The History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II
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The History of the Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II 1940 – 1945 A collection of articles and manuscript of George E. Sterling Chief, Radio Intelligence Division (1940-1946), FCC Commissioner (1948-1954) George E. Sterling (W1AE/W3DF) TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12 ADDENDUM ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13 CHAPTER 1 Introduction — Spies Use Radio …………………………………………………………………….. 14 CHAPTER 2 Radio Intelligence, What it Means ………………………………………………………………….. 30 Chapter 3 The Fifth Column Threatens ……………………………………………………………………………. 37 Chapter 4 The Modus Operandi of RID ……………………………………………………………………………. 43 Chapter 5 Target Practice ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 47 Chapter 6 Spy and Counter-Spy …………………………………………………………………………………….. 51 Chapter 7 The German Embassy Case …………………………………………………………………………... 65 Chapter 8 Nazi Spies in Latin America ……………………………………………………………………………. 72 Chapter 9 Nazi Spies Operate in Africa ………………………………………………………………………….. 94 Chapter 10 Investigation of Alleged Subversive Activity …………………………………………………. 98 Chapter 11 The Nazi Radio Espionage System …………………………………………………………………. 127 Chapter 12 Monitoring Enemy Propaganda Broadcasts ……………………………………………………. 134 Chapter 13 Message to Mac Arthur ……………………………………………………………………………………. 153 Chapter 14 Japanese Balloons ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 155 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 15 Another Embassy Case ……………………………………………………………………………………. 156 Chapter 16 A Canadian Case ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 158 Chapter 17 RID Performed Military Radio Intelligence …………………………………………………….. 160 Chapter 18 Alaskan Operations …………………………………………………………………………………………. 169 Chapter 19 RID East and Gulf Coast Military Intelligence Operations ……………………………… 180 Chapter 20 East Coast Intelligence Center Established At RID Headquarters …………………. 182 Chapter 21 RID in Hawaii ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 187 Chapter 22 RID Men Not Protected by the Geneva Convention if Captured ……………………. 204 Chapter 23 RID Adcock Type Direction Finders …………………………………………………………………. 205 Chapter 24 RID Gradually Withdraws from the Field of Military Radio Intelligence ……….. 209 Chapter 25 Congressional Investigation of the Federal Communications Commission …... 213 Chapter 26 Testimony of George E. Sterling, Chief FCC Radio Intelligence Division ………. 230 Chapter 27 Joint Chiefs of Staff Proposal to Transfer RID to the Army ……………………………. 250 Chapter 28 The U.S. Hunt for Axis Agent Radios ………………………………………………………….…… 253 Biography George E. Sterling …………………….………………………………………………. 268 APPENDIX 1 – 10 ……………………………………………………………………………………...... 270 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Experimental DF Mobile Unit …………………………………………………………..……… 14 Figure 2: Adcock direction finder at the Scituate, Rhode Island monitoring station …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…… 15 Figure 3: Tom Cave, officer in charge at the RID monitoring station in Scituate, Rhode Island ……………………………………………….……………………….…………..…… 16 Figure 4: RID operators recording enemy propaganda for the Foreign Broadcasting Intelligence Service (FBIS) ………………………………………………………….……… 17 Figure 5: Charles Ellert (W3LO) March 1942 ………………………………………………….……… 18 Figure 6: Receiver panoramic display …………………………………………………………….……… 19 Figure 7: The Snifter ……………………………………………………………………………………….……… 19 Figure 8: Hallicrafters SX-28 receiver used extensively by RID …………………….……… 20 Figure 9: Hallicrafters S-27 receiver used at RID monitoring stations and in mobile units ……………………………………………………………………………………………….…… 20 Figure 10: 1941-42 Radio Amateur Call Book ………………………………………………….…… 21 Figure 11: Boehme tape machine ………………………………………………………………………….. 21 Figure 12: RID Mobile Units employed for investigation ………………………………...……. 22 Figure 13: Aperiodic receiver developed by RID …………………………………………………… 22 Figure 14: SSR-201 Aperiodic Receiver manufactured for RID and OSS ……….……. 23 Figure 15: James L. Fly FCC Chairman ……………………………………………………………..……. 24 Figure 16: Tom Stevens W6KAA (OOTC #116) ……………………………………………………. 25 Figure 17: Images from the 1944 film "Patrolling the Ether” ………………………………. 26 Figure 18: RID Article in the Herald Tribune April 11, 1944 …………………………………. 27 Figure 19: A.H. Bennett introducing ‘Patrolling the Ether’ ……………………………….…… 28 Figure 20: Zenith television equipment used to broadcast ‘Patrolling the Ether’ …. 29 Figure 21: George Sterling, W1AE (circa 1950s) ……………………………………………….…. 30 Figure 22: The American Black Chamber, Herbert O. Yardley ……………………………… 31 Figure 23: Charles Apgar's station ………………………………………………………………………….. 32 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 24: Charles E. Apgar (2MN) ……………………………………………………………………….. 32 Figure 25: Charles Apgar with his receiver and recorder in 1923 …………………….... 