Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of Cloak and Dagger.
But I do want to let you know today's program
is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners.
You can support the show on a one time basis
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Now from June fourth, nineteen fifty, here is the Brenner
Pass story.
Speaker 2: Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the
enemy line knowing you may never return alive?
Speaker 3: What you have just heard is the question asked during
the war to agents of the OSS ordinary citizens who
to this question answered yes.
Speaker 4: This is.
Speaker 3: Cloak and Dagger, black warfare, espionage, international intrigue. These are
the weapons of the OSS. Today's story, the Brenner Pass,
is the story of an American engineer who single handed
cut off the escape of part of the German Army
in Italy from unrushing American troops. The Brenner Pass is
suggested by actual incidents recorded in the Washington files of
the Office of Strategic Services, a story that can now
be told.
Speaker 5: No, no, Padre, I don't want drink. Drink this. Feel
your meal. It will warm your inside. I want to
talk to you. I want to tell you.
Speaker 6: Drink this first. Right, I'm so tired. Rest then, so
so tired. You.
Speaker 5: You won't give me away, will you? You will hide
me if the Germans come, won't you, Padre? Won't you?
Speaker 7: You came to me, my son, because you knew I'd
give you sanctuary. Any man has sanctuary in this house. Yes,
hasten an oath.
Speaker 8: Feel your meal.
Speaker 7: Anything you tell me only God and I will witness.
And if I had not taken this oath, I still
would not give you away. Thank you, father. You are
an American. That much you have told me. Do you
want to tell me more? Or do you want to
sleep first?
Speaker 5: No? No, it is better you sleep first. I'll sit
beside you. I won't leave you. No, No, Padrick, I
want to tell you that may not be much time.
I have a feeling that time is running out for me.
My name was Donald Harper. I say it was because
somehow I don't feel as if I have a name anymore.
When you're tracked down and hunted, you're not a human being.
There's no past or future. There's just a present and
you run. So much has happened in a few weeks
that it's hard for me to remember. Remember back from
this morning when you found me unconscious on the steps
of the chapel, back to the morning I was sent
on my mission, November twelfth, nineteen forty four.
Speaker 2: Captain Harper. I'm well aware of everything we have to
gain if this scheme of your succeeds.
Speaker 5: You still think it's just a scheme, may Colonel, I
don't have to think.
Speaker 2: I know what your chances are of actually getting through
to the Brenner Paz and blowing up that highway, and
I know what'll happen to you if the Italian fascists
or the German police catch you.
Speaker 5: I know a couple of things, too, Colonel. One of
them is the country up there in the mountains. Yes,
I nearly broke my neck half a dozen times when
I was a kid climbing the rocks around my grandmother's hut,
and just before the war I took a trip from
the States to see her again. I skied over every
inch of that mountain near the Brenner Pass. Colonel, I
know I can do it.
Speaker 2: We've been through this before, Harper. I'm aware of everything
in your favor, your knowledge of the country, the fact
that you were an engineer before the war.
Speaker 5: Yes, give me supplies some TNT in Italian uniform and
some phony papers in case I tangle with the FASCISTI
it's all I need, Colonel, I tell you I can
do it.
Speaker 2: It's true. If that highway to the Brenner Pass could
be destroyed, it would take the Germans months to repair it.
It would cut off one of their retreats out of Germany.
In course, now we'd have them where we want them.
When the American armies advanced their backs to the mountains
and no way out.
Speaker 5: That's it. That's it. Your permission, colonel, Please let me
try it.
Speaker 2: M you say your grandmother's hut is right near your objective. Yes, sir,
I'll give you names to memorize of other partisans in
the mountains who might help you on the way. I'll
have all the supplies you requested, and you can leave.
Speaker 5: From the beginning Padre. I had bad luck. It snowed
during most of the forty mile journey, and it was
difficult for me to move quickly, and the longer it
took me, the more chance I had of being discovered.
