After arriving at Stalag Luft III, he continued the war effort by utilizing his previous training as an OSS [Office of Strategic Services] agent to  become a covert code writer for MIS-X in Ft. Hunt. Carol’s father was head of the intelligence operation communicating with MIS-X from SL3. MIS-X sent and received coded letters with POWs. He taught other POWs how to code. I believe he was made head of a committee at SL3 to oversee coordination of athletic activities. This allowed him to visit all the compounds and while there, he actually was teaching POWs how to code. He also participated in plays in the compound’s camp theatres, keeping him associated with many POWs while conducting intelligence. Her father thought he was corresponding with a woman in the U.S. He finally met “the woman” when he returned home.

British intelligence service MI9 did these same things from London. A German guard in the camp bragged he was going home to Peenemunde where there was a big VII rocket factory, and he said that rocket would win the war for the Germans. The RAF coders immediately reported that news to MI9 in London, and they passed the info on to the RAF who then immediately set up a bombing raid on Peenemunde destroying that facility. The guard returned to the camp and was dismayed to tell the POWs that the facility had been bombed, and he couldn’t understand how the RAF knew it was there.

The United States Department of War operated MIS-X. Secret equipment, such as small compasses, maps, and radios were smuggled into the camp to aid with escapes and intelligence operations.

Between MI9 and MIS-X, an abundance of contraband made its way into the camp. Each packer of special illegal parcels had a unique mark that the prisoners at Sagan were alerted to look for. As the tunnels advanced in the spring and summer of 1943, the steady delivery of illegal parcels flooded the camp, and shipments were quite sizable.

Monopoly games with real German money, brushes that came apart to reveal contraband, including inks for forging documents, sports equipment that hid the same, and compasses hidden in uniform buttons were gratefully received. There were blankets that when washed revealed pattern marks to cut along to turn into civilian jackets.

At one point, MI9 delivered a full German uniform. Ten days after the Japanese surrendered, ending the war, MIS-X was shut down. It was not until 1986 that any information about the covert operation was revealed. Exactly what they communicated and their methods for doing so are still somewhat classified today.

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Glenn Flickinger leads another conversation about Masters of the Air, this time with children and grandchildren of the Apple TV+ series’ main characters. Each is an expert on the 100th Bomb Group, and each will share their family members’ stories and their thoughts on the series.