Sir?’
The Colonel thought before answering. ‘You never saw me anywhere, young man. Especially here. You never saw me. You never see me. You understand?’
Saxon put his head on the pillow, smiling. He understood.
The End
HISTORICAL NOTE
This story is of course fiction but there is a heavy thread of truth running through it.
The character Walter Berner is based on Hermann Giskes of the Abwehr. Giskes arrested over 40 British and Dutch agents in Holland through the Second World War and was able to convince them, without the use of violence, to ‘play back’ messages to London. He arranged for the blowing up of barges on a Dutch canal to encourage London to believe his stories. Giskes had London absolutely hoodwinked. Only when a British agent escaped and notified London of what was happening did Giskes have to stop his ‘Englandspiel’. London was shocked at the extent of Giskes’ success. Giskes was protected as much as possible once the Abwehr disintegrated in 1944 but was eventually interrogated by the SS, farcically. If you can get a copy, I strongly recommend his book ‘London Calling North Pole’, it’s a cracker. Giskes was never a double agent for Britain but it is said he went on to work for US Intelligence after the war. He died in 1977.
Eve is a fictional character completely but in many ways typical of many of the women who volunteered to be sent behind enemy lines. Few ever returned. British agents did leave intentional spelling mistakes in their messages.
Ritter is based on the Butcher of Lyon: Klaus Barbie. Notorious for his personal involvement in the torture of French Resistance workers and agents. Barbie avoided almost certain execution after the war by agreeing to work for US Intelligence and it is said he had a hand in the tracking down of Che Guevara. Extradited from Bolivia, he was tried for war crimes and died in prison in France in 1991.
Sergeant Brunswick is based very loosely on Sergeant Hugo Bleicher of the Abwehr, who was responsible for a number of arrests of British and French agents through the war and did disguise himself as a Colonel. He was arrested in 1945, put on trial by the French and subsequently imprisoned. His book, Colonel Henri’s Story is well worth a read even if much of the content is these days contested. Bleicher died in 1982.
General von Kettler is based on the true character of General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, the senior German commander in Paris from 1942 and a key conspirator in the attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life in July 1944, for which he was executed a month later.
Admiral Schneider is based on Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr. At first, Canaris was able to work with the Nazis but later started to disapprove of their methods. It was rumoured that Canaris was in communication with the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, but nothing has ever been proved. Yet, rumours of collusion with the enemy, in conjunction with some intelligence failures, were enough to order the collapse of the Abwehr. Canaris was arrested and later implicated in the Hitler assassination plot but he was not executed until April 1945, just as the war in Europe was coming to an end. Canaris did indeed have a pet Dachshund called Peppi, the fate of which remains a mystery.
I hope you enjoyed this book and if I have my way,
Walter Berner will return.
Recommended Further Reading:
- SOE – The Special Operations Executive 1940-1946 by M R D Foot.
- MI6 – The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 by Keith Jeffery.
- No Cloak No Dagger: Allied Spycraft in Occupied France by Benjamin Cowburn.
- The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France by Andre Hue.
- The German Penetration of SOE: France, 1941-44 by Jean Overton Fuller.
- London Calling North Pole by H J Giskes.
- Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery by Richard Bassett.
- SS Intelligence: The Nazi Secret Service by Edmund L. Blandford.
- Colonel Henri’s Story - The War Memoirs of Hugo Bleicher, Former German Secret Agent by Hugo Bleicher.