TAMAMSHUD

COVER ROLES & COVER NAMES

Profile 1:

This man was the main handler of espionage agents for the Soviets and their 'ENORMOZ' project, The Atom Spies. He was extraordinarily effective in the role and he organised the systematic illicit acquisition of the critical plans and details for the US Manhattan project via a network of well-placed spies within the US. His cover role was that of the General Consul of the Consulate- General of the Soviet Union based in New York City between 1940 and 1946.

Amongst his team was Harry Gold, Pavel Fedosimov and Alexander Feklisov. Working through them he became the controller of information from the Rosenbergs, Morton Sobel and David Greenglass and was ultimately responsible for organising the flow of high-grade information from Klaus Fuchs.

In 1946 he ws recalled to Russia and resumed work in the scientific and technical intelligence field under his real name, ANATOLY YATSKOV. He worked repeatedly on intelligence projects in Europe and Asia into the 1950s.

In a 1992 interview he disclosed that only half of his spy network had been uncovered and that the main player, still unnamed, had the code name PERSEUS.

He was a much-decorated intelligence operative and amongst the awards was a posthumous 'Hero of the Russian Federation'.

Yatskov is a relatively rare surname within Russia, ranked at approximately 16000, with a higher density found in Ukraine, approx. 6000, and Belarus approx. 8000.

Profile 2:

Mentioned above is a man known in the US as ALEXANDER FEKLISOV:

Attached to the Soviet Consul in New York between 1940 and 1946, he was the NKVD officer responsible for recruiting agents in the field and he reported directly to Anatoly Yatskov.

Apart from directly handling Julius Rosenberg with whom he developed a close friendship, he recruited Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, Barr was in the US Army Signal Corps. Sarant was known to Barr and he was instrumental in his recruitment. Both were later to be charged and imprisoned for spying.

Feklisov returned to Russia about the same time as Yatskov. He later served in London in the late 1940s and went returned to the US serving as the KGB station chief between 1960 and 1964. He is credited with developing the solution to the Cuban Missile crisis.

Fekislov used a cover name on his second tour in the US, that name, believed to be his real name, was ALEKSANDR FOMIN.

Feklisov is an extremely rare surname, raked at approximately 73000, just as is the name Fedosimov. FOMIN is a common name in Russia.

Profile 3.

This next man needs no introduction to followers of this blog,
PAVEL IVANOVICH FEDOSIMOV:

This man was named by Harry Gold as the man who turned up at the Earl Cinema in the Bronx in 1946 just prior to Yatsov's and Feklisov's departure for Russia.

It is this man who asked the right ID pre-qualifying question and it is this man who produced the torn piece of paper given to him by Yatskov and matched it to the piece given by Yatskov to Harry Gold thus proving their respective IDs. Read more here:

It is this man who I believe is the Somerton Man, my belief was predated by long-time researcher John Ruffels. He was the man who proved most helpful to the producers of the 1978 documentary on the Somerton Man organised and hosted by Stuart Littlemore.

It was John who gave me the initial lead given by Senator Cavanagh who pointed directly to the ATOM SPIES book and from there the inclusion of the Earl Cinema meeting between Gold and the big fair-haired man with large hands and who walked on his toes. As you can see in this photograph, he also had unusual teeth.

The only thing John wasn't able to do was to put a name to the man. That only became possible later with the release of FBI files covering the event some years later. Hats off to you JR!

This is the only photograph that we have of Fedosimov and despite exhaustive searching, we have not been able to find any further photographs of him. We do not know what other names he may have used.

There can be little doubt that this man, a known NKVD officer, used other names and the name he went under, Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov whilst he worked at the Soviet Consul in New York was most likely not have been his real name as was the case with the two other Soviet agents and handlers, Yatskov and Fomin.

There are many mentions of a Yakovlev, the name of one of the Russian's most famous aircraft manufacturers.

Fedosimov is a rare name in Russia, ranked at 38000 approximately.

EXTRACTED FROM MI5 FILES

In this post, I will be looking at the likelihood of the book drop being a form of signal.

In research, I stumbled across a really interesting piece of information concerning the methods used by Soviet agents to arrange meetings and information exchanges. In this case, it was an MI5 interview with Klaus Fuchs.

By the way, the street view images below are navigable.

Apologies for the somewhat blurry image but this is an extract from MI5 files and they include an account given by MI5 agent Jim Skardon, he spoke of showing a map of the Kew area in East London to Klaus Fuchs, the Atom Spy.

The Signal

Fuchs said that he had been given instructions to throw a copy of a magazine, 'Men Only' over a fence/hedge of a house that stood in its own grounds on the corner of Kew Road and Stanmore road between the third and fourth trees located along the gardens of the house in Stanmore road. On the tenth page, he was to indicate the arrangements that would be used should a planned rendezvous not occur.

Kew Road/Stanmore Road

If you navigate further into Stanmore Road you will find that like the Pier Street Glenelg address, there is an alleyway/close about 70-80 metres in on the left. The building behind the target house looks to be post-war and it may be that an alleyway ran across the back of the target house in the late 40s early 50s.

Holmesdale Road, Eastern End

Having thrown the magazine over the fence he was the to go to the eastern end and North side of Holmesdale Road, about 1 klm away from the Stanmore Road drop, and there he was to place a chalk mark on the fence of that house at the end of the street and the mark should be placed on the fence opposite a tree he would find there. This would indicate to the occupant of the Stanmore Road house that there was something in his garden to be collected.

As you can see there is still an old tree outside that corner house but the fence seems to have long gone and has been replaced by a wall.

Here's the overview map of both locations, again it's a navigable map:

It looks almost like a route for taking the dog for a walk?

Skardon investigated the locations and researched the names of the occupants of the house in Kew Road, but the files did not disclose the result of his inquiries.

In another memo, also marked Top Secret and dated the following month, Skardon wrote: “He gave me some details of the recognition signals for his various new contacts.

“He … told me that the arrangements for the rendezvous upon returning to England in 1946 … were that his contact would carry a bundle of books tied with a cord and that he should himself carry a copy of ‘Life’.”

Fuchs also named his “introducers” as Jurgen Kuczynski, a professor at Berlin University, and Hannah Klopstech, who lived in Hampstead, north London.

“The arrangement made by Hannah Klopstech was that he should go to the public house at Wood Green (the Nags Head) carrying a copy of ‘Tribune’, and that he should sit at a bench with a table in front of it in the saloon bar.

“His contact would carry a red book in his hands.”

Hampstead cropped up some time ago in relation to the work done on Tibor Kaldor. Must revisit that!

