“Insofar as Operation Phoenix is concerned, the Americans know all about that, too, and did before the Froggers deserted. The decision there has been to interfere if possible—in other words, if they could learn of other shipments, where they would be landed, they would inform the Argentines, so that Germany would be embarrassed and the funds lost—but not to take action themselves.
“Again, their intention is to collect evidence not only that the Phoenix funds were sent to Argentina, but about how they were expended. When the war is lost, they can then claim both any unexpended funds and what property, et cetera was acquired with the funds, as enemy property.
“I have decided it would be counterproductive to inform the Americans— if indeed I could find out, and I am not going to ask any questions, and no one else should—of the dispatch of special funds by submarine, and their arrival sites and dates.
“Von Deitzberg knows nothing of all this, and I am reasonably sure he thinks I don’t know about the ransoming operation. But he will proceed on the assumption that I do—in his shoes, so would I.
“What von Deitzberg wants to do is make sure there is absolutely nothing in A
rgentina—or Uruguay, which is usually the destination of the Jews extracted from the concentration camps—that could possibly tie him to the ransoming operation.
“So let us consider what we have in Buenos Aires: The man Bormann sent there over my objections, Kapitän zur See Boltitz, has proven to be a better counterintelligence officer than I thought he would be—”
“Over your objections, Admiral?” Gehlen interrupted. “I thought—”
“That he was one of us? The sure way to get him there was to convince Bormann I didn’t want him to go. May I go on?”
“I beg your pardon, Herr Admiral,” Gehlen said.
“As I said, Boltitz proved to be a far better counterintelligence officer than I thought he would be. And since his orders from me were to find the traitor, or traitors, in the embassy, he did just that: It didn’t take him long at all to find out that Major von Wachtstein had passed—to Major Frade of the OSS—the details of when and where the Océano Pacífico was going to attempt to land the special cargo.
“That resulted—I think everybody but you knows this, Gehlen—in the Océano Pacífico being met by either Argentine army snipers—or representatives of the OSS—who shot Oberst Grüner, the military attaché, and his assistant, Standartenführer Josef Goltz, to death and forced the landing of the special cargo to be aborted.
“Boltitz confronted Major von Wachtstein and they reached a between-honorable-officers agreement: Major von Wachtstein would have a fatal accident in his Storch and Kapitän zur See Boltitz would not only not reveal his treason, but destroy what evidence he had collected.
“While Major von Wachtstein was perfectly willing to carry out his end of the agreement—doing so would keep General von Wachtstein from being hung from one of Himmler’s butcher’s hooks—he saw it as his duty to tell Ambassador von Lutzenberger, whom he knew to be a Valkyrie conspirator, what had happened.
“That forced the ambassador to make Boltitz privy to what was going on long before I wanted that to happen.
“While I was delighted, of course, that Major von Wachtstein did not have a fatal accident, I confess that I had—that I have—certain concerns vis-à-vis the ability of either of these young officers, neither of whom has any experience to speak of in matters of this sort, to handle their new situation.
“The SS man in Buenos Aires, Obersturmbannführer Karl Cranz, and his deputy, Sturmbannführer Erich Raschner, are both very good at what they do. For reasons he did not choose to share with me, Bormann arranged for Cranz to be sent there, replacing von Deitzberg, while leaving Raschner, who has been von Deitzberg’s deputy there.
“Having said that, I am at a loss to understand why Cranz sent Obersturmführer Heitz and his men—whose mission in Argentina was to guard the special shipment until it could be used for Operation Phoenix—to try to rescue—more likely eliminate—the Froggers at Frade’s farm.
“Nor do I understand why that mission was a complete failure. One possible scenario is that the chief of Argentina’s BIS, a Colonel Martín, who is very competent, could have learned about the plan and warned Frade—that is, warned Frade’s men, as Frade was in the U.S. at the time of the attack.
“This is not to suggest that Frade has turned Colonel Martín, or even that Martín is more sympathetic to the Allied cause than previously suspected. It is more likely that he is acting solely in what he perceives to be Argentina’s best interests.
“Supporting this scenario, but not confirming it, are these facts: Nothing appeared in the Argentine press, nor was anything mentioned discreetly by Argentine authorities to the ambassador about either the attack on Frade’s farm or the attempted assassination of Frade shortly after he returned to Argentina from the United States.
“It could be—purely conjecture—that whether or not Martín was actively involved in seeing that both attacks failed, his failure to take official notice of either gave the German Embassy—not only Cranz, but the ambassador as well—the message that any future efforts along these lines would not only similarly fail but would also greatly annoy the Argentine officer corps, which is to say the government.
“Much of the Argentine officer corps was greatly annoyed when Oberst Frade was assassinated. The assassination was arranged for—over the objections of Oberst Grüner, who knew how popular Frade was within the officer corps—by Standartenführer Goltz acting at the orders of Himmler or, more likely, von Deitzberg.
“The idea, apparently, was to strike terror into the hearts of the Argentine officer corps: Anyone who posed a threat to the ambitions of the German Reich, even someone about to become president of Argentina, as Frade was, could be eliminated.
“To their surprise, the reaction of the officer corps to Oberst Frade’s murder was not fear but outrage. The coup d’état, which followed shortly, put into power a man who is anything but convinced of our Final Victory. Moreover, Frade’s son participated, apparently showing great personal courage, in the coup d’état, which made him, in the eyes of many officers, a son of Argentina come home, rather than the OSS man in Argentina.
“After the disaster at Samborombón Bay, von Deitzberg put on a major general’s uniform and went to Argentina, where he assured Oberst Juan Domingo Perón that the German officer corps was as outraged over Frade’s assassination as he was. He told Perón the assassination had been the late Oberst Grüner’s idea.
“Von Deitzberg also carried with him a map of how South America will look after our Final Victory. Uruguay, Paraguay, and parts of Brazil will become part of Argentina. He also made it clear that Germany would help in any way it could to see that Perón became president. And showed him how profitable it would be for him to assist in the investment of Operation Phoenix funds.
“How much of this Oberst Perón swallowed whole is unknown.
“Another unknown here is what role the first secretary of our embassy, Anton Gradny-Sawz, has played, if any, in any or all of this. The ambassador feels he has played no role at all. On the other hand, Gradny-Sawz has demonstrated his willingness to change sides whenever he feels his side is going to lose. He’s a Viennese, one who was very helpful to the Third Reich before the Anschluss returned Austria to the Grossdeutsches Reich.
“It is possible, I suggest, that Gradny-Sawz, who is privy to Operation Phoenix, has decided to ingratiate himself with the Argentines in case the Final Victory doesn’t take place. That, in other words, he approached the Argentines or, more likely, Martín approached him and found him receptive. I just don’t know.