What was useless to the German Nazis?

Answer 1

A NAZI spy who preferred waiting on tables to his half-hearted attempts at espionage sent back "entirely worthless" information from wartime Britain.MI5 files revealed yesterday German Intelligence complained that bungling Werner Strebel, 42, was only interested in cash to fund a cushy lifestyle.

He was sent to London just before war broke out with a cover as a foreign correspondent and stock ADVERTISEMENT of secret ink, to spy on the RAF station in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. But he sent back only three secret "quite useless" messages, after complaining he could not get near the base because of the sentries.

Swiss-born Strebel was hired by Heinrich von Wenzlau, of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) despite being told his new recruit's only qualifications for cloak and dagger work were an appetite for "good food, good drink and easy living".

For £7 or £8 a week, he agreed to go behind enemy lines - to the Luton area - and send back secret messages written in invisible ink with a toothpick. However, a dire warning composed in September of a huge air attack on a German chemical works "within days" did not actually reach Berlin until two months later. Despite his failure he was sent back to Britain in March 1940 by his bosses, who never heard anything from him again. Apparently rather than infiltrate the higher reaches of Allied Command, he was working as a restaurant waiter in London.

Strebel was tasked with finding out everything about the RAF station at Dunstable, including its exact location, size, the length of the runway, how many airmen were based there, how it was illuminated at night and whether it was used for fighter or bomber planes.

But he apparently sent back only three secret messages, all of which were considered "quite useless" by Nazi spy chiefs.

--Mark Branagan--