Shadows on the Wall

By Tommy E. Cauthen

Jerry Stevenson had served in Berlin, Germany, for almost fifteen years and was considered to be an expert intelligence gatherer with excellent contacts in both East and West Germany. Yet he was haunted by a secret that he had discovered in the process of gathering intelligence in Berlin. Due to an accident occurring while extracting a source from East Germany, Jerry came face-to-face with his own conscience. Due to a loss of memory, he had become a CIA employee without realizing he had actually been trained as a Nazi saboteur, who was to land by U-boat in Florida in 1942. It was not until after the Wall went up that his secret web of deceit had been discovered yet forgiven.

Meanwhile the Berlin Wall had divided the city from East to West, with effects even being felt around the world. This new physical and political situation diverted Jerrys activities to even more involvement with clandestine operations, involving himself in the delicate and secret exchange of prisoners, escape attempts, double agents, defections, and even an assassination attempt. This required even more skill, imagination, and courage than many exhibited. With his job, relationship with the love of his life, and his future at risk, Jerry skirts the boundaries between truth, lies, hypocrisy, and ruin. But can he survive long enough to make the right choices and decisions concerning his current operation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512781496

Tommy E. Cauthen

Tommy Cauthen was serving as a U.S. Army officer in West Berlin when the Wall was built in 1961. He recently published his first novel, A Tangled Web followed by its sequel, Shadows on the Wall based on some of his experiences while serving there. After serving eight years in the Army, he joined the FBI and served as a Special Agent for twenty-one years. Subsequent to his retirement, he became the Managing Director of the London office for an international private investigative firm. In that capacity, he was required to travel to Oslo, Norway due to an extortion matter and got his first taste of the Norwegian culture which eventually led to this book. Cauthen lives with his wife, Sally in Largo, Florida.

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Copyright © 2017 Tommy E. Cauthen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of historical fiction, apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure into the narrative. The conversations and story line are those based on the imagination of the writer.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8150-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8151-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8149-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904984

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/21/2017

Contents

Cast of Characters

Introduction

Chapter 1 Relief at Last

Chapter 2 Enter The Wolf

Chapter 3 The Great Exchange

Chapter 4 Spy vs. Spy

Chapter 5 The Student Diggers

Chapter 6 The Assassination Plot

Chapter 7 Defection

Chapter 8 The RB-66 Incident

Chapter 9 The Passport Episode

Chapter 10 The Rabbit

Chapter 11 Time Out!

Chapter 12 The Double-Cross Caper

Chapter 13 High Noon

Chapter 14 Caught in a Trap

Chapter 15 Preparation for Springing the Trap

Chapter 16 Decision Time

Chapter 17 The Plan

Chapter 18 Go for Broke!

Chapter 19 Debriefing

Chapter 20 Inside the Crucible

Chapter 21 The Surprise

Chapter 22 The Bridge

Epilogue

ACRONYMS and Terms most commonly used

Acknowledgments

About the Author

A TANGLED WEB

Also by Tommy E. Cauthen and available online

Dave Munson, a former Federal Agent and co-author with his wife Diane, a former Federal Prosecutor, of many similar novels, including The Camelot Conspiracy, claimed The Tangled Web hooked him from the start and as a writer he was interested to learn ‘the reveal’ and find out who Jerry really was and what the consequences might be. He claimed the story succeeded in holding his interest to the end.

The story which follows is a sequel to The Tangled Web and picks up the actions of the main character identified as Jerry R. Stevenson.

DEDICATION

This novel is dedicated to both my sons who also have faithfully served their county in times of war and peace.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)

Cast of Characters

CIA OFFICERS & AGENTS

Jerry R. Stevenson—CIA Officer assigned to Berlin Operations Base (BOB)

Major Gerald R. Schoenfield—Cover name for Stevenson

Joseph Reinhold Schmidt—True name for Stevenson

George Kunas—CIA Officer assigned to Berlin Operations Base

Captain Jim Duncan—Cover name for CIA Officer assigned to (BOB)

Francis Gary Powers—CIA U-2 pilot shot down over Russia

Allen W. Dulles—CIA Director

AMERICANS

Mary Alice Brown—US Army nurse

Frank Vavrin—US Army Chaplain

Attorney James Donovan—Negotiator for prisoner exchanges in Berlin

Frederic L. Pryor—American student captured by East German Stasi

Alexi J. Hidell—Suspected assassin

Martin Steffan Martinelle—American student spy captured by Soviets

Robert Fredericks—American student captured by East Germans

Jason Edward Loban—American student held in East German prison

Lt. Colonel Robert Sabolyk—US Army Military Provost Marshall, Berlin

Warrant Officer Mark Page—11th Criminal Investigative Detachment, US Army Berlin

Major Johnson— Detachment A Commanding Officer Berlin

Captain Walter Bascomb— Detachment A Executive Officer

Captain Alex Eric Lunz—US Army defector

Sergeant Clayton Appletree—Soviet mole in 78th ASA Special Operations Unit

WEST GERMANS

Herman Baum—West German Federal Police (BND)