Then it came. You know what a storm is like
here in the mountains, how it can blinded you and
throw you against the rocks. When it was all over,
I realized what had happened. I had been thrown off
my course, but that wasn't the worst of it. My
knapsack was gone, all my supplies and the packet with
papers the OSS had forged for me. I had no
identification now and no food, but I still had the
TNT for the highway. Near Ampezzo. There is a tavern Padre,
not far from Parola. It wasn't sheer recklessness, but desperation
that made me go in there, and knowing I had
no papers, knowing the tavern catered to Nazis and FASCISTI
knowing the rucksack on my back was filled with explosives.
But there was no other place for miles, and I
had to get food. I couldn't go on talking tell us.
Speaker 9: More of the store.
Speaker 10: She was fast, was like, it.
Speaker 5: Looks like this. What would you like to order some
bread and cheese if you have it, and some coffee black,
very strong. If you have it, bring it fast for you, Yes, fast,
bring it.
Speaker 9: Fast right away.
Speaker 5: I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. I
hope the Germans would continue to be amused by the
Italian girl and not asked to see my papers. I
had nearly frozen in the snow a half hour before.
Now the sweat broke out all over my forehead. Pay
attention to her, I kept praying.
Speaker 11: Watch her, watch her. Don't even look my way. Gotsy,
it is here.
Speaker 9: I haven't here right.
Speaker 8: No, that soldier must be important to be her person.
Speaker 10: Your soldier, come over here and tell us how important
you are.
Speaker 5: No, I'm not important at all. Forgive me the way
they should have served you first.
Speaker 12: That's the soldier I have here with us, poor soldier,
you are no.
Speaker 8: No one has to be here with us, soldier.
Speaker 5: No, I I gratzy, senor, and I I will just
finish this coffee and then I must go.
Speaker 8: Come back to wait a minute. You must not be
rude soldier, and then I never wrote to me. If
I asked you to drink with us.
Speaker 5: You must no, no, please Senora, some other time. Perhaps
now now I must go.
Speaker 13: Huh, you're afraid of me, afraid of girls, and afraid
to drink beer.
Speaker 14: Oh, you should be back in your mama's lap. I
will give you some beer now, Perhaps you will acquire
a taste for it.
Speaker 5: Here she threw it in my face. I felt it
start to trickle down my neck, and I could hear
the Germans laughing themselves sick. I wanted to snap that
small neck of hers in half for making me the
center of attraction.
Speaker 9: Gratzy waiter, you are sure, you are very sure you
are not followed here to my house?
Speaker 5: Very sure, Amico. And it's snowing again. Even the tracks
from my snow shoes are covered.
Speaker 9: We must be careful, very careful, all of us, partisans.
The Germans are closing in on us. Do you know
what would happen if they found out I took you
in an American?
Speaker 5: This would happen. But I tell you there's nothing to
worry about, and I'll be gone in the morning. Ah,
good morning one one. All I want is a night's rest.
Speaker 9: There is a bed in the back room. You mean you,
senior Harper, You are sure you are not followed?
Speaker 8: Very sure?
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, and I'll be gone in the morning before
you're awake.
Speaker 9: What's the things in your the time being in a
species of hospitable. But these times there very bad times
for all of Yes, yes, I know it is important too. Yes,
in order to fight back later, one must leave now.
Speaker 5: No, yes, yes, the Germans.
Speaker 9: Are clever, very clever.
Speaker 5: If fine you you were here. I was too tired
to stand there and listen to the old man's whimpering,
too tired to watch his narrow eyes like small brown
buttons dart about the room, looking first at the windows
and then at the door, half expecting the guest stopper
to come. All I wanted to do was sleep. I
fell across the bed, But a few minutes later I
sat bowled upright, listening to the voices in the next room, Bottle.
Speaker 9: He was here, an American at the back home sleeping.
Speaker 8: Are you sure? Are you sure he's an American.
