Strange

Strange Bedfellows The OSS and the London Free Jonathan S. Gould Editors Note: The open,ng Germans fl/es gic Services to of the wartime of the Office of Strate (055) and the end of military intelligence critically tant to impor the advance of the Allied of the Cold War have enabled scho/an~ add new perspecti&e to our understanding of World War II intelligence operations. flvo decades ago, Joseph Persicos Pierc ing the Reich used some of the dec/ass qied records to tell the sto#y of the 05S~ danng infiltiation of leading to the surrender Germany on 8 May 1945. armies, This article focuses on one set of those missions, manned by seven exiled German trade unionists, and between the agents the OSS officer who recruited and the relationship and trained them. That officer Lt. The OSS was faced the agents into Nazi Germany war iii the Army cated Joseph Gouldwas is the formidable task of closing the 055 months of the who One of a authors to father. This article dccli finding agents willing to parachute blind into the Third Reich. officeis ran those oper ations, the late Joseph Gould, left menjoil- that now addc texture aizel his memory and to the and sacrifice of these courage seven silent soldiers of the German resistance, who have gone impact to Persicos account and author largely subsequent scholarship. The of this artfc/~ Gouktc son Jonathan, ineniones unrecognized. has coiiibined his fathers with the published litera The Penetration Campaign inten tzereand with a startling twist As the war from behind the Iron Curtain. against Germany a sified, the OSS mission in London emerged ... ... ... as critical intelligence Following the Allied landing at Nor mandy in June 1944. the OSS dispatched over 200 spies into Nazi Germany. The London office of the Secret Intelligence Branch (SI), under the leadership of the late CIA director William J Casey. orga nized and component of the US military effort. In September 1942, the OSS had established the Secret Intelli gence Branch to organize clandestine agent operations abroad. SI appointed Casey as director of its London office in June dispatched over 100 missions from September 1944 through April 1945 Agents recruited from the ranks of church given full respon sibility for organizing the penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS agents. The London office, 1944 Casey was located the at 72 Grosvenor Street in dissidents, Spanish civil \\ar ans, political refugees. and ~eter Mayfair section, expanded quickly and became the focal point of Anglo-American intelligence cooperation many. As in the war underground lahor groups through out occupied Europe gathered Jonathan 2002 S. Gould is an against Ger one historian noted, was at the attorney I London mission William J the heart of in New York City. Copyright S. Gould ' Casey sened as nirecior of cen under tral irnelligence from 1980-1986 Presi OSS relations with British intelli gence, and as by Jonathan dciii Ronald Reagan, such it personified 11 OSS in Germany SHAEF approved project. the FAUST Plan to and directed the OSS on begin work the Recruitment of the London Free Germans SI was now faced with the formida ble task of finding agents to cover Germany. Ihe OSS had placed spies in hut identifying men who w( )tildl parachute blind into the Third Reich without William J already occupied countries, reception or commit casey. I)irecior of Special intelligence for OSS/Londoo Photo Ia keo in \Vashingion tees, safe houses friends.., who oc, iQi2 sha i-ed Nazis a common a 5 hatred of the was the essence of that connection in the Allied war effort2 together with the state inside Germany) was In response to SI-IAEFs of morale of interest. leadership recruits challenge to Caseys The pool of potential small. Where would was the 055 find German nationals in Caseys appointment as head of OSS/Londons 51 operations came at a request, SI England ties, who in their midtolate were thui formulated the FAUST Plan for the at conversant in the time when t lie militan brass penetration of Germany. lhe after Goethes famed the Supreme Headquarters of the plannamed particular city targeted sons dialect of each German and familiar with local Even if stich per Allied in Expeditionary Force (SHAEF,) character from German literate re neighborhoods? to hope of accomplishing anything of conse London held little qu ence in terms known for his qtiest for knowl edgecalled for the training and infiltration of 30 would be as existed, would they he into their willing as war be trained and pa iachu ted own secret of militan dropped hI ish a agents. who inside Nazi Ger network of enenw spies torn country? intelligence late as Germany. In fact, August 1944. high-level in I many to esta spies tary to coflect and transmit mili to SIs Labor Division. led by New intelligence admitted officers within SHAEF hat the Allied Command had lives not no specific intelligence objec had - within Germanvand clone an~ planning for tactical intelligence inside Germany As a result ,SHAEF made it known OSS that am to the information regard intelligence ob~ective. SI proposed with anti to establish ielationships Nazi elements, especially under ground labor groups within Germany, who had conveyed to the OSS their willingness to shelter and aid agents dropped behind achieve this enemy lines, On 20 the OSS. To York labor lawyer berg, helped to meet the challenge. Goldberglater appointed to the US Arthur Gold Supreme Court by President John F Kennedywas known at time the for his defense of the Clii its cago Newspaper Guild during 1938 strike agatnst the Flearst Cor poration. ing location, strength and movement August 1944. 1943, of troops and Kit supplies, ii Joining OSS/London in Goldberg convinced col and OSS director, I/nt! idenioranduni from 2 leagues col James to 13 na n Nelson 1~ iacph c 1st )n The United Siciks ii il Vt Detachment, ETOU5A, Forgan, 055 Supteme corn Gen William j. Donovan. of the I ers penile A/en ,g~c Sen A ice iii enct vi 0//ice of S/nile Aug to ion, To tic/oil c nit! I/~L mancler. Si APE 16 August 1914. Washing Na tionA A rtlimves and Records it )n, oc Ad ii in .1 osepli Secret co. Jie,ciiig Conic the Reich lii 7/ic I kr-/ti/n o,sii If) University of Toi di scria isir.ir inn (hmrrca her NAHi\). Record if lie office of Sna in Peii el python o/iVcmi /ay A ,ner,c, unit tin iii bli,hed P Ii I) 191)5 Group 220, Retook iegie ,iMents Di,nii,~ 11117/i New York incss, p 156 Scrvmc es, Declassificaoc No NND8i3 115 Viking 1979), p. 13 12 OSS in Germany The OSS discovered a need to establish contact with in source of agent recruits right in its own backyard: ties of antiNazi conini iii ists, underground labor groups the Free occu Germany socialists, and social democrats. pied and AXIS countries. He Committee of Great Britain. the believed that trade tance war union resis to groups could be useful Comprising nearly one thousa nd members, the Free Germany com mittees served as popular front effort because they sharer! wtth common the Alliesa Nazi hatred of the regime. which had violently agent recruits dissolved labor organtzattons in right in its own back organizations under the more-orless open leadership of Gerntin communists. They supported the Allied war effort by providing infoi mation about conditions ins Germany ~vere Because such groups yard: the Free Germany Committee ale Nazi already major Forces of inter behind a enemy of Great Britain. man nal resistance lines. readymade of valuable military and sotuce political intelligence.6 they The Labor Divisions ate constituted Following at Stalingraci in January 1943, high-ranking Ger man prisoners of war and Armys surrender the Ger Germany tila ns and 1w calling for Get to 7 rise up and overthrow 1-Titler. communist exiles had formed the By Septenther 1944. to the search for Moscowbased efforts to National Committee Its suitable agents man conduct the Gei culti for a Free was Germany. to primary a penetration missions had After of antiNazi to relationships with ground antiNazi labor to discover a potential Memo Fri ri under groups led it source goal of Wi! foment anti-Nazi resis intensified tance and become the nucleus of community ma fly learning that a political the Free Ger was post-war German government. Free exiles with-linics Committee Germany Arthur J 23 Goid bet g to movements ha c1 sprung to living in the 0 en life in Britain, Sweden, S\~itzer Hampstead section of London, the the with the ham Donovan A February 1943. Papers, Box Fort Carl isle, Archives of the Army \Xu Donovan college, 67, File 267, land, and