General Reinhard Gehlen—Head of BND

Fritz Aeschelman—BND representative working at Berlin Operations Base

MAX—CIA code name for professor at Free University in West Berlin

Joachian Hamisch—CIA source

EAST GERMANS

Walter Ulbricht—President of German Democratic Republic- (East German Government)

Erich Mielke—Minister for German Democratic Republic State Security (Stasi)

Markus Johannes Wolf—Director for HVA (An espionage service)

Werner von Klaus—HVA employee

Willi Krichman—Confidential source for CIA; living and working for BND in East Berlin

Attorney Wolfgang Schultz—a/k/a The Wolf; East Berlin attorney negotiator and go-between

Lt. Colonel Victor Shimenko—Stasi agent

Angela—CIA code name Angel; source working as housemaid for East German general

CZECHOSLOVAKIAN

Valadimir Dobroslav—StB (Czech Secret Police)

SOVIETS

Rudolph Ivanovich Abel—a/k/a Colonel Vilvam Genrikhovich Fisher, Soviet spy

Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky—Soviet Colonel; double agent for British

Yevgeny Zukovitch—KGB controller

Yuri Nosenko—Soviet KGB informer for CIA code name Alibaba

Georgi Yablonski—KGB agent posing as Martin S. Martinelle, a/k/a Captain Martin S. Marston

Leonid Ziominski—Soviet KGB agent

Introduction

Jerry R. Stevenson had been plying his trade for more that fifteen years as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer behind the Iron Curtain. He had been serving in Berlin long enough to become a chief of Berlin Operations Base (BOB), but he was not interested in such a position. Although he possessed the ability to draw accurate conclusions, prioritize many tasks at the same time, work under pressure, and effectively analyze large amounts of data, Jerry preferred the collecting of information and interaction with people, whether friend or foe. He had been working with almost a hundred personnel including more than twenty case officers and was himself a good administrator. But when he woke up early on Sunday morning August 13, 1961, he discovered that their intelligence gathering situation had drastically changed in Berlin overnight. While reflecting on the situation, Jerry realized that numerous changes were in the air as the East German government had begun developing a wall around West Berlin. He knew immediately that not only the political situation had changed, but now the classical period of intelligence operations in Berlin would come to an end. Jerry concluded that the situation would cause a clash between the CIA, KGB, and other intelligence gathering agencies in their modus operandi, and only time would tell how that would work out.

Nevertheless, Jerry realized that those most affected by the construction of the Wall would be the inhabitants of Berlin. He concluded that a wall would stop the flow of refugees; cut off economic links between East Germany and West Berlin, and thus adversely affect the morale and living conditions of the inhabitants of the city.

Jerry knew that in the 1950’s through 1960, thousands of people crossed over from East Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repressions. In 1960, more than 200,000 people passed through from the Eastern Sectors into the West. Then in July 1961, over 30,000 East Germans had fled that month alone into West Berlin to escape from their communist controlled government, and the East German government was desperate to stop the hemorrhage. As most of those escaping were professional people or young adults, the loss created a brain drain for the East German government.

What Jerry didn’t know at the time was that finally, after obtaining approval from Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet authorities in early August, Walter Ulbricht, the President of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), issued orders Saturday night, August 12, to begin sealing off all points of entrance into West Berlin by stringing barbed wire and posting sentries. In an effort to stem the mass of refugees attempting to leave East Germany through West Berlin, the communist government of East Germany began to build what became known as the Berlin Wall, and caught everyone, well almost everyone in the West, by surprise.

Now fast forward in time to the spring of 1965, and we find Jerry looking back over the changes that had occurred as a result of the Wall—

On August 14, 1961 the famous Brandenburg Gate entrance into East Berlin was closed. The next day the first concrete elements were used to establish a more secure wall around the city. Later, large rectangular cement slabs, sentry towers, and minefields were added. US Army troop commanders in West Berlin began to implement plans to bulldoze the wall and knock it down, but gave up the idea when the Soviets moved armored units into position to protect it.

