THE AIR SPIES OF FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 25

THE AIR SPIES OF FRANCE

An extract from "The German Secret Service," by Colonel W. Nicolai, throws an interesting light on the methods- of espionage employed by the French Intelligence Service in French territory occupied by the Germans, says the "Age." "In May, 1915, it was discovered that spies, provided with carrier pigeons, were being set down behind the German lines by French airmen. These spies were persons whose homes were in the occupied area, and they were landed in their native districts where they knew every highway and byway. Germans, too, were employed in this way. They were mostly Alsatians and Lorrainers, who had lived in France since before the war,, and had avoided military service in Germany, soldiers who had deserted, or prisoners of war. Spies of German nationality were more useful, because they were better acquainted with army conditions and could move with selfreliance among the German troops. Frenchmen, on the other hand, knew the population, and could reckon on help from the people. All these 'air spies' were oldish men. Under their civilian clothes the French spies wore French uniforms, and the Germans German uniforms. The latter were instructed to take off their civilian clothes on landing and hide them, so as to appear in uniform among the German troops. "The French spies kept their civilian . clothes on, in order to go about among ' the people; only when they were in ; serious clanger were they to take oft ;

I arrested, they could be treated as prisoners of war, and not as spies. These spies were skilled in the handling of carrier pigeons, and generally brought six over with them for the purpose of sending back the information they gathered. They were landed at night, mostly near the lines ,of communication, in quiet regions where there were few troops, and therefore not a great deal of surveillance. From there they had to slip up to the fighting area. They were promised that after a certain period they would be picked up at the same spot by an aeroplane. Enterprises of this kind, it was noticed, greatly increased when big operations were about to take place, and so we could deduce where the enemy was going to undertake such moves, or where they were expected from the German side. In 1915 nine 'air spies,' four of them in uniform, and five aeroplanes, fell into- our hands. Attempts to pick up spies again were watched. The French aeroplanes would fly at the arranged time over the landing place, kept under .observation by German counter-espionage agents. Bat the airmen in such cases flew at considerable height, because the sign agreed upon that the coast was clear was not given. It was often established, however, that the promised attempt to pick up the spy was not undertaken. In no case was it definitely ascertained that an 'air spy' was really taken of! again. They were left to their fate, and either fell into the hands of the German authorities, or reached Holland by a