France. sizeable Germ:tn William j drawing upon dmigrd comrnuni OSS Labor Division assigned task of initiating contact groups leadership to Joseph Gould, a twentynineyearold army lieu tenant from New York City. Goulds prior trade experience in orga nizing unionists made him job After gradu ating Universitys School of Journalism in 1936, well suited for the from Columbia Gould had motion accepted a job as a picture publicist in Ihe Man hattan office of United Artists, the film studio then owned wood screen by Holly legends Charlie Chaplain and Douglas Fairbanks. He later oined the fledging eastcoast chapter of the Screen Pubi i cists Guild, which elected him its first president in 1938. His leadership of that wh i tecol ar tiade Heike lion tiungert, ihc cc with the Ft hi 0 criua 055 and Its Ciii peruCi mm n ces. Sect, nfl. StafF of Labor Desk, OSS/London. July 1944, Arthur Goldbcrg is seated at far left, Joseph 194445, Gould is standing. second from right Volume 12. klli~ii ice and Mti julia! July t997, p 131 13 08$ in Germany In November seven 1944, the volunteers began Free Germans to volunteer for dan rigorous training under the direction of OSS officer Gould. gerous missions inside Germany. Kuczynski responded favorably to Goulds recluest and shortly thereaf ter set up a meeting at a London to tavern to introduce Gotild four exiled German trade unionists. owner of a bookstore on New an Bond Street.R Abbey took diate him imme All four of the liking to Gould. I-Ic offered to one unclergrotind Icrs rise to had gone in Germany after I-lit men an introduction of his Kuc regtdar zynski. was customers, Dr. an Juergen power and later fled to Czechoslovakia in the mid 1930s, where they continued their work with anti-Nazi tance economist whose father Free President of the Germany underground resis movement.9 groups The resistance fighters faced increasing peril after the Munich Prior to the outbreak of World War Agreement and then II, Kuczynski had earned a doctor the German occupation of Czecho loseph Guuid. biending in as a civilian in ate at the University of Heidelberg slovakia in 1939. To wartime London, August t94-i. and then studied in the United States at liberal elements within formed the Czech the Brookings Institution to help out, England Refugee Trtist by the British union proved to quite effective. The Guikts first contract with the be He returned Germany from the Fund. Underwritten United States in the late 1920s to film studios doubled the weekly pay of its members. edit the German Communist Party government, the organization was led by Liberal Party leader Lord During con tract renegotiations in 1940. Gould members newspaper. With the rise of Hitler. Kuczynski went to Moscow in 1936 to meet Layton, publisher of the Economist and a leading figure in the British led a picket line of guild with exiled German Coin House of Lords. The Czech Refu to outside the New York theater pre munist Party leaders. He agreed rejoin miering Disneys Fantasia- A better with their stiggestion that he deal for the screen publicists in was his family in England where his tirelessly help refugees escape to Poland where they received visas that gee Trust Fund worked signed shortly thereafter Two years later, Gould enlisted the US train frither at wasa well-known professor in allowed them to enter the United the I,ondon School of Econom Kingdom. find jobs, and resettle Army. After completing basic ing, he I-Ic was ics. There, he assisted his father with their families. The Fund char assigned to the 055. founding mittee the Free Germany Com tered ships to to ensure safe passage over joined the staff of the Labor of Great Britain Branch in the London office in June England. 8,000 people supplied by Its efforts enabled to escape Nazi perse in 1944. Dressed Gould civilian clothes. Lt With the in roamed a phone number cution and the war Europe. 1~ bookseller, Gould contacted the The exiled German trade unionists. who were throtigh London younger Kuczynski and arranged to meet with him at his flat in I-lamp introduced to joseph neighborhoods in search of infor stead. Gould wasted no time in mation about the Free Germany asking for his help An in recruiting chapter. Employing typical New Yorker instincts, he decided to explore Committees UK by juergen Kuczynski that afternoon in late August 1944, were beneficiaries of the Czech Refugee Gould Trust Funds work. Paul Lindner, Fi ora Lewis. Red Pun,, (Ne\ a Inseph Gould, OSS Officers Own local bookstores That hunch W\Vii story- 01 Ho Seven c,crman Agents anti Their Ei~ e Labor Desk Missions nw Warring Germany, unpublished 4 memoir IS The S/on i n/Noel ii yielded results when he encoun (\\aslimgton. ilungeri. p Dc, 19M9). p 132 F/el1, t 17 York Doubleday. 965), pp 6 tered Morris Abbey, the friendly 14 OSS in Germany German machine turner, attended the Toni meeting, along with Anion Ruh, Linciners lifelong friend was from Berlin. Also in attendance a coal miner from the Ru hr Va Hey named Kurt Gruher. and Adolph Buchholz. a metal worker from Spandau-Berlin. At that meeting, Gould presented them \vith an opportunitY to join the war effort as 055 spies. He explained the press ing need of the Allies to obtain military intelligence as they entered Germany. Each exile who volun teered woud he offered overseas agent employment contracts, which would tion provide coinpensa during training and the of their missions, and performance should to death benefits for their families they not return. According Joseph Goulds memoir, The asked to Joseph Gould witti TOOL mission trainees at 055 training field outside London. Ociobe, 1944, men think about these Mission Training 1944, the Free Ger things and to their group.U talk with others of which were named HAMMER, and In November CHISEL, PICKAXE, MALLET Following that first meeting, Kuc zynski introduced Gould to a German refugee named Karl Kas tro BUZZSAW. In addition to Lindner. many Committee volunteers began rigorous training under the diiec non Ruh, Buchholz, and Gi-uher, Gould selected Werner Fischer. Walter Struewe. and Emil Konh~ttser. Like of Lt. Gould, who had been the OSS designated training officer With the and told him that Kastro would for the TOOL missions assist him with the mission recruit ment process.12 With Kastros to meet various aid, the first group. the latter three had gone Gould continued with the homes in trade unionists in underground after the Nazis destroyed the trade unions in Get many~ each had grown up in the German towns and cities that later became the targets of their sions~ mis exception of parachute training at Ringway Airfield, the agent recruits were able in to live at home with their families Hamsptead, finding knew about inside Nazi tacts current out what they conditions what con German), they had, and who might to and their ages ranged from to shelter them if they were para 30-41, considered important avoid the chute into their homeland following list of suspicions that younger, years of exile. From an initial eleven potential Free Germany Committee recruits, conscript-age males would arouse.u The OSS also hired Karl Kastro to serve as a Hampstead section of London. They commuted daily to the 055 mission training school in Ruislip, where tile) attended hrief ings dealing with a wide range of subjects related to their missions. Mondays were devoted to learning order of battle; Wednesdays the focused on how to deal with elite se~~en were liaison with the their WaffenSS chosen for the TOOL missions, Gould, 5. , families of the training So,isas and illen during deployment patrols, Fridays maps and taken military studying reconnaissance photos troops and \vere for p i1Rutli Wernei Repinl (London, 262, ~~Gould, p 6. by the US Air Force, show location within Chano & Wincius, 1991) p ing the exact 15 OSS in Germany Conditions Inside Germany POW as Agents InfIltrated Camps Outside thndon in Early 1945 TOOL Mission Reported by into German On the prospect of losing the war Out of fear of physical harm from other POWs, the German weapons that they believed would enable Germany to turn around the tide of ~var. admitted that the war was lost- Nonetheless, all still believed that the German soldier was a secret the captives publicly expressed their faith in the Fuhrer and Privately. however, most superior fighter, who simply could not overcome the vast material superiority of the Allied armies When Allied homhers would their homeland. fly over the camps en route to Through conversations about the effects of the towns in Jearn about the