Stopping a blitz... over lunch at the Ritz
German top brass were wined, dined and given Savile Row uniforms in a covert British op to thwart Hitler
WATCHING and listening as captured Nazi generals gorged themselves on fine food and the best wines in the sumptuous surroundings of Simpson’s restaurant at The Strand in London, Eric Mark struggled to keep his emotions under control.
He smiled courteously, nodded politely when spoken to and kept his anger in check as they bragged of how many Jews they had killed before being taken prisoner.
Back in his native Germany, Eric’s parents Otto and Erna had been persecuted for their faith and sent to the Treblinka concentration camp. He did not know if they were dead or alive.
In 1935 when he was just 12 and the Nazis were in power in Germany, the couple had sent him to England to escape the consequences.
Now as a fluent German speaker, he had been enlisted by the British intelligence corps with a mission to spy on captured Nazi generals held at a requisitioned mansion,Trent Park.
“Listening to them talk in that restaurant was one of the most difficult times I ever had, but I could not show any emotion,” recalls Eric, now a fit 97-year-old and the last surviving Trent Park “listener”.
“Seeing them enjoying themselves in their Nazi uniforms was sickening but all the time my ears were primed to pick up everything they said. The restaurant was bugged.”
It was 1942 and the top Nazis were being held at Trent Park, in Cockfosters, north London with its extensive grounds. Spy chiefs created a gilded prison for the “inmates” to put them at ease to encourage loose talk. A Savile Row tailor even visited to make uniforms for the prisoners.
But their every conversation was subject to covert surveillance.
When Winston Churchill found out
about the Nazi generals’ trip to Simpson’s, he warned the British intelligence officer in charge he had overstepped the mark. So next time, the Germans were taken to the Ritz.
During the Battle of Britain, captured Luftwaffe aircrew had been briefly held at Trent Park, for the British to listen in on them through hidden microphones. But by 1942, it had been converted to a PoW camp, known as the “Cockfosters Cage”, for high-ranking officers.
ERIC was among a team in the basement listening in to their conversations from a network of bugs – in their bedrooms and even in trees and bushes in the grounds.
As soon as the conversation became interesting, Eric and his colleagues recorded everything on to a disc, which would then be taken away for translation. “For eight or so hours a day I would sit in the cellar with my earphones on, hoping for some important information,” he recalls.
“Most of them liked to boast about how many Jews they had killed, saying things like ‘I knocked off about 1,500’, which was tough for me to take, being Jewish.
“However, I had to tell myself I had a job to do. As soon as I heard something interesting I put the needle down on the record. It was simple but it worked really well and we were able to hear every word.
“I had no idea how important the information was. My job was to pass it on quickly for others to analyse.”
On one occasion, Eric’s ears
pricked up at the mention of rockets. “I recall one conversation which was about testing V1 and V2 rockets on the north German coast and they gave a location,” he said.
The information allowed the RAF to bomb the experimental site at Peenemunde on the north coast of Germany under Operation Crossbow.
The attack helped to delay Hitler’s V1 and V2 project by at least nine months. The first rockets began landing in Britain after D-Day, so the actions of Eric and his colleagues potentially helped to save hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
“I can also remember listening to a conversation about how they had set up a booby trap with lots of ordnance on the coast of France,” he said.
“They had the location of that and again it was dealt with.
“At the time I had no idea what would happen when I passed over the record. It was only years later after the war that it became clearer.”
Intelligence gathered by the secret listeners was shared with codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
Eric was a highly regarded member of the Trent Park team because he quickly assessed the importance of conversations.
“We mainly spent time in the basement, in converted cellars, but sometimes we went out and walked around in the grounds and spoke to the generals – who had no idea what we were doing.
“I remember the voice of one SS man in particular, General Ludwig Cruwell. He was a very nasty piece of work. He was still supporting the Nazi regime. Some of the others were less enthusiastic and said they had only followed other people.”
Among the 109 German top brass held at Trent Park was General von Arnim, captured in North Africa in 1943 along with generals Hans Cramer and Ritter von Thoma. Others included Admiral Walter Hennecke, captured shortly after D-Day and an important figure as the man in charge of all sea defences for Normandy.
The story of the captured generals and intelligence revealed by the covert surveillance has been highlighted by a new book, The Walls Have Ears. Historian Helen Fry interviewed
Eric and combed through thousands of documents held by the National Army Museum in Chelsea for it.
At the launch of her book, Eric, the guest of honour, provoked an extraordinary emotional response from the specially-invited audience.
FOLLOWING a short speech, he was given a standing ovation and many broke down in tears as he apologised that he is a little deaf – “ironically for a listener” – and would not be able to speak to everybody.
As Eric signed a copy of the book, the author said: “Through him I have learned so much about Trent Park and how the listeners did their jobs. He is the last surviving listener so I was keen to hear all his stories.”
Among those being listened to at the war’s end was Hitler’s press attaché Heinz Lorenz – arrested with a copy of the Führer’s will sewn into his clothing.
Eric was born in Magdeburg, Germany. After arriving in Britain as a boy he went to school in London but when war broke out he was interned.
Later, when British officers discovered he was Jewish, he was enlisted into the Pioneer Corps before being earmarked for the intelligence corps.
When the war ended, he studied at the London School of Economics before going on to work for Shell.
In 1951, at 26, he met Miriam, who was studying shorthand and typing. They
have been married for 68 years, have three children, David, Anne and Sandra, and now have four grandchildren.
Polish-born Miriam, 87, said: “Eric didn’t talk much about what he did during the war as he’d signed the Official Secrets Act. I only knew when Helen published a book, Spymaster, in 2013. After all these years Eric wanted to talk about it.
“It’s an extraordinary story and I’m so glad he was able to help Helen with her brilliant book.We live in Belgium but it is always lovely to visit London. Every time we come here I learn a little more about Eric’s work.”
The couple was amazed to read a letter from the archives, written by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the senior German officer at Trent Park. He tells a Captain Hamley of the British Army that he has “lightened the heavy burden of captivity for every one of us”, adding: “In this you have succeeded and we are all very grateful.”
Eric, too, is grateful that the easy treatment of the German officers tricked them into revealing top-secret information.
While his parents did not survive the war, he is in no doubt that many others did thanks to the work of the “listeners”.
●●The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II by Helen Fry (Yale University Press, £18.99). For free UK delivery, call Express Bookshop on 01872 562310, send a cheque/PO payable to Express Bookshop: Helen Fry Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop.co.uk