Thomas M. Johnson - Our Secret War

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OUR SECRET WAR



OUR SECRET WAR

True American Spy Stories

1917 - 1919

By

T H O M A S M . J O H N S O N

Autho r of Without Censor

THE BOBBS-MERRILL C O M P A N Y

PUBLISHERS INDIANAPOLIS



C O P Y R I G H T , 19 29

BY THOMAS M. J O H N S O N

Printed in the United States of America

C O P Y R I G H T , 1929

BY NEA M A G A Z I NE

COPYRIGHT, 1929

TH E C R O W E L L P U B L I S H I N G C O M P A N Y



INTRODUCTION

THIS book tells some t rue American spy stories of theWorld War—most of which have not hitherto been told.

Spy stories, mystery stories, war stories, adventure sto-

ries all in one, here are the best the writer could unear thf rom eleven years' encrusted silence. M a n y are nuggets ofvirgin gold, yet unseen by American readers.

In t r u t h at least, he is confident they assay ninety percent. Every incident is true fundamentally, to the writer's

best knowledge and belief, altho ugh, be it said, he has hadsometimes to depend upon the undocumented memory ofparticipants. There are some intentional inaccuracies, to

deceive ou tsiders or to protect American secret agents, oneof whom cautions:

"If you write abou t G - 2 , watch you r step!"The writer has endeavored to watch. In this first pub-

lished attempt at a substantially t r u t h f u l account o f Ameri-can Intelligence and Secret Service work abroad, he hasnot "told all." That is partly because he does not know

all, part ly because he has forgotten purposely some thingsdug f rom document or h u m a n memory that, even now, cannot be told without harming seriously some person or gov-

ernment. To prevent that, he has sometimes taken liber-

ties with names, places, dates.

This narrat ive concerns principally thrilling or mysteri-

ous aspects and incidents of American Intelligence w ork inEurope , and especially of that branch most fascinating to

the general public, Secret Service. It attem pts to tell some-thing of the whole G -2 machine, whereof Secret Service isbut one of several par ts , and the methods whereby it swheels are made to tu rn . After all, it was the steady day



INTRODUCTION

and night labor of themany, rather than the "stunts"of the

few, that enabled American Intelligence to read pretty ac-curately for the greatest A rm y in American history, the

inmost thoughts of its enemy, the greatest Army in World

history. But it neither pretends nor desires to be a tech-

nical treatise. What follows is just a story, true as may

be, of the only aspect of the A.E.F. that remains unre-

vealed.The more delicate the writer's task, the more valuable

the help of many friends who, eleven years ago, fought in

our secret war. Unfortunately, most of them must remain

unnamed, as they are unquoted. Special thanks for read-

ing manuscript and for valuable suggestions are due to

four Chiefs of American Military Intelligence and to m anyothers recognized as authorities. But responsibility for the

final and present text is the writer's alone.

H e is grateful also to The American Magazine, especiallyto Mr. James C. Derieux and Mr. Merle Crowell, for col-

laboration indispensableas it has been pleasurable.Nor can the New York Sun, and especially Mr. Keats

Speed, escape responsibility fo r having sent him to France

in the first place, as Accredited Correspondent with the

A . E. F., and later, at the Peace Conference.

T.M.J.



CONTENTS

Part O n ePage

G - 2 : U N T O L D TALES OF OUR I N T E L L I G E N C E SER-V I C E IN THE W O R L D WAR 15

There was American "secret s tuf f"—The German Spies werecaught—The babes venture into the wood — T he hidden panel at

G.H.Q.—The secret history of a battle—The G ermans talk withG - 2 — T h e truth abou t one American "spy story"—Letters o f mark— H o w G -2 sank some submarines—A nd the general finished h issupper—A puzzle to solve—Behind th e scenes—Artful dodges.

Part Two

THE HIDDEN DUEL: SPY A G A I N S T COUNTER-SPYIN THE A.E.F. 63

O n dark battle-fields—Our secret service in Europe—To makedrug fiends of American aviators—The Black Book—The fa te ofthe traitor—They tell no tales—An American spy fo r th e G ermans— T h e Germans lost the secret war—Who were in our secret ser-vice?—The I.P.'s: men of mystery—A spy in our midst—Wineand women—"Sairveece!"—A dangerous mission, a fearful ordeal—A n I.P. risks death—"An oath in blood!"

Part Three

THE M A S T E R : HOW A M E R I C A N S E C R E T A G E N T STRAPPED A G R E A T G E R M A N SPY 127

O ne of our most thrilling exploits—A sinister visitor—Tricked—AMaster Spy—Before the war began—A horrible s to ry—Who isT he Master?—Jekyll and H yde—T he mystery of Zero.

Part Four

THE NET : A N D HOW Q U E E R FISH W R I G G L E D 157

What a green Alpine hat hid—A toothpick writes—Who were th e



CONTENTS— Continued

Pagesuspects—Disguises and false papers—Dark wings at night—New

stories of the Zimmermann note—Spy-hunting in doughboys' let-ters—They said it with flowers—Tricky things, codes.

