Brian Patchett Was My Contemporary

1 A foretaste of this historical article appeared in Sub Rosa winter issue, p. 4. A fascinating, well-researched piece about an Intelligence Corps defector in the Cold War. Of more than passing interest is that Brian Patchett was my contemporary. (Please note that for very long pieces such as this, we only lightly proofread.) Ed. Sergeant Brian Patchett and Other Wall-Crossers by Paul Croxson, 2015 On July 6 1963, the East German News Agency, A.N.D, announced the defection of Brian Patchett stating that ‘he had been working on the monitoring of East German and Soviet radio communications’. This was partly untrue as no German communications were being monitored at Gatow and he couldn’t speak German. He had, however, seemingly defected. In 1953, No. 1 Wireless Regt., then based in Münster, set up a detachment manned by Intelligence Corps Voice Ops in Berlin known as Royal Signals Detachment, RAF Gatow. As was nearly always the case, no public mention of the Intelligence Corps contingent there was made. It was based at Gatow Airport, originally opened by Goering in 1936 as the Deutsche Verjehrsflugschule (DVS) – German Civil Aviation Pilots’ Training School) a covert organisation for training pilots for the Luftwaffe. Geoffrey Elliott, who also served there, in his book Secret Classrooms1 describes the camp and life, ‘The detachment was housed in an anonymous building on the road that ran through the pine trees along the northern perimeter of the airfield. The buildings had survived the flattening of Berlin surprisingly well, the only signs of damage being the heads and swastikas ruthlessly hammered off the eagles which still remained, set in stone on the Kaserne walls. Built for Goering’s Luftwaffe aces and their crews, the high-ceilinged accommodation, with central heating, double-glazed windows with broad sills, top-class bathroom fittings and even parquet flooring was in stark contrast to any British military installation’, particularly Maresfield Barracks in Sussex, once the home of the Intelligence Corps, described by Alan Bennett as the ‘worst barracks in England’. RAF Gatow adjoined the East German border and was thus literally on the front line and operational security was tight but security – in a wider sense – was quite lax. The setroom was the Holy of Holies. (Ted Vert who served there with the Corps has produced a sketch which despite the passing of 50 years, he reckons is still pretty accurate and a description of the setroom as it was when he served there). Most important, there was a guardroom at the main entrance to RAF Gatow through which both RAF and army personnel had to pass. Unless they had a rarely granted weekend pass they had to return by no later than 0200 hours next morning (corporals); 0100 hours (lance corporals); and 2400 hours (privates). The RAF police were extremely strict about this and would immediately report if anyone had gone adrift. This meant that the detachment commander would have been advised of Patchett having gone AWOL fairly promptly. 1 Geoffrey Elliott & Harold Shukman, Secret St Ermin’s Press, 2002 1 2 New arrivals were lectured on the dangers of becoming too friendly with the ladies of the night who Geoffrey Elliott lyrically described as ‘gathering like sad, chirping sparrows outside the NAAFI Club on the Reichskanzlerplatz’, and also – in those days before the erection of the Berlin Wall – of the risks of wandering around alone in East Berlin. Again, according to Elliott, most of the men stationed at Gatow stayed within a fairly humdrum circuit bounded by the NAAFI, the sergeants’ and officers’ mess and the bars around the Wannsee Lake. The TV producer Leslie Woodhead who served at Gatow with the RAF described the NAAFI as a ‘dreary cube with the charm of a soviet cement factory but for frozen and footsore servicemen a long way from home it felt like Nirvana. The plywood and Formica tables were described by one habitué as pure “Halifax”, the twenty-five-watt bulbs brought back strong memories of post-war austerity, the tepid cups of grey tea were just like mother used to make. Judging by Patchett’s limited contacts, he spent a great deal of his spare time there. It is hard to recreate the pervasive sexual innocence and naivety of that time and place and understand Patchett’s reaction to the end of his relationship with the girl from the NAAFI with whom he had struck up a friendship, which proved to be later, somewhat one-sided. The detachment was strictly forbidden from entering into East Berlin, although the more adventurous did. After all, one could change west marks into east marks at the rate of 4:1 in West Berlin, thus effectively multiplying your buying power