Synopsis

In Chapter 1 (KTB #148) ERICH begins his career as a spy, and he lets us know of his love of beautiful women. In Chapter 2 (KTB #149), he was transferred home to Germany and his shipboard romance with Karen ended. In Chapter 3 (KTB #151) he began his training as a spy – and he learned that a spy who falls in love with an enemy spy – gets shot! In Chapter 4 (KTB #152) we read where ERICH himself falls for a woman who turned out to be a German spy herself and her job was to lure German spies in training to betray themselves – and ERICH is nearly washed out of spy training. In Chapter 5 (KTB #153) we learned that ERICH was to be in charge of Operation PELIKAN, the plan to blow up the Panama Canal with two Ju 87 STUKA dive bombers brought over on two U-boats. At the last moment, it was thought by the German agency, that someone had tipped off the Americans to this plot, so the plan was scrapped. In Chapter 6 (KTB #154 and KTB #155) we read how ERICH and the Abwehr tried to find him a partner for his mission into the USA with the intended purpose of sabotaging the Manhattan Project – the atomic bomb project in the United States. In Chapter 7 (KTB #156) we read about the Atlantic crossing to the USA where ERICH and Billy were to be put ashore to assault the ‘Manhattan Project’. In Chapter 8 (KTB #157), the two agents landed on the coast of Maine, ready to begin their sabotage of the atomic bomb project. In Chapter 9 (KTB #158) ERICH gets the shock of learning that Billy has taken all the money and the diamonds, and deserted not only the mission, but ERICH as well. In the first part of Chapter 10 (KTB #159) ERICH is trying desperately to find Billy – and get his $60,000 and diamonds back. In the balance of Chapter 10, we see how ERICH outwitted Billy and got his suitcases, filled with money and spy equipment back – at Billy’s expense but in the meantime to nobody’s surprise, ERICH has found another woman. In chapter 11, ERICH is doing well with this new woman, an old contact is going to tell him about the Manhattan Project - but his time is running out and Billy is about to betray him to the F.B.I. In Chapter 12, ERICH was happily spending Christmas with Joan, but his tour of duty as a spy – and his life, were almost over. He was arrested by the F.B.I. and headed for the gallows.

Chapter 13
Grilled by the F.B.I.

If this consideration, this attitude of human understanding were false, Connelly must have been the best actor I had ever known. But I believe it was genuine. All the officials, whether they seemed detached or interested, whether they had any private conversation with me or declined to talk to me personally, regarded me with a look that was a mixture of shyness, pity and horror. I was to be the object of this look for weeks on end, and I was finally able to define it. It was the look one gives a man who in measurable time is going to be led out to the gallows.

And so the interrogation went on. The same questions again and again, and again the same answers. When evening came we had not progressed one step. The sweat was running off my forehead, my legs were swelling and my mouth was parched although I was drinking coffee and Coca-Cola all the time. Night fell and Connolley went home for a short time.

What was happening in the background meanwhile I learned only later. On my account a special conference was called at the White House and the decision was taken to strengthen the coastal defenses. The fact that a German U-Boat had been able to break through the defensive ring had caused painful surprise in many quarters, and those responsible were summoned to appear before a court martial. They re-constructed the landing, followed the route we had taken and interrogated all the people we had spoken with, however trifling the conversation might have been. The F.B.I. had been put on its mettle…………….

Connelly had returned. He had food sent up. We ate together and discussed the proper way to grill a steak. We discovered we had the same taste. We had the wireless (radio) on while we were eating and let Harry James blow a trumpet solo at us.

“Any complaints?” asked Connelly.

“Actually, no.” I replied.

“Let’s have another cigarette in peace.” he said when we had finished our meal. He stood up and turned the radio off. “I’ll have a doctor sent in to you if you like.”

“Thank you, but I’m as sound as a bell.”

“Well,” he said, “that’s worth a good deal. My wife is in hospital. She suddenly contracted diphtheria. Diphtheria at twenty-four. My children are with their grandparents.”

“So you’ve children too?”

“Two. A boy and a girl.” He stubbed out his cigarette. At the same moment the door opened and two officials entered the room. The interrogation proceeded. Connelly sat in the background. He put his feet on his desk and brandished an outsized ruler in the air. Now and again I looked in his direction, but he appeared not to notice it. He was doing everything he could to appear indifferent to what was taking place.

It was midnight and once more the men were relieved.

“Ah, well,” said Connelly, “we still don’t know any more than we knew at the start. You’re very uncommunicative, my friend.”

“Speech is silver, silence is golden.”

“Is that a German saying?”

“Yes.”

“You could make things much easier for yourself and for us too. You’ve only to name the men who are backing you up.”

EDITOR NOTE – Make things easier on himself? How – they were going to hang him when this was over, what is so easy about that?

“There are none.”

He shrugged. “Then we shall have to institute a change in the proceedings,” he said.

Once more a door opened. Enter Billy!

Half pulled, half shoved, Billy appeared on the scene, pale, unshaven, his face swollen.

“Now come along,” said Nelson, giving him a push forward, “shake hands with your friend.”

Billy remained as if rooted to the spot. You could have heard a pin drop. I lit a cigarette. Billy was incapable of speaking and could not look me in the face. He presented a picture of such complete stupidity that for one moment I had to struggle with a feeling of pity for him. It was, however, soon dispelled.

“Come on, “said Connelly, “Say something, Billy. Tell us again what you know about him.”

Billy was silent.

“Come along, talk!”

The official shoved him nearer to me, he had a bruise on his head. He certainly had not been handled gently, that was obvious.

EDITOR NOTE – One must wonder if Billy was treated so harshly because, while Gimpel was a German agent, Billy was an American citizen committing treason against his country; a U.S. Navy deserter who had come to America to destroy her.

“Have you lost your tongue?” asked Connelly.

“You know everything already, “ said Billy. He still had his eyes on the floor. “He was with the SS. He was quite a big shot.”

“Go on Billy,” said Connelly, “what else do you know?”

“He intended to blow up some factories here.”

“Which factories?”

Billy was silent. He stood there pale, hang-dog, like one paralyzed. His long, ape-like arms hung limply down. His hair fell into his eyes. He looked sickly and was shaking from head to foot.

“Billy,” said Connelly, “you’re a swine. Get back into your cell again.” He turned to me.

“You didn’t pick a very good companion for your trip.”

“One learns by one’s mistakes, but it’s always too late then,” I replied.

The interrogation went on. There were days and weeks of it. the court martial was set up. Counsel were appointed. They did their best to separate the proceedings against Colepaugh from my own case, arguing that I had been a soldier while Colepaugh was a traitor. But they did not succeed. The opening day of the trial loomed ahead. I was approaching my end with uncanny speed.

We begin chapter 14 in KTB #168 next month – ‘In the Shadow of the Scaffold’. One can understand Erich’s comment that his end was approaching with uncanny speed as, when one is in a situation like this – in court, charged with a crime – and the person has no control over events or his fate or for that matter, not even over his own day to day activities…..the clock tends to run ever so fast.

Spy for Germany

Chapter 7: To America by Submarine (KTB # 156)
Chapter 8: The Landing in America (KTB # 157)
Chapter 9: Tricked by Billy in NYC (KTB # 158)
Chapter 10 (I): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 159)
Chapter 10 (II): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 160)
Chapter 11 (I): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 161)
Chapter 11 (II): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 162)
Chapter 12 (I): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 163)
Chapter 12 (II): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 164)
Chapter 13 (I): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 165)
Chapter 13 (II): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 166)
Chapter 13 (III): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 167)