Bobbies, Bombs and the Blackout (Pt 2)
by Roy Ingleton

The police are used to being required to perform unusual duties but few as unusual as the job delegated to one Gravesend War Reserve (who in more peaceful times ran a ladies’ hairdressers). He was sent to guard a sewer outlet into the Thames where he admitted he found the aromas far less attractive those he was used to in his salon. He passed the long, lonely hours painting watercolours of flowers.

In 1940, a number of enemy agents were landed on these shores and were quickly apprehended, mainly because they had been poorly trained and lacked proper facilities. Typical of these were the four agents who crossed the Channel in a fishing smack in September of that year. They had been instructed to work in pairs and one pair – both Dutchmen – landed near Hythe where they were promptly detained by Army sentries. Although they had a wireless set, they appeared to have been completely untrained and neither could speak more than a few words of English. The other pair consisted of a German named Waldberg, who spoke fluent French but no English, and a man of dubious origins named Meier who was the only one of the four who spoke good English. This pair landed near Dungeness but gave themselves away by trying to buy a glass of cider in a local pub before the licensing hours started. The landlord told them to come back later and raised the alarm but, before the police could attend, a soldier and a policeman brought Meier to the police station. He freely admitted that he had landed with the intention of spying.

The next morning a full-scale search was launched for the fourth agent and Waldberg was seen by the local police sergeant walking along the beach. Since Waldberg spoke no English the sergeant questioned him using his schoolboy French and was taken to the tree under which the spy had spent the night and where he had left his radio and other equipment.

It appears that these unfortunate and ineffectual agents had been instructed to move amongst the local population, to listen to their conversations and gather any careless talk. Given their poor command of English one wonders how they were supposed to do this. However, they had been told that the invasion would take place within the following two weeks and so their espionage careers were not expected to last long. All four were tried and three of them were hanged as spies. The fourth, one of the Dutchmen who had been blackmailed into taking part, was acquitted.