So there it is a possible explanation for the purpose of the book. Food for thought. Worthy of note is the fact that the interview took place in the early 50s and at that time, the signal method used was apparently new to MI5. That would mean that in Australia in 1948, they would not have considered the possibility.

With thanks to Gerry for posting this information on his website, it seems that the information given out by Professor Abbott at the Glenelg screening of the film could be incorrect.

Clive attended the event and he sent me the previous information re Hendrickson in all good faith.

All credit to Nick Pelling at the Cipher Mysteries blog, he posted this news from Gerry first.

The decision to publish that was mine and I unreservedly apologise for the previous Hendrickson post if people feel that they have been misled by it, that certainly was not the intention.

On the upside, it does seem that there is new life in the discussion and let's hope that it keeps moving forward and then who knows what turns up next?

The map above is navigable.

As further information becomes available I will add to this post and possibly others. Finally, I believe that if you screw up then you own up. On this occasion, it looks like I may have done just that.

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER
G A ROBSON

This document is from NAA files and it is for the Graeme Alvin Robson, he was the brother in law to Dr. Douglas Buxton Hendrickson. You may remember him as the mand first identified by Professor Abbott at the showing of the 'Missing Pieces' film recently in Glenelg.

So, you may well ask, what are we doing looking at this man when another man, a chemist has more recently been identified as the fabled Mr. Francis?

Before I go any further, I must share with you that, as you will read, it is believed that G A Robson spent some time at North Shore Hospital in the early 1940s. That should peak some interest as perhaps some of the entries in this particular file may do.

So, back to the point, or rather points. Like Nick Pelling, I have also received an email from Professor Abbott, and I found it most interesting.

Rather than selectively choose which parts I would publish, I have opted to share the email almost in it's original form. There are certain aspects that would be best left unpublished and they have been removed. I hasten to add that these aspects do not have any real impact on the main content of the email:

Hi Gordon

The identity that was announced at the Glenelg screening wasn't revealed, as far as I am aware. It was something the producer of the movie came up with and my understanding is that it is only a possibility: it isn't the same as XXXX "Ronald Francis", and the producer is no longer sure about it anymore anyway. So I think we better let that one go! False alarm I think.

The fact is that more than one Rubaiyat was handed in to the Police back in 1949. We can't assume it was only the ones mentioned in the newspapers. Undoubtedly there would be more.

And the question is: is even XXXX own "Ronald Francis" the correct one?

What due diligence has XXXX done to double and triple check he got the right guy? XXXXX hasn't given out any information on that so hard to confirm "Ronald's" story.

Also Gerry once told me that when he interviewed "Ronald" it appeared that he had onset of dementia, and so it was difficult getting information out of him. So questions like "are you sure you handed in Whitcombe and Tombs edition?" were probably not going to go anywhere.

Thus I question Ronald Francis on the grounds that the story is totally unverifiable.

If you look at the Reddit thread you will see how I described the lengths I went through to double and triple check that Jo Thomson was in fact "Jestyn". When I first deduced her name I wasn't 100% sure that I had got the right one. I've publicly laid out the exact process of how I became 100% certain.

Regarding Hendrickson he was a possibility that XXXXXXXX came up with back in 2011 and I dismissed it back then.

Back in 2011, XXXXX made a complete list of doctors that lived near J.

I've been working my way through these and a "Dr D. B. Hendrickson" that XXXX found does look a bit interesting.

We probably dismissed him before because he was born 1911 and died in 1979 and we thought 1979 was too long ago for Gerry to have met him alive....as Gerry did not really get active until after 2000.

However, if we now make an assumption that Gerry got the wrong guy, then Dr D. B. Hendrickson begins to have a whiff of looking interesting.

This is what I found out about him:

a) Full name: Douglas Buxton Hendrickson

b) He's in Sands & McDougall at 13 Pier St and 51 Moseley St. Presumably one address is his practice and the other is his residence. Both are 5 min walk from J.

c) He was a child polio specialist so almost certainly worked closely with the Crippled Children's Home outside which SM was found dead (but any link to the children's home is yet to be established).

d) He did drive a car.

e) When the Beaumont children disappeared he took it upon himself to spend a whole month digging sand dunes in an attempt to find bodies!

f) His brother in law was also a doctor (Graeme Alvin Robson) and worked at the Royal North Shore Hospital in the early 1940s.

g) He's a man with motivation to hide his identity: he was a womaniser and also was being done for medical malpractice in the 1940s. So if he handed in the book he might not want his name in the papers if the car was parked on a street where his wife busted him for womanising him (for example).

Yes, all these connections could be meaningless coincidences, but there is something tantalizing about them that builds a picture.

Could he be our man? Dunno. But it is as good as any other guess that has been proposed so far.

A huge problem is he has been dead since 1979, so even if he is the man there is the issue of verifiability. If his family have retained essential knowledge that links him to the real poetry book, this would be the only way to verify. But it is a very long shot.

Best,
Derek.

IN SUMMATION

Having read this through it is clear to me that both candidates are as likely as each other to be the 'Mr. Francis'. As Professor Abbott says, there is insufficient evidence to make the call.

This also means that the first Post that we put on here regarding Dr. Hendrickson remains valid, probably better to say as valid as Mr. Freeman.

I sincerely hope that this information from the Professor will be of interest and of some use to the serious researchers including JS and Milongal, that's on the assumption that you weren't aware of the email contents.

Clive and I will be digging deeper on this topic and others which are based around areas of London, Hampstead to be more precise. Who knows what we will turn up next.

AN ADELAIDE PHOTO CIRCA NOVEMBER 1948

This very blurry image is, in fact, part of a larger image I believe. It shows two men walking alongside a building which might be Adelaide Railway Station supposedly in November 1948.

You can see that one of the men is carrying a suitcase which, I think, could be a Globite and it appears to have what looks like a label on the top surface.

Let me be very certain about this, there is no way we could identify these men from this image. It was interesting that it should turn as it originally did around 2010 in the Adelaide University Facebook page.

The smaller of the two men may be someone who could be recognised by a descendant?

On watching an ABC programme earlier this week about the Migrant Reception Centre at Bonegilla, a Globite suitcase, similar to the one found at the Adelaide Railway Station, was shown.

Here's the YouTube clip to that specific programme, you'll see the Globite suitcase about 40 seconds or so into the clip.

It begs the question whether such suitcases were gifted to migrants as perhaps they were also gifted to internees at Hay and Tatura. It appears that many thousands of Balts arrived and stayed here at Bonegilla, they traveled far and wide for work including to South Australia and to Woomera.

here's a Trove link to an article related to the employment of Balts at Woomera: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48577458

THE BATTLEFRONT & THE PLAYERS

PART 1.

