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 first, I do want to encourage you, if you're
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truly appreciate everyone who supports the program and all the
things that we do here. Of course, Great Adventurers is
relatively new, but we've got more exciting things planning, and
we'll talk about some of our immediate plans after the episode.
But now, from July ninth, nineteen fifty, here is the trap.
Speaker 2: Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the
enemy lines 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
do this question answered yes.
Speaker 2: This is Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 3: Black warfare, espionage, international intrigue. These are the weapons of
the OSS. Today's story The trap about an OSS agent
who prevented an American advance onto German soil from turning
into a massacre is suggested by actual incidents recorded in
the Washington files of the Office of Strategic Services, a
story that can now be told.
Speaker 4: Did you ever notice the name Erwin signed in a
fancy flourish on the covers of those kid comic books
you know all about moonmen chasing the earthmen into the stratosphere.
Well that's me Irwin Hazen. I'm a little guy about
five foot four. Before the war, I loved flashy ties
and babies, girl babies, about twenty one. So what was
Erwin doing being an OSS spy and a German held
town in France after D Day? Listen, my children, and
you shall hear Sergeant Irwin Haysen reporting, sir, here are
those overlay maps you requested, Colonel.
Speaker 2: Good Good, fast works hunt.
Speaker 4: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2: I'll look them over now. In the meantime, I want
you to do something for me. Yes, sir, I've just
had word that one of our agents, Lieutenant Miller, who
was sent ahead and the Royere for Advanced Reconnaissance, has returned.
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Miller, Yes, sir, I know him.
Speaker 2: He's in that tavern about a mile from the headquarters,
getting very drunk. I can't understand. It doesn't sound like Miller. No, sir,
you should have reported immediately. I want you to go
down and bring him back to headquarters. Yes, colonel, right away, sir. Oh, hayzen,
I saw that cartoon you submitted to Yank. Oh they're
good good. Not very flattering of me, though.
Speaker 4: No, sir, I'll love I'll get Lieutenant Miller for you. Colonel, sir.
Not all of the twelve thousand people working with the
OSS parachuted blind into enemy territory. Some of them stayed
in Washington making up secret codes. Some of them, like me,
sat behind a desk in France and drew maps. But
I was through sitting behind a desk. The minute I
walked into that tavern, Lieutenant Miller was slumped over the bar,
swaying back and forth, and he looked very drunk. Hey, lieutenant,
what's with you? Colonel wants you to report the headquarters
right away.
Speaker 5: Oh that's you Erman.
Speaker 4: Oh you get your ear chewed off of this? What's
the idea? Couldn't this wait till later?
Speaker 3: I couldn't wait he didn't make it otherwise, I get
to the colonel, say.
Speaker 4: Bartender, how many has he had?
Speaker 2: Only two?
Speaker 4: One?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Tell colonel couldn't make it otherwise. Then you came,
I can't make it now? Maybe what are you talking about?
Tell Colonel bir heavily fortified. One We thought I saw
myself eighty pieces of one hundred and five millimeters artillery
behind the lines.
Speaker 2: Germans are digging in.
Speaker 4: Well, come on back and telling me yourself. Hey, couldn't
you have celebrated later?
Speaker 2: Made it this far?
Speaker 3: Needed a drink the regular all the way. Tell colonel
we're heavenly fortified, heavily.
Speaker 4: Miller, the lieutenant he is puss out. The lieutenant he
is dead. You see, Miller had been slumped over the bar.
Colonels I couldn't see those bullet wounds in his chest
until he fell over.
Speaker 2: Germs must have caught on to him and given him
a chase. So wonder he got as far as he did. Sergeant,
you're sure about everything you told you, yes, sir, But
we were positive the Germans didn't have that much artillery
on the Seventh Army Front. If this is true, and
we had walked in not knowing him over the head
ah Man would have been massive. Thank you, Sergeant. You
may go now, Colonel.
Speaker 4: If you're going to send another agent into that territory
to get a more complete picture of what's going on,
I'd like to volunteer.
