Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-07
Spies Delayed Secret PorIeys
For Nozi Surrender in Italy
D. c. General, Briton
Won CopituIotion in
Two-Month Drama
BY NEWBOLD MOVES, Jr.,
Star War Correspondent.

BY NEWBOLD MOVES, Jr,
Star War Correspondent.
ROME, May AT a coW-pas-
ture airfield, marked off with
white paint and smoke pots. a
car was waiting. 1t had been
storming all day and now, with
darkness coming on. anxious
eyes were scanning the clouds.
Suddenly, there was the plane.
The pilot, Capt. Charles P. Barnett,
"a, of Los Angeles. and the co-pilot,
First 1t. Emmett Long, %, of Wash
ington, had skirted the Alps as they
fought weather all the way from
Caserta, Italy.
They buzzed the field to get the
cows off the runway and landed
the transport with ice still on its
wings.
It was 7:2O pm. April %. Two
passengers, CARRIED as civilians but
military in their bearing. leaped
from the plane and ran to the car
They reached the Swiss border. Is
miles away, just before it closed. At
midnight they passed through Bern.
Forty EIGHT hours later, after a
frantic and perilous automobile
trip, they arrived at German head
quarters in Northern Italy.
The day after that, May 2, all the
Germans in Italy and Western Aus
tria surrendered.
Spy Thriller Story.
So ended one of the tensest
dramas of the wallpapers from
E. Philips Oppenheim," to use the
words of Maj. Gen. Lyman L. Lem
nitzer, 1929 Connecticut avenue,
Washington. a leading member Of
the cast. Others called it a chap
ter of history.
The negotiations, begun secretly
in spy-thriller fashion two months
earlier, on March 2, had been de-
layed by Heinrich Himmlers spies
and other difficulties. They were
finally concluded with the aid of
DISCUSSES for the Allied generals and
an ostenSible search in Switzerland
for a dachshund named Fritzel.
The story, released yesterday by
headquarters, began when Allied
agents in Switzerland learned March
2 that two German officers. wanting
to communicate with Allied officials,
had arrived at a town on the Swiss
frontier.
One, a colonel, said he would re-
turn March 8, subject to confirma-
ton on March 6, bringing creden-
tials and proposals of an inspect
fled nature. Meanwhile, he would
consult at headquarters of Waffen
SIS Gen. Karl Wolff, SIS commander
for Northern Italy.
Contact Is Established.
For several days, reports had been
trickling in to the effect that some
German generals we're convinced of
the futility of further resistance in
italy and wanted to discuss sur
render possibilities.
Allied headquarters, keeping AL
lied governments informed, was in
cllned not to take these rumors too
seriously. If the German COM
manders in Italy we're going to talk
turkey, it was felt, they could estab-
lish some sort Of official contact.
Here was something which looked as
though it might be an attempt to
do just that.
The colonel was asked to prove
his ability to produce results by
securing the release of certain cap
tured Italian patriots. Immediately
this was done.
The two Germans came back as
scheduled March 8. Gen. Wolff
was with them. Allied headquar-
tiers got word from its agents that
the Germans apparently were pre-
pared to enter discussions which
might lead to eventual surrender.
Wolff Acting on Own.
Gen. Wolff was quoted as saying
it was now time for some one in
authority to take the first step to-
ward bringing Germany out of the
war. He was, he said. ready to act,
and he thought he could persuade
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring,
then Wehrmacht commander in
Italy, to join him. He did not see
how Hitler and Himmler could stop
them. He felt, moreover, that a
surrender in Italy would vitality
affect the whole German army, since
many commanders were simply
waiting for the cue.
Believing now that the offer was
genuine, and having informed the
Allied governments of his intention,
Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexand-
er, Supreme Allied Commander in
the Mediterranean Theater, sent to
Switzerland the two senior staff
officers.
The American was Mai. Gen.
Lemnitzer, deputy chief of staff, Al
lied headquarters. Maj. Gen. T. s.
Airey, assistant chief of staff, Ga,
was the other representative.
Gen. Lemnitzer had accompanied
Gen. Mark Clark on his famous Sc
cret submarine trip to North Africa
before the landings there In 1912.
Unconditional Surrender.
If they found the German over
lures were authentic, the two major
generals were to tell the Germans
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