Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran)

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Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran) This page intentionally left blank Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran) The Failure of the German Intelligence Services, 1939–45

Adrian O’Sullivan © Adrian O’Sullivan 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-42789-2

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Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. For my daughter, Claire This page intentionally left blank Contents

List of Figures viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Abbreviations xv Chronology xxiii Wolf pack in the Zagros Mountains xxv

Prologue: MAX and MORITZ Invent Themselves 1 1 Tourists and Businessmen 10 2 Invaders and Occupiers 25 3 Schemers and Planners 34 4 Intelligencers 45 5 Ideologues and Brutes 58 6 Rivals 80 7 Recruiters and Trainers 86 8 MAX 108 9 MORITZ 130 10 SABA 144 11 Parachutes over Persia 158 12 FRANZ, DORA, and BERTA 167 13 ANTON 182 14 Operations and Operatives 191 15 Defects and Deficiencies 216 16 Failure 222 Epilogue: MAX and MORITZ Reinvent Themselves 241

Appendix 252 Select Bibliography 257 Index 271

vii Figures

4.1 Wilhelm Kuebart 46 4.2 Notional meeting at the Tirpitzufer 51 8.1 Franz Mayr 109 9.1 Roman Gamotha 131 9.2 Pierre Sweerts 137 10.1 Berthold Schulze-Holthus and the surviving ANTON parachutists in captivity 144 12.1 Franz Mayr and the FRANZ group in captivity 168 12.2 Junkers Ju 290 173 14.1 Charles and Fern Bedaux with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor 194 15.1 Havel-Institut (LEIT), Berlin-Wannsee 219 15.2 SD receiver and transmitter used by Franz Mayr 220 A.1 Organization of the Abwehr (simplified) 252 A.2 Organization of the RSHA Amt VI (simplified) 253 A.3 Map of German covert initiatives and activities targeting Persia 254 A.4 Assigned and assumed roles of German staybehind agents in Persia 255 A.5 Catalogue of failed German covert operations targeting Persia 256

viii Preface

The trouble with writing books about Nazi history is that so much of it makes for harrowing reading, because the Third Reich was drenched in blood, horrific violence, and callous brutality on a colossal, indus- trial scale. Its excesses were such that, as Hannah Arendt has famously pointed out, evil became utterly commonplace under Nazi rule: in a word, banal. Whether about a singular aspect of the Holocaust – for instance, the atrocious misdeeds of the men of Police Batallion 101, as meticulously documented by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen in Hitler’s Willing Executioners – or the shocking, vivid chronicles of mass rape, pillage, and antifascist revenge recorded in excruciating detail by Anthony Beevor in The Fall of Berlin 1945, sensitive readers are hardly likely to favour this genre as bedtime reading, or to recommend it to their children. When, a few years ago, I decided to undertake a doctoral disserta- tion on some aspect of Nazi failure in the Second World War, viewed through the prism of intelligence history, I was determined to avoid the bloodshed and brutality that permeates Third Reich historiogra- phy and to seek out some kinder, gentler topic than those that have so often dominated the nonfiction bestseller tables in recent decades. This was partly because I was beginning to realize that, the more I studied the perverse obsession of Hitler’s Herrenvolk – not just the Nazi Party and the SS – with antisemitism and antibolshevism, the less I understood it (or them). I was so deeply troubled by the mur- derous malevolence that ordinary Germans had displayed towards ordinary Jews and members of other minorities that I felt no longer able to write effectively about the Holocaust, for instance. So, during a discussion of my intentions with one of my academic mentors, a fine historian with a comprehensive knowledge of the literature of Nazi intelligence and covert operations, I was delighted when he observed, ‘Adrian, you must remember that the Second World War was a very big war!’ This meant, he insisted, that there was still (some 70 years on) a remarkable abundance of untold stories to tell and unwritten case studies to write. Having always been drawn to the role of the historian as a public narrator rather than a theoretician or an analyst, as I suspect Professor Beevor has been, I quickly warmed to the prospect of filling historio- graphical lacunae as a storyteller. This could be fun: much more