Speaker 9: Father's name is Harpor, long old Harbor to the American,
always says city American.
Speaker 12: Oh, how the German police would like to know that.
Speaker 5: That girl, the girl from the tavern, the friend of
the Germans. I didn't stay here anymore. There was a
small door leading out to the back of the hut.
I knew, Padre, that somehow I must have come to
the wrong house. I didn't dare take any more chances
and stop again until I reached my grandmother's. And I
was so tired, so tired.
Speaker 8: To know them.
Speaker 5: You don't know them.
Speaker 8: So good it is to see.
Speaker 5: You again, Nana.
Speaker 13: Nana, Oh, but how you look so thin, so tired?
Speaker 5: Nothing changes here, does it. It could be six years
ago or ten, Nana, sitting here like this in this house, your.
Speaker 8: Mom, your papa? How are they? Mail does not come
here easily any longer?
Speaker 5: You have heard from them, Yes, Nana, a few weeks ago.
Oh that's fine. They tried so hard to get you
to America. When the war came.
Speaker 8: I would not go anywhere on you. This is my home.
Speaker 13: No one could make me leave my home, not the Germans,
not the FASCISTI here I stay until the world rites
itself again.
Speaker 8: But what can I get you? It's comedy. Make yourself comfortable.
Speaker 5: You are hungry, yes, but I'm I'm too tired. To eat.
I just want to sleep.
Speaker 8: Do then I'll make up the room for you later.
For now, rest here on this couch. When you wake,
I will have food for you like the old days. Caromel,
my dear one. I'll be in the kitchen. Sleep now, leap.
Speaker 5: I don't know how long I slept. When I awoke,
I wandered for a moment where I was, and then
I saw her standing over me.
Speaker 8: Like a little boy. You sleep. I've been watching you.
Speaker 5: You. What are you doing here?
Speaker 8: Watching your sleep? You don't drink beer, and you're afraid
of girls, and you sleep like a little boy.
Speaker 5: You followed me here, you brought them? What have you
done with my grandmother? I kill you? I should have
killed you then I will, now, friend of the kill you.
Speaker 8: Now here here?
Speaker 5: What's going on? None? You all right?
Speaker 8: Of course, I'm all right. What are you doing, Tony?
What is wrong? Oh?
Speaker 12: Your grandson has his mother's heart, Italian blood in his veins.
Speaker 8: He wants to kill me, that's all. I'm ashamed of you, Donaldo.
This girl, she's a friend.
Speaker 5: Friend.
Speaker 8: I will get the soup for you, Senora Apail. Perhaps
some soup will cool his temper.
Speaker 5: But none I saw that girl with the Germans.
Speaker 8: She she told me about that. She did not know
who you were then, yes, but she wondered why you
disappeared from her father's house.
Speaker 13: She knew the name Donald Harper because she heard me
speak of you often, so she came here after you.
Speaker 5: Now she saw.
Speaker 8: You sleep, and she understood why you had run away
from her.
Speaker 5: She was with Germans. I was there. I heard girl.
Speaker 13: Donaldo is the leader of our group of parisons, your leader.
Speaker 5: But the Germans.
Speaker 8: Side the Germans, I amuse them, Porky, and may I
tell them funny stories and they laugh at me.
Speaker 5: You just soup.
Speaker 14: They did not hear me laugh when I get them drunk,
and they tell me things I can use to our advantage.
Speaker 8: Your soup.
Speaker 5: Drink it, Tony, I'm sorry, I understand.
Speaker 8: Yea bella quest gatta Donaldo?
Speaker 5: No, yes, no, the girl is very poor, Senor.
Speaker 14: Telling you embarrassing, Naldo. We have friends now, see see
Tony friends.
Speaker 8: You work too hard, Cameo.
Speaker 5: What are you doing drawing diagrams? Nana. I've got all
the plans made to blow up that highway early tomorrow morning,
and I want to make sure nothing goes wrong here.
