THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1958.
Page
Beginning CAT AND MOUSE
the secret Alamein drama... the fantastic story of the master-spy Rommel sent to Cairo
THE SPY WHO DINED WITH BRITISH STAFF OFFICERS
His name is John Epplor. His
story is one of the most fantastic spy exploits of the war... an episode that nearly turned the tide of battle against Britain. Now, for the first time, the story of Rommel's master-spy in Cairo can be told in full.
T live minutes past nine o'clock on the evening of November 2, 1957, a black, mud-spattered car with a French number plate pulled into the kerb opposite 84, Isestrasse, a side street in the outer suburbs of Hamburg. From it climbed a plump blonde and a frisky golden retriever puppy on a lead. For a few minutes the girl and the dog walked through the drizzle, stopping beside a lamp-post, pausing to look in the seedy shop. windows; and then, casually, they strolled back to the car and the girl nodded through the open window.
·by
LEONARD MOSLEY
and he grew up among the British Army of Occupation in the years following the 1914-18 War. Like most German chil dren, he was not encouraged to love the conquerora,
Immediately a youngish man alid out of the door and walked swiftly across the pavement and into the dark hull of No. 84, followed by his companions, From the open door of the top It WAS Information which flat, on the fourth floor, we could be obtained only on the the British them- could hear them coming: spot, from
selves; how they would the dog whining uneasily,
pase their troops, what soldier the nun whispering: "Still,
would lead them in the Jost Klaus. Halt die Mau!" and stand, the
exact date end
When Eppler พร H[ N the clumping footsteps of manner in which they would the heavy-breathing blonde, what help the Germans was offered a job as a cham- meet the German onsinught, young boy, his widowed mother could be expected to receive bermaid in un hotel in Port Stiff whiskies from their friends in the Egyp- Said, and when she called for Egypt she took John Epplt: with her,
POURED vul Lwo stiff whiskles and the man took his and drank it the moment he came into the room. Then he sat down opposite me und my companions, fook a revolver hom the holster in the pit of shoulder, and placed at beside his glass.
"I John Eppler," he said, and grinned at the revolver, "Don't take any notice of that thing. I jsut wear it to keep Now my shoukters straight. tell me why you wanted me to come here.
I said: "The same old Eppler off!" And always showing then, while he ext mined me closely: "You don't recognise
a
Nu. Should I?" "Cairo," told him. "The summer of 1942, just before the Battle of Alamein. We had driak together in the Kit Kat, With a dancer named.....
"My God." he broke in, "the Eritish Secret Service again! What do you want me for
tian Army.
عالى
It was the most important
She was a plump, pretty, and mission the Germans gave to one of their agents during the intelligent young woman, and war, and Eppler was the spy it was not long before she met,. "Go to and subsequently married, un chosen to carry it out.
Egyptian Jawyer named Abdel Caire," ordered Rommel.
Ganfer, Life for her and for her son changed considerably after that,
He had the background and qualiâcations for the take bravo and was young and
He knew physically strong.
He spoke Egypt intimately. fluent English and Arabic, and he had many friends behind the British lines.
'Her new husband-he subsc- became A judge-- quently
Su-Yan ceme over to bim... and her smile was Enviting
breath-taking, figure in la,alit, words the white tepth, the Oriental gown.
3 smiling red mouth, and the friendly, slanting eyes at the Then he noticed that this time bar. And it was not until several was comfortably off, He not she was not accompanied, by months later that he realised only gave, his name to his wife some elderly, oft-shelt or the very ordinary woman ho but to Eppler too, and he was vous, hashishi-boosted princel- Geofer He. ing, but by *** renamed Hussein
a very ordinary had talked to was Frau Paula Koch, one of Britain's most school in Port middle-aged woman. was sent to
formidable adversaries in the and Cairo, Sald, Alexandrin,
When she saw battle of wits that went on be Not only that. where he quickly learned ex- cellent English and Arabic, `: him looking at her, she smiled, tween-us and Germany in the openly, frankly, invitingly. And Middle East in those hectic days when he could not believe the before the war. evidence of his own sensee, she even got up from her table and came over to him,
From June 1942 he was the arch-enemy in our midst. Ele about Egypİ. moved freely dining at the clubs, playing golf and tennis with Britiali officers and evilian employees at G.I.Q. lu Cairo.
tho
He was an habitue of a night club where a certain exponent Egyptian of that specialised
belly-dance, terpsichore,
for the gyrated each evening delcelation of elderly Pashas and. young British oneers.
of The
this young "Not quile," I said. "The
dancer was Hekmat Fathmy, unly secret agent in the room
of the and many ex-memberS Is you, John. And you were a
Eighth Army will undoubtedly German spy, weren't you?"