ix x Preface useful and better suited to my interest in writing readable history than deconstructing it, encoding my analyses in dense postmodern jargon for transmission to other scholars. ‘How about Persia?’, my mentor continued. ‘No one has done it ... yet. And there’s plenty of raw material lying around in the archives.’ By this he meant of course that, while no monographic archival study had ever been undertaken on covert warfare in the region, I had better get on with it right away before someone pipped me to the post. And so, by coercion rather than design, I happened upon one of the few relatively nonviolent but still viable topics of Third Reich and Second World War history. For in wartime Persia very few shots were ever fired in anger, and certainly no major pitched battles were ever fought, not even when the British and the Russians crashed across the western and northern Persian borders in the late summer of 1941 and occupied the country with lightning speed, to preempt a possible German invasion from Transcaucasia. Perhaps I am fortunate that intelligence history is my chosen discipline, rather than military history, which has few oases of calm to offer the scholar and writer. Real intelligence work, on the other hand – active espionage, counterespionage, security intelligence, political subversion, propaganda, sabotage, and strategic deception – is far less violent than popular fiction and quasi- historical folklore would have us believe. Comparatively few spies actually lost their lives or even used their weapons during the Second World War, contrary to the popular notion that spying is treachery and inevitably leads to the gallows or the guillotine. For instance, of the 423 enemy agents captured between 1940 and 1944 and held at Camp 020 by the Security Service (MI5), only 14 were ultimately put on trial, found guilty, and hanged. For the most part, the world of intelligence operations is a shadowy, silent game of wits, not thuggery. Pistol shots seldom crackle in the night, dumped bodies seldom wash up on canal banks or ocean beaches, and most spies fear isolation or scandalous exposure infinitely more than a bomb beneath the car chassis or a knife between the shoulder blades. Thus, with apologies to Professor Arendt, one might even speak of the ‘banality of treason’: treachery rendered commonplace because it has acquired all the ethical trappings of a relatively honourable profession complete with its own skill sets, honour codes, unique technologies, peculiar linguistic registers, and, not always but often, tacit mutual recognition and respect among its protagonists and antagonists. All these characteristics emerge in this book on clandestine warfare in Persia. On the German side, we witness the banality of the fugitive lives Preface xi of Franz Mayr, Berthold Schulze-Holthus, and Roman Gamotha: long months, years even, during which nothing was achieved operationally, and nothing much happened otherwise. On the British side, we can well imagine the banal drudgery that characterized the daily routine of the security-intelligence system – censoring letters, carding names, interrogating small fry, compensating for the uselessness of the Persian police and gendarmerie, standing endlessly on guard against an enemy who never came, or at least who came too late, in insufficient number, and with mediocre talent, in a shambolic series of pinprick initiatives. However, it would be entirely wrong to assume that the story I have to tell is therefore as dull as the lives it depicts, for this narrative of twilit conflict in a world full of menace and dire strategic consequences con- tains within it an immense potential for catastrophe that was, merci- fully, never fulfilled: the defeat of Soviet Russia; the Nazi invasion and occupation of Persia, Iraq, and the Arabian peninsula; the extension of the Holocaust even to Palestine itself; the loss of India and Britain’s link with the Far East and Australasia; and finally the convergence of German and Japanese forces, in India, Afghanistan, or Siberia perhaps. During the war in Tehran, such appalling scenarios were never far from the minds of those charged with the task of purging Persia of Nazi influ- ence and Nazi operatives. After the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, the situation eased somewhat, but there remained a lingering sense of inse- curity among those serving in PAIFORCE, that ‘Little Forgotten Army,’1 which caused them to continue their watch dutifully and uninterrupted until the spring of 1945. Dick Thistlethwaite, who served as an IO in Tehran throughout the occupation and rose after the war to become very senior in MI5, wrote: ‘The Persian story is too good a one to remain hidden away.’ The whole fascinating story remained to be told, with its gold, camels, mistresses, poison, dynamite, and ‘the Tehran setting perfect for a film.’2 So this is a story thoroughly worth telling – and thoroughly worth reading – at the very least because of its sheer scale, not of horror but of vision and portent. The limited scope and miserable failure of the secret Nazi initiatives directed against that big, difficult country mask the grandiosity of the strategic fantasies that lay behind them, the consequences of which, had they ever been fulfilled, would have destroyed the British Empire and changed the world forever.3