Speaker 8: I brought you something to eat.
Speaker 5: You will spoil me, Nana, But it was good to
have you spoiled me again these past few days.
Speaker 13: How good it is to be able to Will you
leave then tomorrow after you do what you have to do?
Speaker 5: Yes, I must, but I'll come back to say goodbye. First,
I come, I come, Joe suh?
Speaker 8: Where's Donaldo?
Speaker 5: Tony? What are you doing here?
Speaker 8: Are you displeased to see me?
Speaker 5: Where is that partisan friend you are going to send
to help me here? What? Me?
Speaker 8: Me?
Speaker 1: Me?
Speaker 14: Me?
Speaker 5: Me? I am the friend. Oh no, I.
Speaker 8: Can't do as good a job as any man. Let
me help you.
Speaker 5: No, no, it's crazy.
Speaker 8: Please please let me do it.
Speaker 5: Girl, it's crazy, It is not crazy.
Speaker 8: Think think what it will mean for me after you
were gone from these mountains.
Speaker 14: Listening to my fat friends the Germans talk about the explosion,
and to.
Speaker 8: Know secretly that it was I who helped to make it.
Please please Tonaldo Meal.
Speaker 5: It's too late to get anyone else.
Speaker 8: That's why I waited so long.
Speaker 10: The only man to get on this short notice is
my papa, and he is a scared rabbit.
Speaker 5: That was right the first time. You are a little
sheet evil.
Speaker 8: What's take her with Youaldo.
Speaker 5: All right, then pay attention to this diagram. Now there's
a railway, as you know, going right over that highway.
If we planned enough DNT to blow that right out
of the road, it'll be blocked up for months. It
was about four o'clock in the morning when we got
to the highway and climbed up on the tracks of
the railway. Tony stayed up above, and I made my
way slowly, slowly, climbing down into the framework of the trestle,
feeling my way along the girders. They were icy under
my hands, and two or three times I almost slipped.
Cavl Careful, it's all right. Watch yourself, watch how you
handle those explosives.
Speaker 8: Do not trouble yourself about me. I told you I
can work as well as any.
Speaker 5: Man, and work as quietly as one. The troop crane
of Germans would be coming over the railway soon, and
I had to finish before it came. I had a
coil of wire around one arm and a pair of
plyers hanging on a thong for my waist. Tony, you
hear me, yes, I hear you. Hand me down those
packages of explosives, one at a time. Here here you are,
all right? Die. I shoved them in where I wanted them,
packed them close, Tony, the wedges quickly. Don't be so
slow about it.
Speaker 8: I'm doing it as fast as I can, all right.
Speaker 5: I lashed the grenade on top of the braced explosives,
wound it tight with a wire, twisted it with plyers.
Finally I was finished. There was snow on the ground,
and yet my shirt was wet with perspiration. All right,
last finishing touch. That does it for this side, Tony.
Now let's get to the other side.
Speaker 8: See, give me your flyers before you drop.
Speaker 9: Okay, I have helped you much this far.
Speaker 5: See see you've helped me much.
Speaker 8: Let me do it.
Speaker 5: No, No, we haven't any time to argue. That train
will be along any minute.
Speaker 8: Please please let me set off the explosion. Let me
have that pleasure. I will follow your directions. I will
do it just the way you told me.
Speaker 5: No, but training, it's coming.
Speaker 8: Just tell me when to pull it.
Speaker 5: All right, you win, But Heaven help you if you
make a mistake. Hold it now, steady and don't pull
on the wire yet.
Speaker 14: I will pull it softly, softly, lightly but firm.
Speaker 5: Here she comes, pull it.
Speaker 8: Nada, it's done, and I pulled the wires in your.
Speaker 10: Anna.
Speaker 5: What is it?
Speaker 8: It is nothing.
Speaker 13: These attacks come on after water quick.