Speaker 2: And a mission like this cause for an agent who's
had experience along here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I know, but you see, Lieutenant Miller was
a friend of mine. Besides, I'm sick of spending the
war behind a drawing Boardgeant. Look, I can do it, Colonel.
I can speak French fluently, and I'll do more than
just look around and come back. I'll come back with
sketches and maps and diagrams everything you want to know. Look, Colonel,
the next time I send a cartoon to Yank, I'll
I'll make a very flattering one of you. Please, Colonel,
what do you say? The OSS placed me in the
custody of a French priest who had sneaked through the
lines from Briere to tell the Americans about underground activity there.
A few days later, the priest and I were on
the road thirty miles away from the American held town,
walking smack into enemy territory. The priest was in full
clerical garb me. I was dressed like a French peasant, and.
Speaker 6: The German stupish me. Son it me do the talking.
Speaker 4: Well, I hope we get away with it.
Speaker 6: You're not ary out of necessity. I have become a
debt at making up very convincing lie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but do you think that Germans don't believe this
phonny story?
Speaker 6: What the reason will they have to disbelieve it? Besides
I am well known and respected in town. These Germans
have in of trouble now without staring at the antagonism
of the people by disciplining me for so small it is.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: All I can say is I hope it works.
Speaker 6: We have a chance to find out. Now there's the
town ah, and there is a welcoming committee. Let me
do the talking. Say while bonjour, I am father.
Speaker 7: Robert, priest of the church in this town. And this man, friend,
if you're from this town, what are you doing behind
the border? Do you have permission? Let mess your papers?
Speaker 2: Passes?
Speaker 6: Most Unfortunately I did not wait to request a pass
our silence. He's a harpy harm with me to the
command on some of his week.
Speaker 4: Pleasure come my friend mine as well. There's no way
back now, Father.
Speaker 8: You have been given too much freedom in this town.
Father a there, this insolence is air.
Speaker 6: It's too much with monsieur le commando, this poor lad.
Speaker 9: You'll be as your name again, Francois, Francois V. Call
me by my title, Francois Here Commandan.
Speaker 5: I'm going with your story, father abre.
Speaker 6: It is a sad, sad story of a dying woman
and her last wish to see her neview this lad,
last remaining member of her family, Her husband and two
sons were killed in the early days of the war.
You see, I have the holy oils with me to
give this poor woman the last sacrament.
Speaker 5: And why did you not ask permission to get this bar?
Speaker 6: I was afraid, Monsieur le Commandore, that by the time
the permission was granted, it might be too late, the
woman might die, So I slipped out.
Speaker 5: When did you last see your aunt John?
Speaker 4: Why? Over three years ago, her Commandan.
Speaker 5: And this is most irregular.
Speaker 6: I'm surely the request of a dying woman.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll let you go this time. Father over there.
Speaker 9: There's enough unresting this time without starting a tempest in
a teapot. One more question, Yes, monsieur, if you managed
to slip so of the lines going out, why is
it you did not attempt to sneak back into town
instead of walking boldly after the bar the line.
Speaker 6: Sneak back into town, Why, Monsieur Commando, that would be
against regulations.
Speaker 10: But I do not understand the father, Abella, how is
it that you did not try to sneak back in
the air?
Speaker 6: Her American friend Irwin a battle rose, he can tell
you that.
Speaker 4: Well, you see, Madame Jellette, this way, if the Germans
know I'm in town and supposedly staying with an ant,
I can move freely about without being suspected.
Speaker 11: Oh, I see.
Speaker 6: I see the time is late. I must go now,
Oh Joe, if monsieurle Commandant should inquire, I did administer
the last rights to you at the sight of your
dear nephew, brought life flowing back into your veins.
Speaker 11: Of course, we do not have something to eat before
you go. I have not much to a.
Speaker 6: Much work to do. By the way, at last meeting
of the underground went very well, What do you think?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 11: Very well?
Speaker 4: Indeed, well, I can't thank you enough, father for everything
you've done.
