Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the enemy lines, knowing you may never
return alive?
What you have just heard is the question asked during the war to agents of the OSS, ordinary
citizens who to this question answered, yes.
This is Cloak and Dagger.
Black warfare, espionage, international intrigue.
These are the weapons of the OSS.
Today's adventure, Operation Sellouts, is the story of an American OSS agent who went
into German occupied France to locate Nazi submarine bases and is suggested by actual
incidents recorded in the Washington files of the Office of Strategic Services.
A story that can now be told.
I knew something was up when Colonel Palmer met Tom Barnes and me at the dock that night.
He hadn't come down from London just to wish us bon voyage.
There wasn't time for such formalities in the OSS, even when a couple of its agents
were embarking for the coast of Nazi occupied France.
Then as the jeep pulled to a stop, the colonel stepped into the faint glow of the blackout
light.
Captain Dagger?
Yes, sir.
This is the radio operator, Captain?
That's right, sir.
I'm Barnes, sir.
Barnes Corporal Barnes, Sussex Guards.
You men are all set?
Yes, sir.
You shove off in 20 minutes.
That'll put you ashore below Saint-Azaire just before dawn.
After you've been landed, you'll move inland exactly six kilometers.
You'll be met there by an agent of the Marquis.
You understand?
Yes, sir.
Now men.
We've got a lecture then, Tom.
You're going to be a good man.
We've got a lecture then, Tom and I.
We didn't need it.
We knew our mission was important.
German submarines had been hitting our convoys in the Atlantic, hitting them hard.
Shipping losses had to be cut, and the best way to cut them was to blast the Nazi sub-pens
along the French coast.
It was my job to locate the biggest pens.
It was Tom's job to radio the information back to England so the Allied air forces would
know where to lay their eggs.
We didn't need any lecture on how important it was.
Daggett, you're not listening.
I'm sorry, Colonel.
I heard it all in London two days ago, sir.
I was wondering why you came down here to say it again.
I may have had another reason for coming down.
That's what we figure, sir.
There's been a change in plans?
Slight one, yes.
Originally, you too would have wanted to take this mission alone.
I've decided now to send a third man with you.
Oh, who is he, sir?
I'd rather say nothing about it until you see him.
You'll be something of a surprise to you, perhaps.
A surprise, sir?
Yes, though not too unpleasant of one, I hope.
Your reaction to him may well determine the success of your mission.
I, uh, I'm afraid I don't understand, Colonel.
You will in a minute.
He's already on the boat.
Come along.
Tom and I followed the Colonel out on the dock.
British Navy torpedo boat that was going to take us across the channel lay in the water,
the black shadow and the black night.
We climbed aboard, stowed our gear on deck, and moved toward the forward cabin.
Tom and I exchanged looks.
Neither of us liked this, uh, slight change in plans.
Your new man is in here, Captain.
Well, let's have a look at him, Colonel.
For a moment, the bright lights of the cabin spilling out on the deck blinded me.
Then I saw him.
At first, I thought it was a gag, until the guy turned, until he made a stiff bow from
the waist, until he said, Good evening, gentlemen.
I'm Lieutenant Karl Müller of the German Reichswehr.
Then I knew it wasn't a gag.
He belonged in that uniform he was wearing.
It was all his, every Nazi stitch of it, right up to the Death's Head insignia on his left
shoulder.
Himmler, this is Captain Link Daggett, and this is Corporal Barnes of the British Army
under detached service with the OSS.
It is a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
Is it?
Colonel Palmer, may, uh, may Barnes and I speak to you alone?
All right, Daggett.
I will go out on deck.
Well, Daggett?
Well, do we have to say it, sir?
You must know how we feel about this.
I'll say it, Link.
Sir, I don't like the idea of taking a gerry with us into Nazi territory.
Well, do we have to do it, Colonel?
You volunteered for this mission, Barnes.
You don't have to do anything.
Yes, but Daggett and I can do the job, sir, without a gerry.
You can do it faster with him, Corporal.
And we've got to start hitting those sub vents as quickly as possible.
Müller will be valuable to you in obtaining information from his former fellow officers.
Must have a lot of faith in this Nazi, sir.
He's not a Nazi.
He's a German.
Is there a difference, sir?
Yes.