wartime fate of the he inserted. which their Germany, the POWs would bemoan the destruction of bombing raids, the Free German agents were able to families still lived and the areas into which they would soon On the morale of the German Army The infiltrated agents heard again and again about the failure of leacleiship exhibited by commanding olficeis on the front Lines The POWs repeatedly called them cowards who would run for shelter inside tanks at the first shot, leaving their men to fight without direction. Often mentioned in this connection the German out was the decisive battle on the plains of Eursk, when Soviet troops clrne the spring of 1944. Some claimed that their superiors Army would surrender positions in the field to induce capture, rather than repel the enemy and then have to return home to the conditions in Germany. According to one POW, a field commander even refused a private plane sent by Flitler, of Russia in instead surrendering his unit to an Allied army officer rather than report back to the Fuhrer On the persecution subject of the Jews When the Allies would hold persecution of European Jews caine up, almost all of the captured POWs knew that the Germany responsible for the Holocausi. Most chilling was the predominant view in the camp that the Nazis should have waited until military victory was attained before exterminating the Jews. This, according to one POW, would have enabled Germany to avoid bringing the Jews of the USA and England into the frontline against us. of the Nazi All of the POWs knew of the slave when he tried a hells, where Jews and foreigners were worked to death. According to Lindner, elicit conversation about the death camps, the POWs would smile hack with a knowing glance and twinkle of the eye that said. von know yoursel/andl neednt re//you. To one Free German, the feelings expressed to on subject by the German POWs generation: education for winder this demonstrated what twelve years of Nazi education had taught the younger POW cage reports submitted by TOOL mission agents are found in NARA, RG 226: Records of the 085 148, Box IOL File 1740- 42: Records of the 055 210, Box 47, File 915; and Record ol the OSS 210, Box 298, File 12123. 16 OSS in Germany Germany where they would he According to a Joseph Gould His students a bout this period, were a pleasure to their instruc torsserious. hardworking, quick, ready with original ideas dropped. who intenriewed The Free Germans also worked the ries historian mingled for clays before quietly slippiog out with OSS aid!. After ward, they submitted detailed reports on the valuable informa tion they had obtained from quiet conversation with the German prisoners. on development and of their cover sto Coven Conununications reviewed documents on containing information under Another important aspect of the Free Germans ground man resistance contacts and in mission safehouse addresses cities that their As their the Ger dealt with technology to In a training early Comnmni missions 1943, the 055 formed cartons targeted. Training so-called departure subjected dates Group develop grew closer, the 055 Schools and Division cover them to equipment for transmitting military intelligence from behind enemy lines. One of the OSS radio operatots quizzes to see if they had ioternalized their mission were heard about tile work of a New Al Gross and the J/E rrzirisiliirierreceiver used hi\enemy identities The agents also outfitted at refugee clothing depots, fersey inventor, Al Gross. who had designed a batterypowered. hand held walkietalkie. was i he 100 L in iss it Hi agents behind lines which were stocked with garments manufactured in Germany or coun tries under German occupation. Gross. who measured six later hailed as a piooeer in inches, weighed only was wireless personal communication technology, was invited by the 055 to three pounds. and with a collapsible the Free equ ippecl Each of antenna. To provide the recruits with a fresh demonstrate his invention Germany trained Cooimittee to to 6 feel for conditions in the German towns Gen. Donovan in Washington. so agents was operate tile and cities sonic they had fled were years The meeting was successful that earlier, of them infil Donovan recruited him into the OSS and macIc him a trated into German prisoner-ofwar captain. camps maintained outside London by the US Army. This part of the program was J/E transmittei, high radio frequencies. This enabled 111cm to orally transmit Dlii italy intelligence from the ground to planes hovering over Europe without detection which utilized very Capt. Gross collaborated with two emotionally difficult by German Arm) also trained scientists from RCA Laboratories for the exiles, but the camps shortwave radio operators. The Free Germans were recruited proved to be a great training ground. enabling them to live their cover stories and develop addi tional details to improve upon them. Beginning in early 1945. Linclner, Buchholz, and Struewe were by the OSSLt. Cdt. Stephen Simpson and Dewitt R. Goddard. Their work led to to decipher coded messages that to the would lie transmitted hehiod enemy lines British Broadcasting them development ered of tile battery-pow that resembled Joan-Eleanor (J/E) cell through the Corporation to transmitterreceiver a (BI3C) radio programs in German. the inconspicuously placed inside POW compounds where they modern-day I3as,ne.sc On phone 2000) it They thai were instructed to listen to I3BC broadcasts i~ learn the time zinc! ,ti (20 Juiy reported Al Gross received the Lemeison-Siassaehu and location of supply chops lo Declassified CIA flies, 055 Schoois and sells insarute of Technology Lifetime and inno J/E transmissions confuse Ger Training Division. i94i-15. NARA. Record ot the Achievement Award for varion inveniion man Group oss (hereafter KG I 226, Records For other tributes and accomplish radio operators, the OSS the BBC to i48, Box 102. Folder ispersico Piercing the Reich, p 1751-1753 ifls iflenis, see the nits. ohiiuary 14 .J a for Gross in the Las instructed nate play alter ii ngefes fl lv 20(11 bars of Sincllings classical 17 OSS in Germany Despite composition Rustles of Spring as a signal to the tree Ger nhiSic concerns about the recruits leftist only get to politics,] Donovan was reported to have said later that he would Stalin on three active OSS agents inside on the Reich, the pressure more Casey to many Committee agents that mission-related information would shortly he conveyed to put spies into Germany the OSS payroll defeat mount,2i As the Allies began repelled drive them. if it would help the offensive and Hitlers armies began to Hitler. Moving Up the Timetable back into Germany, the Free Germans selected for the 055 mission their In late Decemher ~944, the Free Germans marked the seven to Berlin completed training. after the Chnstmas seasonand the mid a Normandy invasion, had culminated in the expulsion of the OSS detachment from the First US Political Complications an point of their trainingwith gala holiday joined and dinner at Paul Lindners Army Group just prior man to the Ger At the last moment, unexpected utiliza home. Lt. Gould attended and the recruits and attack. As a result of poor challenge tion to the proposed their wives children in singing r Christnms at a time songs in German. Here, when the machinery of the Holo caust was intelligence, comhined with heavy fog in Belgium that hid the Ger man military buildup, the attack came as a complete surprise, earn reputation as the Pearl Harbor of the European Theater. ing a ~ of the Free Germans arose within the 055. Some intelligence officials argued that the Free Ger were no more many Committees than western running fullblast Jews, an oasis subsidiaries of the National Committee murdering Europes was a Moscowbased of admiration-and mutual respect fat The Ardennes Forest attack, which beginning US to flourish between and Jewish Arm)- officer recruits his brought rarily seven a German who shared to a the Allied offensive tempo halt and cost the over Germany. As the commit tees continued to proliferate in Western European countries, the State Department, the FBI, and con a Free common Nazi goal: Germany. the destruction of American and British Armies senative elements within the OSS an 70,000 casualties, intensified pres sure suspected cow inteunational Mos from SHAEF on the 055 to line, a coordinated to One last desperate spirits thrust lw Hit plan launch the into penetration the missions issued from Moscow Bolshevize of the war,22 lefs army, however, dampened and underscored