Beyond the Call (41 page)

19
. One such person was planning officer Major Albert Lepawsky, who became one of Eastern Command's official historians (see Lepawsky,
History of Eastern Command
, ch. VIII, p. 90ff, for his summary of Hampton's character).

20
. Lepawsky,
History of Eastern Command
, ch. VIII, p. 91.

21
. On 8 February, Hampton cabled USSTAF asking for ‘info on nature of Capt Trimble's assignment to Eastern Command'. Hampton received clarification from General Spaatz on 11 February, and on 20 February he requested that Trimble's 30-day temporary duty status be replaced with a permanent assignment (Hampton, cables to USSTAF concerning assignment of Captain Trimble, February 1945). We only have Hampton's side of this exchange; Spaatz's reply is missing. The query appears, however, to be concerned with the temporary/permanent nature of Trimble's appointment rather than any covert duties.

22
. An eyewitness description of Majdanek was published in the
New York Times
of 30 August 1944 (quoted in Schoenberner,
Yellow Star
, p. 229).

23
. Sella,
Value of Human Life in Soviet Warfare
, pp. 100–10. The full text of Order No. 270, including Stalin's preamble, is given in Roberts,
Victory at Stalingrad
, pp. 197–202; see also Plokhy,
Yalta
, p. 294ff.

24
. Brackman,
Secret File of Joseph Stalin
, p. 297.

25
. Sella,
Value of Human Life in Soviet Warfare
, p. 103.

26
. Deane,
Strange Alliance
, p. 184; Wadley,
Even One Is Too Many
, ch. II.

27
. Buhite,
Decisions at Yalta
, pp. 60–1.

Chapter 5: A Brutal Awakening

1
.   Lepawsky,
History of Eastern Command
, ch. VII, p. 98.

2
.   Kaluta,
Eascom History
, vol. I, ch. IV, p. 16. Even General Deane, head of the Military Mission, was not immune, remarking (
Strange Alliance
, p. 5) that ‘all [Russian] employees of foreigners' were used as informers by the NKVD.

3
.   Cable from US State Department to US Embassy in Moscow, 14 February 1945, quoted in Wadley,
Even One Is Too Many
, p. 111.

4
.   Wadley,
Even One Is Too Many
, p. 113. Colonel Jerry Sage had been captured in North Africa in 1943 while working for the OSS behind enemy lines. Sage
was imprisoned in Stalag Luft III and is said to have been the model for the character played by Steve McQueen in
The Great Escape
. Colonel Charles Kouns was from the 82nd Airborne Division and had been captured during a behind-the-lines operation in Italy.

5
.   Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, p. 36.

6
.   Deane,
Strange Alliance
, p. 195.

7
.   Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, p. 36.

8
.   There is some doubt about this. Deane (
Strange Alliance
, p. 195) gives the date as the 14th, but Kaluta (vol. I, ch. III, p. 36) gives the 15th. On the other hand, Wadley (
Even One Is Too Many
, p. 118, citing Wilmeth's diary) gives the 16th. 15 February is taken here as an average.

9
.   Deane (
Strange Alliance
, ch. XI) consistently describes his feelings throughout this time as frustration and/or disappointed optimism. Ever the diplomat, he gives little indication of the fact that he (and most of the American parties involved) privately expected the Russians to default on their obligations. In fact he had little faith in the official contact-team idea and had argued against it to General Marshall, the chief of staff (Marshall, cable to Deane, 3 March 1945, in US State Department,
Foreign Relations
, pp. 1072–3).

10
. Wadley,
Even One Is Too Many
, p. 114.

11
. Lieutenant John G. Winant Jr. was a B-17 pilot, shot down on a raid against Münster in October 1943 (Buhite,
Decisions at Yalta
, p. 60;
New York Times
obituary of John G. Winant Jr., 2 November 1993). Lieutenant Winant escaped Nazi captivity in May 1945 and was helped by the Red Cross to reach American lines.

12
. They were still exchanging Christmas cards in the early 1950s, but apparently lost touch after that.

13
. Bowman,
US Eighth Air Force in Europe
, ch. 4.

14
. Michael Kowal, quoted in Parisi, ‘New Jersey Journal',
New York Times
, 24 November 1985. After the war, Kowal expressed his feelings about his war-time service by naming his eldest daughter after his B-17, Carolee.