Even when he was an officer in one of Hitler's pet divisions, Colonel?
Through no choice of his own, Daggett.
Müller was captured by the British in North Africa two years ago.
He's been working as an interpreter for the OSS for 18 months.
He's been thoroughly screened.
We have faith in his story that he's always been opposed to Hitler.
Well, he could have been lying to you, sir, just waiting for a chance like this, a chance
to get back to German territory.
He could have been, but we don't think he was.
Yeah, but if he were, Sir Barnes and I are a couple of dead ducks.
He'll sell us out the minute we get across the channel.
That's quite true, Daggett.
And that's the chance you'll both have to take.
Well, we could have backed out, but we didn't.
You never do.
So we headed across the channel.
One Englishman, one American, and one German.
I don't know what the German was thinking.
He didn't say much, but the Englishman and the American were thinking it was going to
be a one way trip.
Just before dawn, the torpedo boat put us ashore below Santa's air.
We stood listening to our motors die away.
And I turned and walked up to Lieutenant Carl Müller.
I lifted his luger out of its holster and he didn't say a word.
I broke the gun open.
There were 12 rounds in the clip and one shell in the chamber.
I dropped the clip in my pocket and handed the gun back to him.
The shell is still in it.
Danke Herr Kapitel.
You'll learn.
I left you one shell.
If anything goes wrong, you may need it.
That is, if you're on the level.
I will use it on myself rather than fall into the hands of the Nazis.
Yeah, I know you will.
If you're on the level.
If you're not, though, you'll think twice about using it on us.
See you.
You couldn't get both of us with one shell.
You understand?
Yeah, I understand, Herr Kapitän.
It was just a phony gesture, of course.
He knew as well as I did that it didn't mean a thing.
Country was occupied by a half million of his countrymen.
He could wipe us out like like stepping on a bug.
If he wanted to.
Dawn was breaking when we left the beach.
We started inland to keep our rendezvous with Philippe Martin, the Naki agent who was to
set us up with a base of operations.
He must have made quite a picture.
Two men dressed as French peasants trudging along behind a Nazi officer.
We kept to the fields and moved along hedgerows as much as we could.
Then we came to a highway.
German army lorry rumbled by while we squatted behind the hedgerow and held our breath.
Looks all clear now, Link.
Yeah, yeah, we'll cross one at a time.
You first, Mueller.
Yeah, Herr Kapitän.
He got over the hedgerow and out onto the highway.
It was halfway across.
Tom and I straightened up to follow him and we saw it.
We dropped down again.
A German reconnaissance car swinging around the bend in the road.
It stopped a few feet from Mueller.
He looked at the Nazis.
He looked at him.
We looked at both of them through the hedgerow and waited.
Heil Hitler.
It was in the lift of his voice.
It was in the smile on his face.
There was no mistaking it.
Karl Mueller was back with his buddies.
Karl Mueller was home.
Link, let's get away from here.
Make a run for it along the hedgerow.
For what?
If he tips off those crouts, we won't get 10 feet.
Yes, I guess you're right.
Well, if we go, I'm taking Jerry with us.
I'd had the same idea.
I'd already sneaked my revolver out of my coat.
We drew a bead on that stiff Prussian back and we did some all waiting.
Crouching and waiting until...
Heil Hitler.
All right, Herr Captain.
It is safe for you to come out now.
We went out, but not before we'd exchanged another whisper.
Not before Barnes said what we were both thinking.
Maybe the colonel was right, Link.
Maybe the Jerry's on the square.
Or maybe he's just smarter than we thought.
What do you mean?
Not enough to use us for bait.
That was it, bait.
Why get rid of us so fast?
We weren't that important.
He could get rid of us whenever he wanted to.
And he'd only want to after we'd served his purpose.
After we'd jeopardized the French Maquis by exposing them to him.
Yes, after we'd sent a lot of Yankee and British fliers to their death.
We joined Mueller and continued on to our rendezvous point.
There was nothing I could do about it.
Mueller had been assigned as a member of the mission.
So far he'd acted like one.
Don't knock off a fellow agent unless you're sure.
All right, Link.
We're just six kilometers east of the beach now.
Yeah.
Yeah, this patch of woods must be the place.
What do we do now, Herr Captain?
Nothing.
Just wait.
