Code-breaker who raided Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden

Sir James was not the only local man to distinguish himself with his war-time decoding exploits.

A Dundee psychologist has recently unearthed details of the Second World War work of one of his predecessors, Dr Oscar Oeser, who was a code-breaker, leader of a raid on Nazi intelligence centres and head of a de-Nazification unit in Germany after the war.

Professor Alan Kennedy, emeritus professor of psychology at Dundee University, was researching material for a novel when he came across the name of Dr Oeser.

Prof Kennedy said: “I was appointed to a lectureship in St Andrews in 1965 – the same post Oeser held 30 years earlier.

“Prior to that, I had been in Oeser’s department in Melbourne.

“I got to know him quite well, but none of us knew much about his wartime exploits.

“Most of his activities were classified at that time, and little was officially released until after his death in 1983.”

In 1940 Oeser was recruited to work as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park.

He became section head responsible for translating and interpreting deciphered Luftwaffe Enigma messages.

In May 1945 Oeser was recruited by James Bond author Ian Fleming to lead a commando raid on Hitler’s alpine retreat near Berchtesgaden, where several Lorenz machines had been hidden.

Oeser’s Ticom (Target Intelligence Committee) raid liberated more than seven tons of German cryptographic equipment.

This operation has been called “the last great secret” of the Second World War.

Among the haul of equipment was a top secret machine, known as the Russian Fish, that was used by the Nazis to decode Soviet signals.

Oeser brought this back to Bletchley Park, where it was used to intercept Russian signals during the early days of the Cold War.

Prof Kennedy said the details of the Berchtesgaden raid were only declassified a few years ago.