Construction continued in the days, months, and years that followed and caused a fairly short-term crisis in US and Allied forces relations with the Soviet bloc, but the Wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. Subsequently, construction of a solid concrete block wall began, which in effect sealed off West Berlin from East Berlin leaving only certain crossing points from each of the three Allied Sectors (American, British, and French). Even houses along the border were incorporated into the Wall. For example, houses along Bernaurer Strasse, where the sidewalks were in the Wedding borough of West Berlin, and the southern row of houses extending to the Mitte area (the center of Berlin) were integrated into the wall system. The front ground-floor windows and doors to these houses and apartments were sealed by being bricked up and many residents evicted.

What subsequently developed reminded Jerry of the Allegory of the Cave by the Greek philosopher Plato. In his story, Plato has Socrates describe a group of people chained to a wall in a cave facing a blank wall. They can’t turn their heads but can only see the wall directly to their front. They can’t see the wall nor the fire located behind them. They can only watch shadows cast on the blank wall to their front by things passing in front of the fire behind the unseen wall. These shadows are cast by people walking behind the chained prisoners. The sounds of the chained people talking echoed off the shadowed wall to their front, and they are led to believe the sounds actually emanate from the shadows. The prisoners in the cave then begin to name the shadows, as if they are real. Plato then describes the philosopher as being like a prisoner freed from the cave who now observes the light and then recognizes the world outside the cave is better than being inside the cave. This reality makes him want to bring his fellow cave-dwellers out of the cave into the light. But when he goes back into the cave to free them, the darkness temporarily blinds him. The prisoners infer the world outside the cave had blinded the former prisoner; therefore, conclude they would not let anyone drag them out of the cave and thus blind them…

Now in April 1965, Jerry was dealing with a precarious situation and his thoughts suddenly flashed back to the Wall and what had occurred since its construction—

East German border guards were issued procedures to follow when or if they detected unauthorized individuals in the border zone which the West Germans referred to as a death strip. The guards could use deadly force at any location along the border with certain exceptions. These procedures put the border guards under a great deal of pressure to obey the orders. However, if they shot escapees, they were often rewarded with medals, bonuses, and sometimes promotions. But even the guards were not content with their situation, and some decided to take desperate actions to escape.

Jerry recalled one of the first of the inner border guards to escape was nineteen-year-old Hans Conrad Schumann. While on guard duty at Bernauer Strasse in East Berlin, Conrad had just observed a young child being dragged back into East Berlin by other guards. That was the trigger point that caused his leap of freedom. So at four in the afternoon on August 15, 1961, he made headlines and history when a young photographer, Peter Leibing, took his picture in mid-air as he was observed jumping across the barbed wire into West Berlin with his PPsh-41 submachine gun slung over his shoulder. That was the beginning of many other efforts to escape. Some by digging tunnels, some by swimming canals, and still others by such things as stealing an East German train, and then driving it through a neglected abandoned track, or by driving a small convertible sports car with partially deflated tires to allow travel underneath crossing point barrier poles. Some made it and some didn’t.

There were many ingenious and dramatic methods of escaping initially, but then Jerry concluded that most attempted escapes, successful or not, were conducted by using ruses, bribes, and deception to cross through normal checkpoints.

Jerry remembered that many students from the Free University in West Berlin arranged for passports to be provided friends in East Berlin to use to affect their escape. That was similar to what Malcolm Howard did by using his sister’s US passport to extract his girlfriend (who later became his wife) past the VOPO Checkpoint on Stalinallee. This was an eighty-nine-meter-wide socialist boulevard; lined with eight-story buildings; built between 1949 and 1961, and named after Joseph Stalin. Then later, near the end of 1961, it was renamed Karl-Marx-Allee. Yet for Jerry, it was really just an extension of Friedrichstrasse. Sometimes false passports worked, but often the escapees and student providers were caught and suffered the consequences. Many were killed in their efforts to escape regardless of the techniques used.

An example was the eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter, an East Berlin bricklayer, and his friend Helmut Kulbelk, who made their effort to escape on August 17, 1962. They hid in a carpenter’s workshop near the wall on Zimmerstrasse not too far from Checkpoint Charlie. Later they jumped out of a window into the death strip; ran across the barren, bleak, lifeless like strip, and began to climb the six-foot-high wall topped with barbed wire. When they reached the wall, the guards began shooting at them. Kulbelk succeeded in crossing the wall, but Fechter, while near the top of the wall, was hit. Jerry had been on his way to meet an asset in the area and saw Fechter fall back into the death strip. People standing near Jerry also watched from the West Berlin side and observed the West Berlin police throw bandages across for him. But Fechter couldn’t reach them, and the East Germans let him lay on the ground where he bled to death after about an hour. At that time, Jerry and the West Berlin police felt helpless as did the crowd standing by, but they were forbidden to interfere. Later, Jerry read an article in a well-known American magazine. The article claimed that a US Army second lieutenant on the scene received specific orders from Major General Albert Watson, the US Commandant in West Berlin, to stand firm but do nothing to assist. Jerry thought that the order, if accurate, may have actually originated from General Lucius Clay, who at the time was President Kennedy’s personal representative in West Berlin. Jerry surmised that in all probability the lieutenant referred to may have been the Officer in Charge (OIC) of Checkpoint Charlie.—