the Germany. The Reichs were in action Germany after the end holiday need tion resulted in acute awareness One OSS officer within ST found the prospect of to jumpstart the OSS penetra as that Allied forces going into a campaign. Known the Battle arming Reds and German) blind and the genuine that of the Bulge. the German counter offensive thn)ugh the Arclennes Forest in Belgium in late Decem her 1944 has been described as positioning naive.2~5 them where appreciation of (French they to could intelligence had heen extracted from the grasp power in Germany he ST director underground) an both before invasion. And Casey also and after the (D-Day it caused expressed the strong ish reseivations. because of the first and only serious reverse immediate demand for suffered by the Allied armies in tactical Normandy to the Rhine.iM Ironically, a cabal against 055 director Donovan by military intelligence, which had intensified I their sweep from intelligence (from high ranking military leaders),20 With iluseph Persico, Rooce/e/ts Secret tflvr DR objections raised by Brit military intelligence. Labor Division Chief Arthur Goldberg, however, opposed Casey on this issue, ci,,rl War/ri Sl?,r 1/ /spioi,age (New Yak Ran dom House, 2000, pp, 361-62 \lacphersun, p t72 (citing thc 055s lhe Final matter was brought to Gen. Per-in - !nrci ig be Reich, p Lu cticha in 169, Gun (i, p I 13 C ha ne. \ P vu 1 u , The G craw a tJn,kv! Report on Si Oper:itions) According to Joseph Gould, the need for this intelligence was specifically dem:iocled by US Army Gtn er,ils Patton See and Donovan for resolution, 76 the Reich, p Although Slacphersoo, 22 p. counterorfensive S/riles A rin3 / ?2 lie Arciennes, 20 Patch and UK Gcn Wilson hunt! lPrii II, cli Gould, pp 7S i3ungeri. p 132 Persicu P,erc/;,, i66 18 OSS in Germany Donovan was Wall Street a Republican and a lawyer with impeccable establishment credentials, he found Goldbergs legal arguments more persuasive. In particular, Goldberg asserted that the the ter letter and spirit of 1942 Joint Chiefs of Staff char that created the OSS had expressly fighting mate referenced the potential in enlistment of irregular to forces the war.2~ Donovans ulti decision overrule reflected his pragmatism anyone in Casey seeking assistance from who could help the Allies defeat Nazi Ger was many. He reported to have said later that he would on put Stalin the 055 payroll if it would defeat Hitler.25 On 22 help February to 1945, a Donovan told Casey the issue directive ordering as use of the Paul Lindner (Ida and Anton Toni Free Germans 055 contract was an missioo. agents. All that remained order order to Ruh, u~ hefore (lie launch of tire HAMMER London, Febraary 1915 go On 1 March 1945. the sent arrivedCasey word to were ordinaty workingmen a secret a who plan, earning Nazi him a pl:tce on the Gould that the first mission lin should he to Ber found themselves needed form dispatched per mission that could to Partys enemies list. In 1932, an immediately. Nazi slormtroopers Ia id near ambush make war. difference in ending the his parents home and attacked and beat him. A year The HAMMER Mission Paul Lindner had later, just reached his evening that him and after Hitlers appointment was as Ch:fn 34th birthday Of the five TOOL missions, the 1-IAMMER team sent was on the cellor, Lindner taken by Nazi arrested and to a Lt. Gould accompanied the first thugs barracks one Ruh into ncr to Watton Airfield for the flight into Germany and the most one that where he was beaten and tortured he suffered bro Germany. grew up in Born in Berlin. Lind a achieved the cance, historical signifi for nearly 12 ken teeth and days; traditk)nal social mainly into because it drove democratic household and had permanent kidney deeper lin26 the Reich than any ... become active In an the German labor other mission before to Ber movement at early was as age. By his damage 27 llis spirit and determina tion to fight the Nazis remained intact, however, tinned his resistance as The Free Germans chosen for Lindner and close 18th birthday, he already an well he bravely con this missionPaul Anton known for his work orga underground work trade union Toni Ruhwere nizer of the German Metal Workers Union. In 1930, Lindner friends who had worked in the anti-Nazi together underground. Both spoke out Gouid, p 7 2Persico, P,trc,,~g (he Re,ch, p167 2~Ibsc/. p i7i. publicly against the Nazi Partys proposal for labor conscription of German youth. His efforts helped to sway public opinion against the App Ca lion for Internment Release front Part I Liodoer to unde UK Aliens i secretary of sEa Eu of Department, 5 August 1911. NARA, RG 226. Records of he OSS 115. Box iOi. File 71042 19 OSS in Germany After recovering froni his a injuries in volunteer with the Labor Party discovered he was a political leallet in shop Berlin Berlin nized cover hospital, Lindner orga a hiking club to serve as a for his underground work League of Labor \butb. trained over League of Youth who in tutored him operating secretly in English. While residing to Prague. Ruh con with the Folloving and the invasion of Belgiu to ni tinued smuggle leaflets into By 1935. lie had Holland by the Nazis in Max was 400 young Germans in the basics of underground resistance work. 28 He also continued 1940. Lindner deported Ottawa. Canada, where he was distributing antiNazi leaflets, painting anti-Nazi slogans on public street corners, and pro viding aid to families whose breadwinners had disappeared into the first concentration camps. mcvi tahlv, Lindner surfaced on the interned with other German cal politi refugees. By late 1941. the to an coast British had relocated him internment Germany. During this period, despite being hunted 1w the Gestapo, lie returned to Berlin on six occasions to deliver forged passports to help Jews and other political dissidents flee Hitlers regime. After camp off the of Germany occupied a England cials on the Isle of Man Shortly Czechoslovakia in 1938, the Nazis declared Ruh Able to evade thereafter, British immigration offi political fugitive. to Gestapos There lie radar screen In 1935. he accepted his application to he released Upon his release. Lindner could have sat out capture, he fled the had fled Berlin for Czechoslovakia the war with England. with the aid of Czech underground that assisted Lindner. same posed as a ski instructor to mask the illegal political work he continued to perform for the under ground trade union resistance. For the next three years, Undner other German chose to to a different refugees. path and Instead, he returned England. still fiercely committed fighting the Nazi regime. Lind and Marjorie Andrews finally married in May 1942 to and Rub settled in London like Lindner, was interned briefly, but. by the ncr British g }vernnient in June 1940. helped ews fleeing Nazi persecu were Deported, of November he lived in Australia until tion to escape across the border moved the I-Iampstead ttirner section 1941 Upon his as a return. intu Czechoslovakia and collected London. He ment as a soon obtained employ a he reunited with Ii is wife Eliza information on secret German mdi machine for beth. resumed work a welder for a tary installations for the Czech Army. ~ British firm. While build ing ties continuing to British firm, and began raising in with Hampsteads grow community of Free Germany and family. English Rtih was and fluent Czech spoke the Berlin As Lindners activities became more a Committee exiles, Lindner waited difficult to conceal, he secured 1939 for had to an opportunity become Hitler a to rejoin what dialect, characteristics that strength ened his suitability for the mission ahead. UN visain throtigh English the now global struggle Czech Refugee Trust Fund and town destroy arrived in the small Chatham of Anton Toni He received aid from the local Youth Refugee and Relief jottrney from underground resistance fighter to Ruhs 055 secret Undercover in Berlin Counsel, antifascist German an organization formed lw agent also equipped him On 2 March saw 1945, Lt. Gould over sympathizers to help refugees adjust to life in I-Ic then met and soon with skills needed for the HAM MER mission. A Berlin native like the dispatch as of the HAMMER team. One historian has character England. fell a Lindner, he had trained and as a in love with Marlorie Andrews, 2~1hii I i roll I c lithographer He illegal political work was started printer doing izedl Gould the mother hen of the HAMMER mission agents. \Vhile S ieniorandu ii with Lindner. froiii Lt Joseph Gould to of i ,i u I Lind ncr. Co nipi led I ,v OS ot but arrested and held for BACH tJnit. 