Speaker 8: I will stay with her. Thanado, You must leave quickly.
Speaker 5: No, I'll stay.
Speaker 2: You go on.
Speaker 8: This section will be swarming with soldiers after what we've just.
Speaker 5: Done, and if they find you, they'll wonder what you're
doing here.
Speaker 8: Men do not know how to take care of the sick.
I will stay and help you.
Speaker 5: All right, get the water.
Speaker 8: You should not have stayed, done me. I would have
been all.
Speaker 5: Right, don't talk, just rest. What is it?
Speaker 8: Germans come into this house. I can see from the window.
Oh no, no, no, you should have gone before.
Speaker 5: Not wait.
Speaker 8: No, it's all right, Donald, do this one thing more
more for me.
Speaker 5: I won't leave while you hould them off for me.
Is that what you want?
Speaker 8: I know them. I am a favorite of their. Please
got a meal. You can escape and do more important work,
and I will not be harmed if I stay.
Speaker 5: Beies son, escape escape.
Speaker 8: There is still time. The girl knows them upstairs, upstairs.
Speaker 14: They may be around the back too, So go upstairs,
jump from the window to the roof of the barn.
Speaker 8: You can make it for me.
Speaker 5: No, Tony, go, go go, I say, promise, not to
turn back.
Speaker 8: Promise.
Speaker 5: I ran up the stairs to the tiny attic. I
heard the door close downstairs, so I knew they had
come in. I could distinguish their voices too, though I
couldn't hear a word they were saying. I opened the
window and saw it was an easy jump to the roof.
Then Tony screamed, and I forgot my promise to her
and went back, flattened myself against the wall at the
head of the staircase.
Speaker 2: I do not.
Speaker 15: Take care of what you need.
Speaker 5: You're always am when you come and talking the truth alone,
I beg I surprised the first German when I jumped him,
brought the butt of my guy down on his head
again and again. But the other German was not so
simple a manner.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 5: He had my shoulders down and I couldn't move. Then
then I saw Tony standing over us, a heavy candele
oprum in her hand. For good work, Tony, Now listen
to me, cavally, Tony, take my grandmother back to your house.
No one will know you were here. Your father's question.
You tell them my grandmother was here alone. When someone
a stranger took refuge here and killed the officers who came.
Then she went to your house because she was afraid. Well,
will you remember that all of it?
Speaker 10: Will you be back?
Speaker 8: Will I ever see you again?
Speaker 5: Who knows? Perhaps perhaps Colleena Collina, my dear little tom.
Speaker 16: Now go go quickly she did wanted. That's everything that
my way here.
Speaker 5: You will hide me if they come, You will do
what I can for you. What's right? If you're coming
in like this breaking down the door, not make problem
on you. It's all right, Padre, It's all right. No, no, no,
you're mistaken. My name is not Donald Harper. I'm an
Italian soldier. I was lost in the snow. My papers
are gone and comes. This is tiresome. Admit it. You
are the American who blew up the highway. Answer you
are mistaken, heir, holp man you are.
Speaker 17: We will see Pata sand in the old man your help.
Speaker 9: See see I come, I come, I.
Speaker 17: Uhhh, you'll recognize him. I see exchalenting here. What is
this man's name? Be Hi stre Ha half for Donald Harper.
The senor is an American. No, I have told you
you will let the loon see you have talked in Afternna.
Speaker 9: You will leave my daughter and me alone, and the
old lady too, now that I have told you we
have done nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5: And yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, but you will not tell.
Speaker 9: My daughter, you promise. Remember she has a soft heart
and wou distress.
Speaker 5: Take him away, you will.
Speaker 9: Lets see see, we are on your spy lawyer.
Speaker 5: You have nothing to say. Everything has been said for me.
Speaker 17: That highway has been completely destroyed. I'm delighted to hear
it that many loyal soldiers as I have been killed.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for telling me. And what is more,
you are in Italian uniform.