This is a Battle map that shows the situation on Australian's Northern flank, it is of course centered on New Guinea and the islands from Guadalcanal up to Rabaul and the Admiralty Islands, Manus and then through Rabaul to Buna, Kokoda, and Port Moresby not forgetting Milne Bay.

How does this map have anything to do with the Somerton Man case? Well, from where I sit it seems to me that a lot of players in the case at one time or another spent part of their lives here.

Not only people are involved, so are vessels. It's these vessels plus the people that Clive and I have been researching and quite thoroughly and we based the research on what was found in the letter Q on the code page:

In this image the focus is directly on the XCA sequence

J232 X RAN X 35 X CA25 or CA35

We have been able to identify two vessels and possibly a third that we can tie directly to the case. It's the knowledge of just where those vessels were deployed and from where they may have been viewed that could hold the key to unlocking the code page.

The year in focus is 1944 and the vessels are:

1. HMAS Deloraine, a Corvette (minesweeper) Hull number J232, (This ship was also known as M232) We do not have its Radio call code as yet:

2. USS Salt Lake City, Pensacola class Cruiser, Hull number: CA-25. Radio code letters: NISK:

3. USS Indianapolis, Heavy Cruiser, Hull number CA-35. Radio code letters NABD.

STATUS

The HMAS Deloraine we are quite certain about and are of the belief that one of the 2 USS Vessels is also very relevant in this research.

At a point in time, HMAS Deloraine and one of the other two vessels were in close physical proximity to each other, close enough to be visible to someone who could have been:

1. On one of these named ships

2. On yet another ship

3. Or perhaps on a shore base.

Whichever it was, that person recorded viewing the Deloraine and one of the other two ships at or around the same time and date and entered the Hull number in microcode into the letter Q on the SM code page.

Apart from the vessels, we have two people in mind at this stage and whilst we can place one of them directly in the area, the other is more problematical.

We are working on a time-based matrix that should show us just which of these two men fit the profile. To make it extra interesting, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that both men will fit.

For all the keen researchers out there, finding a crew list for the Deloraine might be useful.

CALL SIGNS

All sea vessels had fixed radio call signs and whilst we currently have the call signs/codes for both US ships, tracking down the RAN equivalents is proving something of a challenge although I think we're now in touch with the right people.

Radiocommunications played a very large part in the winning of the Battle of the Coral Sea and others, The US, in particular, relied heavily on its use with some VT, Visual transmission, used as a backup, I am sure most would be familiar with the often seen shipboard 10 inch Aldis lamp

COASTWATCHERS
Off the Northern shores of Australia and right throughout the huge number of islands in the South Pacific, there was a network of Coastwatchers, in fact in an earlier post I had the great privilege of speaking with one of their number. As a result of that discussion I followed up at the time and found that the frequency used by Coastwatchers was in the 6 mhz band, the individual frequencies were known as X Frequencies.

Given the instances of number sets on the code page, many of which begin with the letter X, it could be that what we are seeing are written down Costwatchers frequencies call signs.

https://www.ozatwar.com/sigint/crs.htm

The Coastal Radio Stations at Darwin, Thursday Island, Townsville, Port Moresby, and Rabaul assisted the RAN Coast Watching scheme. They received and relayed information about the enemy military activity to and from Coast Watchers who operated behind Japanese lines. These Coastal Radio Stations had a dedicated receiver constantly tuned to a particular frequency in the 6 MHz band, which was known as "X" frequency. The Coast Watchers used Teleradios which were fitted with specially cut crystals which operated on this same frequency. The "X" frequency receivers at the Coastal Radio Stations were left on loudspeaker 24 hours a day to ensure all messages were heard.

USS INDIANAPOLIS

I should note that the USS Indianapolis has a very special place in history, just days after it had broken a speed record for a dash from San Diego to Hawaii with some highly classified cargo (enriched uranium) related to the Manhattan Project, it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine resulting in a massive loss of life. For those interested, more than 1500 photographs of the ship, equipment, maps, and its crew survived the episode. It's a story well worth reading and you will find more here.

Paul Allen, the joint Microsoft founder, led the recovery team that eventually found the wreck of the Indianapolis in 5500 meters of water in the North Philipines Sea in August 2017.

HMAS DELORAINE & USS NEW ORLEANS MATCHED

&

SOMERTON MAN CODE CRACKED

On 7th March 1943, HMAS Deloraine passed close by the
USS New Orleans, CA 32 near Sydney.

This day, Sunday, March 7th 943 on Sydney Harbour was the only time that we have been able to categorically say that these two vessels were in close proximity. This was the only time that our 'writer' could have committed what he saw to paper.

Thanks to intensive research we have found this match, as was described in the letter Q. My original reading of the code sequence showed what I thought was the sequence: CA 25 or 35, however, I now know that it is CA 32 and not CA 35, the sequence can easily be misread. A closer examination I made yesterday and ahead of finding the Deloraine log reference shown above, confirmed that to be the case.

This result is thanks to some great teamwork with Clive, there were literally hundreds of pages to read and cross-reference and to track down the various locations of a number ships including the New Orleans, the Houston and the Pensacola. In fact, the Deloraine and the Pensacola had crossed paths on December 28th, 1941, not long after Pearl Harbor and again near Darwin in February 1942. Similarly, the Deloraine was in Darwin at the same time as the Houston.

We never thought for one moment that we would find a document like this where the event would actually be confirmed by a log entry, just amazing.

The above is from the log of HMAS Deloraine, J232 on 28th December 1941, you can see that it clearly states that they are to Anchor at Cape Morton and wait for the arrival of a US Convoy and TAKE ORDERS FROM USS PENSACOLA. The Hull number for the Pensacola is CA24.

Second Sighting USS Pensacola

This information absolutely confirms not only that the Delorraine would have been seen to be physically close to US Navy Cruisers but it also confirms the fact that, in one instance, they were being put in contact with one of them.

The information found in the letter Q is correct, HMAS Deloraine, J232, and the US Cruiser USS New Orleans, CA 32 passed close by each other near Sydney, someone recorded that in microcode and subsequently that code has been cracked open. We now know for certain that microcode has existed all along and it was placed inside the large letters of the so-called 'code'.

Relevant USN Cruiser movements:

USS Houston (CA 30) Arrived at Darwin 28 Dec 41. Departed Darwin on 10
Feb 42 sailed to Koepang.

