Sefton Delmer Denis Sefton Delmer ( born 24 May 1904 , Berlin , Germany – died 4 September 1979 , Lamarsh , Essex ) was a British journalist and propagandist for the British government . Fluent in German , he became friendly with Ernst Röhm who arranged for him to interview Adolf Hitler in the 1930s . During the Second World War he led a black propaganda campaign against Hitler by radio from England and he was named in the Nazi s ' Black Book for immediate arrest after their invasion of England . Early life . Denis Sefton Delmer , known familiarly as " Tom " , was born in Berlin , Germany , but was registered as a British citizen with the British Consulate . His parents were from Australia . His father , Frederick Sefton Delmer , born in Hobart , Tasmania , was Professor of English Literature at Berlin University and author of a standard textbook for German schools . On the outbreak of the First World War his father was interned in Ruhleben internment camp as an enemy alien . In 1917 , in a prisoner exchange between the British and German governments , the Delmer family was repatriated to England . Delmer was educated at Friedrichwerdersches Gymnasium , Berlin , St Paul ' s School , London and Lincoln College , Oxford , where he obtained a second class degree in modern languages . He was brought up to speak only German until the age of five and as late as 1939 spoke English with a slight accent . Early career . After leaving university , Delmer worked as a freelance journalist until he was recruited by the " Daily Express " to become head of its new Berlin Bureau . Whilst in Germany , he became friendly with Ernst Röhm , who arranged for him to become the first British journalist to interview Adolf Hitler . In the 1932 German general election , Delmer travelled with Hitler aboard his private aircraft . He was also present when Hitler inspected the aftermath of the " Reichstag " fire . During this period , Delmer was criticised for being a Nazi sympathiser and , for a time , the British government thought he was in the pay of the Nazis . Perversely , Nazi leaders were convinced Delmer was a member of MI6 ; his denials of any involvement only served to strengthen their belief that he was not only a member , but also an important one . In 1933 , Delmer was sent to France as head of the " Daily Express " Paris Bureau . In 1935 , Delmer married Isabel Nichols . Delmer covered important stories in Europe including the Spanish Civil War and the invasion of Poland by the " Wehrmacht " in 1939 . He also reported on the German western offensive in 1940 . Wartime . Delmer returned to Britain and worked for a time as an announcer for the German service of the BBC . After Hitler broadcast a speech from the " Reichstag " offering peace terms , Delmer responded immediately , stating the British cast the terms in " your lying , stinking teeth . " Delmer ' s instant — and unauthorized — rejection produced a great impact on Germany , where Goebbels concluded it had to come from the government . This gave it an impact any authorization would have prevented , and produced consternation in Whitehall : though the effect was desirable , it was unclear whether such a spokesman would again happen to say what the government wanted . Radio stations . In September 1940 , Delmer was recruited by the Political Warfare Executive ( PWE ) , to organize black propaganda broadcasts to Nazi Germany as part of a psychological warfare campaign . Leonard Ingrams gained clearance for Delmer to work for the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office . The operation was based at Wavendon Towers in what is now Milton Keynes new town . Delmer ' s creations would join a number of other " Research Units " operating propaganda broadcasts . The concept was that the radio station would undermine Hitler by pretending to be a fervent Hitler - Nazi supporter . Delmer ' s first , most notable success was a shortwave station : " Gustav Siegfried Eins " ( Gustav Siegfried One ) , G3 in the Research units . It would be “ run ” by the character " Der Chef ” , an unrepentant Nazi , who disparaged both Winston Churchill ( " that flatfooted son of a drunken Jew " ) and the " Parteikommune " , the " Party Communists " who betrayed the Nazi revolution . The station name , " Gustav Siegfried Eins " ( abbreviated " GS1 " , left a question in listeners ' minds – did it mean " Geheimsender 1 " : ( Secret Transmitter 1 ) or " Generalstab 1 " ( General Staff 1 ) ? The station was broadcast from nearby Gawcott . " GS1 " went on the air on the evening of 23 May 1941 . " Der Chef " , played by Peter Secklemann , a former Berlin journalist , was ( then ) the only member of the team to have arrived at the discreet house known as " The Rookery " in Aspley Guise , Bedfordshire . Another