SOMERTON MAN: WAS THE BOOK A SIGNAL IN ITSELF?

FIRST PUBLISHED ON 10th JULY 2018

EXTRACTED FROM MI5 FILES

See Update at the foot of this article...

In this post, I will be looking at the likelihood of the book drop being a form of signal. 

In research, I stumbled across a really interesting piece of information concerning the methods used by Soviet agents to arrange meetings and information exchanges. In this case, it was an MI5 interview with Klaus Fuchs.

By the way, the street view images below are navigable.

Apologies for the somewhat blurry image but this is an extract from MI5 files and they include an account given by MI5 agent Jim Skardon, he spoke of showing a map of the Kew area in East London to Klaus Fuchs, the Atom Spy.

The Signal

Fuchs said that he had been given instructions to throw a copy of a magazine, 'Men Only' over a fence/hedge of a house that stood in its own grounds on the corner of Kew Road and Stanmore road between the third and fourth trees located along the gardens of the house in Stanmore road. On the tenth page, he was to indicate the arrangements that would be used should a planned rendezvous not occur.

Kew Road/Stanmore Road

If you navigate further into Stanmore Road you will find that like the Pier Street Glenelg address, there is an alleyway/close about 70-80 metres in on the left. The building behind the target house looks to be post-war and it may be that an alleyway ran across the back of the target house in the late 40s early 50s.

Holmesdale Road, Eastern End

Having thrown the magazine over the fence he was the to go to the eastern end and North side of Holmesdale Road, about 1 klm away from the Stanmore Road drop, and there he was to place a chalk mark on the fence of that house at the end of the street and the mark should be placed on the fence opposite a tree he would find there. This would indicate to the occupant of the Stanmore Road house that there was something in his garden to be collected.

As you can see there is still an old tree outside that corner house but the fence seems to have long gone and has been replaced by a wall.

Here's the overview map of both locations, again it's a navigable map:

It looks almost like a route for taking the dog for a walk?

More

Skardon investigated the locations and researched the names of the occupants of the house in Kew Road, but the files did not disclose the result of his inquiries.

In another memo, also marked Top Secret and dated the following month, Skardon wrote: “He gave me some details of the recognition signals for his various new contacts.

“He … told me that the arrangements for the rendezvous upon returning to England in 1946 … were that his contact would carry a bundle of books tied with a cord and that he should himself carry a copy of ‘Life’.”

Fuchs also named his “introducers” as Jurgen Kuczynski, a professor at Berlin University, and Hannah Klopstech, who lived in Hampstead, north London.

“The arrangement made by Hannah Klopstech was that he should go to the public house at Wood Green (the Nags Head) carrying a copy of ‘Tribune’, and that he should sit at a bench with a table in front of it in the saloon bar.

“His contact would carry a red book in his hands.”

Hampstead cropped up some time ago in relation to the work done on Tibor Kaldor. Must revisit that!

UPDATE

Note how books and magazines were used as signals by Fuchs. In the first case he threw a magazine over a fence and then went to a tree some distance away and chalk marked it so that his contact would know there was a message waiting for him. Fuchs was to write on the tenth page of the magazine giving details of alternative arrangements should a planned rendezvous not go ahead.

Later Fuchs describes another occasion when once again books were used as signals in the identification process. In this case he would carry a copy of LIFE magazine and his contact would be carrying a bundle of books tied with a cord.

A third example was when he was to go to the Nags Head in Wood Green and he was to carry a copy of the 'TRIBUNE' a newspaper, his contact would have a red book in his hands.

So there it is, a possible explanation for the purpose of the book thrown into the car in Glenelg. Food for thought. Worthy of note is the fact that the interview took place in the early 50s and at that time, the signal method used was apparently new to MI5. 

Is it possible that the Rubaiyat that was found contained other information? Despite best efforts, the image that we have is not of particularly good quality, and we only see two pages of it To this stage we have some markings that show up but not very clear.

The Fuchs incidents took place around 1946, which would mean that the same technique could have been in use in Australia in 1948, but MI5 or other agencies may not have considered the possibility. But then again, who knows?