STOOP TO ANYTHING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20526, 9 April 1941, Page 3

STOOP TO ANYTHING

"FIFTH COLUMN" TRICKS NAZI INVASION TROOPS LESSONS FROM EUROPE Let me tell you of some of the tricks the “fifth columnists” have used in the countries attacked by Germany, which 1 have collected from various official reports, writes Mr. Somerset Maugham, famous British author and playwright. “Fifth column” agents may be men, women or even children. The French caught a girl of 12 who was signalling from behind chimneys to give German snipers the position of the French. These traitors may be in civilian clothes, disguised as clergymen, nurses, policemen, street-car conductors, Boy Scouts, railway employees or taxi drivers. In fact, any disguise is possible. Directed To Ambush They may be in British naval, military or air force uniforms. Before the invasion of Holland, Germans bought Dutch uniforms in great quantities, arid these were smuggled across the border with the help of Dutch Nazis. They put them to good use later.

On one occasion a British motor torpedo boat was fired on by soldiers in Dutch uniform whom the commander ,b,ad offered to evacuate from a quayside in Holland. Op another, a “fifth columnist,” disguised as a Dutch , policeman, told a group ol isolated Dutch troops,that their friends were round the corner, and they turned it they found Gel-man troops barricaded . .across the road, who promptly slaughtered them.

Another dodge was to drop a German woman near a road. She would wave tQ a lorry for a lift, and when it stopped German troops in ambush would kill the driver and seize the lorry. These are ruses of war and must be accepted as part of the horrible game, but the Germans have used methods which even a strong stomach must turn at.

For example, after the invasion ol Holland “fifth columnists” in civilian dress would march through the streets singing patriotic Dutch songs, and when a crowd collected a machinegun would open fire. If they met a Dutch officer their leader would salute him and then turn and shoot him in the back.

It is a comfort to think that sometimes the Nazis’ nefarious tricks were less successful. I have collected two instances.

Ruse That Succeeded

The Dutch commander of a certain naval base discovered that two men in naval uniforms had smuggled themselves into the dockyard. He mustered the garrison, but the intruders could not be found, so he told his men that on the following day they were not to salute their superior officers. Two did and were found to be the wanted men.

In another case, signals were given at night by “fifth columnists" to German aeroplanes to signify that parachutists could be released.

A Dutch ship patrolling the shallow waters, hearing the sound of aeroplane engines overhead, gave the same signal, whereupon parachutists were promptly released and dropped into the sea.

I should add that the “fifth column” uses a variety of ways of signalling to aeroplanes; electric torches, rockets and magnesium flares, setting (ire to haystacks and spreading sheets of newspapers'S'on the ground.

Wireless transmitters are concealed not only in private houses, but also in the most unlikely places. In Poland, one was found in a tree in a wood and another in the tomb of a well-known and doubtless highly respectable manufacturer.