Myth or what?

Was there such a person (service) as Magdeburg Annie who allegedly sent messages via commericial radio to spies in the West?

I can remember one woman spouting numbers continually and was told that she was passing messages from the communists to their agents in Western Germany. Was this a myth or does anyone know anything concrete these days?

Tesco, near us. I think that's concrete.

All here
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html

also google " numbers stations" loads of web sites about them

Although not a Short Wave geek! I am aware of the sequence number transmissions and often came across them when 'surfing the waves' on my little Sony SW Receiver.

Of course surfing the waves has changed its meaning nowadays since Google came along!

brum wrote:

Tesco, near us. I think that's concrete.

I remember hearing those numbers being transmitted when searching through my radio. That's what I was told to, that it was msg.'s for East German spies.

Also well remember being jammed by the E. Germans on a C. W. circuit in the late 60's. It was a female voice counting up to 10 in German then reversing to 1 and church bells.

We were also jammed by the east ( Chec. or E. German?) in 73 on an American ground to air circuit. The Yanks went bonkers. It was an H.F. circuit and we were in the lucky spot to work through it. We took control briefly and were complemented by the Yank controller.

Some truth there I reckon.

There are several books, mainly in German, which corner in on radio, morse and vox, transmissions from the East to the West concerning agents, both sleeper and active.

You, could, as already mentioned pick them up easily enough. The STASI (Staatssicherheit - East German security service) had hundreds of agents, pressed and volunteers, in Germanys infra structure and some even in BAOR BFG employ - take the locally employed civilian, working in JHQ as an ambulance driver in the med centre - he had access to med docs of all persons stationed and treated there and so the easty beastys could use that info to blackmail soldiers - the list is endless and some in Germany believe that the Stasi, helped by the GRU, are still active!

We were once told that the "agents" on camp were known but left alone. If arrested they would have been replaced and the authorities would have to find out all over again who they were.

We keep an eye on them and never let them near anything sensitive I was told.

Must have been tough if your family were in the east and under threat.

The Stasi had files on all British and other NATO Officers and Senior NCOs - many just basics however, named individuals had complete dossiers starting at birth going through their private and military lives.

On a security briefing we were warned that we should by all means chat to the East German guards at Helmstedt but treat them like IRA dickers as they could glean potential dangerous personal info from oneself.

The example used, by a German Army MAjor, who had family in West Berlin, was the following "I was in civilain clothes, driving to Berlin, I had no military ID. This I left at home. As I was finished at Helmstedt the young VoPo (Volkspolizist - East German civil Police) said "Danke Herr HAuptmann, gute Weiterfahrt" - Thenk you Captain, have a good journey.

I was shocked, he said to us. At that time I was a lieutenant and did not know I had been promoted. Upon return to my unit in Kassel I was duly called into my COs office were I was promoted - the East German security service had known before my unit that I had been promoted!

We were being given a security briefing once, that included photo's of the Brigaders staff car ( Cdn. Bde. Commander) showing how it had been wired by the Stasi. This was in the early 70's.

What about surveillance cameras in space? I was shown some Spearpoint '78 black & white Satellites Imagery which showed an armoured battalion under camouflage in which you could make out each camouflaged site, but not the vehicle itself, but I am told a trained observer could, till I was showed its infrared twin!

Satellites have just got better decade to decade, so what was available in the 60's I wonder?

Cripes, how innocent was I back then? Pretty innocent, I guess.

I knew why my dad was stationed in Germany, of course. Understood the Iron Curtain thing. Knew about SOXMIS (but not about their American and British counterparts...didn't learn of those until joining this site!). Was aware we, as NATO families, could not go into the East Zone or even anywhere near the border between the Federal German Republic and the Democratic German Republic (West vs East Germany). In fact, when my parents went off for a "parents' weekend" to the Harz Mountains region Dad, as I recall, had to get special permission or some such thing and was told where he could and could not travel while in the region since it was so close to the Eastern Sector. They also had a "parents' weekend" in Berlin, flying directly into Templehof. Traveling around in West Berlin wasn't much of an issue, apparently, and they were even able to visit Checkpoint Charlie but that was it. They were not supposed to take photos of anything to do with East German or Russian military, including the sentries at the war memorial in East Germany but of course everyone on the tour bus did anyway.

Apart from that, however, I wasn't aware of the "numbers" transmissions....although when some of you fellows were talking about it in the posts above it was not unfamiliar and I vaguely recall now, 30+ years later, of twiddling through my FM (?) stations and coming across German transmissions that were just numbers. Not sure what I thought they were at the time.

The 1-10/10-1 then church bells item -- Hmmmmm....that rang a bell (oh, sorry....no pun intended LOL).

I do recall some concern/interest when Sputnik went into orbit as the Americans et al, if I remember correctly, thought it'd be used to spy on us. But, being a callow youth of 17 or what ever I was at the time and not much interested in anything but my own life, I didn't pay much attention to it all. Guess I was younger than that...Sputnik went up in, when?, mid-60's? I would have been maybe 10 or so then and back in Canada.....

The BBC used to transmit messages on the World Service.

"Mrs Jones has a black cat" "Leeds has snow again in June" etc

Each resistance group would listen for its own message.

Plus of course the Book Code! where numbers referred to Page, Line, Number, Letter in much the same way as the East German numbers transmissions. If you did not know the book, it was gobligok... which changed on a regular basis of course! sometimes with a page offset.

Hmmm Stephen, that's got me wondering now as well. I'll say one think though, being a pad rat in Germany was fun.

jim wrote:

Hmmm Stephen, that's got me wondering now as well. I'll say one think though, being a pad rat in Germany was fun.

Absolutely!!! Best years of my life, bar none! For many of us it was the defining period of our lives and everything after that was merely postscript ("PS").

I'd agree with that Stephen, growing up in a different country was great, and when we got posted back to England it certainly helped impress the girls at Worcester Royal Grammer.

It's grammar Jim but not as we know it! Beam him up spotty.

Might have been talking to Kelsey.

OOOOPs.

and erm.... who's Kelsey Brum?

Sorry our kid !
Kelsey Grammer, American actor. ("Cheers", "Frazier").
Bit obscure that one.

ah right, not much of a telly watcher here, a by product of being deaf really.

Pardon? Not long till Kineton now Jim.

I know Mike, one of the two great occasions of my year.

Hi matey,
Remember her well spouting out theses numbers it was true I believe

Teabag wrote:

Was there such a person (service) as Magdeburg Annie who allegedly sent messages via commericial radio to spies in the West?

I can remember one woman spouting numbers continually and was told that she was passing messages from the communists to their agents in Western Germany. Was this a myth or does anyone know anything concrete these days?