AMAZING STORY

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21601, 11 December 1941, Page 5

AMAZING STORY

EXECUTION IN ENGLAND

GERMAN SECRET AGENT LANDED BY PARACHUTE (omclal Wireless) (Received Dec. 11. 11.40 a.m.) RUGBY, Dec. 10 An amazing story lies behind the official announcement, cabled last night, that Karel Richard Richter, German secret service agent, was executed at Wandsworth Prison. Richter was brought '<o Britain by an enemy aeroplane and dropped by parachute in Hertfordshire. For nearly two days he lay concealed in a wood. Twenty minutes after he emerged from his hiding place he was in the hands of the Hertfordshire county constabulary.

It was early on the morning of Tuesday, May 13, during the darkness. that Richter landed in a field near the village of London Colney. He spent the whole of Tuesday in a wood, also Tuesday night and the daylight hours of Wednesday. Part of the time was occupied in burying things which he had brought and his equipment included a trowel. There was still a fair amount of daylight left when, about 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Richter decided that it was time to get away from the wood and safe to venture on to the road beyond the field. A quarter of an hour later he found himself being shouted at by a lorry driver, who pulled up at the crossroads. The lorry driver had lost his way and was seeking directions. Richter could not help him and moved on. At that moment a war reserve oplice, Constable Scott, appeared. The lorry driver renewed his inquiry and got the information that he wanted. As he was about to drive off he remarked to the constable about the unhelpful stranger, who was then only a dozen yards away. Constable Not Satisfied ) The casual remark instantly roused the vigilance of the constable, who went after Richter, stopped him, and called on him to give an account of himself. His answers did not satisfy the constable and within a few minutes a patrol car, with other police officers, was speeding to the | scene. Richter was taken to the nearest police station, and after further quesj tioning was searched. There were 1 found on him several hundred pounds in British and United States currency. He also had a map of the eastern counties and a pocket compass. He was wearing an overcoat and a civilian suit, also three pairs of woollen pants and "two pairs of socks.

It was at once decided to make a thorough search of the fields, hedges and ditches where Richter was first observed. There were found, carefully concealed, a number of articles of equipment, which left no doubt about the mission of the captured man. They included camouflaged parachute harness, a German crash helmet bearing a swastika, an automatic pistol fully loaded, a trowel, a parcel of food and a portable wireless transmitting set capable of sending messages to the Continent. The wire- 1 less set was in two neat little leather cases.