5 I icc ember 1911 All ni the HASISI ER in as ion i.i Joseph Gould, ass ii hor Division. December lvii, NARA. RG 226, Re~rLIs the hiss i1s, Box lOt File i7iO-+2, also. Records of the OSS 115, Boxi3. File 563 nearly six months until his release in early 1934. Ruh sought refuge in Czechoslovakia after the Gestapo infornia t Ion cli awn on tie was from 101 ci in rept ira totiocl rogii lions a ad mission NARA RG 22& Recot ds of ilic OSS li8. Box itO 20 OSS in Germany After taking deep swills of brandy from Goulds flask, Lindner and Ruh shook handsand off were driving Linclner and Ruh to Watton Airfield where they would he flown out and parachuted into the Berlin to Berlin]. area. ered being both by the sensation that he was living through a movie scenario. 3 Gould recalled In 1)0th his memoir and interviews ,, overcrowded, enabling the HAM MER team tense to with historians, Gould described that night as being very emotional go unnoticed in these because he had committed the sin of growing too early moments of the mis professional close to sion. to Although they contact came a prepared boarded the they plane, Ruh were carrying their lIE trans mitters and forged work orders documenting their status as skilled these men.31 As make with member of Lindner and the underground resistance, the to darkness and late hour macic it unsafe confirm the address. and Instead. Lindner the missions Ruh invoked and Paul Lmndner, Sr , iii ui ,i ie liii da ug bier defense workers exempt from mili contingency plan not seen toge I si~ier of Paul i.i ridner) in Berlin, 1938 taiy service. After taking deep sought flask, shelter with Linclners par since swills of brandy from Goulds were ents, whom he had and her telling one him that she come knew they shook hands and off 1935. While Paul Lindner, Sr., and his wife Freecia had received let ters that he would home In a and fight later, the mission air craft, battered by German anti Four hours the Nazis clay! city over from their son cltiring his were flowing sorrow, with bouseholcls filled with this aircraft fire. rewrned field with the and Ruh had a news to Watton Air internment in that Lindner into parachuted safely e\ening in.33 was they completely unprepared for ~~hat became one of the special Canada, moments unexpected and very emotional reunion of mother and son after ten years in exile was clear moonlit The mis of the HAMMER mis especially poignant The 1-TAMMER agents spent the first week of tile mission with Linclners sion to Berlin sionthe reuniting of the Lindner family. Declassified HAMMER mission files and interviews with surviving agents rela tives of the HMIMER provide dents an extraordinary to survive window They arrived to find the Linciner home miraculously untouched by Allied bombs. Lindner tapped on a front-door window, The noise family while quietly familiarizing themselves with the barely beating into the life of ordinary Berlin resi trying the final awakened his parents. Lindner later recounted Marjorie that the pulse of ~varravaged Berlin Despite the extensive time tile) had spent developing their cover sto ries, both Lindner to and days After of chaos that marked the Ruh decided not use death rattle of the Nazi regime. elder Lindners, still fearful of cal politi remain illegal and their landing in a field about 30 miles outside the city, Lindner and Ruh buried their weapons and communications gear. They walked to a reprisals, did that it really was returned after not at fIrst believe who had their son work papers. because they felt that the papers would impede their ahil nearby able station where a they to were to catch train down long years. Finally, concluding that only Paul could answer their very personal questions. the parents joyously wel ten it) to execute the mission. Mission same: to objectives collect strategically important infor remained the mation for transmission via the to the 055 town Berlin Because of dark as blackouts, as comed him. Lindner later recalled J/E transmitter. the trains were well 174 his mothers ~ emotional embrace The agents a next destination also this ~ 32 Persicc. /,erc,,,~, the Reich, p Marjoi ic Liadner, wife ot HAMN1 ER rission agenr P:iu I L,ndner, Telephone ioien,ew resulted in time family reunion, sister. Her ~~fh,d toni BerLn. 10 March 2001 with Ruhs 21 OSS in Germany Incessant Allied bombings circumscribed opposition never to Hitlers regime had their every move. brother-in-law. After the 26 March transmission. Gottwald showed up at wavered in his absence. Linci Ruh net and eagerly sought their mission, but the Lindner home information about old friends who He had been might help with sadly found out killed in action unit as a unexpectedly. granted leave from his reward for destroying a an that all had been or died in concen tration camps. On 8 agents returned to March, the their landing equipment plane hovering over Ger many and transmitted ci-itically important military intelligence deal an Allied Russian tank, action that earned him the lion Cross The discovery that his brother-in-law had returned to ing with German troop movements. Germany as an enemy agent led point that to retrieve their weapons and the location of the J/E communications stored inside their gas masks. They carried cigarettes and was operational muni tions factories, and the sinking morale of the German people. In his memoir, a to an intense all-night dialogue and between Gottwald and Lindner Rub, which nearly threatened the lives of the coffee, which they used for food, live to barter that Casey noted big breakthrough had been SI chief agentsand the sur vival (if the HAMMER mission. ~ and including bartering for a sheep that they slaughtered ate that night Every evening, achieved from the yielded intelligence team by the 1-IAMMER from Much to Lindners relief, however, out to this j/E transmission], including on a Gottwald turned be more they listened to the BBCs German language hToadcasts to learn the dates for J/E transmissions important airtarget data still good soldier than Nazi and and sup ply drops Berlin. at locations outside plant that kept Rev factories running. as well as detail on the importance of a Ber lin transportation net and functioning power - to the agents passionate arguments against the responded positively Nazi regime and 1-litlers ism.37 Gottwald barbar recalled wit apparently on While walking through Berlin, were the suggestions of Rev spots where Allied] bombs could disrupt it.~ his the own terrible experiences the to HAMPvIER agents often accom nessing the carnage front and eastern panied by Lindners father. His Collecting prior two that information over began his weeks had tested the lim strong identification papers enabled the agents to remain above suspi cion whether he owed his queslion loyalty led to to the its of the survival skills of the HAMMER agents. Incessant Allied Fuhrer or to family. This selfhis Some of the information examination ultimately eventually came transmitted one to the OSS bombings move. circumscribed their every order decision not to abandon his unit and to from of Lindnefs favor In to avoid suspicion, report Lindiner and Ruh mili ite a nd teachers whom he fou nd at Lindner and Ruh moved sought The through a out tan maze authorities, which would have their immediate execution his home night of public bomb shelters. meant to of 18 March when the two met, Often, they had break up fights air for treason however, brought which more Allied it between Berliners whose were Having decided to nerves remain with his bombing, sible Allied to rendered impos were fraying from the unending family, Gottwald dlocument used to benefitedi from Lindners make contact with the assaults. forging skills, zer on which were they planes coming to drop supphes receive over, that knew and copy the stamp of Gottwalds Mission Threatened unit and Pan imprint an extension j/F. iransmissions. More his leave papers The the Nazi in regime had imposed a to stiff controls last-ditch effort stay to force Berliners the city. No otit and defend Durtng family, Lindners his sister exile from his diocuments a Inge had married checked the to a passed muster when next day during a visit Army field office, part of the Got one could safely slip of Berlin. young soldier named Hans Got t\vald Gottwald had never met his German was twald now RAMMER team. Iii rn J, Cases, The Secret it~, r DC On 26 March, the HAMMER mis sion marie successful contact with \Xastiingion, i988), pp i96_i9L) ~-iRuin