Dachau to Dolomites. Tom Wall
subsequently, it’s safe to assume he was not inconsolable. It was likely through her that he became friendly with some German black-marketeers, an association that attracted the attention of the Gestapo. He also got into trouble for ‘getting drunk and singing Irish songs in a café’ where he offered ‘to fight all and sundry’.34 It’s not difficult to conceive how this might have occurred: the sight of a drunk, obstreperous, tall, red-haired ‘Britisher’ having a good time in the company of a German woman, was bound to provoke some Wehrmacht soldier on leave. These skirmishes may have troubled the Abwehr, but of greater concern was the fact that the Irishmen might be defying strict orders not to fraternise together, for the Germans didn’t want them disclosing their respective assignments to each other. In fact, Cushing was meeting regularly with Andy Walsh.
Lance Corporal Andy Walsh, a RAF aircraft fitter, had been considered by the Abwehr to have the most potential. He was described as tall and dark with ‘large, rather tragic brown eyes’.35 The Abwehr judged him to be intelligent and ‘a mature, determined and quiet person, who seemed to have genuine Irish nationalist feelings’, although, like Cushing, he had a fondness for drink. In fact, he was probably only semi-literate at best.36 Walsh was being trained by the Germans to blow-up a power station within the large aluminium works in Kinlochleven in Scotland where he had worked before the war. He was at an airport in Oslo, about to board a plane from which he was to be parachuted out over Scotland, when he was arrested. It was the day after he had met with Cushing in Berlin. Already under suspicion, Cushing was being followed and he and Walsh had been seen to be ‘behaving very furtively’ and exchanging notes.37 A report was filed the following day leading to a decision to arrest them both, by which time Walsh had left for Oslo. Walsh seemed to be the type of person everyone felt drawn to. The Germans, prior to his arrest, felt confident that he was on their side, while McGrath felt certain he could trust him to comply with his instructions to report his presence to the British authorities. In fact, Walsh was as unreliable as Cushing and, like his companion, he had been making up for lost drinking time in the bars of Berlin, befriending Germans involved in the black market and smuggling.
After their arrest, Cushing and Walsh were faced with a classic ‘prisoner’s dilemma’: whether to deny everything in the hope that the other would do the same, or accuse the other before being betrayed by him. Both chose the latter course, fiercely accusing each other of planning to double-cross the Germans, and implicating John McGrath into the bargain. Another Irish ‘trainee’ Private William Murphy was also arrested at this time.38 Their confessions were likely to have been extracted after fairly rough treatment by the Gestapo. Walsh later described being kept ‘in total darkness’ with very little food and being ‘beaten up and kicked’.39
The other Tipperary man, Patrick O’Brien, was also undergoing training in Berlin at that time. He was considered by the Abwehr to be of sub-normal intelligence although their judgement may have been influenced by his insolence towards them. Within Friesack he had played the role of an ‘irrepressible comedian’ according to one account. When Jupp Hoven would appear, O’Brien would usually greet him with: ‘Hello Joe, how’s the scheme going?’40 (Hoven was known to the inmates as Gestapo Joe.) If he was of below-average intelligence it might explain, but not excuse, a disturbing aspect of O’Brien’s persona. He was arrested by the criminal police for molesting a child living in his lodgings in Berlin.41 The Abwehr convinced the enraged parents to withdraw the charges, presumably to avoid any disclosures about the nature of his assignment.
Despite McGrath being fingered by Walsh and Cushing, no immediate action was taken against him and he remained at Friesack for another few months. Perhaps, the authorities felt they couldn’t believe anything Cushing and Walsh told them, but later they discovered more compelling evidence of McGrath’s attempts to undermine their project. This may have been the result of the inadvertent action of a good friend.