WE SPY: THE G R E A T G A M E AS THE A M E R I C A N S

PLAYED IT 185

Praise f rom the enemy—The Innocent Yankees—Hist! Play ball!—President Wilson and secret service—How did we spy?—What

are spies like?—Their names are still secret—The remarkable Cap-tain Voska—Our best G erman spy—Our Russian spies—Bertha: agu n within a gun—H ooks and crooks—Th e wages of spying—Thelegion that never was listed—A firing squad at dawn—Assassina-tion, and the "sealed train"—A shot in the dark—The affair of thefour colonels—An American warning—American spies and the"corpse factory"—Allied secret service and the German revolution—Poisoning the German Empire.

Par t Six

OUR S E C R E T PEACE: PLOT AN D COUNTER-PLOTA F T E R THE ARMISTICE 253

Our unknown role in G ermany—Agent A-1 goes to Berlin—Thereal G erman plans divulged—A censor with a pistol—Plots tokill President Wilson—A cat who looked at some kings—M eet thegrand duchess—A tap on the shoulder—Our spy-trap on theRhine—Our German-American agents—The Dusseldorf affair—The American Bolshevik who risked a firing squad.

EVES-DROPPING: A D V E N T U R E S OF WOMEN SPIESTHE AMERICANS KNEW 297

American women spies—"Q," who spied fo r President Wilson—AJeanne d'Arc of the secret war—Women's wiles—Queen of spies:fascinating, deadly, tragic—The ever-open eye—Sic transit—Oursecret service in the Alsace Ruse—Bella Donna gets th e papers—Delilah's sisters—An historic dictograph—Pumping the dough-boys—Why girls go into secret service-—A woman spy in Wash-ington—Ou r unknow n heroine.

Part Five

Part Seven



O U R SECRET WAR



192 OUR SECRET WA R

"With reference to the 'social notes' on the last pagethese are the ones G — — [ o f th e French service] is so

touchy about. Please see that they don't reach the Frenchin any way. They go straight to Clemenceau through G

The "social notes" were interest ing intelligence of cer-tain highly placed personages, Allied as well as German.

Naturally, Clemenceau kept in close touch with theFrench secret service and w as even repu ted its actual head,as he was actual head of the French press censorship andpropaganda to which before his elevation to power, he ob-jected so violently that he renamed his paper L'HommeEnchaine.

PRESIDENT WILSON AND SECRET SERVICE

President Wilson, on the other hand, generally took little

stock in military secret service. He is even said not to haveread the carefully condensed daily espionage report ofwhich G-2-B, A.E.F. prepared bu t four copies: fo rcabling in code to the President, for G eneral Pershing,for G eneral Bliss, and for filing.

The President preferred the Naval and perhaps the Dip-lomatic Intelligence, and entrusted some confidential workto an officer of Naval Intelligence. Still, the Presidentordered destroyed a suspect list, of over one hu ndred thou-sand names, printed for the Navy by the government print-er, so many of those named being his friends or acquaint-ances. Whereupon T. M orrison Carnegie paid the expense,twenty thousand dollars, of employing fifty girls dulysworn as secret operatives, to type fourteen sets of cardsth e Navy needed to give it what it considered the best sus-pect list any one had.

That may have been because President Wilson thought



PRESIDENT WILSON 193

th e Ar my "militaristic," or because he was more concernedover Republican plots than German , or because he dis-

t rusted information obtained by secret means. Others hadthat distrust , despite S ir Basil Thomson's statement that

little happened in the underworld whereof British andA mericans were ignorant.

H ow much "spy dope" was t rue? Estimates range ev-erywhere f rom fif ty per cent, down to twenty. G enerally ,a report is as valuable as the agent who sends it . The bet-

ter th e agent, the fewer and shorter h is reports, and the

more t ru thfu l . T he patriot spy may not have been t rainedin gathering and weighing in format ion ; the hireling seeks

most money at least risk, tells his employers what hethinks they want to hear , and exaggerates, even invents.Splendid examples were some spy repor ts of damage doneby Allied air raids on G e r m a n Rhineland towns. Few in-deed were the agents whom G -2 believed im plicitly. Every

repor t was checked by other sources of information.

If the war had lasted a trifle longer, espionage mighthave played a greater part in the A.E.F. Intelligence.General Nolan , believer in Combat Intelligence rather

than secret service, was to have had h is heart's desire; pro-

motion to major-general and command o f a division at thef ront . For a few blissful days, he had played hooky f rom

G . H . Q. and com manded one of the 28th Division's infan-

try brigades in the d aring dawn attack up the eastern bluffso f the Argonne Forest. He had won the Distinguished

Service Cross with this citation:

"While the enemy was preparing a counter-attack,which they preceded with a terrific barrage, G eneral Nolaninade his way into the town of Apremont, and personally

directed the movements of his tanks under a mo st harassing

foe of enemy machine-guns, rifles and artillery. His in-domitable courage and coolness so inspired his forces that

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Thomas M. Johnson - Our Secret War