Rrgneiy Pubiishing, ~\1arjnrie Pe sit ii. I,crc, i,indner. Teiephoae inreniew ig (he Reich, ~ 2 i 2 22 OSS in Germany An encounter with a German cost patrol nearly Mission Finale them theft lives. Contacting the Resistance Lindner and Ruh did into not parachute During the second week of April, to Germany completely blind; had been conditions in Berlin continued supplied with a ros they ter of contacts in the underground resistance provided by the Free Germany Committee in France. One contact was a hamper iry their to the HAIvIMER teams to abil respond requests from the more female dentist ini named Margarit, whom Rub under the for a tially approached of guise seeking treatment painful him tooth. She and her husband later pre-exile days with the Berlin underground. Lindner and Ruh were prepared for such situations. According to the debriefing tran scripts, both men routinely carried dirty laundry in their duffel bags to make it appear as if they were just arriving from outside the OSS, via the BBC, for military intelligence. Incessant Russian artil lery fire combined with the Allied bombing raids caused chaos in the streets. Ruh had been staying with inside her Margarit, den his the dentist, and had hid sheltered Ruh and with valuable provided intelligence about J/E equipment city to home. When the district around her house became the Berlin defenses. Other members of supplied similarly important information, which was sent to the 055 during a second J/E transmission on S April. In the resistance help with the defense of Berlin. They used Ruhs dirty underwear as Laurel and Hardy rou a prop in a tine that they devised to escape encounters with German patrols. When the German soldier asked see object of fierce fighting man between Russian and Ger was troops, Ruh foicecl to return to the Lindner family home. With the noose tightening not around was some early April. an the HAMMER agents a to had encounter with German their papers, Lindner patrol that lives. On nearly cost them their Easter Sunday, Lindner a his Nazi pulled Party membership card Berlin, the out HAMMER mission about to endbut before and work orders. \Vhile of ihe missions most examining events. to see extraordinary team and Ruh received message them, the lieutenant asked Ruhs his On 22 a April, the through plies contact were the BBC that food sup to be dropped at a some papers and the contents of received coded BUC message bag, which contained the and J/E from the OSS them turn requesting to a that one of point at 50 kilometers transmitter ments. incriminating docu to cross over the battle lines Soviet to and northwest of Berlin. When arrived they Playing master the German uicloctrina himself in Army location, respond to the sent through their messages they J/E transmitter. They wound up spending the night in an open field. At dawn, they awoke to find themselves surrounded by German Army troops~ After gathering their gear, the HAMMER agents began to walk quietly through the woods toward a nearby railroad station. Suddenly, they were stopped by a the Allied soldiers race officer The other was stay planes failed to tion, Paul informed him that his friend not was a behind until American troops arrived in dumh Czech who did Berlin. Becattse Berlin understand German and that he defenses manned by German Army of would have translate the soldiers instructions. This troops had closed off all escape out avenues bought they the HAM of the to city. Lindner and MER agents time to prepare their Rub decided remain with his weapons, which almost cer family have until Russian troops reached tainly would have to use. The the NeukOlln district, They did not German officer, however, grew with Ruhs as long a to wait. The Soviet Army in exasperated tied and one snail-like he emp achieved major breakthrough two lieutenant from the Herman Gor search for his papers the Battle of Berlin clays later. ing Division, who asked to see their papers Almost dirty sock after another finally let them go. Having a Armies commanded by met Generals in the Zhukov and Konev averted close call, the HAMMER on southern suburbs of Berlin and encircled the troops of the German certainly having endured similarly tense moments during team continued a its way and caught train back to Berlin. 9th Army Bitter street fighting 23 OSS in Germany In the climate of fear and suspicion broke out in that marked the chaotic final the eastern and days of dispatched near southern dtstncts n~ the capital with 3~ the war, the Soviet Army placed the HAMMER into southern on Germany Munich 4 April 1945 born in The HAMMER te:my aloni~ agents under arrest. Walter Stniewe was Gottwald, the elder Lindner, and other friends. t Bielefeid, Germany, in as 1904. an His }ok pan in the came fight ing when thes ,, belongings, the Russians disco path to recruitmeni was OSS that of upon a battle secret agent similar to involving ing up a Russian troops trying to si stop German )Idiers from blow near the 1-IAMMER agents After appren ticing in the building construction trades from 1921 felt ered OSS codehooks that should have been handed bridge the not town of Baumschuienbrucke, the Lindner weapons far from they over Struewe had gone continue family home. With having been obtained just father team through 1933, underground to illegal political work in voluntarily, The agents were sub Frankfurt with other construction trade the day before for Linciners and brotherinlaw, the whole interrogation. Moreover, they angered Manov by to jected harsh unionists. He had also a become leading figure In in the opened arrived fire. More Russian soldiers to join claiming soldiers ians and to have witnessed Soviet German civil Rhineland branch of the German Communist Party to the battle and started group, but firing stopped were man on Lindners after brutalizing asking for to 1937, he fled learned protection from Czechoslovakia. a having realizing were that they retribution by other Russian troops. that coworker had disclosed his anti-Nazi paitisans. The Ger According scripts, the soldiers disarmed and the Soviet Army Martov reacted to debriefing tran especially mis taken prisoner by harshly this accusation of to The HAMMER vated team also deacti conduct and threatened Lindner and Ruh state. as imprison identity during torttire by the Gestapo. Struewe eluded the Gestapos pursuit by fleeing across the Polish border on skis in April 1939. Later he obtained vtsa a explosives set by the German Army, preventing destruction of the bridge that would have hindered the advance of Soviet tanks The Russian troops thanked them for enemies of the British with the aid of the Czech Refu a gee Trust Fund After brief period on Unable that to convince were the Russians of internment in the same camp they OSS agents, Lindner cus the Isle of Man where Paul Lindner had been held, Struewe was their had help. now The HAMMER mission and Ruh remained in Soviet tody for the Moved aided both American and many. next two months. released. He later settled in Manchester and German Soviet armies in support of the Allied cause, US repeatedly throughout Ger they Were finally released to Army personnel near Leipzig on From there, the were were joined the Free League of Cuiture Shortly thereafter Lindner and Ruh decided n1ission u5 June 1945 Unlike his fellow agents. Emil to to end the HAMMER as HAMMER agents Paris where flown Konhuser spent two years in the by reporting themselves a they extensively Dachau concentration camp from debriefed American soldiers to Russian In the 1933-1935. Born in Bavaria, Eon hauser had trained in the construction trades. After his officer named Capt Martov climate of fear and suspicion that marked the chaotic final days of the war, The Other TOOL Missions release from incarceration, he worked however, the Soviet Army Of the remaining refused their TOOl. opera explanation and tions, the I~1CKAXE mission placed arrest. the HAMMER agents under recorded the results ~ most two impressive men Upon searching their briefly with construction building the Atuobahn, Ger manys superhighway. tKonhiiusers role in the underground resistance crews i The were who led the nforma t inn oni mission ~ the oldest of the on r lie ii cRAxti in miss nil is ian Kerslsaw, 509 /1,1/cr Ad,nes,.