Somerton Man Mystery: Australian Military Intelligence Part 2: The Third Spy..

In our first post on this topic, we reviewed the history of one known agent of Australian Military Intelligence during WW2.

At the time the man's name was not revealed, his name was in fact Corporal Luis Alfred Tepper, in his communications with the post-war authorities, he had to struggle to convince them that he had in fact seen service in Darwin and New Guinea. It was in that process or rather from the documents about his claim, that we were given an insight into the level of secrecy that was applied to the work of Australian MI in the war years.  

Apart from Luis Tepper's account of his destroying all documents related to his mission, MI also destroyed documents as referred to in Luis's service file. That tends to make the work of investigation a little challenging. But let's move on to the next man, the third man with apologies to Orson Wells.

Staff Sergeant Otto Bieri

Otto, like Luis and Private Judge, was also a member of the CMF, the Citizen's Military Forces, for one reason or another they were not called up or enlisted for service in the Australian defense forces. The reasons varied from age to protected employment.

In Otto's case at the time of his signing up, he was over 50 years of age. We should also note that Otto, like the other two men had an 'X' ist endorsement on his file. In his case towards the end of his service with the Security Services. In Luis' case, he had to fight for recognition of his work and the role he played. In contrast, S/Sget Bieri's file, clearly states that he was attached to the Intelligence Corps. His service Nuber was N444720 for those who would like to view the file, not a particularly large one at just 12 pages. Here's an excerpt:

The most informative pages though, belong to the Intelligence files related to Otto. For the record I stumbled across this file by accident on checking through the project I followed one link that took me directly to this file:

Quite a dramatic title...

This next image from the document gives us more of a clue as to the nature of the rest of the document:

Bieri's First Filed Intelligence Report

The image below is part of S/Sget Bieri's first full intelligence report regarding the workings of the Gestapo and how they 'recruited' German men, mostly Jewish. into their ranks as spies:

I apologise for the quality of the above image, not the best to work with but I trust that you can view it relatively clearly.

There is a lot more to this file and for those who are involved in this depth of research, if you would like a copy, please contact me by email and include your Facebook page link to validate your ID. I apologise for this requirement but it is necessary in this instance.

I am not sure whether the link to this intelligence file is widely available or whether it had somehow slipped through the net.

SUMMARY

A brief summation of the two posts thus far. The three men, Private Judge, Corporal Tepper, and S/Sergeant Bier were enlisted in the CMF, we can clearly show that Corporal Tepper and S/Sget Bieri were employed by Australian MI to infiltrate either or both the local German community and the German POWs/Internees.

In the case of Private Judge, we know he was a member of the CMF, we know he was on an X list and we also know that in his file, he has a 'Special Duties' notation. Whilst the X list membership may mean that he was simply absent from his normal work or perhaps he was in hospital, (Which he was) His Special Duties notation is harder to explain.

I did some deep research into that phrase in its military context and found that on the NAA site, there are two instances when it is used. First, there are 'Special Duties' Officers, mostly found in the RAAF but quite probably also to be found in the branches of the services. The Special Duties Officer is an administrator for other aspects of service life including housing, education schools, etc.

The other instance where the phrase is quoted is in the intelligence field, including but not limited to the Z and M Special Forces.

When it comes to Private Judge he was not an officer and his record does not state anything that remotely relates to the administration of housing, education, or schools. 

On reviewing it all, I concluded that there's a pattern here, All three men were members of the CMF, and all three are shown as attending the Hospital in their service and all three appeared on an X list at least once.

We know and can prove that Tepper and Bieri were MI field agents and we have a strong suspicion that Private Judge may also have been involved with the Intelligence services, perhaps in a surveillance role in the Pakie Macdougall case. Research is ongoing and that should provide a definitive answer on the role of Private Judge. By the way, Trove does have some material in both men. I noted that the Guardian newspaper had quite an extensive piece.

About this Blog and the Author:
Since 2009, I have been dedicated to researching the Somerton Man case, and in January 2013, I launched the first Australian blog solely devoted to uncovering the truth behind this enduring mystery. Over the past decade, this blog has delivered more than 1,000 posts, consistently presenting new discoveries, hard evidence, and well-documented research—a record unmatched by any other source. As the leading fact and evidence-based platform on the case, we have maintained an unbeaten record of uncovering new information, from forensic details to intelligence links. While some prefer speculation and personal attacks over substantiated findings, our focus remains on rigorous investigation, historical accuracy, and verifiable evidence. The case deserves nothing less.

The archive for the blog which includes all posts since commencement in January 2013, has been moved to a separate location. If you would like access, please email me with your details and include your Facebook page profile, I will then organise access for you.

Our Record: https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/p/somerton-man-case-tamamshud-blog-record.html