SPIES OF WORLD WAR 2

[Psycho Mike]

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I enjoy spy stories of WW2. I actually met Eric Gimpel at a reunion of U Boat survivors here in Chicago. (I call them survivors because so many of them died in action). He was dropped off in New York with gold, money and jewelry to try and find out what the Manhatten Project was! Well, as Germany lost track of its agents he began to spend the loot on wine, women and song. He was seeing a hooker and he had a pattern he always followed when he visited her. He would stop at the newsstand across the street from her place, and he had a carefully folded bill in his shirt pocket. He would take it out and unfold it before purchasing his items. Well, he asked the hooker about the Manhatten Project. Mistake. She was also seeing an FBI agent (lucky for the agent Hoover didn't know), and she told the agent about Gimpel.
Well, the FBI staked out the newsstand and arrested him when he went to buy a paper. (If they had arrested him at the hookers place even Hoover would have figured that one out). Gimpel was sentenced to death by hanging- then, three days after sentencing FDR died. And for whatever reason, Truman dropped the death penalty on him and other German spies and he walked after the war. He told me, and this is really food for thought, he had been told there were up to 5,000 active agents in America at the time. Almost all became Americans after the war.
And your favorite spy story?[/img]

[Daniel L]

5000, I wonder how efficient they were? I mean, was it a waste to throw in such an amount of spies in the us?

[Psycho Mike]

Better to be dumped in the States than to be bombed in Germany or sent to the Eastern front!
Did you know Julia Child, the chef, was a spy in world war 2? The allies were losing men to sharks in the oceans- and she developed the anti shark spray that is still in use today! Thank you for your service, Julia.
I have heard that a woman named Vera was the basis for Miss Moneypenny in the Ian Fleming James Bond books- but no little else about her. Anybody out there know about her?

[Ogorek]

Vera Atkins???? Ton of stuff on GOOGLE SEE : http://www.007exhibition.freeuk.com/htm ... rchive.htm

Real Life ‘Miss Moneypenny’ Dies

Saturday 24th. The death, in a Hastings nursing home, has been announced of Vera Atkins (92), the real life inspiration for the ‘Miss Moneypenny’ character in the Bond series.

During World War Two Vera Atkins worked as a secretary attached to the French section of the Special Operations Executive where she helped organise resistance groups. Her superior was legendary spy master Maurice Buckman who later became Ian Fleming’s model for the ‘M’ character, hence the ‘Moneypenny’ assocaition.

After the war, Vera helped track down 117 people responsible for the murders of SOE agents sent into occupied France. She was awarded both the Legion d’Honneur and the CBE.

A memorial service is expected to be held in London, in September.

and http://www.ncix.gov/nacic/news/2000/sep00.html

Elsewhere, Vera Atkins, the World War II British spymaster who inspired the efficient and unflappable Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond series, has also died. Ms. Atkins was educated at the Sorbonne and her knowledge of France gained her employment with the French section of the British Special Operations Executive. There, she coordinated a network of nearly 500 allied agents across Nazi-occupied France, briefing them on the life that awaited them, helping concoct elaborate cover stories and false identities; nearly 120 of them never returned. After she retired, Ms. Atkins’ work was not forgotten. The French Government named her a commander of the French Legion of Honor, and she was made a commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.




The other Vera..... well, Verna, have you seen VERNA USO GIRL?
Sissy Spacek, PBS production, one of my favorite flicks.

[Psycho Mike]