~ 193619-15 Norton and drawn Ii seven New Yoi k W \V cnnspany. Free Germans. documents They had NASA. 50 just 226. Records oF ihe oss 210, Boxes 295 and 298, ides 12123 and i 1690 2000). p reached their 40w birthdays when 24 OSS in Germany forced him to seek exile in Czecho Until 1938, he authentic-looking ration cards. planning passed to retreat into an area of slovakia in 1935 Struewe and Konh~user stocked southern Germany that encom worked with the Political Refugees Committee In their forest hut with food and spent next three weeks on the ground collecting information. During that almost twenty thousand Prague where he he later noted on the continued, 055 as his square miles of mountains and organize a last stand. A new type of commando application, helping Refugee in victims of time, they were also able to per unit. called Were Nazi (error. With the aid of the Trust Fund, Kon to suade the local answer population to not to wolves, engage was in a reportedly planning guerilla a ncgotiatedl ~var to Czech the call of German Army with Allied peace hauser secured passage and resettled London England officers for volunteers defend the help armies armies to force city as Allied with the German govcrnnient. approached. After Allied was intelligence a and in S~vitzcrlancl living in cosmopolitan England for several years. the warning that large supply was of mem During 1 May the course hers of the PICKAXE team have felt that their first must missions from 4 J/E through April amounts of nine trans munitions poison gas in being stockpiled within this moments 1945. the PICKAXE agents of infor rail and road traffic, and troop waiting aircraft. !lO tunnels connecting underground strongpoints fortress.e The Struewe back in Germany travel were like a time funneled massive mationon alpine episode from the Twilight Zone. Struewe and KonhLiuser communication centers, movementsto and reports transmitted by with informa Konhiiuser. together found themselves on the outskirts tion from other 055 operatives in of Lanclshut, a southern German In his report to the Joint Chiefs of thear ea, confirmed that the National Redoubt was a city near Munich. which was over flowing with foreign workers and ~var refugees. Realizing that the city was Staff on the German penetration of the PICKAXE teams tians myth no missions. Gen. Donovan refer enced most one The PICKAXE team found evi far they too crowded to find shel notable achievements: dence pointing to ability to mount a tance in any German resis serious hiding place in the woods After burying their com munications equipment beneath a makeshift hut and covering it with ter, sought a precise location of a Landshut railroad depot that was mittal of the the l3avarian mountains. war With the an in Eui-opc cciining to end. Stwewe and Konhiiuser recovered enabling the movement of German troops. This intelligence the led to the iain gear, the agents walked hack destruction of the depot the next into Landshut and mouslv with the local mingled anony population day, 16 April, by Eighth Air con by US military intelligence personnel and under went extensive debriefing in Paris, before returning to London in July were Force. Struewe and Konhauser 1945 None of the other TOOL missions firmed the strikes accuracy that transmitter. The a Based on their conversations in night tion with their J/E town, Struewe and Konhuser decided to OSS later received not commenda on remain illegal and yielded either useful military intelligence. from the Air Force behalf of utilize their munitions work force The agents who led met the missions the PICKAXE team for their effec tive Evidently, the German Army was constantly moving the foreign workers conscripted from occupied cotintries. Had the PICKdocuments. AXE team been swept up in these work behind enemy lines. untimely deaths or were captured and held by Soviet troops. Kurt Gruber (CHISEL mission) was The Allied also military command seeking intelligence on rumors ~as killed when the US Air Force plane in carning the Ruhr weather him ro his d c-stina ti on whether about a so-called Valley on crashed in bad forced evacuations, the mission would have been cut National Redoubt were true. was 19 March 1945. \Verner The Death short. Given Many uca,ey believed that Hitler - military intelligence that the operation later yielded, this proved to be a wise decision So, the valuable with an Ad:i Pa iroa. p 200 o/ 11,/Ic,, the F~i II cc,tf,/ Sto~ A ,ch ,, ,th Mu E,,,de, Ice from Secret N, York. xc xx rgen Heidek rig. A lance~ / i5 i!cI/igiu Ce and Genna,, Rt~c,.cta I/ce Ui hitter Boulder. Ju ii tw (Ne~~ Norton s. cl 1995) c~s~-~-. p~ 200 abundance of co We,i~ieW Press, i996). p 4O4 25 OSS in Germany In 1990, Gould traveled to Berlin and] sought on information of the the fate surviving Free German agents. the US Army to in 1946, when he returned his family in suburban career New York and resumed his in the film industry War As the Cold intensified, Gould lost touch with the surviving agents of in the TOOL missions, who had returned to Germany 1946. In 1975, he uer came across an interview with gen Kuczvnski in the Wall Street Dr luergen Kuczvnski Journal At and initiated correspon dence with the German economist. that time, Kuczynski a was living and Another occasion during the 1990 in East Berlin and was Ursula writer trip, however, proved profoundly Kuczynski. ak-a Ruth Werner econon1ic~adviser to East German unsettling. Kuczynski Gould to introduced President Erich Honecker. Fischer (BUZZSAW). after his elderly a sister at being The end of the Cold War in 1989 made it easier for Gould sider time In to con Ursuladunng ered that Ursula quiet lunch the dropped near his hometown of Leipzig on 7 April 1945. is believed to have been executed by Russian soldiers who probably mistook him for the enemy. Adolf Buchholz (MALLET), on Ruczynski home Gould disco~ Kuczynski a was visiting Germany for the first actually Ruth Werner, notorious since his US Army discharge. August 1990, he traveled to Ber Soviet spy, who had written the controversial memoir, Soiiya in East c 10 parachuted into Berlin April 1945, hut found him a enjoyed a reunion with Kuczynski. He also sought informa tion on lin and Report, published in Germany Werner. 1977 -~ Upon meeting self in the middle of gunfight the fate of the surviving Gould was between German and Soviet troops during the final days of the war. He was Free German agents, but discov men were was that the Soviet spy deeply troubled to learn purportedly ered that all of his played a role in the recruitment of captured by the Russians and deceased. able with to Kuczynski, however, the Free Germans for his OSS pene tration missions. In 1991, when Werner in was held with other German officers until his release to arrange for Gould to meet loseph Gould in Maijorie Lindner, wife of and Ellen Buchholz. wife of revising her for the ~ memoits Berlin in November 1945. HAMMER mission agent Paul Lmnd ncr. preparation a English lan guage release of Son)a Report, MALLET mission agent Years Later, A Adolph she added Strange Twist Buchholz. Both were residents of chapter that refer Berlin and shared enced her meeting with warm remem Joseph Gould when he first discovered her Almost immediately in after the war brances of their husbands with involvement Gould before he returned to g, ended was May 1945. Joseph Gould to Wash The German was transferred to serve with the Office of occupied Berlin Military discharge from ington ~ that fall. Report language published in in edition of So,:jai~ Berlin, by Verlag are Government. He remained there tii\pObllshed eoirespondcnce 0 horn ]io.eph Neues Leben, )977 edition Gould Marjorie i.indner and Ellen Bucli I(!w_ierner! p from the 265 All page references until his honorable holz, September 1991) English language 26 OSS in Germany Henschhe had been receiving compensation from both the 055 and Born in 1907, Ursula raised in a Kuczynski comfortable Jewish Party in was candidate for this the Soviet GRU! ties to job. I-Ic had close members of the German ref escaped the and home in Berlin. She oined the Ger man was Communist in 1926 and Rich recruited to work for Soviet comniunily who had England with the aid of Czech Refugee Trust Fund ugee to he Army intelligence 1930 by notified Centre, Soviet as Moscow-based was knew from which German town Sorge, Shanghai. Sonya, for covert ard a GRU masler spy in name Army intelligence called, each Given the code to of the OSS plan 50 The Soviets received refugee had fled, Werner photos and biographies of to she traveled Moscow expressed interest in the proposed con the Free Germans from Henschke and communications ti-am in utilization of the Free Germans for claims ing. By 1938, after assignments China, Poland. and Switzerland, married an the TOOL missions. Werner Soviet Army have passed] them intelligence