He put his stubby hand to his remember her.
now?"
name
fee and rubbed his spatulate Semelines Eppler wore Bri- fingers across his forehead, as sh
me?
said.
My search
ND that, in fact, was
all I
whole..
uniform; sometimes the
he
Was
น
landed
Free
For six of the must crucial weeks of the war, a small red flag was pinned into a map of the Nile Delta which hung on the wall of Hitlera head quarters; and that meant that John Eppler was in Cairo, and operating.
Small wonder that
tho
But Hussein never lost his love for his own country, nor his inherent hostility towards the British troops who, so he felt, were occupying his step- father's country too, "Oh, these arrogant empire builders!" he used to say, Bournfully, "with their private clubs and cliquish ways!”?
He grew up to be a bright, gregarious youth with a streak of recklessC55.
Loveliest
Stefano
the Lebanon.
"We are "Please," she said, all friends here. May I be very · Immodest and ask you to ask me to dance?"
Nor did he realise untis bis bank overdraft was paid and his debis retiled that he was now a member of the Abwehr German syy being kept in reserve, for one of the most alficult missions of the war.
At the end of 10 delightful Just before the, outbreak of minutes Su-Yan led Eppler back war a message from the German to the table, where the very Embassy reached John Eppler. ordinary weman bad
been Ho lert at once on the train watching them.
"This," said Su-Yan,
Paula.
Embassy.
Iado-
a succession
course
Europe and Brtish-controlled is to go there and help to con- Middle East, it was used by Folidate it. both sides as an Important listening post for information about the enemy.
"Now
we
whether I had heard any un- t toward noises in the night! told him about the amorously noley sounds from next door.
This sent him and his com- panlon Into a mild paroxyam of laughter.
"Wo vllally need information froni the Catre, and yet we have been thwerted every time Around the big spy organisa-, We try to get it. Our last two 10-agents, Muhlenbruch and Klein, small tions fitted the
falled to make it, and Muhlen- who
· Tiff-rnY sples, pinstre"
bruch Is dead.
"Muking lover" said one of dance The haunted
halls, hotels of. ani
roly
upon you. them. "Is that what you think night-clubs,
your mission. And was happening next door? Come formation they could entice or
what do we find? Within a few and see!". the city, picking up what in Cairo is filch from the unwary.
hours of your arrival, you zo They usually sold it to the drinking and talking with
prepared to pay the cheap informant who will report to the. British everything you higher feo, but when they have sald.. What did you tell
tried to unload it on both aldes, 15 they sometimes greedily did, they rarely lived to regret it.
In
side
her?"
Eppier
t
laughed, "Why nothing, except to say that I used to live in Egypt. She bar-girl knows nothing about me."
110
The body of а
the Bosporus
was unusual find in those days, and the Turkish secret police were not
their too energotle in
he
not
ot
Sinister
.
They dragged me, a seedr and overhung szók, from my bed into the room next door, Inside, there was a tortured
the bed. shape lying on had once been the body of a women, but no longer *#73- wered to that description, Be- side the bed was an eminty coffee cup, spliled over.
With the cool and practical despatch of very unimaginative men, my two companions un- twisted the sorry langle -on the
GOOD. Then let us get down bed and bared her face for me to the matter in hand. Soon to view. No, I said, I did not you will be in Cairo, I have know her. But they obviously here a list of agents you will did. contact when you, get to Egypt.
"This is the situation with the
you get to
They straightened ..bet the dissident officers of
cletiched fista and from inside one of them oxtescled small twist of cardboard Egyptian Army. These are the
from a clzarette packet. : Informants whom you will con- Tact once
Calro.
ploked it up as it fell to tha And here, is a summary of the way in which you must act
floor, and rend it. "Gasfer. when you get there...."
Egypt, Boche Agent, Sadnat, * For two hours Frau Koch and pushed me
They grabbed it, from me, with Jovial drilled Eppler in the latest armness from the room. It was developments, as reported, by not until 12 hours inter that I her agents, of what was learned from my knowledgeable going on behind the British,
lince in Exypliais of names friend MacPherson, aizsiness man in Istanbul, that the dead - and addresses, tips on
woman (murdered by strych- behaviour of British troops, ning a homid, limb-twisting and an overall briefing on like death) was the bar-giri Elena
Andreau..
in Egrith.
At the end of it, she let him..
go with a final warning:
-To the British; of course, the name Sodant war' nothing new. He was already suspected as the leader of the young, unfi-British Inter officers group in the Egyptians Eppler was back in Berlin to Army. But nobody know at
"Don't talk to anyone."
Forty-eight hours
for Haifa and then drove North to catch the Taurus Express, "Is He stayed twp days in Turkey inquiries, so long as the body and twice telephoned his mother was not Identified as Turkish, in Cairo with what must have and so long as their neutrality "Sit down," said Paula. And
embarrassed nor it to erase some of the memories paved as an Egyptian youth; the years before 1899 and the › Jocked away Inside his skull sometimes
been innocuous messages, but infringed. outbreak of war, Hussein when Eppler had obeyed, she seemed to any listener to have was
for Information We all waited in Ellence. And French officer.
(John Eppler) Gaafer lived the waved her hand at Su-Yan, were in fact
In the German meeting
Eppler presumed he would be ngents, or scheming life of a typical Egyptian play "All right," she said, in a tone his contact then a self-confident grin enme
Middle East polllicos, who set to His Hips. He reached. He swam through the feverish boy. Jie gambled heavily at the of dismissal.
the Without a word, Casino the
on for its glass, took a deep swlg waters of Cairo, all through that San
girl walked slowly He then proceeded to Berlin, would bring him up to date and lost, He Chinese'
on the situation in Egypt; und, of whisky, and the tension went nervous summer, like a tireless Mediterranean, cut of his body.
frogman, spearing sprats of mixed with dancing girls, and away. And as Eppler watched where he reported to an office Arabic linguist with a specialis- and sending them became close friends of two who her go the woman Paula sald in the Abwehr As an Anglo- since the weather, for once
that time of the year, was fine. "That's right," he said. "A information
the Bosporus balmy and more German spy, working
transmitter, were subsequently to become dryly:- for back, by a secret
"Thore'll be plenty of time ed knowledge of Egypt, he was Germany. How did you and to Abwehr storing-posts in the famous, names among the British
and his name and qualifications no hurry to fuldt his mission. I thought I had covered desert, in Athens, and Smyrna.. Anny in Egypt: Tahle Carioca for that later," And then, ab- Posted to a special department, beautiful than ever, he was in
and Hekmat Fathmy, the most ruptly, in German:
He decided to take a stroll all my tracks. And what do you And sometimes ho
"John Eppler, do you love noted down for future use. expert and exotle dancers in
Meanwhile, he helped in the
and soon found himself In want from me now?"
a bar, the Middle East,
your Fatherland?" "Only confirmation of the
He hesitated. "Are you Ger- direction of German espionage buying himself a drink-and
in Middle Eastern countries, fact that you're still alive," I
since that was the kind of man He also made his first contact man, then?"
She nodded.
prepared broadcasts, and sifter
was, one also for a girl with the Gennun Intelligence
He Inter- "Yes," said Eppier. "I love Belle propaganda
attached to the establishment. services. In 1930, a few weeks
viewed Munich crisis, before the
he my Fatherland."
"Well enough to work for us of incoming agents from Syria, Her name was Elena Andreau was on holiday at the fashion-
who supplemented her income able hill resort of Ain Solar, in against the British? To take Iraq, and Falestine, and was in and she was a Rumanian dancer atski, if necessary? Even risks frequent consultation with that by selling scraps of information notorious enemy of Britain, the
sho picked up from her clients. A did want to know about
Filting between the night your Hfe?"
Eppler left her after a second Eppler nodded. All the laughter Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, John (or Johannes) Eppler;
drink but arranged to meet her parties that holiday-making had gone from his face. "You Germans hail Eppler today. Club of Beirut and the plush though I had spent nearly two
later that evening. He strolled years
West
East And do you wonder that many and
pashas gave at the big hotel wouldn't be asking me all these you alrealy
back to his hotel woll-satisfied them believe that Germany, in the night clubs and of
in the hills, Eppler's avid young questions unless bara of Hamburg, Dusseldorf, only Rommel, at the head of eye often fell upon the slim, know the answers. But who are
with the way things were going:
Munich,
the their army, had displayed
He went through a course a couple of drinks under his wall his final movement order, that time who "Grafer" was, to do?" Oriental girl,
in coding, in sabotage, In belt,
u good Saarland, and Berlin trying to much skill and resource, as the radiant, exotic figure of a young you? And what do you want me
National Socialist philosophy, and on dinner in prospect, Paun sipped her coffee and the British lines
She was known in the Lebanon agent bobind trace him.
might have
and in fighting. He turned out cod
came Sold: "You'll find out who I am 0.1 Su-Yan
she For, 50 far as the reas of in Egypt, Africa lls remarkable history. Is con- been theirs, and all the all of from Indo-China. He thought
to by the name of The Angel-he £ Last, sent, shrdow-men from the Abwehr just about this time como cerned, I probably know more Arabia; and that the war might that she was quite the loveliest we' want nothing from you Naziom, but
expert with
Turkey, before he had walked more girl he had ever seen, and he except the promise that you will dangerous about him than he does him. have been won?
was giving John Eppler, other- time
imile, a rope, or a phial of than a hundred yards. Within The hotel I chose seemed wise. Hustein Genfor, doal di- вец.