Wait for what, Monsieur?
He'd stepped out from behind a bush as silently as a shadow.
But shadows don't carry tommy guns.
You were expecting someone, Monsieur?
Yeah, a man named Philippe Martin.
I am Philippe Martin.
Well, then you know who we are.
I'm afraid not, Monsieur.
If there were two of you, I would know.
But not three.
There was a last minute change of plans.
A very great change.
It made room for a Nazi officer.
Look, not all men who wear Nazi uniforms are Nazi officers.
True, Monsieur.
But all Frenchmen know a Nazi when they see one in or out of uniform.
Why is this man here?
That tommy gun was shoving into Mueller's chest.
I had to talk fast.
I explained who the German was.
I said the OSS trusted him.
The OSS may trust him, Monsieur, but I trust no German.
That makes no difference.
My orders are that Mueller is a member of this mission.
Now let's get going.
You hear me, Martin?
Very well, Monsieur.
Follow me.
Where are you taking us?
To my farm.
You will set up your radio in my barn.
Is it safe?
Safe?
Why don't you ask your friend Herr Mueller?
Two hours later, Tom had his transmitter set up in the loft of Philippe Martin's farm,
a few miles outside San Jose.
With your permission, Herr Kapitaine, I will leave now.
Yeah.
You know what you're to do, Mueller?
Yeah, yeah.
With these forged orders Colonel Palmer gave me, I will be able to secure all the necessary
information about submarine pens in the San Jose area.
If you want to.
I hope Herr Kapitaine, I will be able to prove to you that I do want to.
We hope so too, Mueller.
All right, get going.
We expect you to contact us daily.
We don't hear from you.
Link.
Thumbs at the door.
Who could that be, Philippe?
Philippe?
It is all right, Monsieur.
It is my sister Marie.
She is also a loyal member of the Maquis.
Marie Martin wasn't just a loyal Maquis member, she was a beautiful one too.
I wouldn't have had a look at her to know it, I'd only have had a look at Tom Barnes
as her brother introduced her.
This is my sister Marie, Monsieur.
Marie, Captain Daggett, Corporal Barnes and Herr Leutnant.
Herr Leutnant?
A German?
Here?
Lieutenant Mueller is a prisoner of war, Mademoiselle, working for the OSS.
He is a Nazi.
An ex-Nazi, Mademoiselle.
The only ex-Nazis are dead ones.
Philippe, throw this pig out of here.
Wait a minute, Mademoiselle.
Your brother and I have had all this out.
Philippe has agreed to...
He has no right to agree.
This is as much my farm as it is his.
I will not have a Nazi on it.
All right, all right.
Inasmuch as Mueller's just leaving for St. Isaiah on a mission...
You are sending him on a mission?
You must be out of your mind, Captain.
I think she has a point, Link.
You remember that little discussion we had back on the highway about...
The
bait?
Yeah, I remember it, Tom.
And I'm pretty sure now that we were right...
We have no more proof now than we did then.
I would rather he would stay here, Captain, than see him go on a mission.
Well, Herr Captain, get going, Mueller.
Link, you're making a sound.
You will hear from me, Herr Captain.
You will hear from me.
Through the Gestapo.
I wasn't sure she was wrong.
And Tom Barnes was sure she was right.
But then Tom's judgment wasn't to be trusted.
Not where Marie Martin was concerned.
Well, Tom, where you been?
I, um...
I took a walk with Marie down by the brook.
You take a lot of walks with Marie, don't you?
Why not?
There's nothing to do but cool our heels until we hear from Mueller.
And quite frankly, old man, I can't think of anybody I'd rather cool my heels with.
And then we heard from Mueller.
We heard quite a lot from him.
And not through the Gestapo either.
You must copy these maps immediately, Herr Captain.
I must get them back to the Nazi headquarters before morning.
You will find on them the location of the Nazi sub pens from St. Azaire to Dunkirk.
I copy the maps and decipher the code symbols.
Turn my report over to Tom to transmit to England.
But Tom was stubborn.
How do you know those maps weren't fake, Link?
I don't.
Maybe Mueller's using us just the way we thought he would.
Well, maybe he is.
Then why on earth send that stuff out?
Because those are my orders and I'm going to obey them.
Send it, Tom.
We'll see what happens.