Adrian O’Sullivan Bowen Island, British Columbia March 2014 xii Preface

Notes

1. Private papers of D. Drax, 2164, Imperial War Museum (IWM). 2. Thistlethwaite to Bullard, 3 July 1952, KV 3/89, The National Archives (TNA); see also Thistlethwaite to Bullard, 30 December 1954, GB165-0042-3/7, Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony’s College, Oxford (MECA). 3. See Figure A.3 for a geographical overview of German covert initiatives and activities that targeted Persia during the Second World War. Acknowledgements

As an investigative historian with an overriding interest in unwritten history, my work is founded mostly upon neglected records discovered at great and small archives on two continents. Therefore, my first vote of thanks goes to the archival and library staff who have helped me identify, locate, and retrieve many obscure primary sources. They are, in no particular order of precedence: Julie Ash (The National Archives), Amy Schmidt and Will Mahoney (National Archives and Records Administration), Simon Offord (Imperial War Museum), Michael Paulus (Whitman College), Philip Cosgrove and Gemma Cook (Churchill College, Cambridge), Debbie Usher (St Antony’s College, Oxford), and Vera Yuen (Simon Fraser). Among historians thanks go to Tilman Dedering (UNISA), Ian van der Waag (Stellenbosch), André Wessels (Free State), Julian Brooks (Simon Fraser), Bernd Lemke (ZMSBw, Potsdam), and Katrin Paehler (Illinois State) for continually inspiring me and encouraging me to get the job done. Thanks are also owed to fellow members of the Special Operations Executive Group, who have often helped me unravel knotty problems associated with identity and archival sources. Among authors, I also wish to express specific thanks to Christopher Andrew, Katrin Paehler, Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, and Dietrich Witzel for their kindness in personally granting me permission to quote from their works. I am grateful too to Francis Shelton for his kind permission to use his eyewitness account of the Zagros wolf pack as an extended metaphor for the Germans who came menacingly to Persia to hunt for Allied prey, but whose efforts so swiftly and surprisingly dissipated. Thanks also go to Adolf E. Mader for permission to publish a rare and controversial photograph of dubious East German provenance. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Hannah Goodman at The Orion Publishing Group, all my attempts at tracing the copyright holder of German Military Intelligence by Paul Leverkuehn were unsuccessful. Of course, every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge all other copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. For patiently giving me encouragement in my writing and my quest for publication, I wish to thank my long-suffering family, especially

xiii xiv Acknowledgements my daughter, Claire O’Sullivan, and my sister, Sheila Cockbaine, whose unconditional love and support over the years have meant so much. Many dear friends have also endured my fixation on wartime Persia; they know who they are, and I thank them. Finally, I must acknowledge Winston Churchill’s characteristic com- mon sense when he insisted, on the eve of the Anglo-Soviet invasion in 1941, on official use of the term Persia instead of Iran, in order to avoid ‘dangerous mistakes [that] may easily occur through the similarity of Iran and Iraq. In any cases where convenient, the word “Iran” may follow in brackets after Persia.’1 Notwithstanding Reza Shah’s ‘henceforth Iran’ decree of 1935,2 I share the Prime Minister’s preference, not least because most contemporary British spoke of the country as Persia and its people as Persians, and this usage is reflected in most of the documents that form the foundation of my book.

Notes

1. Minute M785/1, 2 August 1941, Prime Minister’s printed personal minutes, CHAR 20/36/8, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (CAC). 2. See Abdol Hossain Hamzavi, Henceforth Iran (London: Cooper, 1936). Abbreviations

AA Auswärtiges Amt (Auslandsamt); anti-aircraft Abw Abwehr Abw Z Abwehr Zentralabteilung Abw I H Abwehr I Heer Abw I L Abwehr I Luft Abw I M Abwehr I Marine Abw II J Abwehr II Insurgenz Abw II S Abwehr II Sabotage Abw II O MO Abwehr II Orient Mittlerer Osten Abw II OR Abwehr II Orient Abw II SO MO Abwehr II Südost Mittlerer Osten a.D. ausser Dienst (retired) ADSO, A/DSO Assistant Defence Security Officer ‘A’ Force Cairo-based unit responsible for Middle East strategic deception AGEA Arbeitsgemeinschaft ehemaliger Abwehrangehöriger (Association of Former Members of the Abwehr) [Abwehr veterans’ organization] AIOC Anglo-Iranian Oil Company ALO Area Liaison Officer Amt VI RSHA Foreign Intelligence Department Amt Ausl/Abw Amt Auslandsnachrichten und Abwehr [formal title of the Abwehr] Amt Mil Militärisches Amt (RSHA Military Department) Ast Abwehrstelle (Abwehr station) [became KdM after SD takeover] B Counterespionage [as in MI5 B Branch] B1A, B1a MI5 counterespionage section administering double agents