Never heard of that film. Is it out on video?
I think the unheralded heroes in spying have been hookers and whores in the past. The Spy Museum website in Washington even has the women spies section viewed through a bordello mirror!
My favorite spy of World War 2 has not had a movie made about his life- but should. Paul Linebarger wrote science fiction under the name of Cordwainer Smith and romance novels under the name Felix Forrest. His book, Psychological Warfare is a terrific history of propaganda in war, and his role during World War 2.
For example, he saw Japanese prisoners taken at Iowa Jima on film, and asked to see the interrogation reports of them. There weren't any. That is when he realized that the POW'S were being slain by the GI's. He issued a statement that had to be read by officers to the grunts outlining the proper handling of prisoners. That worked. He was less successful when he asked FDR to stop with the extermination talk of Japan. He felt the Japanese were fighting to the last man only because they knew if they surrendered they would be executed. FDR gave a press conference the day after meeting with Paul showing the skull of a GI that had been turned into an ash tray.
Paul's novels all have one thing in common- from the romance ones to the science fiction- they are often about money and weapons running. They were also written without the OSS knowing what he was doing!
The one spy I like that has yet to have her true story told is Toguri, known as Tokyo Rose. That was made into a couple of exploitation films, but her true story is incredible. In Japan on December 7th, a Japanese American, she was stopped from leaving. (Thousands of Japanese who had been born in America were in Japan on December 7th - the men were forced into service with the Japanese military! Americans fighting Americans!). Toguri after a year of being held on the island was forced to do propaganda reports to the GI's. She worked with a couple of GI POW's who had figured out how to sabotage the reports, often starting them by SAYING the following words were propaganda!
At the end of the war she and her POW friends explained what had happened, and the military questioning them let them all go.
But people were so mad at Japan that the public demanded a trial. So Toguri was put on trial and to her shock saw 5 witnesses she had never seen in her life testify agaist her. She was fined $10,000 and imprisoned! Imagine, a prisoner in Japan, released, and then put in prison in the states!
Years and years later Toguri received a letter of apology from President Gerald Ford- but no financial reimbursment.
There was no "Tokyo Rose" by the way. There were several women broadcasting, and none of them used that name. That was a propaganda fiction.
And the POW's who worked with her and testified on her behalf? They were never charged with anything. Many believe that if the "Tokyo Rose" flap hadn't occurred- they would have all received commendations for subverting the propaganda messages.
But, like the stories of pacifist Viet Nam protesters spitting on third term Marines back from Nam in airports- and the Marines not retaliating- AHEM!- many soldiers from WW2 still speak of Tokyo Rose- and do not know what the actual truth was.
Now her story would make an incredible movie. Too bad the ones made are so bad.

[Ogorek]

VERNA: USO GIRL
No spies, very little action, filmed on the cheap, little "action," but throughly engaging - See : http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078459

It exists on video, helped a friend who was in the 9th AF Field Jazz Band get a copy because his outfit was in a background clip. This is a real sleeper, and definitely worth seeing.

[Ogorek]

WORLD WAR I Spy Movie.......

Mike, have you seen Fräulein Doktor ????

This one is too much. First saw it in of all places, Poland in 1972, and caused quite a ruckus among the viewers. Don't remember it on teh tube since the early 80's, and that on TNT or TBS butchered.

See: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0064350

Check the users comments, I roger all of them.... especially the German lancers in the gas attack. a rare and very unusual gem

[Psycho Mike]

Do you have copies playable on ntsc systems (non-pal)? I have to see these flicks. I live near a terrorist neighborhood, (Palestinains, Saudi's, etc) so I can transfer pal to vhs.
I have over 2000 videos so we could probably trade.
Turner Classic Movies recently showed HITLER'S CHILDREN (no, not the real bloodline. Those folks seem to be in New York btw) which despite it's lurid title was quite good.
You can always email me direct thru my website, http://www.psychotronic.com

[Ogorek]

Sorry 'bout that Mike..... What little taping I do is on TCM (The Turner Corny Movie Channel) - got BROTHER ORCHID and ATTACK! - neither of which I have seen for years, or stuff on the Hysteria Channel.

Don't have either on tape, but as I said VERNA is available, found it in a Google search, and as I remember, a dealer in Philly had it. I don't believe that Fraulein Dr. is available anywhere, and as I said, was butchered. (cut out the Lesbian scenes a among others, in between all the Chia Pet commercials)

Saw VERNA on PBS - I believe one of the GREAT PERFORMANCES retrospectives in the DC area had it - during the early 90's. Well worth searching for, and Fraulein Dr, we can only hope will show up again.... spread the word, maybe some of your hard core film freak friends might have a crow bar.

[Psycho Mike]

Found out the singer (and often topless actress in her films in the 1930's) was a spy that would hide microfilm and the like in her stockings at the garter- but the Germans never looked because they liked her work so much!
This will of course confuse the neo nazis (modern) that Germans would like a Black woman!
Hunt out her movies- they are really good!