Speaker 6: Oh my PEPs, we should meet again. Who knows if not,
can't be with you on your mission. Thank you, father,
and my son. Be very careful, Monsieur le Commando is
not very bright, but unfortunately he is not a complete idiot.
Speaker 4: Why that was the last I saw, Father, Robert. It
happened like that all during the war. A member of
the underground would come along, get us over a rough spot,
and then disappear. But without all the help from all
the little people along the way, none of the work
of the OSS could have been done. They helped, they
wished us luck.
Speaker 6: They left.
Speaker 4: After a few days of staying with Madame Jeanette, I
almost felt that she was a relative. The old girl
practically adopted me Erwin h One King.
Speaker 11: What fore, Robert tool they coming down? He does not alive?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 6: What was that?
Speaker 11: I did lose my husband and two sons in the early.
Speaker 6: Days of the war.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm sorry, but.
Speaker 10: It has been good these last days, cooking for you,
making up another bed as if I had my family again.
Speaker 11: Are you being very careful?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: I mind my own business. Look around the town. All
I can tell Arah, just a handful occupying it. Just
the way headquarters, though it looks like a pushover.
Speaker 10: Perhaps it is perhaps the agent was here before he
was mistaken.
Speaker 4: Miller, the Nazis didn't pump air into him for nothing.
He saw something, Madame Miche d here.
Speaker 11: Let me feel your play the game.
Speaker 4: Look what's the best way to get through the forest
to the river north of Brier. I'm going to take
a look around there.
Speaker 10: Perhaps there may be something there. The guard is always posted.
I thought it was just to keep the townspeople from leaving.
But perhaps perhaps there's something else.
Speaker 4: Is there a way past the guard?
Speaker 12: Ah, I have lived here all my life. I know away.
I will show you, even take you partway myself.
Speaker 4: The woods began aout one hundred yards back of Madame
Jeanette's little house, and earlier the next morning we started
through them. I followed her through the thick brambles, through
the narrow paths she knew so well, through the brush
and the high grass that moved gently in the wind.
Madame Jeanette's skirt caught on the brambles, and she stopped
just long enough to rip off that part of her
hem and leave it behind, swaying in the wind. Then
she moved on me right behind her. Maybe this would
turn into a wild goose chase. But I had a
hunch i'd find what I came for. Then we came
to a slight clearing. I will go.
Speaker 11: Back now erin we term later the we we came.
Speaker 4: You remember, yes, yes, I remember.
Speaker 11: Go now along the outskirts of this little wood. You'll
see a hill. From there you will have a good
view of the river and anything.
Speaker 4: That might be there. All right, I see you later, careful,
careful now. A minute afterwards, who was swallowed up in
the woods. A little while after that, I was on
top of that hill, flat on my stomach, under a
clump of bushes, looking down through strong binoculars. My hunter
was right. It was all there, and I began to
sketch it quickly but accurately. From somewhere the Nazis had
gotten reinforcements, and their high command had decided to make
a stand, dig in and hold there at the river.
There were heavy artillery positions all set up machine gun
and anti tank emplacements. There was barbed wire, lots of it.
There were anti tank obstacles and one hundred and five
millimeters artillery. Miller had seen all of it. There a
nice big booby trap all set for our men to
walk into. When they tried to advance north across the river.
I couldn't hear them, but I could see them, swarms
of German soldiers working hard, working fast, digging in, getting ready.
I took down everything I saw, and I had it complete,
except for the west bank of the river, near the bridge.
There were too many trees blocking my issue. I had
to get closer. By the time I got to the
bottom of the hill and crawled along through the brush
to the west bank. I didn't just see the Germans,
I could hear them as well.
Speaker 13: Slip and lutman. See that more guards are posted at
the edge of the town. The commandant wants no one
snooping around here.
Speaker 2: No one got to get through.
Speaker 4: There were too many of them all around. I knew
it would be crazy to try to get any further
without a plan. I had to have time to think
about a way. I waited until they left. Then I
slipped back the way. I came up the hill and
through the woods to Madame Jeanette's. I went around the back,
so I didn't see the commandant until I walked in.