15
. Michael Kowal, quoted in Bowman,
US Eighth Air Force in Europe
, ch. 4. Kowal describes performing a sideslip in a Piper Cub that would bring the tail in front of the nose, and claims that he attempted (unsuccessfully) to do something similar in a B-17 under attack by fighters.

16
. Lepawsky,
History of Eastern Command
, ch. VIII, pp. 108–9. As with Hampton, Lepawsky is critical of Kowal, describing him as ‘truculent' toward the Russians. However, a top secret cable from General Hill to the War Department on 29 December suggests that the barring of Kowal resulted from the ‘desire
to preclude observation by foreign observers of activities at or near their front lines' (Hill, Cable MX-22201).

17
. Lepawsky,
History of Eastern Command
, ch. VIII, p. 96.

18
. Persico,
Piercing the Reich
, pp. 41–2; 169–70.

19
. Given Soviet security at the base, the most likely way would have been on a diplomatic flight via Moscow. These were fairly frequent, as Poltava was a staging point for US diplomatic staff traveling between Moscow and the United States, as well as the Tehran route. No information is available on how long the two agents had been at Poltava prior to Captain Trimble's arrival.

20
. Information about the identities and backgrounds of OSS intelligence agents was never shared. Even in the mission reports contained in the OSS/London
War Diaries
, declassified in 1985, the identities of agents were redacted.

21
. OSS/London,
War Diaries
, vol. 7, to Dec. 1944, pp. 34–47; vol. 12, pp. 289–93. The Eagle project was still in the training phase in February 1945, scheduled for commencement in the spring. The agent personnel were former Polish soldiers who had been forced into service with the German Army and captured in Normandy. Eagle was expedited when the end of the war seemed imminent, but it is unlikely that fully trained agents would have been available by early February.

22
. OSS/London,
War Diaries
, vol. 7, Apr.–Jun. 1944, pp. 3–4; Jan.–Jun. 1945, pp. 38–50. The operation had been initiated early in 1944, and by February 1945 Tissue agents were entering Germany via Sweden. The details of training come from the
War Diaries
' account of the Eagle project (vol. 7, to Dec. 1944, pp. 42–4), which was similar. Agents did 624 hours of paramilitary training over the course of five months.

23
. Rees,
Auschwitz
, p. 329.

24
. Langbein,
People in Auschwitz
, pp. 57–8.

25
. Described by Primo Levi (quoted in Langbein,
People in Auschwitz
, pp. 473–4). Levi was in the Buna-Monowitz camp (‘Auschwitz III'), three miles from Birkenau, at the time of liberation.

26
. Langbein,
People in Auschwitz
, p. 473.

27
. Rees,
Auschwitz
, p. 329.

28
. Deane,
Strange Alliance
, pp. 191–4.

Chapter 6: Running with the Bird Dogs

1
.   Stalag III-C was liberated on 31 January and Stalag XX-A on 1 February. An officers' camp, Oflag 64, had been liberated earlier, on 21 January. However, in all the various accounts of POWs in Poland, it is vanishingly rare to find cases of officers and enlisted men grouping together. It seems that the emotional criteria
for POWs to bond with one another included similarity of combat experiences prior to captivity.

2
.   Vergolina,
Reflections of a Prisoner of War
.

3
.   Beadle, ‘Joint Statement'.

4
.   Beadle, ‘Joint Statement'; Wilmeth, ‘Report on a Visit to Lublin', p. 4.

5
.   Wilmeth, ‘Report of Interview', p. 2.

6
.   ‘Intourist' is an abbreviation of
inostrannyy turist
(‘foreign tourist'). Intourist was originally founded in 1929 as a commercial company, but was co-opted by Stalin in the 1930s for propaganda and security purposes, and filled with NKVD personnel (David-Fox,
Showcasing the Great Experiment
, p. 58 and passim). Intourist still exists, but is now an independent commercial entity.

7
.   In his recollections, Robert did not describe the coding method in detail, remarking merely that it revolved around messages dictated by phone, and that the coding system was simple. OSS agents were intensively trained in covert communication and had several secure encryption methods for use in the field. It is unlikely that these methods were used in this case, because of the likelihood of messages being intercepted by the NKVD; if Captain Trimble were known to be receiving encrypted messages, regardless of their content, he would certainly have been expelled by the Soviets from Poland (as had been Hampton and Kowal due to suspicions that they were spying). Since Robert was in Poland ostensibly as an aircrew rescue and salvage officer, the messages were presumably designed to resemble intelligence pertaining to that. A good deal of information about locations could be conveyed openly in that way, with secret information embedded inconspicuously.