USS New Orleans (CA 32) Departed SFO on 13 Jan 42 and arrived at
Brisbane 12 Feb 42, damaged on 30 Nov 42 at Tassafaronga, sailed on 10
Dec 42 to Cockatoo Island, Sydney-arrived on 24 Dec 42, On 7 Mar 43
Sailed from Sydney to Puget Sound Navy Yard, WA

USS Pensacola (CA 24) Arrived at Brisbane 22 Dec 41, On 19 Jan 42
sailed to Pearl Harbour. Sighted by HMAS Deloraine 4th January 1941 near Heath Point Lighthouse
headed South.

You will notice that mention is made of another ship, the Empire Hope. It was a British Merchant Navy ship one of a series of 'Empire' ships built for convoy work. It had been used for carrying ammunition and explosives on previous journeys. This ship was sunk just months later near Malta.

Not shown in these images is the presence of yet another Allied ship, a Destroyer, that the Deloraine crew saw on their journeys; this vessel was later to have a lengthy layover in Australia lasting for many months. We will discuss this more in our next post.

The Burning Question

One question, of course, is who saw the event and where from? Lieutenant Surgeon Robson may possibly have seen it. But, as JS very kindly pointed out, at this time he was stationed a long way North in Port Moresby at that time. The date 7th March 1943 was a Sunday and it was, therefore, a day of rest, one would think that around the harbour there would be quite a few people, families, and friends on the way to or from Church services. Quite probably, some would have been service members maybe home on leave, others would be going about their daily work, military or otherwise, on and around the harbour and its shores. Perhaps it was someone on board one of the two ships in question or maybe on board yet another ship? You would think that for someone publicly to be seen furtively writing notes down whilst watching the various ship movements on Sydney Harbour would, in those days have attracted some attention. More likely that our writer was sitting in some advantageous position close to the heads either on a ship or a land-based vantage point. All of this is yet to be examined, interesting times ahead.

When was the Rubaiyat published?

The question relates to the availability of the book ahead of the time when the two ships passed each other.

The first advert for the book for sale was on 5th December 1942, it was placed by Whitcombe and Tombs, 332 Collins Street, Melbourne. (A Tibor Kaldor haunt perhaps?) So, as far as Australia is concerned it appears that it may not have been sold here until much later on 5th December 1942 in the Argus:

NOTE THE TITLES IN THE SERIES ( GOLDEN THREADS ANOTHER COINCIDENCE?)

The same edition of the book had in fact been advertised for sale in November 1941 in New Zealand. Credit to Nick Pelling for his post made in 2016 to that effect.

The date 7th March 1943 was quite a propitious one, as no doubt all will remember it was the day that Prince Franz Joseph ll of Lichtenstein married Countess Gina von Wildczek. Interestingly they received messages of congratulations from both sides. Lichtenstein was and is a neutral country. I imagine my family's invitation was lost in the post.

Keep a look out for the next post, things are moving at a pace.

USS NEW ORLEANS:
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

In the previous post, we reviewed the information that was found in the letter Q on the Somerton Man code page. It very clearly told us that HMAS Deloraine, J232, had at some point been in close proximity to the USS New Orleans. Various official documentation was examined and from those documents, we were able to ascertain that the only time that the two ships were in close proximity was on Sunday <arch 7th 1943 in Sydney Harbour.

A number of questions were raised not the least of which was related to the person who had furtively written down the details of both ships and encoded that information within the letter Q, mainly just where could they have been when this was done?

The answer to that question becomes obvious when we examine the chain of events that saw the USS New Orleans end up in dry dock at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, bear with me, it's important:

THE BATTLE OF TASSAFARONGA

On the 30th November 1942, the USS New Orleans was engaged in a sea battle known as the battle of Tasaafaronga off Guadacanal:

In the course of the battle, the USS New Orleans was struck by a single torpedo that hit the ship in the forward magazine, it blew the bow of the ship off back to the second turret.

Before & After the torpedo strike:

8 hours after the strike, 1st December 1942 at Tulagai:

As you can see, it was nothing short of a miracle that the ship survived at all. Nonetheless, it did and the crew and others set to work camouflaging the New Orleans:

New Orleans remained at Tulagi until 12th December with the crew shoring up the damage and making the ship as ready as possible for perilous journey back to Sydney arriving at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour on Christmas Eve, 1942. the journey was carried out with the ship travelling backward all the way into Sydney Harbour.

A prefabricated stub bow was made up and fitted, this took a while; it would be fair to say that during that time the enormous damage to the Cruiser would have been well known amongst the local population.

The new bow was attached and in this photograph, you can see the relatively small Hull number '32'.

Note that the number is on the starboard side of the ship:

Set to go on March 7th 1943, moving up Sydney Harbour to the heads 'I think' although the landscape does not look terribly familiar, it could be a test run part way up the Lane Cove River, note in this photograph we can just see the outlines of the hull number '32' on the starboard side just below the forward gun turret and the numbers appear to be darkened:

Underway on March 7th 1943, she would have steamed past the Deloraine as per the log excerpts in the previous post:

Note that the barrels of the guns from number 2 turret were removed and were actually stored towards the rear of the ship.

This last image shows the New Orleans after the permanent repair had been carried out at Puget Sound shipyard, believed to have been taken on July 30th, 1943:

THE CONCLUSION

What we can conclude is that the ships hull number, 32, may not have been visible from the Port side of the ship, in other words, it would not have been seen from Georges Head, however, given that many people would have known the identity of the strange looking ship then it is possible that the observer knew the ship was the New Orleans.

The bottom line is there is a possibility that the observer was situated on the South Head/Watson's Bay side of the harbour which was a RAN Radar/ ASDIC training installation at the time.

As an aside, the CO of the training school, first opened in January 1943, was a certain Lieutenant Commander Sidney Francis RN. Strange world :)

The Hull number for the Deloraine whilst not painted large was of a reasonable size and it was viewable from the Port side of the vessel which would also mean it would have been visible from George's Head. In fact, you could argue that it would have only been known that both ships departed together from Georges Head or North Head or close by. I don't have the date for the image below, camouflage paint was applied in different colours, in fact, there is an entry in the Deloraine's log regarding their preference for US Navy paint:

YOU KNOW WHAT SAILORS ARE..

I guess it speaks for itself. This article was dated 28th October 1945. The date of interest for us is the date of birth of the child being September 1943, meaning that their liaison must have taken place 9 months earlier just after Christmas 1942 or early January 1943.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

HMAS DELORAINE J232
& USS NEW ORLEANS CA32

Both ships shown were last seen together on Sunday 7th March 1943 when someone made a note on the back of a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The Somerton Man Code page has revealed one of its secrets contained in the letter Q:

CLOSE UP 'Q'

We can now put a day, date and indeed an approximate time to when the letter Q at least was written. According to the log files (Proceedings), the two ships were in close proximity at around:

9 am on Sunday, 7th March, 1943

It seems more than likely that the USS New Orleans, despite having had extensive repairs to its bow destroyed in a torpedo attack at the battle of TASAAFARONGA near Guadalcanal on 30th November 1942, 6 years to the day before the Somerton Man was first spotted on the beach at Somerton. That date could, of course, be pure coincidence, but an interesting one just the same.