You are back, yes, I uh, Monsieur hair Commandant. I
have been waiting for well, is there something wrong?
Speaker 11: No, no, oh, of course not once.
Speaker 9: Well, I am here to talk with them as well
as you, m I believe Father Robert told me that
it's your name that is correct. It was through the
kindness and understanding of the German high command here that
you were allowed to see your sick aunt. You understand
that you're not. Oh, yes, I appreciate that it was irregular,
but we'll let you in. However, I am here to
tell you that you had better have no illusions about
leaving Brienn now going back to the American lines, to
your village there.
Speaker 4: No, no, I have no wish to leave. Why you've
anticipated me, her, Commandant, I was going to request permission
to stay here with my aunt from now on. I
was in the square today looking for work.
Speaker 9: And they are good, as long as you understand, madam,
if you will allow me to say.
Speaker 5: So, you look very well.
Speaker 4: Indeed, oh, she was very ill when I came.
Speaker 5: Father Robert gave her last right media tirstpression. I'm not
talking to you.
Speaker 10: My nephew is correct, But there are you here, Commandant.
I was very ill, but I'm very well now.
Speaker 9: Well, that's all I wanted, how are going out? But
remember you are not to live for yea.
Speaker 4: What the commandwan didn't know was that I had no
intention of leaving until I made the sketches of the
west bank of the river. Late that night, Madame Jeannette
helped you bury the plans and diagrams I had already grown.
Speaker 11: You are right, I really do very busier by andy.
Rather than leave them inside, did you say.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's deep enough. Now I put this rock on
top of them. There. That's done. Now you will go
back tomorrow. No, I've got to get a good look
at the west bank of the river.
Speaker 11: It is wise you did not try to we's further.
Speaker 4: Ahead the day.
Speaker 11: It would have been too dangerous. I know another.
Speaker 12: Way through the forest, or tell me it is a
roundabout we but it will bring you closer into the.
Speaker 11: West, or close enough at least so that you will
have a better view than before.
Speaker 4: Ah.
Speaker 10: But if there are so many troops, as you said,
do not get too close.
Speaker 11: When you have finished, come back to the woods the
same way. I will be waiting.
Speaker 4: I did exactly, she said, took the long way round
the cross little streams, watched for landmarks, dropped from high
rocks and landed on rough little paths that were hidden
by the brush. I did everything she said except one thing.
I got too close.
Speaker 6: Er relining those minds too far far?
Speaker 13: What you're doing when these the fencers will be ready
for anything right now?
Speaker 4: I decided I better get up there. And as I started,
a twig under me. Snap.
Speaker 5: What was that?
Speaker 14: Did you hear something in the brush? M hmm, probably
some small animal in the forest. Oh see that happened.
M there's nothing here helping make sure?
Speaker 13: Remember the fragment of a woman's dress we found in
the woods this morning.
Speaker 4: I was crouched down behind a rock and the German
lieutenant came so close I could have reached out and
touched his mud kit boot. He stopped for a minute,
and then he walked right past me.
Speaker 2: There was nothing there. It can't be too careful. I'm
with you.
Speaker 5: There's something I want to tell you.
Speaker 4: I had everything indicated on my sketches, Minefield's tank positions.
I knew everything about the west bank of the river.
I wanted to know when the coast seemed clear. I
started back, but I didn't get very far. Here's your answer.
In the air, I took a couple of steps and
then slammed myself into a shallow ditch. I remember German
bird guns and rifles cracking around me. A bullet went
through the hill of my hood and sent a shock
up my leg that made me wonder if it had
been blown off. And it was quiet, and I waited
for them to come and get me. It was all over.
Perhaps that will convince you we mean what we say.
He Look, I tell you my name is Francois Chauva.
You know my aunt, She's What you're doing is a river.
I'm new in bri I don't know the forest of
the woods. I was lost.
Speaker 5: Perhaps another taste of your fist.
Speaker 9: Great, get them up, put them back on that chair.
Speaker 5: Now listen to me.