for to she English citizen and moved to Great Britain, rejoining her father and brother who had to her brother, who, with approval, introduced Gould to a key member of the Ger man Communist Party then living in veyed this approval was before the information Centres emigrated there in the mid1930s. Settling on a farm outside Oxford. Werner set up her transmitter in the attic and resumed her work as London named Erich Henschke alias Karl Kastro,5 same given to LI. Gould during October 1944. ~ By that time, according to Werner. Ilenschke was receiving compensation froni both the 055 and This was the the GRU.5 Karl Kastro who had assisted rectiutnient in was as Gould with agent late summer the 055 files released by the CIA in sonic Sonya ing the secrets for the Soviet Army;7 Dur war, of 1944 and sub its luly 2000 appear to confirm she transmitted atomic 10 sequently liaison to hired by the OSS of Werners ties of Karl claims about the activi given her by physicist communist the families of the Free Kastro, alleged ~5 to he Klaus Fuchs, another Germans recruited for the TOOL missions. Erich Henschkc. recruitment was After the refugee a from member of the UKs secret Germany. Fticlis was delegation to Project, the atomic of the Free Germans the Manhattan Werner. who had known Hen completed. Joseph Gould redluested that the OSS provide Kastro with a which bomb ico.~ was developing schke Berlin at Los Alamos. New Mex during during the their party work in the late 19205, security clearance. to The documents indicate that Kas tro was a In 1949, Werner eluded the claimed in her book that she then took over consultant the OSS pursuit of British intelligence, project and directed covert from October 1944 through July as a which had gotten wind of her possible involvement lust before Fuchss Henschke to serve as her 1945 and received compensation for his services. Described connection with the 055)2 She trial, and hurriedly tefr England for East Germany.9 She lived in Berlin until her death in instructed him to consult with the spokesman lies, Ka stro for the Free Germany exiled German Communist Party Committee recruits and their fauii leadership 055s in England about the - performed a variety of were July 2000 at age 93. interest in recruiting Free tasks. After the Free Germans Germans for the TOOL missions According to Werner. her brother. Juergen Kuczynski. told her of the OSSs interest in recruiting the Free Germans. after his initial meeting with Joseph Gould arranged by the bookseller Morris Abbey. Werner According to leadership designated and two Werner, the party Henschke Germany, dropped ple. the OSS would deposit into for exam other German conirnunist Kahle and Wilhelm hazardous duty pay into the bank accounts set tip in each agents Werne, s exilesHans Koenento hooL~ ~ noi clear un how she compile was a roster of potential Ohituan ii candidates for the mis the iran-aged to transport these dna, menis ruin England to Moscow as the Soviet and All led armies marched toward Berlin of Ruth Werner. The Guardia,,, sions. 1-lenschke perfect nweiner, p 262 G RU file ian gO\ei Intent c,I a cc) n involvemeni with the 1001. July 2000 / c Persico, Rciuseief Secret liar, pp 252, SO\T~~fl~~ 51 pp 306-308 Only by the i he release of Ruth Werners current Russ 259 ~5Werner, pp 250-52 and 288-89 Bungen, p 32 52\\crner. p 261 firm her missit nis alleged :1 nd tie dual id eni ii u! Na rI Na Si ru 27 OSS in Germany The Free Germans name and request that Kastio ti-ansac clearly contributed to the highquality inteffigence that gave the American the PICKAXE team for undertak inform the families of the tions Marjorie Lindner. wile of Lindner. recalls receiving word the successful Paul of military timely insights into enemy defenses No other source ing a dangerous they performed courageously mission in which a nd efficiently value to that led to results of great which con dispatch of the HA?vl SIt of the Allies and MER mission from Kastro. Declassified 055 files also refer ence Kastro in connection with in a inteffigence was as useful in the closing months of the war. directly to the defeat of the enemy. 52 In January 1946. the War Department endorsed who an trihuted 055 rec trip he took to France Decem ommendation that Kurt Gruher. was ber 1944 with Joseph Gould The killed in the purpose of the trip was to uncut with leaders of the Parisbased Free ,, history of US airplane mis crash that aborted the CHISEL sion, he posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom,0 Germany Committee who were to provide on the 055 with information use intelligence during Postwar Berlin safehouses for by the World Wiir U. The five TOOL mis sions manned politics, however, inter final report on HAMMER and MALLET teains.~7 by the Free Germans to evened, The OSSs wartime states According to Werner, Kastros par ticipation in the trip had required GRU approval. Through his position as clearly contributed the high Anierican duality intelligence that gave the military timely insights into enemy defenses and the dubi penetration operations that. because of the political of these as our background could fit into men, there is serious doubt to whether the liaison comniu between the Free German prospects for a laststand bastion in the Alps. No other ous they postwar German nity and the OSS. access to Kastro clearly had source topsecret information ful in intelligence was as tise reliably discerning such of operations.~ reversed an The US Army then to uti earlier decision during Since Werner claims to have traintng period. passed everythingincluding the 1/F codes cover the mission details in the war closing regard months of the the lize FIAMMER mission agents With to perfor Lindner and Rub for postwar mili tary mance of the Free Germans in its final intelligence work with the 055 and agent Army storiesto Soviet themselves, the 055, fitission to Berlin,65 Moreover, Lind net, intelligence, she could only have received this information from report. praised them for rendering extremely vahiable service during the hostilities were Rub. Struewe, and Konhiiuser received the nhlitan never decora Kastro, the with the only person involved penetration operations who knew of her clandestine work period when they dropped blind into enemy ritory to accomplish setret intelligence missions. the 055 recommended to tions that the OSS had ter recommended, and Kurt Gruhers family never got word of the US Armys decision to posthumously issue him the Medal of Freedom.i~~ Because of the unwelcome climate Declassified documents reveal that the US Epilogue 055/Londons trate as an Army that HAMMER mission agents Paul Lindner and Anton Ruh he NARA, HG 226, Recoids of he 055 20. Box 298, File 125 campaign to pene awarded the Distinguished to Service ~NARA. Box (I RG 226, Records ot the OSS 148, Germany has been recognized Cross, and that the Bronze Star and the Silver Star he issued i/It i02, File i49t750, coin Ibid cot important milestone in the lie in iervicw ~v respondence to PICKAXE agents Walter Struewe hand 055 Labor L L Mate Army Li Desk/Paris. 18 July t9i5. ot the 055 Tcleplii 1 Ma none Li ndner, i_il and Emil Konhauser, In addition, the OSS 19 March 2fi0i Meinora nduni troni Thomas Wi Isoil 0 respectively/ti commended NARA, HG 101 226, Itecorda 0 i48. Box hers a llie li_i c fam rh CS a ci fl(iIIO L i iii issio n flIefli irricigeiti of the Lahi ir 5cc ci inicllrgerrec liranch ian t)ivrsion 055 Mac tho rued the nil hor of ibis article, ie 22 Decenilier pirerson, p 180 New \ Irk 10 00mev. to p rcpa i9ii. ~ NARA, itO 226. Records of the OSS ci P+8, Box i01 DRrner, p Peruc 0. 1 rn / iig i/Ic Re,c-Ii, p 323 NARA, itO 226. Records of tile 055 2 iD i211 ihc Secreian a~ of ihe ces ppl Ic:i lion Army, under applica aol r tie t is med h ti itt I law, to I lie p~M hum ais 263 Box 298. File i 550.1 nce liese oieda Is 28 OSS in Germany in postwar England, the Free countrys in or recognition for anti-Nazi wartime their work Germans eventually sought repatri Konhuser, the early underground can ation and returned to their native their service. Only now, over, land. All except Emil with the Cold War be tribute who remained in West Germany, Cold paid to the courage and sacri to lived out their lives in East Ger fice of the Free Germans and nian the many. Because of escalating who recruited and trained Wiir tensicns and the East German them for their 055 mission. inrelligence governments distrust of their loy alty as a result of their work with the OSS, the London Free Germans never received even their own 29