xv xvi Abbreviations

B1B, B1b MI5 counterespionage analysis section BArch Bundesarchiv [Berlin-Lichterfelde] BArch-MArch Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv [Freiburg] BAOR British Army of the Rhine Bbg Brandenburg Bd., Bde. Band, Bände (volume[s]) BFO beat frequency oscillator BL British Library BND Bundesnachrichtendienst (West German Intelligence Service) C, ‘C’ Head of SIS (MI6) CAC Churchill Archives Centre [Churchill College, Cambridge] Capt Captain CI Counterintelligence [OSS] CIA Central Intelligence Agency [USA] CIC Counter Intelligence Corps [USA] CICI Combined Intelligence Centre Iraq (and Persia) CinC, C-in-C Commander-in-Chief CREST CIA Research Tool CSDIC Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre [Maadi, Egypt] CW continuous wave [Morse code] CX counterintelligence; SIS intelligence reports DAF Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front) DB Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) D/F direction finding DGKS Deutsche Gesellschaft für keltische Studien (German Society for Celtic Studies) DR Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State Railways) DRT Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhand AG (German Audit and Trustee Company) Abbreviations xvii

DSO Defence Security Office(r); Distinguished Service Order EG Einsatzgruppe (Operational Task Force) [SS euphemism for extermination unit] EK Einsatzkommando (Operational Squad) [SS euphemism for extermination unit]; Eisernes Kreuz (Iron Cross) EKI, EKII Eisernes Kreuz I./II. Klasse (Iron Cross First/Second Class) FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation [USA] FHO Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) [OKW military intelligence evaluation section] FHW Fremde Heere West (Foreign Armies West) [OKW military intelligence evaluation section] FS Field Security FSchJgKp Fallschirmjägerkompanie (Parachute Company) Fw Focke Wulf G2, G-2 Divisional Intelligence Staff Officer GC&CS, GCCS Government Code and Cipher School Gen.St.Fr.H. Generalstab Fremde Heere (General Staff Foreign Armies) Gestapo Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police) [RSHA Amt IV] GFP Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Military Police) GHQ General Headquarters GHQ ME General Headquarters Middle East GIS German intelligence service(s) GSI, GS(I) General Staff Intelligence GSI(c) Original designation for SIME GVP Office of the Chief Military Prosecutor [Russia] HJ Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) HM His (Her) Majesty(’s) HMG His (Her) Majesty’s Government HMSO His (Her) Majesty’s Stationery Office HQ headquarters xviii Abbreviations

I Insurrektion (insurrection) [as in I-Arbeit; sometimes written as J] IA Indian Army IB Intelligence Bureau [India] i/c in command of Ic German staff intelligence and security officer [approximates to G-2] INA Indian National Army IO intelligence officer; interrogating officer IP Iran Parastan [political party] ISK Intelligence Service Knox [Abwehr Enigma decrypts] ISLD Inter-Services Liaison Department [= MI6 Middle East] ISOS Intelligence Service Oliver Strachey [Abwehr manual ciphers] ISR Iranian State Railway IWG International Working Group IWM Documents Collection, Imperial War Museum Ju Junkers [German aircraft manufacturer] K Kampf (combat) [as in K-Einsatz] KdF Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) [Nazi recreational organization run by the DAF] KdM Kommando des Meldegebietes (Command Report Area) [MilAmt outstation (formerly Abwehr Ast)]; Kameradschaftsdienst Marine (German Navy and Mercantile Marine Broadcasting Service) KFK Kriegsfischkutter (Armed Fishing Cutter) [= SKK] KGB Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (Committee of State Security) [USSR] KO Kriegsorganisation KOI Kriegsorganisation Iran [preoccupational Abwehr outstation in Tabriz] KONO Kriegsorganisation Nahost [Abwehr outstation in Istanbul] Abbreviations xix