Speaker 9: Joever, whatever your name is, we found this sketch of
the bridge at the west bank of the river in
your pocket.
Speaker 4: Look, I don't know, I don't know anything.
Speaker 5: That part of the sketch is quite complete, every detail.
The rest is diagrammed in lightly. There are the rest
of these plans, I don't know. Have you hidden them?
Speaker 1: Where?
Speaker 5: Have you given them to somebody?
Speaker 4: Whom?
Speaker 6: There are the rest of them?
Speaker 5: Kind of antvalt eh, but not right. Twisting his arm again.
Speaker 6: Oh ah hah, yes, fainted.
Speaker 5: Have him thrown in Assel. I will question him more tomorrow.
Speaker 4: That was the German way of questioning, beating you up,
twisting your arm. I was sure they had a lot
more ways of questioning, but I didn't intend to stay
and find out what they were. I had to figure
out a way to escape. And then I noticed it.
The glass of the window in front of the bars
had been shattered. I broke off a piece, and then
I cut myself severely about the face. I guess it
doesn't sound pretty, and it didn't look very pretty, but
that was the effect I wanted. I heard the guard
coming back quickly. I threw myself on the floor in
front of the door, so that when the heavy door
was opened, it would crash into my head.
Speaker 2: You come and don wants to see you.
Speaker 4: No, what's the stars her?
Speaker 2: If I must get her?
Speaker 4: My hair was matted with blood, and my cut up
face looked pretty horrible. Not that the God was worried
about the state of my health. He was afraid of
what the commandant would do to him if I wasn't
able to be questioned. He left the cell door open
and ran and so did I in the other direction.
I ran up the stairs to the second floor of
the small town jail. The Germans had taken over down below.
I could hear voices, wh I didn't wait to hear anymore.
I slid down the sloping roof and landed right next
to a German soldier. It was a good thing. It
was my left arm they had twisted. I was better
with my right anyway. I took his gun an ammunition
belt and shot the front tires of the German cars.
Then I borrowed a parked motorcycle. Just as the Germans
were spilling out the front door. I drove off, headed
back to where I'd buried the papers. But the papers
were gone. Everything I had worked on so painstakingly, the maps,
the diagrams, the sketches, the plans, they were gone. Madame Jeanette,
Maybe she had them, Madam Jeannette. Madame Jeannette opened up.
Speaker 11: Yes, what do you want?
Speaker 4: What Madame Jeannette? Where is she? I've got to see her?
Who cannot, but I've got to It's important. Look, who
are you? Where's Madame Jeanette?
Speaker 11: She died?
Speaker 4: What did you say?
Speaker 14: She died?
Speaker 11: Yesterday?
Speaker 4: Died but I do the Germans.
Speaker 11: If there after you go, I want to travel.
Speaker 4: Go. That motorcycle ride through enemy held territory with that
car full of Nazis firing at me was wilder than
the stories in the comic books I used to draw.
For there was a phosphorus grenade on the ammunition belt
I had taken from the soldier outside the prison. I
took the pin with my teeth and tossed it back
over my shoulder. Through the side MIRRECTULD see the German
car slowing down. It stopped right over the grenade, and
a minute later there was a car full of very
dead Nazis. Well that's all that happened, Granel. The sketches
are gone, but I think I can remember most of them.
The ones I drew last the west bank of the
river I know completely. For the rest, I'll do the
best I can.
Speaker 2: Did your sketches look anything like this? Sudan?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 4: But those are the sketches I don't understand.
Speaker 2: Where did you standing? The woman?
Speaker 4: Woman? What?
Speaker 2: Woman?
Speaker 4: I don't get this, that's why. Man, Hello, madam Jeanette,
I heard you were dead?
Speaker 11: Your face? What happened to your face?
Speaker 4: Never mind? Just tell me?
Speaker 10: Oh, when I learned you were arrested, I dug up
the plan and with other ground help I got them
through the.
Speaker 11: Lines to deliver them for you. Just what that woman,
she had her orders? She was doing as I told her.
