SOMERTON MAN: SPIES, INVISIBLE INK, BOOK CODES AND SHIP MOVEMENTS

HALFWAY TO HORROR

This book, 'Halfway to Horror' by David Hume was published way back in 1937 and ahead of  WW2. It's a crime story and to all accounts, it is a good read. However, the owners of a copy of this book weren't particularly interested in the quality of the writing, no, their interest was more focused on how they might use it as a tradecraft tool. (Incidentally, the book is classified as quite rare with the copy shown above having an asking price of $107 AUD)

And use it they did, or rather he did. He used it as a key to a code sent by shortwave radio and that code contained information on shipping movements in New York Harbour amongst other things. the 'He' in this case was this man:

You could say that he was an accidental spy, he actually took over the role when the man originally assigned to this important role in the US was killed in a motor vehicle accident in Times Square on March 18th 1941. 

Two men were seen to be arguing about how to cross the very busy road when one man jumped the gun and ran out in front of a taxi. This man, at first thought to be a Spanish courier, was, in fact, a Captain Ulrich von der Osten of the German Abwehr. On searching the body of the man, police were surprised to find a notebook with names and contact details as well as assignments of US soldiers. It was also noted that his clothes had no labels. A search of his hotel room uncovered maps and other interesting documents. There's more to be found on the Captain at this Wiki and also here at the FBI.

Research shows that Ludwig used between 50 and 60 aliases both male and female to cover his identity. Multiple names is a fact of life for those engaged in the business of espionage.

Eventually, Ludwig and his spy ring were arrested and brought to justice in March 1943, with another member captured in December 1943, just one man escaped the net for a while, Teodor Erdman Erich Lau, a 44 year old Argentinian but German-born man who was the paymaster for the group, he was arrested in 1946.

But, interesting as the story is, this post has as its purpose, the task of describing how whole rings and networks of spies were set up with but one major task and that was to monitor and track Allied shipping movements.

THE BOOK CODE

In this case Ludwig used an ingenious book code to act as a key. A witness recounted that the method was to use the first nine words at the beginning of certain pages in the 'Halfway to Horror' book. A classic example of how a standard run of the mill book could be repurposed to act as a component in the deadly game of espionage. Shades of the use of 'DANETTA' in the code page, verse 70, Tibor Kaldor's last letter and of course the infamous Tudor Gold Watch ad.

This same spy ring also made use of invisible inks, they were not given to putting all of their sensitive material into one clandestine communication method. That is something we should be aware of in dealing with the Somerton Man case.

This post s one in a series relating to espionage activities surrounding shipping movements.

(For the record we have no idea at this stage just what happened to  Teodor the Argentinian, he was bailed at the time but records will no doubt have the answer.)

BUT! This news article is more relevant for the Somerton Man case:

Given the recent post on Ship Movements tracking, this article, one of many on the subject, confirms the belief that a spy ring existed in Australia and it was actively recording ship movements in and out of various ports. Other articles refer to Eastern seaboard sinkings and a sophisticated radio set up.

More in our next post.