Speaker 17: A spy bullets are too good to waste on you American,
but a rope can be used again. Tatant yah Hartman,
take this man out and hang him, but I cannot
do you well, do as you are told her doctor.
Speaker 5: Here is the death certificate of the American who was
hanged this morning. Sign it and.
Speaker 2: The cause of death you want, and I should ride.
Speaker 5: As I told you, just as I told you, heart
failure pty.
Speaker 3: Some weeks later, two retreating German battalions found their escape
through the Brenner Pass blocked. Captain Harper had done his
job well and the on rushing American troops caught the
enemy with their backs to a mountain. Though Donald Harper
did not live to see victory, he shared in it,
and once again the record of an OSS agent closes
with the words mission accomplished. A further adventure in Black
Warfare is next week's.
Speaker 2: Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 4: Heard in Today's Clock and Dagger Adventure where Everett Sloane, Hester, Sunderguard,
Barry Kroger, Louis Soren, Virginia Payne, Raymond Edward Johnson, Carl Weber,
and Boris Aplin. Script was by Wonnifred Wolf. Music was
under the direction of John Guard. Today's True OSS Adventure
was based on the book Locandagger by Corey Ford and
Alistair McBain. This has been a Lewis G. Collen production
in association with Alfred Hollander and was under the direction
and supervision of Sherman Marx. Stay tuned for the second
Big Mystery High Adventure on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. It was an interesting story. Certainly our man
had his flaws, particularly in his reactions to Tony. Of course,
he got over the whole trying to kill her thing
pretty quickly when she explained that paling around with the
Germans and playing herself as a bit of an amusing
peasant was probably the best thing that the leader of
the Partisans could do, And despite his misgivings, she handled
herself well in every way, and she had far more
cunning throughout the operation, and in a way, I think
he made the same mistake of underestimating her that the
Germans made. Yet despite his mistakes, he got the job
done and paid the ultimate price for it. Clokendagger as
an anthology series, had a lot of freedom in its storytelling.
Without recurring protagonists, it could run the gamut in the
stories it told, including somewhere the operative lived up to
the agreement that they made that's represented at the start
of the episode. The purpose of Clokendagger, the book and
therefore the radio series was not just to tell the
stories of the oss but to help the public understand
the importance of what they did and what ordinary individuals
accomplished for their country and for the cause of humanity,
and the cost they paid. To really appreciate that, the
audience had to understand that these people didn't work with
a net. These are great stories of adventure and danger,
but they were not larks for the men and women
who undertook them. One thing I've been meaning to note
that listeners to the Great Detectives podcast may recognize is
the name of Sherman Marks. You might say, I think
I've heard that name before. He's the director of this series.
But we heard him last in the cast as the
butler Gabriel Betteridge in the Chicago based World's Great Novel
adaptation of The Moonstone, And if you listen to the
Amazing World of Radio, you also heard him as David
Balfour's evil uncle in the adaptation they did of Kidnap.
But in nineteen fifty was working in New York and
doing some behind the mic work and doing a fine
job and directing this series. Now it's time to thank
our Patreon supporter of the day, and I went ahead
and think Jay Marcus, Patreon supporter since November twenty twenty,
currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant level of
seven dollars and fourteen or more per month. Thanks so
much for your support, Jay Marcus, and that will do
it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow
us using your favorite podcast software and be sure to
rate and review the podcast wherever you're downloading it from.
We'll be back next Saturday with another episode of Cloak
and Dagger. If you are listening to the Great Detectives
podcast that returns on Monday with the Adventures of the Falcon.
If you're listening to the Great Adventurers of Old Time
Radio that returns on Tuesday with the interplanetary Adventures of
Flash Gordon. In the meantime, do you send your comments
to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Check out
our website at Great adventure dot info. But from Boise, Idaho,
this is your host, Adam Graham signing off.