The Secret War — Part One

If you doubt that Hitler laid claim to Trinidad, thousands of miles and an ocean away from Europe, Gaylord Kelshall, Curator of the Military Museum, Chaguaramas, suggests you visit the Military Museum to check the April 8, 1939 edition of US News and Business Week.

I admit when he told me of Hitler’s ambitions I thought it a bit far-fetched — until I saw the clipping from the magazine on display in the Museum and remembered the strategic importance of Trinidad in Venezuela’s struggle for Independence, and in WW II — which Gaylord Kelshall pointed out to me when I went to the Museum to begin research for this series on Trinidad at War.

"There’s a popular misconception that Trinidad didn’t have any part in the Second World War," he said, "but throughout WW II German Military publications printed many articles about Trinidad because it was part of their bigger strategic picture."

As it was in 1813 when Santiago Marino and the Immortal 45 made the short voyage across the Gulf to Guiria, in 1939 Trinidad was (perhaps still is?) the gateway to South America. That was the first point the Curator made to support German ambitions to dominate South America. His second was the sheltered water of the 100 mile (160 km) wide (from East to West), 40 miles (65 km) long (from North to South) Gulf of Paria — one of the best natural harbours on the Atlantic coast of the Americas.

Thirdly, came Trinidad’s oil, the refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre (the largest in the British Empire at the time), fourthly, to the West, Aruba that had the largest refinery in the world in 1939 and fifthly, of course the Venezuelan oilfields.

"So," said Gaylord Kelshall, "if you could control Trinidad you could control Aruba to the West."

When he said there were many German immigrant communities in South America I thought of Colonia Tovar . . .

"The German language was mandatory in Brazilian schools up to 1942," continued Kelshall, "and Walter Schelenberg, the SD (a branch of the infamous SS) Chief was given responsibility for South America. His job was to infiltrate, to get into the South American German communities and to get military coups to take place, to topple the existing regimes to put pro-Nazi governments in South American republics.

"Just beyond Venezuela lies the Panama Canal," he went on, "which was critical to the United States. So, if you take the strategy a little further, given control of Aruba and Panama, which was feasible, that could mean control of Central America and if you control Central America you control the Gulf of Mexico which is the soft underbelly of the United States, and American oil as well. Trinidad was the sort of lynch pin, the key to all of this."

Sixty and more years later, the mere idea of Germany taking over South America and threatening the US appears nonsensical. But it was taken very seriously at the time and gave rise to the Secret War. "The Secret War," explained Kelshall, "was the movement to and from Trinidad into South America by German spies. There was tremendous spy activity and tremendous diplomatic activity. The British had nominated Trinidad as the gateway so to move to any place in South America a ship had to stop in Trinidad to be inspected, passengers had to be checked. A huge censorship station was set up on the piece of land that is today covered by Furness Withy, the customs building and the Crowne Plaza, an enormous place, 700 Trinidadians worked there censoring everything that came through.

"They were looking for secret instructions, messages in code: that was real spy activity. Bletchley Park in the UK would break the German codes, one message might be that spy so-and-so was on such-and-such ship on his way to Brazil passing through Trinidad on such-and-such a day and MI5 and MI 6 and local Special Branch would pick him up.

"Now I can’t prove this but, before he died a friend involved in the Secret War told me there was a Gestapo representative for Caracas who was passing through; they couldn’t stop him any other way so they slit his throat on the road South of the Bretton Hall Hotel. And next morning they all arrived there very, very surprised, you know, dead man with his throat slit. In fact he was the Gestapo chief for the underground movement in Caracas. But we can’t prove this because my friend is no longer alive.

"However, for me," Gaylord Kelshall continued, "the most amazing part of the Secret War was the role played by the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts were very strong before the War, and the Senior Scouts were drafted in as members of the Civil Defence Force; they were signallers, runners all that sort of thing. They did so well that within a couple of months some of the senior boys were made rural constables and constables in Port-of-Spain. So MI5 went a little further and trained the Boy Scouts as coast watchers, there were 178 localities, if I’m not wrong, that were watched by Boy Scouts, and the Scouts were constantly tested.

"One training and testing exercise was a mini-invasion at Mayaro. The road to Rio Claro was blocked and the road down to Guayguayare, as well as the road northwards to Port-of-Spain. In fact everything was closed and blocked to find out whether, and if so, how the Boy Scouts would get the message to Headquarters in Port-of-Spain. Someone leading the Boy Scouts knew what he was doing. He led them along the railway track to Knolly’s Tunnel where they found a telephone that was not guarded, the message got through and...

"Now, nobody knew anything about the role of the Boy Scouts." insisted Kelshall, "My father was involved in the war effort yet he knew absolutely nothing about the Civil Defence and the work of Boy Scouts. It was only in 1996 when we located a War Office report in a secret document that had just been released describing the activities of the Boy Scouts in Trinidad that we had any idea of the part played by the Boy Scouts in Civil Defence.

"The British were so impressed with the part played by the Boy Scouts that two things happened: the Governor said, ‘I want two senior Scouts with me all the time wherever I go.’ (incidentally, one of them, John Simpson a Trinidadian born in San Fernando, later became the Commander of the British SAS regiment).

"The second thing — which sounds like something out of Boy’s Own Paper (a comic for boys in the days before television, Ninja Turtles etc etc) was this: MI5 opened a spy training school for Boy Scouts at Paxvale in Santa Cruz. They actually turned out Boy Scout spies. Now that by itself sounds incredible, but it gets even more incredible because the document says the Boy Scouts actually captured spies. There’s a specific account of them capturing three people down in the Icacos area, trying to get to Venezuela.

"There was another account of Boy Scouts realising that homing pigeons were going out all the time and they traced them back to the owner who turned out to be sending intelligence information across to German agents in Venezuela, so the Boy Scouts’ part in the Secret War is for me a source of pride. There were spies all over the place.

"And the Sea Scouts?" I asked.

"The Sea Scouts patrolled the harbour." he replied.

However, Gaylord Kelshall’s account of the work of the Sea Scouts, the War in the Gulf and at Sea must wait for next week.