KTB Kriegstagebuch (War Diary) Leit Leitstelle (control centre) LO Liaison Officer ME Middle East MECA Middle East Centre Archive [St Antony’s College, Oxford] MEF Middle East Forces MEIC Middle East Intelligence Centre MfS Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry of State Security [Stasi]) [East Germany] MGFA Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Military History Research Office) MI5 Military Intelligence Dept 5 [colloquial designation for the Security Service] MI6 Military Intelligence Dept 6 [colloquial designation for the Secret Intelligence Service] Mil A Militärisches Amt A [post-merger RSHA equivalent of Abwehr Z] MilAmt Militärisches Amt (RSHA Military Department) Mil B Militärisches Amt B [post-merger RSHA equivalent of Abwehr I West] Mil C Militärisches Amt C [post-merger RSHA equivalent of Abwehr I Ost] Mil D Militärisches Amt D [post-merger RSHA equivalent of Abwehr II] MO Mittlerer Osten (Middle East); medical officer M/T motor transport NARA National Archives and Records Administration [USA] Nest Nebenstelle [Abwehr subsidiary station] NCO non-commissioned officer NKVD Narodnyi Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) [USSR] NSDStB Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist Students League) xx Abbreviations

NSV Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (National Social People’s Welfare) OIC officer in charge OKH Oberkommando des Heeres (High Command of the Army) OKL Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (High Command of the Air Force) OKVR Oberkriegsverwaltungsrat (Senior Military Advisor) OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces) OR, O/R Orient [Abwehr desk]; other ranks OSS Office of Strategic Services [USA] PA Persian Army PAG Personenabwurfgerät (personnel dropping device or ‘live bomb’) PAIC Persian and Iraq Command PAIFORCE Persia and Iraq Force PGC Persian Gulf Command (December 1943 onwards) [USA] PGSC Persian Gulf Service Command (up to December 1943) [USA] PK Partei-Kanzlei [BArch file group] Pol Arch Politisches Archiv (Political Archive) [Auslandsamt archives in Berlin] POW prisoner(s) of war PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder P/W prisoner(s) of war PzAOK Panzerarmeeoberkommando (Panzer Army HQ) RAF Royal Air Force RDF range and direction finding [radar] Regt regiment RfA Reichsstelle für (den) Aussenhandel (Reich Office of Foreign Trade) RgI Reichsgruppe Industrie (Reich Industry Group) Abbreviations xxi

RM Reichsmark [currency] RS Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt [BArch file group] RSHA Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Administration) S Schulung (training [as in Amt VI S]); Sabotage (sabotage [as in S-Arbeit]) SA Sturmabteilung [Nazi Party storm troopers (brownshirts)] SD Sicherheitsdienst (SS Security Service) SdF, Sf Sonderführer (Special Officer) SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force SI Secret Intelligence [OSS] SIME Security Intelligence Middle East [= MI5, Cairo] SIS Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) SK Sonderkommando (special squad) [in the SS this was a euphemism for extermination squad, but not of course in the German Army (for example, SK Bajadere)] SKK Seekampfkutter (Naval Combat Cutter) [= KFK] SKL Seekriegsleitung (Maritime Warfare Command) [German supreme naval HQ] SMERSH Smert’ Shpionam (Death to Spies) [Red Army counterintelligence] [USSR] SNOPG Senior Naval Officer Persian Gulf SO special operations SOE Special Operations Executive SOLOC Southern Line of Communications SR service de renseignement (intelligence service) SS Schutzstaffel [Nazi Party security forces] SSM SS-Unterführer und Mannschaften [BArch file group] SSO SS-Offiziere [BArch file group]; RAF Middle East civilian intelligence officers TIR Trans-Iranian Railway xxii Abbreviations

TNA The National Archives [UK] USAFE United States Air Forces in Europe USGPO US Government Printing Office V-Mann Vertrauensmann (Abwehr agent) VO Verbindungsoffizier (liaison officer) WHW Winterhilfswerk (Winter Relief Organization) W/T wireless telegrapher/telegraphy [= radio operator/ radio] X-2 Counterintelligence [OSS] Z Zersetzung (subversion) [as in Z-Arbeit] zbV zur besonderen Verwendung (special purposes) [for example, Lehrregiment Brandenburg zbV 800 (800th Brandenburg Special Purposes Training Regiment)] Chronology

