[CW] Agent Radio Operation

[Richard Knoppow]

    What a fantastic story, thank you.

On 8/1/2021 5:55 PM, W4BIN wrote:
> On 8/1/21 5:16 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
>
> > What has me puzzled about agent radio equipment is why agents 
> weren't
> > given separate transmitters and receivers. Had that been done 
> maybe more
> > agents would have survived longer. The procedure would be 
> receive in one
> > location and key message on a wire recorder. Then put the 
> spool with the
> > message in the transmitter and be far away from the 
> transmitter whenever
> > the transmitter sends. A timer in the transmitter and maybe some
> > explosive with a keypad in the transmitter where the keypad 
> has a number
> > combination that has to be keyed in to prevent the 
> transmitter from
> > blowing up could maybe have helped. If the enemy comes on the 
> transmitter
> > and the keypad is concealed inside the unit where only if you 
> know where
> > to look counter-intelligence could have been given several 
> ruined days. I
> > don't know that keypads of that type were feasible then 
> either. Termite
> > certainly could have been used as a self-destruct mechanism 
> if quieter
> > results were desired.
>
> I knew such an OSS agent. I attended his presentation at one of 
> our clubs here.
>   (I think he was of German extraction.)
>   He was born in Idaho, took four years of German in high 
> school, was in the US Army air-core (stationed at McDill AF 
> base) when approached by the OSS.  He agreed and was sent to an 
> OSS school where he was taught much German and the many German 
> ways.
>
>   He parachuted into central Germany 13 times.  He dropped with 
> his suitcase (with a false bottom hiding his transmitter, 
> receiver, batteries & crystals) hanging from his belt by a 
> rope. He always jumped alone.  He monitored rotating 
> frequencies for messages to him, on specific days and times.  
> (using the same set of quartz crystals)
>   He supervised 13 other such agents.  Two (twins) Dutch agents 
> were caught and killed, but all of the rest survived the war.  
> He was in for a month or so and out for six months or so.
>   After he located a war manufacturing facility (or other 
> target like a secluded air strip) he would travel a distance 
> then secure lodging on the top, (second or third) floor of a 
> tavern.  (a boarding house)
>   He dropped half of the antenna out of the window, the other 
> half he ran around the baseboard.  (two spools of thin stranded 
> wire)
>   He prefilled out his message on a pad of paper from a 
> substitution code page book, late at night he transmitted his 
> message with the serial number of the PAGE at the beginning and 
> the end of the coded message. (four digits)  Once sent the 
> page/s were burned.
> (that substitution page only existed with one OSS field agent, 
> and all receive sites)
>   His transmitter had a 6G6 final with ~200 Volts. (and a 6AG7 
> oscillator)
>   He had half a dozen quartz crystals and he changed 
> frequencies about three times in each message transmission.
>   I asked him about receive sites and he said: Every American 
> base on earth (in almost every country) had operators that were 
> listening for him (during his operating period) on all of his 
> crystal frequencies.  He had a constantly changing time window 
> for HIS transmission.  (that he could calculate)
>   Various operators at various bases got parts of his 
> transmission which had to be pieced together. (after a while an 
> air strike resulted, by then he was long gone)
>   His messages were like; “230 meters SSW of (German City) 
> looking like a railway tunnel.”  (or a row of houses on a hill, 
> or in clump of trees)
>   He constantly wandered the country all day long carrying his 
> clandestine equipment, and clothes, he was stopped and searched 
> frequently, his stories worked.  If his gear were much heavier 
> he would have been worn out, he was never separated from it, 
> except for leaving it in his room when he went down for meals.
>   He left the country escorting various civilians and downed US 
> & British etc. troops) each time.  Always north to Switzerland 
> as I recall.
>   When the war was over (in Europe) he was reassigned to McDill 
> AF base and his most beautiful girl friend, becoming his wife. 
> (from: Ruskin, Florida)
>
> He is /SK and in the:  Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame and a 
> county park was named after him.  My idol.

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL