THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1
SECRET AGENT
The story of one of Britain's
master spies
On November 19, 1946, Lieut.-Commander Patrick O'Leary, D.S.O., R.N., went to Buckingham Palace to receive the George Cross from the King for-according to the-citation-
t
*....HIS EXCEPTIONAL WORK ORGANIS- ING THE ESCAPE OF ALLIED OFFICERS AND MEN FROM FRANCE, FOR HIS REFUsal un- DER TORTURE TO BETRAY HIS COMRADES, AND FOR HIS GREAT. MORAL AND PHYSI- CAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF
HIS FELLOW PRISONERS IN CONCENŢration CâÂMPS.”
Behind this announcement lies the story of a British secret agent who, working among the Ger- mans, was responsible for the escape of more than 600 Allied prisoners, who had "eliminated" many German agents, had been betrayed by a member of his own organisation, and was ultimately captured, tortured and thrown into Dachau Concentration Camp.
Below Lieut.-Commander O'Leary tells the story of his work as a secret agent. In civil life he is a Belgian doctor. His real name is Albert' Edward-Marie Guerisse.
by
•
•
~
Lieut. - Com.
PATRICK O'LEARY, GC, DSO,RN.
FEW months
ago 1Th
Englishman was shot in Paris by the police while resisting arrest. He was traitor wanted by us-and was called to identify the body!
I
1 recognised him. A former sergeant in the Army, he was one of the few Britons who took German money. to betray nearly 200 secret agents of the organi- sations working for Britain during the war in German-con- trolled Europe.
I will call him "X"-for he still has relatives and I have no desire to cause them pain.
I first met him in Marseilles. far more He was spending money on women and wine- than he was paid by our organi- sation. But before WO could settle with him he fled to many.
Ger-
Now comes the extraordinary part of the story.
Britain wanted him after the war ended-to hang-as a trai- tor. The French wanted him- to shoot him-for having be- trayed scores of patriots.
And when he was captured the arguing between British and French dragged on so long that ho escaped-and fled
to the American zone.
Bannera
4.2
out In Lille Lieut-Commander: O'Leary speaks after the liberation to people he had worked among secretly, during the war
in the war
But one evening we received our orders by radio and quietly dropped out of the convoy.
As soon as we were clear every hon seized a paint brush and by dawn the hull and superstructure of Fidelity had a coat of bright yellow paint.
vanished behind The guns had canvas-built cabins, and outside the cabins, lolling in deck chairs, were bevies of "girls" in scanty frocks, but in reality gunners at action stations!
The "Q", ship Fidelity had becoino merchantman on her lawful busi-
NUSA.
and
The plan was that I should be in charge of the landing party, we left our parent ship in a small launch, complete with the Dritish sples and their equipment, Including radio transmitters.
A red scarf
with a red scarf.
down one morning we nosed A Inge. There on the jetty was a man "Do you know the way to Mont- peller?" I asked him, and he im- mediately
pre-arranged gave the
reply:
And so came the day when .1 lifted out the bars, slipped through the small window, strolled casually though with thumping heart cross the courtyard, and clambered over the prison wall.
As I Innded on the other aide the olarm bells began to clang.
wood and raced I plunged into towards the only house I could sec. This was an almshouse conducted by nuns. I ripped in through the open front door, closed it behind me, Mother and demanded to see the Superior.
To this angelic woman I explain- ed who I was.
stic "They shall not find you," said firmly. She led me upstairs to an attic in which stood a large, bat- tered trunk.
"Get Inside," she said. "I'll dent with the guards."
Nun's ruse
t
POCKET CARTOON, byOSBERT LÁNCASTÈR
"Catch me being an engine», driver! I'm going to be a public relations officer,"
BY THE
WAY
by Beachcomber ·
THE
THE headline "Maharajah in search of two rubies" brought back to me the old "Boy's. Own Paper." That ND deal with them she did. Maharajah should have guessed
When they hammered on front door she opened it herself and, that Dick Trunnion had ab- in reply to their demand that they stracted the two rubies from Buddha of search the premises, asked for their the eyes of the search warrants.
Ramdhamdurtipore, and had
They had no warrants. "Go
the
"No. I'm a stranger and I don't back and get them," she said. hidden them six paces to the south
know this country,"
our
We drew alongside, landed agents, and I then asked where the
ten offleers were.
The contact
and you can then search the place of the lonely Lion Rock in Cornwall, from altle to cellar."
Long before they returned I was The Maharajah should have gone the parish of Praze well on my way with enough food straight to 10 last me for days.
Googlyn, riding his elephant, and In due course
they replied that
I arrived in Mor-mixing with the natives in the inn.
be ready within a few selfles and set about contacting
Captain Gwhose name
A
would minutes.
That delay was our undoing. fisherman ran to the Customs office and the official there promptly tele- phoned
the French naval authorities at Port Vendres.
They ordered a cutter out to in-
vestigate.
Noticing some of the commotion I put the launch astern and made at full speed for the open sea and
the protection of HMS Fidelity.
But it was tooʻlate.
The French cutter La Cerbere had
been standing by with steam up.
In
prison
CHE was four times as fast as our launch and we stood no chance
of escape.
There was nothing to do but to
D
had One day his elephant would have. the ground suspiciously. been given to me in the prison. 11e pawed
bad served with the 51st Highland anifling all round Lion Rock, and Division, had been captured at St the Maharajah, with his jewelled Valery, and had escaped to set up
unearthed the rubles only to find that they were
the organisation of which I was to spade, would have be one day the chief.
Captain C took very time to decide my future.
He asked me
le cheap coples. Diels had restored the real gems to Squire. Troçarro,
I would remain whose great-grandfather, had hidden
them in the eyes of the Buddha.
in France as a secret agent instead
or returning to England.
"I would gladly stay." I told him.
put I'm a saval officer still under
Admiralty milers."
save that to me," he replied, "I'll contact the Admiralty and get their assent."
Magic words
gave me
the code message
try to bluif it out. We flung every- Hobie doll rester, and or thing that might identify us over defed me to listen in to the BBC's the side. and were then hauled
Night after night I listened in. nboard the culler for Interrogation, overseas news bulletins.
We soon found ourselves in prison was almost giving up hope when at Port Vendres.
those magic words were broadcast, and there and then I became a secret
When questioned I said that I was a de Gaullist trying to escape into Spain.
.
agent,
I
Keep them cool, my man
THE prettlest story I have read
for some time is one of business neumen, enterprise and daring. A firm in Chiengo has sold a dozen refrigerators to a group of Eskimos. May I have the pleasure of putting these Eskimos in touch with the Iceland firm of Snorrerson, Hrafn. | Gisli, Hjorleifson, Bjornor and Co.,
Ltd. which sells frozen codz
A forceful plea DEAR SIR
Rather than see a foreigner in charge of Bournemouth's music, I would have the municipal orchestra As far as my relatives were con- composed of substantial trademan A week later we were moved to
cerned
I had vanished in the mists without a note of music in them. the naval prison at Toulon and I appeared in the list of with n citizen of standing to conduct there l'admitted my true identity. "Missing, believed prisoner of war," them-perhaps this mayor himself but before anything further could
world This might not be, musically speak- happen I was moved in St Hippolyte and that is all the outside
knew about me. of de Fort, near Nimes,
long,
On board her was a French Secret Service man, Lieutenant de Vala- seau Claude Peri, and an enchanting girl, Mlle. Bayard, who was one the war's most romantle figures.
She was later to be the only woman officer to serve in a British navol vessel afoat but both she and Lieutenant Peri were drowned when their ship was torpedoed off the Azores in 1942.
For
R
escape.
G—
officers
to
to
learn
ing, the best art, but it would be
Yours faithfully,
"Music lover.”
Visitors in a hurry
a lime I worked in the orBritish to the core, and an advertise- But I wasn't there for
ganisation under Captain
ment to tourists that we know our One of the N.C.Os smuggled
orders, helplog British after
own minds. small le into my cell, and
what seemed
hours countless
of But one ofiernoon I returned -work-I cut
bars Marseilles to report, only to through the fron that blocked the small window.
that G had been arrested by the There were times when I thought French police and thrown into fall Perl had told his crew that the would never get the job done, but ship Le Rhin would be sailing or at last the bars were read it to await a Nazi escort to take him Casablanca, but he had made up his out I kept them in position with tumps of bread until I was ready to hand her over to tho make my dush for, freedom. mind, to British,
And he was determined to lay was a secret British agent and hands on every item of equipment proceeded to reveal to them the that he could seize before the Gor- caches where the Nazis had bid- mans best him to it
He brazenly approached the U.S. authorities, told them he
den vast loot.
E
A mutiny
RHIN salled from Marseilles,
The Americans were so im- pressed that they gave him the rank of captain, and while with a cargo valued at £500,- British and French Intelligence 000, men were searching for him he was driving around in staff cars and living like a lord!
Fate overtook him at last. He fled again, this time to a Paris brothel, where a woman hid and fed him.
By chance a local innkeeper mentioned his suspicions to the police.
"Here is a man," he said, liv- ing with Madame Y and never going out by day. We see him only at night."
Met by bullets
As soon as she reached the Straits her Gibraltar of.
she swung oft course and put into the harbour.
Before she dropped anchor Lieu- tenant Peri faced a mutiny.
I escape
4
to Germany.
in
So I automatically found myself control of a vast underground network of secret agents and with an ever-increasing tide of escaping prisoners in need of help.
That organisation became known
I DECIDED that lunch hour as "Pat."
when most of
Che
prisoners
were lining up for food, the guards and sentries mingled with them- offered the best possibilities.
F
the for
I had arrived in Gibraltar day before-and now put out Le Rhin in a small launch with a naval boarding party.
We
LAW AND
JEWISH
HE degrading scenes
in
NEXT WEEK
A traitor, a priest and the Gestapo
ORDER
I
READ of a Trap for cosmic rays," The rays arrive at 180,000 miles a second, and aro "counted, recorded
and
phous graphed every quarter of an No such whole-hogging method has
And
an old excuse for saying, "There seem to be an awful lot of cosmic rays about; wo must get rid of them.""
yet been used with mice. future nobody, on opening cupboard, will have
any
VERSUS
EXTREMISTS
in
................................. desirable body of people let loose in
Comment by selves, even to the extent of assist
Jews put up a futile resistance against the forces of law and.
***Camdidlms” arrived at Barry Docks and order, are not likely to be for- gotten. These people have, once again justified their con- demnation, even
The fight was gory and brief, The and mutineers were inken ashore Lo Rhin sailed for Britain. I was aboard her as ship's doctor. proceeded to sell the cargo, which, by international law was prize.
It realised a half-million sterling and this was handed over to the Air Ministry for the purchase Spitfires..
and became HMS
from Hitler-
ofism. There was a time when essentially an international one,
all nations condemned Hitler in spite of the ill-advised Bal
Palestine and permitted the Arabs to deal with the problem them- Ing them if necessary, the Jewish problem would never have reached
its present magnitude. We have blundered, but-thanic goodness- not to the extent of offering un- restricted entry of Jays into our own.country.
There are doubtless. some Jews
The ship which was also prize and his clique for their persccu- four promise. The United prepared to live under the laws of THE police broke into the was transfers. Fidelity, one of tion of Jews in Germany and States has only herself to blame countries friendly disposed towards traitor's room-to be met by the for mystery) ships which even although the civilised if her toleration of Jewish them. Such friendship can never be bullets. Then one of the police was inter to do amazing secret work, world still thinks of the German anarchy has created profound Inspired either by mass movement or coercion. Every person desiring horrible, using the traitor's mistress as The British authorlties were not modus operandi as
resentment among many na to become a citizen of another coun- a shield-drew his own gun and low to show their gratitudo many are inclined to the belief tions in general, and Great. try must be willing to undergo On the officers of Le Rhin all that the sympathy once felt for Britain in particular. In the whatever test or interrogation which foreigners, they bestowed the unique honour of commissions in the Royal Jews cast out of Germany was United States, Jews have been may rightfully be required. It is obvious that many of the Jews who Navy, I thus became Lleat.-Com- misplaced...
permitted to incite rebellion and; munder Patrick O'Leary, RN-the
The reports of the Hamburg murder within the precincts of expect to seize a part of Palestine, and, what is more, to munter and first name that came to my mind disembarkation make unplea- a friendly state, Vast sums destroy in order to achieve their
shot the man dead:
and
Howwns it that I, a' Bolgtan doctor, should become known to the world as Lieut. Commander Patrick O'Leary, RN... eventual head of "Pat" on or-
worked ganisation that
for ucars under the noscs of the Cernions?
when asked what British name'
would choose.
Job for spies
sant reading and the decent have been publicly
subscribed poetic justice in dump-
women.
That great
д
aim, would be classed as characters by any decent There does appear to
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CHEESES WITH Eaufort, not many holes; Moruler,
black Inalde.
As they appeared, the saxophones In Madame Yvonne Blanc's jazz orchestra:moaned.
mind recoils from the picture with the one object of injuring
MUSIC of troops waing force against
a friendly power. The soldiers need have land of liberty has condoned a ing them in Germany, but at tho
Monsieur Didier Potyt recenity outside her me time it is obvious that they showed London 10 kinds et French
Muted trumpels Introduced St When the Belgian Army capitu- WE promptly went into training little on their conscience. The threat to liberty
must not be permitted to set up cheese, with appropriate music. lated, I was left at Dunkirk and for the hazardous job of sabo- thought of the dastardly out own domain.
Marcella Camembert and great, flat, their own settlement. taken to England in tho trawler tage and the landing of secret agents rages perpetrated against their Westward Ho.
Besides being president of the melting alabs of Bric. If America sympathises with on the coast of France, and sailed fellows in Palestine would more
Society for Selling French Cheese,
Booming double-basses ushered in I went back to France within 48 from Liverpool in HMS- Fidelity than justify the sternest treat- the Jewish extremists, why has
M. Petyt is president of the French strong Marolles and Munstar. hottrs to help.
with several. Britlati aples aboard.
"the ment against such outlaws of she ndo invited at least some of
that Jazz Club.
A bluge tune floated over the room I commandeered 'a car, and・・ on We wore to
to land them on
He combined both offices, expresse- when, ét Paulin arid Reblochon "borrowed" petrol and all began southern coast of France and pick civilisation.
them to take up their abode TL regrettable aspect is
established Jews in other coun- the long trekt to the Mediterranean up ten British officers who had been
within the vast territory of her tries have raised but iceble protesting in music the subtle qualities of spread their soft, mellow flavours.
the blue-veined, each of the cheeses. coast.
Drains heralded whisked away from the Germans by
country?
against the lawless elements within I fell in with a contingent of one of the cacapa organisations.
their fold, which, of course, makes The overture of his ment was a owes mille theeses, of Rocquefort, it all the more impertive that the quartet of cheesen of the Gruyera Cantal, and Loguide; and, d'Amberta. Czechs, travelled with them to Sete. We sailed in a convoy bound for THE thought which arises is on the south coast, and reacled Gibraltar. Smit
that the British Govern-
maddened and fanatical zenk of type, the maxophones of the cheese with their blue Insides.
Thero.are the sort of cheeses you Gibraltar by-
29 292 Fidelity had been given her goat ment has failed in its duty in the British Government had Jewish criminals should be stamped orchestra.
F
They were: Comte, full of little put in a collat for six months to. -In, the meanime, théra 'was 4 of grey, was heavily armed and to
holes; Kmmenthal, full of big holes; ripontifique (mas French merchantman, Le Thin with all intents and purposes at British sofar as Palestine is concerned. Amespected the indignation of the out-even if the methods employed
After all, the Jewish problem is Arabs in having an alice and un- are ruthless. team up at Marseliles.
mon-o'-war,
*