We are now left with some questions:

1. Where was Alf Boxall on that date and time?

2. Where was Jestyn on that date and time?

3. Was there a third person who was in a position to make those notes?

We have every reason to think that Jestyn was in Sydney and her address was in Mosman. Not that far, a short bus ride perhaps from the area around Georges' head although it must be said that that particular area formed part of the Sydney Harbour defences at that time so access may have been limited to certain parts.

What we do know is that the book on which the code was written turned up in Adelaide in June 1948, a piece had been torn from it that contained the words TAMAMSHUD and a piece matching that torn out piece was found tightly rolled up and pushed well down into a concealed fob pocket that the Somerton Man was wearing when he was found on the beach on December 1st 1948.

What's Next

There are many more letters to be more thoroughly examined but we already know that some contain relatively clear letters and numbers, we will be looking at those first.

Almost Midway between The Victoria Hotel and the Railway Station in Adelaide lies Blyth Street. A smallish alleyway really but during the war years it housed amongst other businesses, a handy little shop known as 'The GuideThrift Depot'. People donated goods and clothing of all different kinds and volunteers at the shop would give the proceeds to various deserving causes. Note also that the article mentions that the Thrift Depot had a stall inside the gates of the Adelaide Hospital.

Eagle-eyed Clive found this particular article in the August 26th, 1944 edition of the Mail. It was, of course, the Rubaiyat mention that caught his eye.

What the ad provides us with is further confirmation that second-hand goods and clothing were available in Adelaide and no doubt elsewhere and that people, in this case, a US serviceman, dropped in and found just the book they were looking for. Sadly the book sounds to be of a different type to our Whitcomb and Tombs version but the point is that we don't know whether the book was new or second hand, we don't know from where it was purchased nor when. It stands to reason, therefore, that, if the book was second hand, were the indentations on its back already there when the Somerton Man may have acquired it?

The Guide Thrift Depot closed its doors in 1945 I believe.

THE END GAME

For some time now the focus has been on the letter Q, and it really is the key to unravelling the events and the implications surrounding the finding of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in June 1949 .

We know that the Deloraine and the New Orleans left within 35 minutes of each other but now we can say with a high degree of certainty that the New Orleans left on the western side of the harbour close to Watson's Bay and then out to sea, it may be that the Deloraine also left by that route but it was possible that it left via the eastern side close to Georges' head.How do we know that?

Because the Sydney Harbour defences at that time included an anti-submarine net which extended between Georges' head and Green Point on Watson's Bay. Strung between solidly constructed pylons known as 'dolphins' the net had three gateways, one for large vessels another for smaller vessels and a third for much smaller craft. This third smaller gate was just 30 meters in length and was situated on the western end of the net and therefore nearer the harbour shore.

SYDNEY HARBOUR ANTI SUBMARINE DEFENCES

CAPTAIN HARVEY NEWCOMB

In charge of Sydney Harbour Defences. He later Transferred to the RAN and had an outstanding career.

He died in Adelaide, 16th January 1991.

HMS FORMIDABLE RN, LEAVING SYDNEY HARBOUR VIA WESTERN BOOM GATE 1945

Also on the Western end but a little East of the small craft gateway, the AS net gateway was 120 meters in length and it was opened by a tug. This 'gate' was over the deepest channel in the harbour and was used for large vessels, the USS New Orleans being one such vessel having a draught of 7.16 metres.

The Eastern gate was 90 meters or so in length and was used for smaller vessels. This gate was operated by a RAN Ship, HMAS KURAMIA, a Sydney ferry converted to a boom defence vessel. HMAS Deloraine had a draught of 8 feet 6 inches well within the Eastern Gate depth of 5 metres. Interestingly both the Deloraine and the Kuramia had a common heritage, Mort's dock in Balmain.

ELECTRONIC DEFENCES

In addition to the AS net there were a series of 6 cable loops stretching for thousands of metres around the bottom of Sydney Harbour. This, then state of the art, array electronically detected movements of vessels and was monitored by a LOOP CONTROL ROOM manned by 1 officer and two ratings. The Loop Control Room was situated at Green Point as shown on the map above.

These loops were in place when 3 Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour in May 1942, the AS net was incomplete at that time with gaps of 400 metres east and west of the net. One Japanese sub, the 22, still managed to get itself entangled in the central net and was detected, the crew blew themselves up to avoid capture. Two subs were detected by the loop but were overlooked due to other traffic moving around the harbour at the time. The USS Chicago opened fire on one of the subs but not before it had sent 2 torpedos their way, one failed to explode and the other missed.

It was interesting that the Japanese subs arrived at a time not long before the net was completed, an event that occurred in August 1942. One would think that the timing was no accident and that some kind of intelligence was being gathered and sent to Japan.

LETTER Q

To this point, we have the Q giving us the names of the two ships Deloraine and New Orleans, we know what time they left thanks to the Deloraine log, we now know which side of the harbour they went from.

There is something more we can deduce, we know that both the people on board the tug on the Western end of the gate and those on the HMAS Kuramia would have known the details of these ships as would whoever was on duty in the Loop Control Room at that time. In fact, they would have been in a position to record these movements over a long period of time.

THE CODEBREAKERS

THE BOOK RECOVERED

Move on a few years and the 'code' page from the recovered Rubaiyat was handed to a local Naval code Expert believed to be Eric Nave. He would immediately have known the significance of the code page as would the codebreakers in Melbourne. Interesting that the page was handed to a Naval code man.

You can bet money that Eric Nave would have been in touch with MI immediately, even though by this time, the net was gone and the loops probably disabled and not monitored. MI would have taken action by following up just who was on duty and where. They would have been most interested in the fact that someone was apparently spying and would have been wondering if they still were. I wonder if anyone went missing in Sydney in early to mid-1949?

Put yourself in the position of the opposition, they would have known of the discovery of the torn piece and of the search for the book, they would have been more than a bit concerned about that. Then, of all the luck, the book is found and the larger letters from the indentations are published but MI had 'apparently' missed the hidden INK H writings. Not so.

What of the code breakers statements that they didn't know what the letters meant? In my view they wanted to have the opposition think that their secret was safe and that the real hidden code hadn't been discovered.

CONSPIRACY?

