ODD TALES FROM SECRET FILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 24, 1984
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/08/16 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8
DATE c~a7--~UIVLs'~ PACE
Odd tales from secret files
By John Sherwood
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
he Central Intelligence
Agency has reluctantly
opened for research-more
than 450 boxes of''once-
secretfiles of World War II's Office
of Strategic Services'." ~;, , '
The agents at the CIA, succes-
sors to the 'dashing spies: at OSS,
have hoarded the covert operations
' intelligence, records for nearly 40
years.
Winnowing out the
dramd in these faded
papers depends
greatly on luck. A
proper card index file
is'non-existent. '
Two: days of eye-
strain in a grim and
chilly researcher's
room..Then a random
opening ,of Box :37 of, ':
109 of the OSS I~istor`y
Office Files turns up.
this intrigbing folder:
"NATO (North Afri- ~"-
can Theater Oper-
ations] Anthology.
Algiers, Vol. 1." A
coded opening page is i
marked: "Secret -
Equals British Most
Secret? '
Hmmmm ... "The
Simmons Beautyrest
Project: Sir Smokey
Chases the Holy
Grail:'
"Simmons" was the
an alert Danish scientist happened
by the strange, unarmed dud that
suddenly dived into the ground. He
took photographs of the damaged
bomb and gathered a lot of'tech-
nical data.
"He had but a few hours to do
this;' Lt. Downey wrote, "and was
successful in eluding the Germans
who were on the ground in the
neighborhood awaiting to report on
the experiment. Ilowevcr, the
Gestapo later captured this Danish
projectiles; q~ast agreed'lhat they
had some kind of wings and tail.
Most also agreed that they seemed
to change their course ih midair
after launching:'
A committee met in deepest
secrecy on Malta to study the bomb
fragments, and those involved were
forbidden to discuss the new
weapon with anyone.
By early November, the OSS
already had a plan and Lt. Downey
had a mission. The main objective,
he continued, "was, to
get physical posses-
sion ofthese bombs, if
possible, and in this
effort we were con-
tinuously running up
against a stonewall in
our efforts.
"It was not because
people did not want to
cooperate with us but .
everywhere we
turned we were told
the same old story'-
'it can't be done,' or'it
is impossible.' It was
at this point that our
nickname for the
bomb Game into being
-'Holy Grail: "
The first attempt to
steal the bomb was in
the middle of January
in Norway "where the
temperature is any-
thing but tepid, and
[we] trudged over
sixty miles of file
roughest terrain con-
ceivable to get to
His mission impossible: Storm a
secret Nazi bomb plant and capture
the super-secret "gluier bomb,"
code name for a top `
secret mission under Lt. William 1c'V.
(Smokey) Downey, U.S.N;R,, Secret
Operations Officer, ,North Africa.
His mission impossible: Storm a
secret Nazi bomb plant ("Beaut-
yrest") and capture the super-
secret "glider bomb" that was later
to become famous as the terrifying
V-1 rocket that buzz-bombed Eng.
land.
The mission would take almost a
year, cost many. lives, and dispatch
agents around the world to Egypt,
Great- Britain, Algeria, Norway,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark,
France, Italy, Greece, and America.
Let's have a look, then, at Lt. Dow-
ne~~'s report, secret for four dec-
ades:
"1'he ..mission, of the highest
secret priority, was created after a
"radio-guided bomb" landed at 1
p.m. on Aug. 22, 1943 on the remote
Norwegian island of Bornholm on
an experimental flight. Incredibly,
patriot and he was shot to death."
The secret data,, however, got
through. It reached London
through the Norwegian Govern-
ment in Exile's Secret Intelligence
Corps. Inexplicably,. the intelli-
gencenever got to the United States
through the regular channels domi-
nated by the British.
"Nevertheless, and in spite of
some opposition from our own peo-
ple in England," Lt. Downey noted,
"the photos ahd.technical informa-
tionwas forwarded to the U.S. First,
and for reasons I'll never be able to
quite understand,'I,was told not to
send the material to Washington:'
Also in September, the "radio-
directed flying bombs launched
frotm~i~(gttt~,;'~ , t~firet+uaed~by?
the GermHns'f"n` N[~dil'erranean
in a devastating attack on a crewed
British patrol boat. The unusual
missiles, were described as "small
airplanes, rockets, and shell-like
Banack, the German-held airport
on the Arctic Ocean ...After five
weeks the teams reached the -air-~
port and returned to their base, but
reported no trace of the bomb, nor
of the plane which carried the
radio-controlled bomb"
Early 'in February 1944, they
decided to concentrate on getting
the-radio mechanism, rather than
the rocket bomb itself, "because it
weighed but 50 pounds and was
about 3 feet overall, whereas 'the
rocket bomb, dubbed the'Robomb;
or the'Buzzbomb; and technically
known as the V-l, was believed to
weigh 3,000 pounds, or even more"
The first of several tragedies
came when two OSS agents lucre
droppt:d behind the lines in France.