It wasn't quite ke that, tried hard to exact some open be available when the
half an hour, he was in contact seedy but respectable. To millions of Germans Jolun
I left structions for his all-important however, as. this story will response from her to his obvious comen. It may not be long now,
admiration.
and then we will call upon you. Eppler is the most daring and show.
And then, in the early once more with Fratt Paula my baggage and went, for my mission to Cairo, Meanwhile, continuo you
weeks of 1942, he was sent out ho
Koch
first evening out; to a film show successful Gennan spy of the
On the morning of May 2 lust world war. At ✡
Koch, about whom at the British Embamy. (Thọ gravo
It John Eppler helped to win men; no matter how young and have been doing. But don't for
on his first mission. Eppler ozte
FTzu moment in tho story of the the war for anydom, it was for handsome, who were only moet Jolm Hppler, not ter
himself had no idea of its someone will write an authentic Turks were being careful of 1042, Eppier flow to Hammel's battle for North Africa, Eppler Britain. The fact that ho-him- derately wealthy; and the long, minute, that you are a German
nature except that it would story one day (abo once per- their heutrality, and alma fram haudquarters in Africa. carried out an incredible misalon self probably does not know, alow look that she gave him and that from now on you are
bo a plesmat tour after the auaded Churchill to sign an belligerent countries were being carried with him £99,000, packs
ed: lita a suitcase, in sterling. rizourn of wartino Berlin,
at a crucial barred from public screens.) She gestured to Eppler to in- for the Abwehr, the Nazi secret even to this day, how much he back from her brown, slanting working for us.”
autograph for. her hiped gives this story the meat eyes was cool and cynical and dicate that ber talk was over.
War: sho I He was told to proceed by moment in the
rame home service,
somewhere notes, and gold sovereigns. •.
Operation Condor, as is came It was that darkc summer of bizaro and fronte twist of all. indifferent.
ba the plano to Belgrade and thence know the Clboro who burgled around one o'clock in the mora- 1942, when the Eighth Army, ...
Until one evening that was to Bhp looked towards Who is John Eppier and how
whero Bu-Yan was engrossed by Orient Express to Istanbul. the secrets out of an embas- ing and, from the adjoining to be known, was about to begin. all but smusbod by Field did he become the most daring change bla-life.
with a
champagne cocktail and Thore, at the Park Hotel, o sador's trousers; she hopled to room, heard the clatter of cups Ike, was slitlag, bored and Afrika Marshal
German spy of them all?
make his prodenco smuggle the rebel: Iraqi chief, and what I look to be much Rommel's
a partia,
NEXT WEEK Korps, had retreated, whipped, It was during his formativo diadwokato, as the bar when
Now you can take up whore known to the German wife of Rashid Ali to Berlin under the good humoured, and amorous dispirited,
hopes of British Intelligence), scuming... I shrugged: my and desparate, years, as a child in Germany,
bo*kaw" Su»Yan walk into the you left of with that little art Itailan correspondent towards the Nile Delta.
*rogin, and fur: ♬ moment all dimme kiten." "A faint enllolle did as he was bid: All, had charge of all information shoulders and went to sleep, that he developed the particular
be had, ores for was her Now botoro Rommel do- quality that the dedicated spy
Ht her face for a moment, he knew of his trip was that infiltrating lalo Turkey from At 0 st was awakened by llyered his death' blow," before' needs to have; a doup
"Don't worry about the comit was purely for information the Middle East, Lar
...... u rough shaking Krom a man In his exultant army drove the abiding antipathy towards those
petition. She'll leave them all purposok Turkey was a most..." "You realise," she said to a hat. He was a Turkish Becret British from Atrica, there was statist whom her spying This serted to adopted from for you saw I've told her to of clonagn and intrigue in speler, that the moment of Fellteman find he had my pa Near British G.H.Q.
Eppler gut up in a state those days; as the-only neutral-victory:la: approaching. An' the port in his hand. He asked me, of confusion" and "walkia tow country" sepatuting" Nail-hald Mludio East, and that your job brusquely by and (suspiciously,
Kaiserslautern,
the
and ****
But Su-Yan had no time for
information that his planners He was born in Kalaccalautern The Cat and the Mice, to be preded to know e
da thaw Maur-Palatinate in 1914, published later this year,
Medtwhile, back in Berlin, an cae of important agurt of the Abwehr,
with a pretty
A
But back in Istanbul a salster. Bing happested. By
in time. And for the moment to be an Indifferent student or womanhood up by two those cöjheidences of war, 1 had who, is known oven today only
polson.
was to
He was
Is artill working for Germany and
The Secret Radio
Ho