So this was the situation existing in Berlin when Jerry R. Stevenson, who was assigned to the Berlin Operations Base, had himself been struggling to escape his own past. His efforts to escape the past had formed a tangled web of deceit which he had been weaving for nearly twenty years. Fortunately, his situation had finally been favorably resolved on January 2, 1962 by the current CIA Director, John A. McCone, who had recently replaced Allen Dulles.

The story that follows is based on two sources of actual information—

First are the experiences of the writer, who was serving as an Infantry officer with the 2nd Battle Group, 6th Infantry, which was stationed at McNair Barracks in West Berlin. His service there occurred during August 1960 through March 1962. As a matter of fact, it was in October 1960 that the writer met his lovely English rose, who was soon to become his wife. She was a professional ice-skater who was then performing nightly in an ice show with Holiday on Ice at the Deutchland Halle. His experience also included a tour of duty in February 1962 serving as an Officer-in-Charge at Checkpoint Charlie which helped him shed some light on that specific location. Upon promotion to Captain in April, he was transferred to Brigadier General Frederik O. Hartel’s staff at Berlin Brigade Headquarters located on Clay Allee, where he remained until being transferred to Kaiserslautern, Germany in August 1962.

Secondly, some portions of the fictional story which follow are based on a review of recently declassified CIA documents released by the United States government. Some of the names used in the story are those of real people who you will readily recognize. Some of the names of real people have been changed, but their stories adapted to actual events to allow the writer leeway in developing this historical fictional story from a Biblical worldview perspective. However, the conversations and story line are based on the imagination of the writer in an effort to allow you to get a better understanding of what really happed to the people living through such difficult and traumatic times. The places and locations described were those the writer either personally visited or learned about through review of maps and historical documents.

Chapter 1

Relief at Last

January 1962

George turned to Jerry and asked, How much longer do we have to sit up here in this damp, cramped hole in the wall room looking through these binoculars? It was just after midnight when we arrived and its already 2:00 a.m. Do you think something happened to him which is why he hasn’t shown up yet? Jerry continued watching without taking his eyes off the building where the VOPOS had entered to get out of the freezing cold damp air. He then responded, Patience, George. Don’t you know that’s a virtue? Let’s give it another twenty minutes. Jerry then shifted his focus further north down Stalinallee towards the Friedrichstrasse U-Bahn station, but still there was no sight of the asset. While sitting there in the cold darkness of the lookout, Jerry’s thoughts suddenly drifted back in time to the old Nazi sabotage training facility he had attended just southwest of Berlin…

Jerry realized that he had first begun to weave a web of deceit when he filled out the counterfeit draft registration card on the last day of sabotage training in May 1942 back at Quentzsee, an old farming property located southwest of Berlin. He recalled having returned from their final sabotage training at the Glienicke Bridge which spanned the Havel River at Potsdam. He visualized then sitting at his desk in the farm house and printing in the name Jerry R. Stevenson, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 1, 1920. He also remembered being coached with what residence and address to use; the name of the person who would always know his address; and his employer’s name and address.

He recalled that it was Lt. Walter Kappe, an Abwehr (German military intelligence) officer who was responsible for his saboteur training. He remembered Kappe specifically instructed him to use the document as his identification upon arrival by U-boat at his destination in the United States. Jerry was surprised that after all these years he still had the document filed in his personal papers at his residence in West Berlin…

Finally, Jerry had breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday, January 2, 1962 when his tangled web of deceit had finally been torn down. After twenty years serving in the US Army and CIA, he finally felt free at last from all his pent-up but concealed burdens of his true identity being discovered.

Allen W. Dulles, the former CIA director, had just been informed by his replacement, John A. McCone, of Jerry’s true identity as Joseph Reinhold Schmidt, a German saboteur who had landed by submarine in Florida early in the morning of June 17, 1942. Both McCone and Dulles had accepted Jerry’s claim that he had woken up on the beach in Florida having lost his memory; that he had subsequently enlisted in the US Army; had been wounded while serving with the First Infantry Division in North Africa; that he later trained as an Army interrogator, but since shortly