Operation Elster - Part V

Born and raised on the coast of Maine about 200 yards from the shore of Frenchman Bay, my introduction to WWII came in the spring of 1942. At age nine, I was able to slip under a fence and through the bushes to within 25 yards of a US Navy 40mm gun (see Part IV, KTB #170, p.5) covering the inner bay. It was hair raising and deafening as the 2-man gun barked, and tracers went floating across the bay like roman candles. I witnessed more than one wild goat on the cliffs of Porcupine island, a half mile offshore, go flying into the air. The gun crew never caught me, but I learned a good lesson. The crosshairs of a 40mm gun is a bad place to get caught!

Air Attacks? On the US East Coast?

My father was a volunteer civil defense ground observer and perched nights in a cupola on top of the grammar school. My grandfather was an air raid warden, making sure no window shades were up, a job I am sure he enjoyed. The concern was for enemy air attack. Coming from where you ask? Good question. But everyone was on edge after the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor. They had aircraft spotter charts depicting the silhouette of allied and enemy planes, and balsa wood model kits were very popular among us grade schoolers. Both American and German fighter models were available, and we delighted in running around yelling, “That Fokker is a Messerschmitt!” I’d just turned 12 when U-1230 came to visit our scenic coast in November 1944, but it was not until the spring of 2001, that I became interested in German submarines.

The dead spy is alive!

As I reported in Part II (KTB #161, p.5) a national association of former intelligence officers of which I am Special Assistant to the President, initiated a project early in 2001 to identify espionage sites in New England for historic and educational purposes. The 1944 landing of spies by U-boat in Frenchman Bay was selected for commemoration with an historic plaque. In order to apply for permission to erect a plaque in Acadia National Part at a scenic turnout overlooking Frenchman Bay, we needed approval from the US Department of Interior. To obtain DOI approval for plaques in parks, as you may guess, is an extreme long shot. For starters, I knew we had to get the history right! So I began a little rural counterintelligence (CI) ops in Downeast Maine. After a few days snooping around I discovered that there were at least a half dozen accounts of the WWII event, both official and otherwise, and none of them were the same. It became apparent that I better find some original sources, or give up. So I set out to find the spies themselves, one of whom had long been reported dead. By November 2001 I had found the dead one, alive.

Colepaugh was a defector to Germany, but neither he nor Gimpel were war criminals. As I said before, both Gimpel and his boss Gen. Schellenberg considered Hitler a madman, and former boss Adm. Canaris got caught in a plot to assassinate Hitler. After narrowly escaping the standard fate of spies – execution – both served time in US prisons, Gimpel 10 years and Colepaugh 15, and they now had every right to privacy. I believe Gimpel should have been released in 1945, as soon as the war was over, but that is water under the bridge, or should I say over the bridge? Anyway, it is lucky whenever spooks make it to retirement age. Erich will be 94 in a couple months, and is much admired by his friends, including me, and much beloved by his children and grandchildren.

EDITOR NOTE – ERICH GIMPEL (884-1988) also has many friends in Sharkhunters, but he has no love of his former partner “Billy” (Colepaugh).

After discovering the magnitude of the Elster operation, and after sifting through reams of misinformation, I came to recognize Erich Gimpel for his professionalism as a spy. Having said this, let me go back to that night in Hancock, Maine on November 29, 1944. In Part II (KTB #161, p.24) I had mistakenly echoed the theme that Erich had two lapses in spy tradecraft. The first being proper dress. That topcoats and felt hats was okay for the city but hardly the dress-code for rural Maine during deer season. On taking a closer look, however, I discovered that the topcoats were perfect cover (no pun intended). How so?

Well, imagine two strangers dressed in red-and-black checkered jackets (fluorescent orange was not in use in 1944) and claiming to be local deer hunters. Right. What do they say if asked to produce a hunting license? Where are they staying locally? What the hell are they doing out at 11pm? Jacking deer maybe? Where did they hide their hunting rifles? At best they’d be made as phony deer hunters, and at worst they’d be hauled in by some game warden. The truth is, their cover was perfect, and it worked without a hitch. They made a successful ingress of the USA and advanced from the landing point to the nearest railhead fifty 50 miles away with time to spare. And it only cost them $6.00.

This brings me back to the “99 diamonds” as reported by the FBI, that were included in their spy kit along with the $60k in US cash. Something doesn’t add up. Did J. Edgar Hoover count them personally? Intel support staffers in general can be quite persnickety about doling out expenses to us spooks in the field. Imagine some exacting German officer overseeing the requisition of equipment for the Elster operation. Would they carefully count out an odd number of 99 diamonds? Not an even 100? You know the drill, if you believe this, raise your hand. I can’t believe it either. So where’s the extra diamond? I don’t believe Erich or Billy ever unsealed the cache, much less count them. Was there maybe a really big one, an eye-catching sparkler? Who cares. Me? Never!

In my opinion Erich should have been released in 1945. I trust you are all reading his story in the KTB’s. As I indicated in Part II (KTB #161, p.24) it is somewhat fictionalized, as a readable novel must be, but offers an honest insight into the day to day feelings of a real spy. What about the second lapse in tradecraft? In Part II (see above) I said Erich should have beat it out of NYC after Billy disappeared. Wonder why he didn’t? If you were the lead agent for a critical operation upon which the survival of your country depended, would you duck out? But why not lay low for a while, you ask? Consider this. In the great metropolis of NYC foreign travelers and foreign languages were no more unusual in 1944 than they are today. What better place for spies to gather.

It dawned on me that NYC would be the meeting place for German agents called to participate in Elster from South America and from Canada, and others arriving by submarine from points in between! To sabotage an operation the size of the US Manhattan Project. And where in NYC would be a logical prearranged rendezvous point? How about a kiosk selling foreign newspapers? As I pointed out in Part III (KTB #166, p.19 and Part IV #170, p.17) it is not likely that Colepaugh was privy to details of the Elster operation, and he had no idea that the kiosk was a central rendezvous point, and much less why Erich fished into his coat pocket for change. How may brush contacts were made under Billy’s nose during the month of December 1944, with info passed in magazines?

On the critical date of December 30, with time being of the essence, would Erich have ducked out on his scheduled contact? And, finally, would a good recognition signal be reaching into a certain coat pocket for change? I see a lot of raised hands. There you have it. And now, a spot quiz. If you think the mislaunch of an advanced German V1 type cruise missile could blow the coning tower clean off an IXC/40 U-boat, please raise your hands again. Good. Hands down. More to come in Part VI.

Holy smoke! What is DICK trying to say here? That is a moot question apparently, as anyone can plainly read what he is indeed, trying to say or at least, hinting at. Keep reading – there is more on this subject further in this issue, and a LOT more in Part VI, which we anticipate will be KTB #175 next month. This can be explosive! And you read it first in Sharkhunters.