Well, we saw what happened.
That night off in the distance, a thousand searchlights stabbed the sky.
There were black puffs of smoke everywhere.
The crowds were throwing up a curtain of flak that no air force in the whole world could
penetrate.
Next day, Mueller came back to the barn.
By then, Tom had received the box score from England.
Twenty planes.
You hear that, Mueller?
We lost 20 planes last night.
I do not understand, Herr Corporal.
Oh, no, no.
You don't understand it at all, do you?
They knew we were coming.
They were waiting for us.
But you don't understand it.
You are implying, of course, that I betrayed you.
But I give you my word.
His word?
The word of a Nazi?
Please.
Are you, perhaps, convinced now?
I told you we should have listened to her, Link.
Easy, Tom.
It is too late, of course, to save those 20 planes.
It is not too late to stop other raids.
As of course is right, Link.
I'll radio Colonel Palmer this minute.
Yes, Kapitaine.
Well, Mueller, I have another map, if you wish to look at it.
All right.
Let's see it.
I would prefer to show it to you alone.
Alone?
Why, you pig of a German!
Filthy scum!
Are you suggesting there's anyone here but yourself who can't be trusted?
Look, Mueller, you're in no position to make such a request.
If you have something to show me, you can show it to me here.
Very well, Herr Kapitaine.
He had something to show me, all right.
A detailed chart of the biggest subpens along the whole coast.
I knew it was worth any risk to try to smash those pens.
But Tom Barnes didn't know it.
He needed a lot of convincing.
He insisted that chart was bait, just bait.
It turned out he was right.
Next week was a nightmare.
Eight planes at Ostend, six at Cherbourg, nine at Lahar.
Everywhere we struck, the crowds were waiting.
Operation sellout, Tom and I called it.
We had a name for Leutnant Mueller, too.
Tom wasn't around the night I reached a decision.
I went looking for him.
Tom by the brook, of course.
It was a bright moon.
I saw two figures as I approached.
Then the two figures became one for a moment.
I love you, Marie.
Oh, mon cher Tom, you must not say it.
In France today, there is no place for the word love.
Maybe not, my darling.
But when the war is over, I'm going to ask you to marry me.
Tom.
Oh.
Link, what are you doing here?
Get back to the barn.
I want your radio palmer to call off the raids.
At last you have come to your senses, Kapitaine.
What about Mueller, Link?
Forget Mueller.
It's almost a week since we heard from him.
We don't even know where he is.
But we can guess, no, Kapitaine?
He is in Berlin, probably, receiving a medal from his Fuhrer.
Tom and I had to work fast.
Once it dawned on the Germans that there'd be no more raids, they'd be after us.
We radioed the colonel canceling the raids, telling him we thought our mission was over.
Six hours later came the answer.
The colonel thought otherwise.
Good Lord.
We can't be serious, Link.
Yeah, he's serious, all right.
He still wants to smash those subpens at Sanders Air.
Since they couldn't do it from the air, they're going to do it from the ground with a commando
raid.
Yeah, a commando raid.
A hit and run attack where coordination and split second timing were everything.
Tom and I were to be the inside men.
Big job, yeah.
But this time, we didn't have two strikes against us.
No, because this was one clam bake that Carl Mueller wouldn't know anything about.
What do we do first, Link?
Contact the local leader of the Maquis.
We'll let him know what's happening, and he'll give us a safer place to roost.
But how do we contact him?
Well, Philippe will know him.
Oh, Philippe Saint-Roy.
Wait a minute.
How about Marie?
She might know too.
Right.
Go get her.
He went to find Marie.
I packed up the radio and the other equipment.
I heard the door open.
I thought he brought her back.
I was wrong.
Good evening here, Capitain.
Mueller.
I didn't expect you to show your face around here again.
I heard in Sanders Air that the raids have been canceled.
I was afraid you and Corporal Barnes might be on your way back to England.
We're packing now.
I, uh, I am not to go back with you then.
There's only one place you're going, Mueller.
So put your gun away here, Capitain.
You do not need to kill me.
Since you are leaving me here, I shall make use of the one shell you so kindly left in
my revolver.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm sure you will.
You couldn't bear to be left behind with your Nazi pals, could you?
I learned from my gun those shots.
I didn't know where they were from.
