SIEGFRIED SECRETS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21559, 23 January 1940, Page 11

SIEGFRIED SECRETS

WAR OFFICE GRATEFUL WHAT A LAD FOUND OUT Information of incalculable value, it has just transpired, was recently passed on to the British Intelligence Service by a Yorkshire pit-boy, as a result of holiday explorations of the Siegfried Line. He is George Thornton, aged 18, of Doe Royd Lane. Sheffield. An ex-army officer to whom Thornton had related some of his experiences was so impressed that he passed the matter forward. Distinguished Visitors Shortly afterwards a large official car drew up at the lad’s council house home, and Thornton related to two staff members of a Government department in the War Office all he knew about the Siegfried Line. George, a typical Yorkshire lad, and an inveterate roamer, told a newspaper reporter that just before the war he went on holiday with a bank clerk friend who is now in the South. “My friend,” said George, “had travelled Germany previously, and knew all the routes, but to me it was a new and exciting experience. “We visited all the well-known cities, and then toward the end of our 16 days’ vacation, decided to take a look at the Siegfried Line. “Every so often I persuaded my friend to stop the car and, if anyone came, to tell them we had had a breakdown. Photographs Taken “While he stayed near the car, with the bonnet cover up, pretending to look inside the engine, I did a bit of personal investigation. “At the same time I am certain I saw, a lot of things never mentioned in print, and it is about those that I have now spoken to gentlemen who can make most use of them. “I took several photographs that day, but these were confiscated at the border. T think the guards must have been warned that a British car was coming, for they pounced on us from an alley. “They searched our pockets, and took the camera, films, and my diary in which were notes about our travels. They also searched the car thoroughly. “They must have been more than a bit suspicious, because we were not released for three hours.”