About a month after McGrath arrived in Friesack, he was joined by a young Irish priest. Hoven, dressed as a civilian, had earlier visited Rome seeking to have an Irish Catholic chaplain assigned to Friesack. He alleged that this was the wish of the camp inmates. In fact, no such request had come from the men and it seems the Germans hoped that a priest, ideally one with strong Irish nationalist or pro-German sentiments, might assist with their plans. A number of religious orders were contacted before Hoven had success with the Society of African Missions in Rome. The Superior agreed to one of his young priests, Thomas O’Shaughnessy, being seconded to Friesack for a six-month period with salary and costs being paid by the German government. O’Shaughnessy seems to have been selected because he was studying German at that time.42 Hoven may have assumed from this that the priest had pro-German sympathies, but, if so, he was again mistaken. O’Shaughnessy was not at all pleased with the arrangement. He suspected the motives of the Germans and feared he might end up as their captive rather than their employee. Although assured by Hoven that there was no military or political scheme afoot, he was not convinced. Before departing, he told his Superior that he would use a code in his letters to Rome. In the event of there being no problem, he would state that he was ‘studying German’, but if he found the camp was a ‘political racket’, he would write that he was ‘studying Italian’. In the latter event, he expected that he would be immediately ordered to return to Rome. While in Friesack, he wrote a number of times, repeatedly emphasising that he was ‘studying Italian’, but his Superior, who had apparently forgotten the conversation about the codes, was merely impressed with his young charge’s commitment to expanding his capability with languages.43
O’Shaughnessy, like McGrath earlier, was appalled at what he saw when he entered the camp. It seemed to him that the men were in rags: presumably their only clothing was the uniforms they had been wearing when captured. The men also viewed him with suspicion at first, some believing that he was an IRA agent disguised as a priest.44 McGrath was also cautious initially, although the two men were soon to become good friends and allies. Most of the prisoners worked outside the camp during the day, so the two of them spent a great deal of time in each other’s company. Together they successfully lobbied for the delivery of Red Cross parcels and achieved other improvements, which endeared them to the prisoners. It helped also that news spread about angry words being exchanged between the priest and a despised academic whose role was to propagate the virtues of National Socialism in lectures delivered to camp inmates.
McGrath took O’Shaughnessy into his confidence and they became allies in their secret endeavours to frustrate the Germans’ intentions. Both men tried to counter the ceaseless propaganda inflicted on the inmates. Apart from lectures, a loudspeaker system broadcast news of repeated German success on the battlefield. The invasion of the Soviet Union had begun shortly before O’Shaughnessy arrived, and each victory announcement was preceded by a trumpet fanfare.45 Tracts, believed to have been written by Lord Haw-Haw, were distributed. Although all this was a source of annoyance to the men, the seeming invincibility of the enemy was affecting morale. McGrath tried to convince the men that they would win in the end and to ignore their propaganda although, for a time, even he had his doubts.46 There were a number of escape attempts from Friesack which both McGrath and O’Shaughnessy were likely to have been privy to or have aided.47 These only led to short periods of freedom, but even this was seen as a victory of sorts over the ‘Boche’.
When the time came for O’Shaughnessy to return to Rome, McGrath prepared a five-page briefing document for British intelligence which the priest agreed to hide on his person. The document contained information about the camp and the names of persons being trained by the Germans. It seems McGrath was making certain that none of them would succeed in any sabotage operations. The document had an added importance for the Irish officer in that it would provide proof of his continued loyalty. O’Shaughnessy, at some risk to himself, smuggled the report to Rome. McGrath had asked that it be delivered to the British envoy to The Holy See, D’Arcy Osborne, but instead he met with the Irish Ambassador, Thomas Kiernan, and showed him, or perhaps just told him about, McGrath’s document. O’Shaughnessy soon travelled to Lisbon via Spain and managed to get on a flight to London where he briefed a British Intelligence agent about Friesack. He told him about the document in his possession which he intended to deliver to Irish officials when he reached Dublin. There he met with Joseph Walsh, the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, and senior Irish Intelligence officers. He also met with the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, who seemed more interested