8
.   The terms ‘class A agent' and ‘class B agent' were hardly ever used outside bureaucratic circles and weren't known to most military personnel. Because of this, and the hectic, disorientating nature of his briefing, when Captain Trimble was told that he was going to be a class B agent, he assumed it was in reference to his attachment to the OSS, and guessed that the two field agents he had met must be class A agents.

9
.   This was Major Donald S. Nicholson, Eastern Command's meteorologist (Wilmeth, ‘Report of Interview'; Nicholson report on ‘Actual and necessary expenses'). Don Nicholson (personal communication to Lee Trimble, 6 February 2014) does not now recall being made a ‘class B agent' – an indication of how rarely used and little-known the term was.

10
. On 15 February, the day of Robert's appointment, General Deane sent a cable to General Richards at the War Department, requesting retrospective approval for his appointment of an agent officer for the purpose of POW contact and relief
(Deane, Cable M-22725 to Gen. Richards). Deane doesn't name the officer appointed. It is possible that it was Colonel Wilmeth, who was being briefed to enter Poland at this time to inspect POW facilities. In that case it is strange that (a) Deane doesn't name him, since his mission was official; (b) Wadley (
Even One Is Too Many
, ch. III–IV) doesn't mention Wilmeth having such a status; and (c) Wilmeth himself doesn't appear to have had direct access to funds from a finance officer and had to ask Deane to send money (Wilmeth, ‘Report on a Visit to Lublin'; Wadley,
Even One Is Too Many
, p. 129). Another Moscow officer, Major Paul S. Hall, was appointed an agent officer and sent to inspect POW facilities at Odessa, but that was somewhat later in February (Deane,
Strange Alliance
, p. 197; Kaluta, vol. I, ch. V, p. 12), so Hall is also unlikely to be the officer referred to in Deane's 15 February letter.

11
. Kaluta, vol. I, ch. V, pp. 13–14.

12
. The information that all POWs must go to Odessa was passed to Eastern Command by Moscow on 18 February (Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, p. 37).

13
. Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, pp. 37–8.

14
. Ibid, p. 38.

15
. ‘I am an American.'

16
. ‘Are they Krauts?'

Chapter 7: Fighting Bastard of the Ukraine

1
.   Narrative based on recollections by Sergeant Don MacLeod (ball-turret gunner) and Lieutenant Cornelius Daly (navigator), as told to William MacLeod (personal communication to Lee Trimble, 12 February 2014). Further details come from recollections by Sergeant Arnold Echola (Doherty and Ward,
Snetterton Falcons
; Geoff Ward, personal communication to Lee Trimble, 14 February 2014). Circumstances of landing supplemented by salvage report by Captain Robert M. Trimble (Trimble, ‘Report on Flight to Rzeszow', pp. 1–2).

2
.   Photo of Captain I.I. Kamynin, Lieutenant Tillman Collection, Texas Military Forces Museum.

3
.   Recollection by Sergeant Don MacLeod, as told to William MacLeod (personal communication to Lee Trimble, 12 February 2014).

4
.   Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, p. 13.

5
.   Tadeusz Kratke served briefly with the French Air Force and, after the fall of France, joined the RAF, in which he flew Spitfires in No. 317 (Polish) Squadron (Cynk,
Polish Air Force
, pp. 136, 202, 216). A photo of Pilot Officer Kratke with his Spitfire can be seen at
www.polishairforce.pl/dyw317zdj.html
(retrieved 14 February 2014).

6
.   Letter to Tadeusz Kratke written at Staszów, 17 February 1945 (with translation) and photo of Lieutenant Kratke, Lieutenant Tillman Collection, Texas Military Forces Museum.

7
.   Shortened form of Tadeusz.

8
.   317 Squadron,
Chronicle
, p. 46.

9
.   The officer was Major Donald S. Nicholson, Eastern Command's meteorologist. The Tillman crew flew out of Lwów after three days and reached Poltava on 21 February (Kaluta, vol. I, ch. III, p. 13).