Officer Nobody Knew

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23618, 30 March 1940, Page 11 (Supplement)

Officer Nobody Knew

IT was while I was stationed at Breakwater Fort, Portland, during the last war, that I heard the following story, told to me by an officer in the mercantile marine named Manning. Manning had been drafted to a shore job on account of illhealth and was billeted on the outskirts of Weymouth. We had struck up a friendship after a chance encounter in a cinema, and often during my shore leave we would forgather in the town for a drink and a smoke. His billet, he told me, was miles away from nnv excitement, the cottage being built on a rou<*h coastal path which eventually joined the main road to Warmwell. Fie used to find it more than abnormally quiet when he went home at night. If he came across more than one or two people in the darkness he used to wonder if there had perhaps been a. surprise enemy landing on the beach! The few country folk who did happen to be about were from the surrounding cottages, and naturally he knew them. Stranger in the Dark One evening, as lie was going home a little earlier than usual, he heard a movement ahead of him —the sound of a boot kicking a stone, and a muttered imprecation. Manning himselt had been walking 011 the grass verge, and was at that moment standing still to light his pipe. He decided _that Jus presence suddenly revealed might give the stranger a shock, so he stayed silent, waiting.

The stranger was apparently unused to walking in the dark, nor did he seem to know his road, for he stumbled more than once, and on one occasion Manning heard the sound of rending cjoth as he ran into a bush. After a time, however, the footsteps died away, and a little puzzled, but thinking it must be some visitor to the last house on the path. Manning resumed his own journey and reached his billet safely. The whole occurrence would probably have faded from his memory had not a similar encounter happened ten days later. This time Manning called a cheery "good night," but he received only "a muttered reply. The response to his friendly greeting was so surly, in fact, that next time he was visiting the people in the house beyond lus billet, he mentioned it. To his amazement, they denied all knowledge of the stranger. Curiosity Aroused "In that case," said Manning to himself, "who is the mysterious stranger, and what is he up to, stumbling along a road that leads nowhere, and for 110 apparent reason!''' His curiosity was aroused to such an extent that in the morning he left his billet early and pursued the cliff path beyond the furthest cottage. It was 110 mean feat to climb it even in broad daylight, and Manning began to wonder even more why the stranger troubled to take so precarious a walk in pitch darkness. Near the top. however, he made a discovery that made him feel that the difficulty of the climb had perhaps been worth while. He found a mark where someone had slipped badly on a patch of wet mud. A piece of bush beside the path was broken off. And in the bush something glinted in the sun. He bent down to pick it up and found that it was a gilt button from a naval officer's uniform.

Manning's curiosity deepened. For the life of him lie could not see why a naval officer should want to clamber along that perilous path at night, when it led nowhere at all. The problem looked like being unsolved. For a couple of weeks mysterious strangers on cliff paths were conspicuous bv their absence. And then Manning had the luck to come out of his

By R. A. HAVARD

house one evening, to go down into Weymouth, just as he heard someone slipping by. The stranger was going townward instead of clillward, but he was wearing naval uniform and that was enough for Manning. He let the ollicer get some distance in front and began to follow. They reached Weymouth with about fifty yards between them. The officer seemed to know his way about, ior he made straight for the bar <>l an hotel most frequented by naval officers from the ships in port. Manning followed him in, and stood alongside to have a drink, noting that his uniform was that of a lieutenant-commander. Just as he was debating his opening remark, the fellow was joined by an aged civilian, whom he addressed as uncle and with whom he promptly tell into intimate conversation. Then they moved over to a table with their drinks, and put their heads close together. M anning was beginning to feel rather foolish. His curiosity, he fell, had definitely got the better of him. He was about to leave the hotel when he noticed, with a last glance at the lieutenant-commander, that a button was missing from his monkey-jacket. This discovery sent his suspicions soaring again. Either, he argued, the officer must have a very poor steward if he could not get a button sewn on again within a fortnight of its being lost, or else for some reason he found it impossible to get a spare button. One of the most obvious reasons for the latter argument was that he was masquerading in a stolen uniform and could not even get hold of a button with which to repair it. Manning told me that he almost spilt his drink when the idea occurred to him. Rapid thinking brought to his mind the exact date 011 which he had first met the stranger in the dark, and with it came the appalling discovery that the date coincided within twentyfour hours of a ship being attacked by a submarine in the Channel. Had he stumbled on the means whereby information about the sailing of ships had been conveyed to the commander of an enemy submarine?

Plan of Action He had not the slightest idea what he ought to do. After all, you cannot stalk across a lounge of an hotel to a man and accuse him of being a spy. Nor can you, an unknown officer wearing civilian clothes, tackle a lieutenantcommander in a public place. But while Manning was still debating his plan of action, a man he knew quite well, who sield a responsible position 011 the local Admiralty staff, walked in and ordered a drink. Manning managed to get hold ef him and ask him if he knew the

lieutenant-commander. His spirits rose ii bit when he received a complete denial, and they went higher still when tho newcomer turned to an inveterate gossip who knew everybody in Weymouth, asked the same question, and received an even (latter denial. Thereupon, Manning took his friend over to n quiet corner and told him the whole story. Things began to move quickly. Manning's friend left liini lor a few minutes and soon after he returned Manning noticed that, another naval officer, large and friendly, and with a rank just one degree senior to the lieutenantcommander, had come in for a drink. Looking, apparently casually, round the room, he spotted the suspect and walked across to his table under the pretence of having served with him. Wild Scheme The man was taken aback for a moment, but then smiled and suggested a mistake had been made, as bis name was not that mentioned, but another altogether. Apologies were tendered, and the large, friendly man rose and returned to the bar to finish his drink, leaving shortly afterwards to send in a note to Manning's companion. The note was brief and to the point. It said tersely that the suspect was claiming to bo an officer who was known to be a prisoner in Germany. This was the end of Manning's active participation in the affair, but he heard later what happened. The supposed lieutenant-commander was an officer in the Germany Navy, and soeond-in-com-mand of a submarine operating in the Channel. Intelligence systems having broken down, ho had conceived the wild scheme of being landed on the coast in the middle of the night so that he could find out personally what had gone wrong. He had made contact with his agent in Weymouth and had re-established the system, leaving again the following night after lying hidden all day at a lonely part of the coast. He took back with him information which led to the successful attack on a ship. Emboldened with his success, and the case with which be had escaped detection in an imprisoned officer's uniform, he had repeated the exploit on three more occasions. That be should run into Manning was just the million-to-one chance that gave him away. He was allowed to leave Weymouth that night and was followed, to be caught the next night when he was about to ho picked up by the collapsible boat that came ashore for him. As for the elderly civilian, he too was captured after he had made contact with other members of the system, and the whole organisation was wiped out.