32 Figure 26: Clinton B. DeSoto (W1CBD) author of "200 Meters and Down" …………. 33 Figure 27: William J. Hoffert (W5HVB) recording high speed code on a Boehme tape machine. ………………………………………………………………………………………....…. 33 Figure 28: Trans-Atlantic Telefunken site ………………………………………………….…………… 34 Figure 29: WWI Army Signal Corps receiving station, France 1918 ….……………….. 35 Figure 30: Direction finding wagon circa 1918 ……………………………………………………… 35 Figure 31: WWI Army Signal Corps radio room Chaumont, France …………….…..… 36 Figure 32: Adolf Hitler ………………………………………………………………….………………………… 37 Figure 33: President Roosevelt addressing Congress on December 8, 1941 ………. 41 Figure 34: WWII B-17 Bomber, the Flying Fortress …………………….………………………… 42 Figure 35: The badge RID agents carried …………………………………….………………………… 43 Figure 36: Map of Monitoring Station locations …………………………………………………….. 44 Figure 37: Monitoring bay at the Grand Island, Nebraska monitoring station …….. 44 Figure 38: Antenna feed lines entering a monitoring station …………………..……………. 45 Figure 39: O-scope presentation of DF bearings …………………………………………………….. 45 Figure 40: RID operators cruising the ether ……………………………………………………….… 47 Figure 41: Assistant Supervisor K.W. Miller, W5AOC, taking a bearing with an Adcock direction finder ………………………………………………………………………………… 48 Figure 42: RID mobile unit dispatched to zero in on a clandestine station .……….. 49 Figure 43: Al McIntosh June 1945 …………………………………………………………………….…… 51 Figure 44: John Edgar Hoover, first Director of the FBI ……………………………………….. 52 Figure 45: The American Magazine, August 1940 ……………….……………………………….. 52 Figure 46: Bearings taken from monitoring stations covering a wide range of angles give the highest accuracy fix ……………………………………………………………………. 53 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 47: Spy ring article in the Glasgow Herald …………………………………………………. 56 Figure 48: Duquesne spy ring ………………………………………………………………………………… 57 Figure 49: William G. Sebold talking with Duquesne …………………………………………… 58 Figure 50: Erwin Wilhelm Siegler …………………………………………………………………………… 58 Figure 51: Herman Lang ………………………………………………………………………………………… 58 Figure 52: Norden bombsight …………………………………………………………………………………. 59 Figure 53: Novel – “All This and Heaven Too” used to encipher Axis station call signs …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 59 Figure 54: Lilly Stein ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 60 Figure 55: September 1942 issue of True Detective ……………………………………………. 62 Figure 56: Frederick Duquesne and Edmund Heine ………………………………………………. 62 Figure 57: June 30, 1941, Lilly Stein and Frederick Duquesne leaving federal court ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 63 Figure 58: Axel Wheeler-Hill ………………………………………………………………………………….. 63 Figure 59: Carl Reuper ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 63 Figure 60: Josef Klein ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 64 Figure 61: German Embassy in Washington, DC …………………………………………………. 65 Figure 62: Plot of bearings taken by RID monitoring stations showing the location of a clandestine transmitter in Washington, DC on December 9, 1941 ……. 66 Figure 63: Plot of bearings taken by RID mobile units dispatched to Washington, DC on December 9, 1941 …………………………………………………………………… 67 Figure 64: Hellschreiber printer ……………………………………………………………………………. 68 Figure 65: June 1945 - George Sterling (left) and Al McIntosh inspecting radio equipment in the German Embassy ………………………………………………………………. 69 Figure 66: June 1945 - Al McIntosh inspecting radio equipment in the German Embassy ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 60 Figure 67: George Sterling briefing a Congressional Committee on events of the German Embassy case …………………………………………………………………………………..…. 70 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 68: May 12, 1944 newspaper article revealing RID involvement in the German Embassy case ………………………………………………………………………………….. 71 Figure 69: Wilhelm Hoettl ……………………………………………………………………………………. 72 Figure 70: Belize spy ring newspaper story - July 1942 ……………………………………… 73 Figure 71: Allegan, Michigan primary monitoring station Adcock direction finder circa 1944 …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 74 Figure 72: RID typist transcribing copy from Boehme tape …………………………………. 74 Figure 73: Intercept positions at the primary monitoring station Allegan, Michigan ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 75 Figure 74: Nazi spy suitcase ……………………………………………………………………………….… 77 Figure 75: Primary tool of the Nazi spy ……………………………………………….………………. 78 Figure 76: RMS Queen Mary – 1942 ……………………………………………………………………… 80 Figure 77: RID agents prior to leaving for South America …………………………………… 82 Figure 78: Article in the Sweetwater, Texas newspaper about Robert D. Linx and John F. De Bardeleben ……………………………………………………………………………………… 84 Figure 79: German cruiser Admiral Graff Spee …………………………………………………….. 89 Figure 80: Captain Dietrich Niebuhr, German Naval Attaché at Buenos Aires …… 90 Figure