Was it a conspiracy by MI and Nave? No, they were looking after issues of great National security at that time and were actively pursuing what could be a major spy network.
How important was there task? Given the state of relations between the US, UK, and Australia at the time with known intelligence leaks coming from senior levels of the Australian Government, it would have been of huge importance to keep all of this under wraps for as long as possible. If those agents were still active in the service of another country, they would have moved on to other tasks. They had to be caught and dealt with, no public trials and no publicity, dealt with expediently perhaps.
This post has explained as much as I have deduced to date, the likely sequence of events and an indication of where those involved in what could have been a network, would be found. As usual there is more work to be done.

Useful Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_anti-submarine_boom_net
http://www.navy.gov.au/history/base-histories/hmas-watson-history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdMI6rj7VmQ
https://www.navyhistory.org.au/anti-submarine-defences-of-sydney-harbour-1942/

I put this post together after a very long day so please forgive any errors!

The research that Clive and I did on the man found dead in the Victoria Hotel in Hindley Street, two weeks to the day following the discovery of the body of the man at Somerton Beach, was extensive. It was anything but a dead end. In fact, it still has a significant bearing on the Somerton Man case.

Those of you were following this blog back then, would recall Tibor's last letter, his 'suicide' note. It seemed almost too well structured in many ways, but he was of Germanic/Jewish stock and so one could expect a certain degree of structure and formality even for something as intense as a suicide letter.

But, it wasn't just the way in which the letter had been written, on putting the contents of the letter through an acrostic decoder, we were presented with the name DANETTA. In fact on processing the first output a second time we were astonished to see the words:

'..and see Danetta and suitcase, Danetta, Danetta, Danetta, Danetta..'

ANOTHER INSTANCE...

A second instance of the same name, DANETTA, was also found in the well-known ad about a lost gold watch. The wording of that ad also produced the name Danetta when analysed. the common feature was the fact that both the ad and TKs last letter had been so structured as to reveal the name alongside a set of 7 consecutive numbers which indicated the position of the letters contained in DANETTA.

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE!

There was some consternation if not surprise when a commenter from another blog in their efforts to discredit the findings of the name DANETTA in the ad and the letter, found the same the same name a third time only on this occasion, it was within the Verse 70 inscription made by Jestyn in a copy of the Rubaiyat that she had given to Alf Boxall. We were able to demonstrate that once again, the name DANETTA was partnered with 7 consecutive numbers which indicated the location of the relevant letters that formed the name DANETTA.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

The image below hardly needs any introduction, it's the code page that was later found and associated with a small torn piece of paper containing the words 'TAMAM SHUD' which in turn was found secreted in a hard to find fob pocket in the trouser waistband of the pair of trousers that the Somerton Man was wearing when his body was discovered on 1st December 1948.

It was only natural that we should make an effort and see if we could find the name DANETTA within the indented letters found on the code page.

Well we did and then again, we didn't.

We did in so far as it was relatively easy to pick the necessary letters to form the name DANETTA from the letters on the codepage but we didn't in so far as we were not able to use seven consecutive numbers to locate and fix the position of the necessary letters D, A, N, E, T, T and A. And that, as the saying goes, appeared to be that.

But, and it's a big but, what we didn't do was to properly analyse the individual lines on the code page. As you see them above we have 9 letters in line 1, 6 letters in Line 2, 11 letters in line 3, 11 letters in line 4 and a whopping 13 letters in line 5.

But look again. Within the first 4 lines, each group of letters commences with the letter M. Look even closer now at the third and fifth lines, they are not single lines with a single group following the letter M. The third line is a shorter line, MTBI, followed by another line, MPANETP. Moving to line 4 on the code page, it should have the letters VTT from the next line included within it such that the fifth line should read MTSA and then another line MST GAR.

THE 7 LINE CODEPAGE

What you will read here is that there is indeed a set of consecutive numbers associated with the name DANETTA and it is found within the reformated 7 line.groups/code page.

All up we really have 7 lines with 7 letters M heading them as follows:

Each line starts with the letter M. My thoughts are that M is a signal letter that probably means 'group follows' or similar. There are micro written numbers and letters within each M and indeed within every letter and line on the codepage.

Include all letters in the 7 line sequence shown below:

MRGOABABD

MLIOAl

MTB

MPANETP

MLIABOAIAQCVTT

MTSA

MSTGAR

ANALYSIS

Letter positions can be fixed and then read from left to right or from right to left:

D = Line 1, # 1 READ Right to Left

A = Line 5, # 6 READ Right to left

N= Line 4, # 4 READ Left to Right

E= Line 4, # 5 READ Left to Right

T = Line 3, # 2 READ Left to Right

T = Line 7, # 3 READ Left to Right

A = Line 5 # 7 READ Left to Right

CONCLUSION

So, there we have it, a strict 7 number sequence linked to individual letters with the first two letters, D and A, being read from right to left and the remainder being read left to right, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. When you look at the arrangement, there is a certain logic, 1 by itself then 2 and 3, then 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 being the outer two numbers within which we find 2,3,4 and 5

DANETTA now appears in Tibor Kaldor's last letter, in the Gold Watch ad, in Verse 70 and now the code page And each time it appears it does so in conjunction with 7 consecutive numbers which fix the positions of each letter.

Where does this leave us? We now have substantial proof that Tibor Kaldor was aware of the existence of the same code that was found in three other documents associated with the Somerton Man case.

By default, we have Alf and Jestyn also having knowledge of this clandestine identification method.

When you bring in to play the now proven existence of microcode on the code page and in three of the four documents plus the discovery of notations of proven ship movements in Sydney Harbour in 1943, it is seemingly inarguable that what we have in the Somerton Man case is an espionage operation. And that this operation somehow involved Jestyn, Alf Boxall, the Somerton Man and Tibor Kaldor.

More to follow.

MAJOR WILLIAM JESTYN MOULDS. MBE
QX6233

A little faded but look what a few enhancements can do, note the stylish letter 'E' in the top line, ENGINEERS:

And now a close up of 'Jestyn':

And the other Jestyn signature, verse 70...

A quick comparison of these signatures seems to show some similarities, the Y and the N in particular and big looped J. Could it be that our Jestyn was copying someone elses? Or was it written by another?

MAJOR WILLIAM JESTYN MOULDS

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS

DOB: July 14th 1909, Brisbane. Died January 12th 1984

Engaged to Yolande Maud Carmody, 7th May 1938

MBE Awarded 9th March 1945, distinguished himself at Lae and Finschafen, New Guinea, September 1943.

For my mate Pete Bowes :)

I was saving this one but now's as good a time as any!

Byron and Misca, this is your Forte I think, detailed service records would be interesting.