One of them died when he struck a
tree upon landing, and the other
was forced to return.
see OSS, page 2f3
Approved For Release 2005/08/16 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8
 Approved For Release 2005108116 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300160005-8
oss
From page 7B
Information from Algiers
revealed that the bomb was seen in
southern France, near Toulouse,
and also at Bordeaux. The first
"Everything wasin readiness for out, in the ten minutes following the leadership.of Webster, who had
theoperation and the signal given;' this bombardment, a powerful been killed a short time before
he continued. "The' first force of diversion on the railway and the D-Day in June.
bombers, however, never reached roundhouse. '
the target because of a terrific 'Iwo OSS ageais were the' first
freak storm that came u in the "But it is important;' he added, Allied uniformed men to arrive at
p "forthesecurityofourmenandthe the base after the Maquis took it,
Rhone Valley that caused the target success of the coup de main, to and they spotted the bombs and the
to be obliterated. One of the 6omb? respect to the second the time mother shi
r
ps at the original Web-
accurate information of the exact were forced
down because of tthe agreed upon for the end of the bom- stet location. A few days later, Brit-
whereabouts of the elusive bomb bardment, and for the beginning of ish pilots landed at the airport and'
came from "our Ma uis a ent, storm. The others were unable to the diversion,"
q g get into the target area at all' flewthebomb'smothershiptoEng-
Webster,"wholocateditattheBlag? ' Webster's 12 armed saboteurs "Beautyrest"wasabandonedfor land andturnedoveranintactbomb
nac Airport near Toulouse. about a month and reset for the to an ordnance evaluation depot in
Later,thissameWebstercameu came down from the hills dressed night of dune 9-10. But again fate Ohio.
with the information that the Ge P were amazed toof nd theaclant wads intervened and it was cancelled Lt. Downey apologized to his OSS
mans had stared hundreds of these P when, after the D-Day invasion of superior for "our people not being
bombs at a factor near Porter Des ~ still intact but ,[fat the bombings Normandy,all German troops in the in on the kill as far as actually get-
Y were taking place on targets about porter Des Valence area were ling physical possession of .the
Valence, Lt. Downey reported. a mile east of the factory. Thediver- moved out, along with the secret 'Holy Grail' was concerned:'
He spent two weeks in Algiers in sionary attack was being carried bombs. New leads now laced the
April perfecting plans far"Beauty- out on schedule, the crews not p . In a secret message to OSS "Col.
rest" the name designated for the bombs in the Aliddle East, on the Glavin" dated Sept. 22, 1944, Lt.
knowing that the first force was island of Crete, and at an airport Downey stated: "If you remember,
operational plan in early May, unable to get through to the rinci-
"whereby asquadron of bombers p near Salonika, Greece. it was our information that orig-
based in Sardinia was to bomb the pal target:' The secret Greek mission wasl inallyplacedthesebombsnearlbu?'
(Marchal] factory at Porter Des But there are conflicting dates ,tagged "Chewing Gum," and was louse so I feel that we inOSSdid
,Valence ; : ,and under cover of a here. ' justas sticky. Settin off fromAlex-
The Maquis ynderg~ound agent' andria, E g have no little to do with the securing
diversionaryattack Webster's par- ~ Websterreportedthreeattem is in gYpt, they arrived at a of this highly-prized captured
tisans of the Maquis (a French p base in TLrkey only to be held up by equipment, even though we did not
underground' fighter]' were to o May, not Lt. Downey s one. the British and Germans, who were actuall
g On the night'of May ti?7, Webster Y get the equipment out of
into the plant grotinds and attem t ~ threatening to fire upon any and al! the airport:'
tosnaichtheHolyGrail:' P re rtednobombardmentandthat vessels. By moving the landing, a In an introduction to t8e
his .returning Maquis were sur- delay of three more weeks came "Simmons Beautyrest Project: Sir
T'hishtgh-priority plan "was the prised by a German irol and two
first time in this war that anopera- ~ 'partisans of the FreeaGrou were because the agents had to get Smokey Chases the Holy Grail"
lion was coordinated between air p through the mountains in the Salo- {dated Feb. 10,1945), an OSS agent
forces and the underground forces khel factory again was n M bombed, nika area. By the tim?i they finally using the initials "CSC" praised Lt.
for an operational objective," he reached the airport, they discov- Downey.He"wasabletainformthe
and again they turned back. A third ered that the Germans had moved Allied HQ in London of the location
wrote. "Every detail of the'Beauty- attempt came on the ni ht of Ma
rest' plan was gone into minute! g Y the bombs again. of launching sites along the French
Y 13-14, but still- there was no bom- "Ideft for Italy on September 7, channel coast. This was of great
and the operation laid on for the bardment.
night of May 10-11. My job in the 1944;'? Lt. Downey reported. "We value in the invasion of fiance and
operation was to arrange the tim- to try againpewrope ant obv ouslg had been receiving reports from in the second trial by ordeal of Eng-
ing, notify Algiers in time so that Y Northern Italyaboutthepossibility (and ...The mission, while it took
they could notify Webster in am le frustrated Webster, "if you could of the `Holy Grail' being found longer than had been hoped, was
P assure a powerful bombardment, somewhere near the Milano area:' thus far froth a failure:'
time to get in touch with his people breaching the wall parallel to the
of the Maquis:' Rhone, preferably, cousin the Returning to Caserta, Lt. Dow- An interesting story, CSC
There is same question about Lt. g ney heard the news that forces of observed, "though apparently Sir
mines bordering this wall on the the Maquis had taken the Blagnac Smokey did not himself achieve his
Downey's timing, however. outside to explode, and car m
rY g airport near Toulouse, but without objective"
Approved For Release 2005108116 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8
 Approved For Release 2005/08/16 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8
2 g JUN.1984
Approved For Release 2005/08/16 :CIA-RDP93B01194R001300050005-8