INTERNED GERMAN
FIVE YEARS GAOL SPYING IN AUSTRALIA CANBERRA, July 21. A sentence of five years' imprisonment with hard labour was imposed upon Karl Oswald Thierfelder, an interned German mechanic, who pleaded guilty at the Adelaide Criminal Court to two charges of recording defence measures in a manner prejudicial to the Commonwealth’s defence.
In passing sentence, the Chief Justice, Sir John Mellis Napier, said he ( believed that Thierfelder had been used by others as an instrument in a system of espionage. A German who came to Australia in 1938, Thierfelder prepared sketch maps of Australian defence installations while he was in an internment camp. Thierfelder worked as a mechanic for a German motor organisation, and acquired a great deal of information about Australia's defence positions and installations and about some measures of a secret nature. After the outbreak of war Thierfelder was interned., but the knowledge he possessed had been gained in such a thorough manner that he was able to prepare carefully annotated _ sketch maps showing many of these installations.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21153, 22 July 1943, Page 4
Word Count
171INTERNED GERMAN Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21153, 22 July 1943, Page 4
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