P.W.E. - MILTON BRYAN
From the end of 1943, Delmer gained control of P.W.E.’s previously unsupervised fake and forgery unit which, through printed productions, disseminated by S.O.E. agents in Occupied Europe, backed up the black radio stories. For an early effect and to appeal to the general soldiery, Delmer’s scripts for the black stations were often basic and earthy and upon reading one example the prim Socialist politician, Stafford Cripps, immediately made a complaint to Eden; ‘if this is the sort of thing needed to win the war, I’d rather lose it.’ Leeper leapt to Delmer’s defence; ‘I want him back', he demanded, 'in the work he is doing’. The station continued uninterrupted to include, assisted by the authoress, Joe Lederer, a programme especially intended for German women. Of an additional feminine interest an Irish girl, Captain Molly Fitzpatrick, held charge of a group of German officers working at the M.B. compound.

Pretending to broadcast from behind the Eastern Front, one of the more fascinating of the black propaganda stations was that supposed to be operated by an anti Hitler group of the Waffen S.S.! Irregularly, this would transmit from December 11th., 1943, until the end of the war and indeed the speaker, locally known as Herr
Stafford Cripps was upset by the content of some of the black propaganda stories
Nansen, S.S. Obersturmfuhrer Zech-Nenntwich, was an officer deserter of the Waffen S.S. Yet he was so distrusted by Delmer, that he never actually set foot in the M.B. compound which he could nevertheless see from his quarters at Paris House. There a fellow officer monitored his movements and for companionship, Delmer installed a German diplomat friend, Wolfgang von Putlitz, who could now contribute little to the black broadcast operation, being out of touch with contemporary Germany. Recruited by MI5 before the war, when he had been Press Attache at the German Embassy in London, he transferred to The Hague and continued to supply useful information. After the outbreak of hostilities he then asked to be brought to England, believing a lapse of S.I.S. security had compromised his safety.

The S.S. {Schutzstaffel} officer claimed the existence of an anti Hitler group within the S.S. cavalry, lead by the brother in law of Eva Braun and as adjutant to the brother in law, the Paris House officer had therefore ranked as second in command. Through his underground activity he assisted the Polish resistance in freeing their members from S.S. prisons and he became involved in smuggling Poles to Sweden, pretending them to be agents of the S.D. When suspicions began to mount, however, the S.S. group arranged his escape and the Poles then smuggled him to Sweden, introducing him to British Intelligence in Stockholm. They flew him to Britain. Whilst at Paris House, in the course of general conversation his companion unfortunately revealed
Paris House accommodated an S.S. deserter, who ran an anti-Nazi propaganda station
The Rookery. Home for some of the German members of the propaganda team
the nature and the operations of Milton Bryan and after the war, confirming Delmer’s reservations, the officer then turned informer against those who had been active in the secret broadcasting. At Milton Bryan, a typical day involved Delmer beginning work at 9.30am in his office, where he would read the lastest batch of Foreign Office telegrams and S.I.S, reports. The actual management of the compound he left to others. At 10.45 the team assembled for an editorial conference in the central operations room and this continued until around 2pm. The afternoon saw the preparation of the news and the writing of talks. Bilingual in English and German, Tom’s deputy, a newspaper correspondent in Berlin before the war, was Karl Robson, a Major from the war office and he would edit the material for transmission. This included those items supplied by the chief news writers; Albrechet Ernst, a friend of Delmer’s from Spanish Civil War days, Hans Gutmann, a one time Berlin art dealer and Dr. Albert, a former press attache of the Austrian Legation who, when Hitler came to power, had remained in Britain. Alex Maas, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, occupied the position as chief ‘disc jockey’ having in January, 1942, arrived at Delmer’s team with his wife, Margit, in adventurous fashion. They had been intercepted by S.O.E. in Bermuda, at Delmer’s request, whilst en route to Mexico! A broadcaster by employment, Maas left Germany in March, 1933, to enlist in the International Brigade and being wounded in 1936, around this Delmer time made his acquaintance. Interned in 1940, Alex escaped to Marseilles and thence almost to Mexico.
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