journalist , Johannes Reinholz , played an adjutant to " Der Chef " . When Stafford Cripps discovered what Delmer was involved with ( through the intervention of Richard Crossman ) Cripps wrote to Anthony Eden , then Foreign Secretary : " If this is the sort of thing that is needed to win the war , why , I ' d rather lose it . " Delmer was defended by Robert Bruce Lockhart , who pointed out the need to reach the sadist in the German nature . GS1 ran for 700 broadcasts before Delmer killed it off in late 1943 with gunfire heard over the radio intimating the authorities had caught up with " Der Chef " . The dramatic ending may have been deliberately based on the Gleiwitz incident , when the Nazis staged the capture of a German radio station by Polish forces , an operation which Hitler used to justify the invasion of Poland and the start of the second World war . Delmer created several stations and was successful through a careful use of intelligence using gossip intercepted in German mail to neutral countries to create credible stories . Delmer ' s credit within the intelligence agencies was such that the Admiralty sought him out to target German submarine crews with demoralizing news bulletins . For this , Delmer had access to Aspidistra , a 500 kW radio transmitter sourced from RCA in the US ( their largest off - the shelf - model ) , which Section VIII bought for £165 , 000 . Use of Aspidistra , which began in 1942 , was split between PWE , the British Broadcasting , and the RAF . Delmer ' s creation was " Deutsche Kurzwellensender Atlantik " ( or popularly " Atlantiksender " ) . This station used US jazz ( banned within Germany as decadent ) and up - to - date dance music from Germany ( extracted via Sweden and RAF courier ) as well as an in - house German dance band . Important details on naval procedures came from anti - Nazis identified in POW camps and mail were sifted to create personalized announcements . Agnes Bernelle " played " the seductive " Vicki " and announced news bulletins . " Christ the King " ( G . 8 ) broadcast an attack on the conscience of religious Germans , telling of the horrors of the labour and concentration camps , through a German priest . Soldatensender Calais . " Soldatensender Calais " ( " Calais Armed Forces Radio Station " ) was another clandestine radio station directed at the German armed forces by Delmer . Based in Milton Bryan and transmitting from Crowborough , " Soldatensender Calais " broadcast a combination of popular music , " cover " support of the war , and " dirt " - items inserted to demoralize German forces . Delmer ' s propaganda stories included spreading rumours that foreign workers were sleeping with the wives of German soldiers serving overseas . The station , broadcast by Aspidistra , was popular on the German home front also . Delmer oversaw the production of a daily " grey " German - language newspaper titled " Nachrichten für die Truppe " ( " News for the Troops " ) , which first appeared in May 1944 , much of its text being based on the " Soldatensender Calais " broadcasts . " Nachrichten für die Truppe " was written by a team provided to Delmer by SHAEF and was disseminated over Germany , Belgium , and France each morning by the Special Leaflet Squadron of the U . S . Eighth Air Force . As the fighting progressed into Germany itself , black propaganda was used to create an impression of an anti - Nazi resistance movement . Delmer criticised this later as the " black boomerang " , with Nazis claiming they had been allied to this fictitious movement . With the end of the war in Europe , Delmer advised his colleagues to say nothing of the work they had been in lest , as the Nazis did after the First World War , the Germans could claim they had not been beaten militarily but by underhanded means . Later career and retirement . After the Second World War , Delmer became chief foreign affairs reporter for the " Daily Express " . Over the next fifteen years Delmer covered nearly every major foreign news story for the newspaper . Lord Beaverbrook sacked Delmer in 1959 over an expenses issue , and he retired to Lamarsh in Essex , near to Little Sampford where his ex - wife Isabel lived with her third husband . He wrote two volumes of autobiography , " Trail Sinister " ( 1961 ) , " Black Boomerang " ( 1962 ) and several other books including " Weimar Germany " ( 1972 ) and " The Counterfeit Spy " ( 1971 ) . David Hare based his play " Licking Hitler " on " Black Boomerang " , and his plot included the faked , on - air discovery and shooting of the broadcaster , in the same way as Delmer had finished the career of " Der Chef " . He was the subject of " This Is Your Life " in 1962 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside the Caprice restaurant in London ’ s Mayfair .