Speaker 4: Colonel you know that tavern about a half mile from headquarters? Yes,
I well, do you mind very much if I go
there and get very drunk.
Speaker 3: The maps, diagrams and information which Sergeant Urban Hazen provided
allowed the American Army to prepare a counter offensive. Three
days later they were on German soil, and the report
of another OSS agent closes with the.
Speaker 2: Words mission accomplished.
Speaker 3: Listen again next week to another adventure based on actual
incidents from the files of the OSS on.
Speaker 2: Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 15: Heard in today's Cloaken Dagger Adventure as Irwin was Everett Sloane,
the priest Barry Kroger, the Commandant Stefan Schnabel, Madame Jeannette
Virginia Payne, the Colonel Raymond Edward Johnson. Others were Carl Weber,
Jerry Jarrett, Ralph Bell, and Lattistovitzky. The script was written
by Winterfred Wolf and Jack Gordon, and the music was
under the direction of John Gart Today's true OSS adventure
was based on the book Cloaken Dagger by Corey Ford
and Allister McMain.
Speaker 2: This has been a Lewis G.
Speaker 15: Cohen production in association with Alfred Hollander and was under
the direction and supervision of Sherman Marx program Get Your
Programs Here. Simon Templar plays Hide and Seek with a
friendly killer who has been commissioned by underworld sources to
handle the Saint Hear another top notch adventure with the
Saint and also listening for the Sam Spade Gaper with
Howard Duff starring as America's favorite fast moving, fast talking
private eye. Next exciting high adventure them The Big Guy
on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Really a great episode that delivered some very
tense moments that really exemplifies what makes this such a
great adventure series. This does make me a little curious
what comic book artists secretly served in the OSS. Several
comic book artists were drafted in the war, but we
shouldn't speculate too much that it some comic book artists
that were well known. There was a whole boom of
comic book artists before and during World War two and
then a bit of a bus period. All right, well,
listener comments and feedback now and a listener emails regarding
the episode direct line to bombers, and the listener writes in,
I know it was part of the plot. I know
it was part of the story, but I could not
listen to this episode after they murdered the dog. Yes,
I know in the story they didn't have much of
a choice, but I'm a firm believer and you can
tell a decent story without hurting animals. Thank you so
much for the email. I'd be lying if I said
I was a fan of that decision. I do understand it.
Cloakindagger is one of the most gritty old time radio
programs you'll find, and it's unsparing in its portrayal of
how the war went and what was done in the
course of fighting. This is one case where I kind
of wish that they had been a bit more restrained,
but I do understand why they showed it, and in
many ways it can be helpful to us to understand
what war demands of those who are conducting it, and
while it shouldn't necessarily turn us into pacifest, it should
make us properly cautious about the price that is so
often paid in war and help us not to be
cavalier about entering that state. But I'd definitely hear your concern.
Thank you for the email. Now, I do want to
talk about some of what you're going to hear on
Saturdays on The Great Adventurers. We are going to be
in Cloagndagger if my calculations are correct, right up until
the podcast takes its Christmas break. Then we will have
some OSS related specials, including at least one of the encores,
and then we will be getting in to Counterspy, which
should be the series that we are focused on for
I think close to two years. There are also a
couple of additional adventure series that I have designated as
things that we will do eventually. These include The Whisperer
and The Adventures of Clyde Beatty. Again, these will be
some years down the line, but I'm continuing to research
these series and pick out programs that I think folks
are going to enjoy. All right, Well, now it's time
to think our Patreon supporter of the day, and I
want to thank Rob, Patreon supporter since May twenty four,
currently supporting the podcast. At the rookie level of two
dollars or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Rob,
and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark
the notification bell. We'll be back next Saturday with another
episode of Cloak and Dagger on The Great Adventurers Podcast.
We'll return on Tuesday with an episode of Flash Gordon
and on the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. Join
us back here tomorrow as we will bring you our
next listener support and appreciation special. In the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net. Follow
us on Instagram, instamgram dot com, slash Great Detectives from
voyse Idahold. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.