The address shown was the residence of one Wolfgang Wagner, a Czech Jewish man who arrived in Australia in 1939 as a refugee.

Nothing in the least unusual about Wolfgang except a few little things:

1. He was a cousin of one Helmuth Hendon, the man who lived with Gwen 'Dorothy' Graham, friend to George Marshall.

2. He was reported to the Police for monitoring Ship movements from his well located home from where he could see across the harbour and the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island:

This image is from a later time but it shows Rushcutters Bay slightly to the left and in the background, the roadway is now called New Beach Road.

The letter and note on the Police file regarding suspected tracking of vessel movements:

So, what we have now is our code page and the letter Q referring to vessels being tracked, the Deloraine and the USS New Orleans and now we have someone suspected of effectively carrying out espionage activities by tracking vessels. Not only that, but this man was a cousin to Helmuth Hendon, the partner of Gwen Graham, friend to George Marshall.

Let's think about that awhile,

1. George Marshall apparently commits suicide,

2. Gwen Graham, who is a live-in partner to Helmuth Hendon, follows suit within days,

3. Wolfgang, cousin to Helmuth Hendon is suspected of monitoring ship movements on Sydney Harbour.

4. We have evidence of ship movement information being encoded on the code page, that covered a time period when Wolfgang resided in Rushcutters Bay.

5. The code page is found and associated with the mysterious death of an unknown man on Somerton Beach.

All of this without, as yet, digging deeper into our 'Major Jestyn'.

For those reading the above note to and by the Police, the inquiry regarding Wolfgang originally came from a Major Cohen who was based in Newcastle.

THE US VICE CONSUL

A little more of the puzzle? This man, Bayard L.R. King, born in 1922, was moved to Adelaide in March 1948. He had been a diplomat in Iran, Persia, prior to his arrival in South Australia.

Not many months later, 25th December 1948, Bayard is on the move again, this time to China.

I hear the distant groanings, 'So What!' Well, he was surprisingly young for the job of Vice Consul, just 26 years of age. And a Vice-consul seems a long way distant from his earlier professions, an ambulance driver, oh yes, and a member of the OSS. Those with some knowledge will know that the OSS morphed into the CIA in September 1947.

All of that suggests quite strongly that there was a CIA presence in Adelaide from March to December 1948.

'KING--Bayard LeRoy, died in Albuquerque, NM on January 1, 2008. Born in NYC, 1922. Attended St. Paul's School and Harvard. An ambulance driver in the American Field Service, in North Africa during WWII. Served in the OSS, awarded the Croix de Guerre. Following, served as a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Baghdad, Australia, Latin America, Africa. Deputy Chief of Mission in Bamako and Kinshasa. Survived by wife Joyce, two children from first marriage, Alexandra King-Nastase and George Gordon King, four grandchildren.'

I will post more on this man and other interesting people who operated in Australia in the relevant period.

HALFWAY TO HORROR

This book, 'Halfway to Horror' by David Hume was published way back in 1937 and ahead of WW2. It's a crime story and to all accounts, it is a good read. However, the owners of a copy of this book weren't particularly interested in the quality of the writing, no, their interest was more focused on how they might use it as a tradecraft tool. (Incidentally, the book is classified as quite rare with the copy shown above having an asking price of $107 AUD)

And use it they did, or rather he did. He used it as a key to a code sent by shortwave radio and that code contained information on shipping movements in New York Harbour amongst other things. the 'He' in this case was this man:

You could say that he was an accidental spy, he actually took over the role when the man originally assigned to this important role in the US was killed in a motor vehicle accident in Times Square on March 18th 1941.

Two men were seen to be arguing about how to cross the very busy road when one man jumped the gun and ran out in front of a taxi. This man, at first thought to be a Spanish courier, was, in fact, a Captain Ulrich von der Osten of the German Abwehr. On searching the body of the man, police were surprised to find a notebook with names and contact details as well as assignments of US soldiers. It was also noted that his clothes had no labels. A search of his hotel room uncovered maps and other interesting documents. There's more to be found on the Captain at this Wiki and also here at the FBI.

Research shows that Ludwig used between 50 and 60 aliases both male and female to cover his identity. Multiple names is a fact of life for those engaged in the business of espionage.

Eventually, Ludwig and his spy ring were arrested and brought to justice in March 1943, with another member captured in December 1943, just one man escaped the net for a while, Teodor Erdman Erich Lau, a 44 year old Argentinian but German-born man who was the paymaster for the group, he was arrested in 1946.

But, interesting as the story is, this post has as its purpose, the task of describing how whole rings and networks of spies were set up with but one major task and that was to monitor and track Allied shipping movements.

THE BOOK CODE

In this case Ludwig used an ingenious book code to act as a key. A witness recounted that the method was to use the first nine words at the beginning of certain pages in the 'Halfway to Horror' book. A classic example of how a standard run of the mill book could be repurposed to act as a component in the deadly game of espionage. Shades of the use of 'DANETTA' in the code page, verse 70, Tibor Kaldor's last letter and of course the infamous Tudor Gold Watch ad.

This same spy ring also made use of invisible inks, they were not given to putting all of their sensitive material into one clandestine communication method. That is something we should be aware of in dealing with the Somerton Man case.

This post s one in a series relating to espionage activities surrounding shipping movements.

(For the record we have no idea at this stage just what happened to Teodor the Argentinian, he was bailed at the time but records will no doubt have the answer.)

BUT! This news article is more relevant for the Somerton Man case:

Given the recent post on Ship Movements tracking, this article, one of many on the subject, confirms the belief that a spy ring existed in Australia and it was actively recording ship movements in and out of various ports. Other articles refer to Eastern seaboard sinkings and a sophisticated radio set up.

THE SPY INTERNEES

In July 1943, two men, German internees, were brought to trial in Adelaide for the offence of 'Recording in a manner prejudicial to the defence of the Commonwealth, information regarding Defence means which was likely to be useful to an enemy'

As you can read above, Paul Pichtmeir was found not guilty and he was returned to internment but the man, Karl Oswald Thierfelder was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in Yatala Goal, Adelaide.

Effectively, it was thought that Thierfelder was part of a larger spy ring and he was forwarding his information on to others who remained unknown but then again, perhaps they were dealt with by other means. We will be posting on just what that may mean in the near future.

BACKGROUND

Clive has done some great digging on both men and from their histories below you can see that Thierfelder spent time in Loveday in South Australia, Tatura and Wayville in Adelaide for a short period of time.

