GRAND DUKE WAS SPY DURING WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19060, 3 May 1930, Page 28 (Supplement)

GRAND DUKE WAS SPY DURING WAR.

GERMANS MADE USE OF LISTENING SET. (Special to the " Star/’) LONDON, March 17. How the Grand Duke of Mecklen-burg-Strelitz posed as a British flying officer in order to get information from British airmen captured by the Germans is one of the many fascinating secrets of the war revealed by Mr Ferdinand Tuohy in “The Battle of Brains’', published by Heinemann. Mr Tuohy was a member of the In- 1 telligence Branch of the British Army during the war. He is a well-known journalist. The Grand Duke, Mr Tuohy points out, “was obviously all cut out for the job in hand on account of his English public school and university education.” The Hour and—Strelitz. In 1917, when the air war “broke dizzily” on the British front, there was “a rare chance for Strelitz”. Two R.A.F. officers are brought down in the German lines. They are hospitably entertained by German air officers. Presently “a third—a shot-down British officer with pilot’s wings and Military Cross—is introduced to the captives. It is Strelitz. “And for the balance of the portdrinking evening the three captives are left to themselves, to their own gossip—‘Strelitz’ in undertones directing the conversation hither and thither, in impeccable English, while displaying the most intimate first-hand knowledge of the Rj\.F. and all its works. “Not till very near the end were we to know, through an escaped prisoner, of this serious ‘air pigeon’ business. Then ‘Strelitz’ became a byword; and RA..F. officers were warned against talking to anyone, even in khaki, if captured.”

Why “Pushes” Were Futile. Ingenious means by which the British and German Intelligence Services detected the movements of each other’s armies are also revealed by Mr Tuohy.

The Germans had a listening set in their trenches called Moritz. After they had retired to the Hindenburg line from the Somme in February, 1917, a German Intelligence summary found by the British showed how the enemy had been able to identify not less than 70 per cent of all British units thus going into the line, immediately and unmistakably, by means of Moritz. Moritz and “the excellent German listening personnel” had heard the “wealth of rich British and overseas accents which were (literally) calling day and night to be overheard —Taffie, Haggis, Erse, Aussie, Canuck, Zomerset, Aye-by-Goom, not to mention Cockney”—and had deciphered the variations of accent in terms of divisions and brigades. “It was in no small measure due to this sorry listening set circumstance that the Germans were able to block so effectively and tragically each fresh move of Sir Douglas Haig.

“Our lines remained an open book to them; they knew what was coming every time.”