fourfold, once one entered the East. As Ted Vert put it, ‘not that there was anything worth having over there, although Russian books and gramophone records were popular purchases’. The work, according to Gerry Smith, was ‘monotonous and could be mind numbingly boring’. They operated on a shift system, working from 0800 to 1300, then the next day, 1300 to 1700, followed by 0000 to 0800 and then a rest day and a day off. The 0000 to 0800 shift was particularly hated, especially if one had been out on the town the evening before. On 9 July 1963, Britain awoke to several UK newspapers trumpeting the crossing into the East by Patchett. The Daily Mail was away to a flying start. They had traced the ex-personnel manager, a Mr Jones, an ex-Grenadier Guards major, who had been with the company employing Patchett before his joining the army. ‘I was the only boss he had in civilian life and I had to sack him for unreliability, he could not be trusted’. Mr Jones went on to say that ‘it was laughable, the lack of inquiries that seem to have been made about this boy. ‘No one bothered to ask us about Patchett’. (This was confirmed as being true when the official report was finally published) ‘After he was fired he went into the army. I would certainly not have recommended him for secret work’. On 28 May 1958, this same Mr Jones had completed a ‘private reference’ in response to a request from the Ministry of Labour and National Service giving as the reason for Patchett’s departure as ‘breaking of indenture’. At the time, Patchett was seeking employment in a temporary casual clerical role at the Coventry Employment Exchange. He was employed from 21 May until 5 June and then from 6 June 1958 until 21 June at Leamington Employment Exchange and then he went back to Coventry until 15 August when he left to join the army. His application form shows him as having ‘School Certificate’ in English, geography and general science. School Certificate had been abolished back in 1951/2 to be replaced by O and A levels so this was somewhat strange. It was also surprising that these qualifications had been considered sufficient to secure him an apprenticeship as a metallurgist which was what he had been doing. Even more surprising is that they were later considered sufficient to secure him entry directly to the Intelligence Corps. How he was accepted for a Russian linguist course without seemingly any qualification in any language is even more mystifying. His doctor and local priest, as well as Mr Jones, also gave him references on his application to join the army. 2 3 Another newspaper referred to the Labour MP John Godber, the War Minister, ‘facing a new security quiz’ in the Commons from the opposition Shadow Minister Reginald Maudling. He wanted to know ‘how did Patchett pass a positive vetting when he seemed to have made little secret of his enthusiasm for communism and … what was NAAFI policy on employing foreign staff since his friendship with a NAAFI girl whose parents lived in the East had been revealed?’ The Daily Sketch quoted Canon Eric Buchan, the priest who had given the reference referred to above, as describing Patchett as ‘an intelligent boy and a deep thinker’. Helpfully, he added, ‘I am sure when he went over to the Russians he did it after a great deal of heart-searching’. The Daily Herald got it right claiming that his employers had not been asked for a reference by the army during positive vetting although they had been asked when he sought temporary work with the employment exchange. The Daily Mirror claimed that ‘British security experts planned to vet the 40,000 Germans employed by Britain’s Rhine Army’. To the noise of stable doors being slammed shut, they claimed that there was apparently no vetting procedure in place for foreign nationals. A summary of information acquired up to 10 July was published by the Ministry of Defence, the details of which are as follows. 1. Patchett’s girlfriend is Rosemarie Zeiss age 21. Her parents are Alfred and Karla ZEISS both resident at 73A Karl Marx Str., Saalfeld, East Germany where they run a state- controlled restaurant 2. Rosemarie Zeiss left East Germany illegally on 7 January 1961 on ‘grounds of conscience’ and with the intention of studying law. She passed through Uelzen and Giessen camps where she obtained recognition as a refugee. 3. Zeiss lived at Kaltenstrasse, Hanau/Main until March 1962 whilst studying for a West German examination. From March until October 1962 she was employed as an au pair with a Mrs king of Westbury House, West St., SELSEY BILL, Sussex. She took this employment with the object of studying English and trying to save a little money.

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