Those of you who followed earlier posts on Tibor Kaldor, will be able to see that both TK and Karl were in Tatura at the same time. the difference between these two men is that Tibor arrived in Australia on the Dunera in 1940 whereas Karl had arrived from Germany as an immigrant in 1938. he was interned, then released and then interned again. here are Clive's notes:

Karl Oswald Thierfelder:

Born 02-10-10 at Zachopau, Saxony. 5'11'', 12 Stone, Hair=Fair, Eyes=Brown, (Small scar on Left cheek). Single

Job: Mechanical Engineer. Arr. at Fremantle 08-03-1938 on board

"Narkunda". Home address: 178 Orrong Rd, Toorak, Bus. address: 103

William St, Melbourne.

Interned on 16-03-39 Melbourne, Released on parole 05-04-40, re-interned

15-04-42 at Loveday, SA, to Broadmeadows SA (Near Elizabeth) 02-05-42, to tribunal at

Wayville 01-08-42,

to Loveday 08-08-42, on 05-06-43 at Barmera Base Hospital-out on

10-07-43, detached to Wayville near Keswick Barracks Adelaide and sentenced to 5 yrs. 24-07-43

imprisoned on civil charge, (Espionage)

on 27-11-43 to Sheriff Supreme Court, Adelaide, imprisoned at Yatala,

SA, on 10-02-45 transf. Yatala to Tatura, Vic, By 04-11-46 from Yatala

to Tatura

30-01-47 to No 3 Rushworth, released on 09-08-47, Working at Regent

Motors, 86 Sturt St, Melbourne, 24-11-47 repat. to Germany. (no

photos/fingerprints on NAA)

We are still digging into other information related to this man, it is interesting that he was passing information on military movements including ships to another person, that person would have had access to Internees in SA either directly or by mail.

To a recent comment regarding dates, there are a number of dates from 1941 through to 1945, I would suggest that those interested should go to the TROVE website and enter the following keywords into the search box:
ship movements spy

no need for any inverted commas, this will give you a broad search and you will see many articles a lot of which are duplicated information between various publications.

29th. JANUARY 1943- SCONE ADVOCATE

Read this article carefully, in it Australia's Attorney General, Doctor Evatt, spoke specifically about a heavily damaged US warship being towed to Sydney for repairs. The information came from a radio broadcast in Germany obviously sometime before the 29th January 1943.

They were referring to the USS New Orleans, and the letter Q contained that information as per the earlier post about the New Orleans. The article refers to two men talking on a train giving away the information, that would only have come from the broadcaster, it means that someone was listening to the men on the train and that same someone organised for the information to be passed on to Berlin. Perhaps by shortwave radio to a U Boat waiting of the Eastern shores of Australia.

The date sequence was that the New Orleans arrived very badly damaged on December 24th 1942 and was immediately dry docked ready for extensive temporary repairs. The ship was in fact so badly damaged that it had travelled all the way from the islands in reverse, the bow had been completely blown off by a torpedo. The repairs were started quickly and on Sunday the 7th March, the repaired USS New Orleans headed out to sea and Puget Sound with the HMAS Deloraine acting as a screen.

Knowing what we know now, the Deloraine and the New Orleans Captain's would have been made aware of the German broadcast and that there must have been a significant risk that a U Boat was waiting for them. As it eventuated, the New Orleans made it back to Puget Sound in one piece.

Whoever made that inscription in the letter Q on the back of the Rubaiyat had passed it on to Berlin as a follow up to the first message.

Let's make it very clear to all, the Somerton Man case has an Espionage aspect. No ifs and no buts.

LOVEDAY Internment Camp, Riverland, South Australia

As always, it pays to review key dates and times in a matter of interest.

Accordingly, here's a brief review of the timeline of events related to Karl Oswald Thierfelder, mechanical engineer, the German internee who was tried and imprisoned on what was effectively a spying offence. Other references have been interspersed into the timeline.

1. 8th March 1938 Arrived Australia ex 'Narkunda', resided at 178 Orrong road, Toorak. Worked premises 103 William Street Melbourne

(1935 German Spy, Annette Wagner arrived in Sydney, she achieved social acceptance and even had her own radio programme dealing mostly with European fashion, intelligence agencies believed she used those broadcasts to communicate with other spies in Australia including information on shipping movements. The story here: MORE HERE. This Wagner left Sydney in 1940. During her time in Sydney, she lived at Bakewell House, Clifton Gardens. In July 1946 Annette committed suicide whilst being interrogated in a French Police building, she jumped from a window)

2. 16th March 1939, interned Melbourne

(Approximately August/September 1939, Wolfgang Wagner of Rushcutters Bay suspected of recording ship movements in Sydney Harbour. Intriguingly Wolfgang's wife died quite young, in 1946 we think, no records traced as yet)

3. 15th April 1940 Released on parole

4. 15th April 1942 Re-interned at Loveday

5. 1st August 1942 Appealed, to the tribunal in Wayville SA

6. 8th August 1942, Returned to Loveday

(December 24th 1942, USS New Orleans arrives Sydney Harbour, badly damaged and towed in, to Cockatoo Island for repair.

January date unknown, German broadcast detailing the towing event and damage to New Orleans made from Berlin.

January 29th 1943 Doctor Evatt announces the said broadcast information via a Tasmanian newspaper article.

February 1943 through July 1943, several newspaper articles regarding the leaking of ship and military information collected by German spies in Australia

March 7th 1943, USS New Orleans, CA 32, with temporary repair leaves Sydney Harbour screened by HMAS Deloraine, RAN, J232, confirmed by recovery of letter Q on the much later recovered Somerton Man code page)

7. 5th June 1943 Thierfelder To Barmera, Riverland, Base Hospital ex Loveday.

8. 10th July 1943, Thierfelder released from Barmera Base hospital to Loveday

9. 24 July 1943, Thierfelder interrogated and in court for espionage-related activities, in custody Yatala prison Adelaide.

10. 27th November 1943, Thierfelder imprisoned for 5 years at Yatala for espionage-related offences

11. 10th Febuary 1945 Detached from Yatala to Tatura, still serving the sentence

12. $th November 1946, in Tatura camp, sentence served.

13. 3rd January 1947 To Rushworth No.3 Camp,

14. 9th August 1947, released, worked at Regent Motors, 86 Sturt Street, Melbourne no residential address found to date.

15. 24th November 1947, repatriated to Germany

What caught my attention was the apparent link between the USS New Orleans timeline which was followed a short while later by the German broadcast, Doc Evatt's news article, more news talk on German spy activity and the arrest, interrogation and imprisonment of Thierfelder on charges specifically related to the recording and passing on of sensitive shipping and military movements. Is that all coincidence?

Why was Thierfelder hospitalised?

A month in Hospital seems a lengthy stay?

We are following up a number of promising leads and will be posting more.