1940–11–08 Mayr and Gamotha arrive in Persia under commercial cover 1941–05–19 Schulze-Holthus arrives in Tabriz under diplomatic cover 1941–06–22 Schulze-Holthus establishes himself as Kriegsorganisation Iran (KOI) 1941–07 Mayr and Gamotha visit Schulze-Holthus in Tabriz 1941–08–25 Operation COUNTENANCE: British and Soviet troops occupy Persia 1941–09–13 Gamotha disappears into the Soviet zone 1942–03–23 Gertrud Schulze-Holthus escapes over the Turkish border 1942–06–22 Schulze-Holthus joins Nasir Khan in Qashgai territory 1942–10–27 Gamotha ‘escapes’ across the Turkish frontier 1942–11–02 Mayr’s house in Isfahan raided and documents seized 1943–03–17 Gamotha released from Turkish custody and sent back to Germany via Bulgaria 1943–03–22 FRANZ expedition dropped at Siah Kuh 1943–04–15 FRANZ parachutists enter Tehran 1943–05–24 Gamotha’s first broadcast from Berlin 1943–06–28 DORA group (Blume and Köndgen) spun off by Mayr 1943–07–17 ANTON expedition dropped near Shiraz 1943–08–02 Gartenfeld makes DORA supply drop (offzone) 1943–08–02 Schulze-Holthus joins the ANTON group 1943–08–14 Rockstroh captured 1943–08–15 Mayr captured 1943–08–17 Holzapfel captured 1943–08–26 Grille captured 1943–08–29 Blume and Köndgen captured. The entire FRANZ group now in custody 1943–09–09 Persia ends its neutrality and declares war on Germany 1943–09–23 Schulze-Holthus and the ANTON group transferred to Boir Ahmedi territory 1943–11–28 Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet in Tehran 1943–12–21 Last W/T communication between ANTON and LEIT

xxiii xxiv Chronology

1944–01 Gamotha visits Istanbul; on his return, Operation NORMA is cancelled 1944–02–12 Hitler decrees one unified German intelligence service 1944–03–01 Schulze-Holthus and the ANTON group returned to the Qashgai by the Boir Ahmedi 1944–03–23 Schulze-Holthus and the ANTON group surrendered to CICI by the Qashgai 1944–03–27 Kurmis commits suicide 1944–04 Kellar visits CICI Tehran 1944–06–01 Militärisches Amt established by Himmler 1945–01–17 Schulze-Holthus repatriated to Germany in exchange for British agent 1945–02–13 Operation REISERNTE (SKK 203) launched from Norway 1945–02–19 Schulze-Holthus joins Abwehr outstation in Vienna 1945–03–25 Schulze-Holthus visits Gamotha at Schwechat 1945–04–01 Gamotha ‘deserts’ to Soviets 1945–04–02 Last agent in Persia (Jakob) captured 1945–05–23 Schulze-Holthus arrested near Kitzbühel Wolf pack in the Zagros Mountains From the Private Papers of F. Shelton (13556), Imperial War Museum (IWM)

Our climb seemed endless. We would hardly struggle up to the top of a winding pass, and another range of sharp-edged mountains would rise up in front of us, with the road almost looping over itself. The going got more and more precarious; as we rose higher and higher, we encountered one blizzard after the other, and there was snow and ice on the road. We were expecting palm trees and a jungle; instead we struggled and slithered in a frightening and sinister landscape. From time to time, the rusty remains of a truck could be seen far down the mountainside, where torrents wound their way over enormous boulders, the roar of the rushing water reach- ing up to our level and drowning out the rattle of the labouring engine. ... The cars were badly overloaded, and the engines were boiling up again and again. At one point the snow stood so high on the pass that we were driving between two glistening walls of the stuff, at least ten feet high. The driver stopped singing, and the acrid smell of his perspiration filled the car. The moon disappeared behind the mountaintops, and the headlights cut a swirling path in the mist and fog ahead of us. At one point, green lights appeared in the distance, moving rapidly from side to side and up and down. The drivers called out loud, and we looked in disbelief through the windscreen. There were wolves, a whole pack of them, blinded by our headlights, with their tails hanging between their legs, steam rising from their snouts, and their eyes again and again lighting up as the headlights fell upon them. The drivers slowed down, looking back anxiously if all doors were properly closed. As we got nearer, the pack stood its ground for a while, then suddenly turned tail and disappeared into the darkness.1

Note

1. Thanks are extended to the Trustees of the IWM for allowing access to the collections in the Documents and Sound Section, and to Dr Francis Shelton for his kind permission to reprint his memoir.

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