I didn't wait to find out.
I hit the floor, dragging the candle off the table with me.
The barn went black.
I lay there for a second.
Then from outside, I heard...
Let's have some light, Link.
I think I got him.
Tom had fired the shots.
When I lit the candle again, I saw he was wrong.
The doorway where Mueller had been standing was empty.
Mueller was gone.
I, I was sure I hit him, Link.
All right, never mind.
We've got something more important to think about than Mueller.
You told Marie...
Oui, Capitaine, he told me.
You wish to see the local Maquis leader?
That's right.
Can you take us to him?
May oui, Capitaine.
I will arrange for you to meet Monsieur Etienne.
She said it would take until the next evening to arrange it.
Tom and I cleared out of the farm and holed up in a patch of woods where we'd first met
Philippe.
Of course, it had a stark rain.
Just before dark, Marie showed up in the woods.
It is done, Capitaine.
Monsieur Etienne will be waiting for you at eight o'clock.
The room behind the village cafe.
Good work, Marie.
You're going there with us, aren't you, darling?
No, mon cher.
I must return to Monsieur Etienne.
But I will be waiting for you at the cafe.
She was standing in the doorway when we got there at eight.
She led us around the back into a small, dirty, dimly lit room.
Bonsoir, monsieur.
He rose from his chair and stood behind a table.
Monsieur Etienne was a small, dark man.
His eyes were shifty and calculating.
Kind of eyes you often find in a head that has a price on it.
My apologies, monsieur, for not seeing you sooner.
I was at my headquarters in the hills.
I had to walk down.
The roads were wet and muddy.
No apologies necessary, monsieur.
Merci.
Madame Mlle.
Martin informs me you wish the assistance of the maquis.
We need plenty of assistance.
British commandos are planning a raid on the port of Saint-Nazaire.
A commanding raid on Saint-Nazaire.
Those eyes of his grew wider.
They grew bright.
He stepped from behind the table.
But he shouldn't have, because that was when I saw his boots.
They were clean and polished.
There wasn't a speck of mud on them.
And yet he'd walk through the mud from his headquarters in the hills, he said.
Is, is something the matter, Captain?
He knew something was the matter, all right.
He knew what it was, too.
He saw my eyes on his boots and he understood.
His hand went under his coat, but it never came out because that was all I needed.
Link, for the love of heaven.
One shot did it.
He grabbed at his stomach and he slumped to the floor.
Good Lord, Link, what's the idea?
He's dead!
Yeah, that's one collaborator less.
Collaborator?
Sure, that's all he was, Tom.
I guess he's planted them here to find out about our new mission.
Yes, but they didn't know.
We had a new mission.
You said Mueller thought we were packing up to go back to England.
That's right, he did.
Well, then who could have...
I...
I started to tell him, but I didn't have to.
He saw it for himself.
Murray?
The look on her face confirmed it.
The look on his face is the kind of thing you don't like to remember.
That was all she needed.
She bolted for the door and threw it open.
I took one wild shot at her.
I missed.
Before I could fire again, she was gone.
She knows about the raid, Link.
We've got to stop her before she gets to the Germans.
There's no telling which way she went, Tom.
We'll split up.
You go that way and I'll go...
Good Lord!
It was she, Link.
It was Murray.
Come on!
We ran down the dark alley behind the cafe.
At the end of it, we found her lying face down in the mud.
She's dead, Link.
Here.
But...
But who shot her?
I did, Herr Corporal.
Mueller!
I'm so sorry, Herr Barnes.
I know how you felt about her.
But she was our enemy.
She had to die.
Yeah, but...
But how did you know, Mueller?
I finally found a Frenchman who trusted me, Herr Kapitän.
His name is Monsieur Etienne.
I mean, that was his name.
You see, he thought I was a Nazi, too.
He confided in me.
I...
I say Mueller.
Ja, Herr Corporal.
Look, here, I...
I ought to tell you.
What I mean is, I don't know how to say it.
I'm sorry.
I'm just...
Do not say it, please.
I...
I understand.
Herr Kapitän.
Yes, Mueller?
I have used that one shell you left in my revolver.
I...
Well, I wonder if you would permit me to have one more.
No, I won't.
No?
Not one more, Carl.
I'm giving you back the whole clip.
That same night, we contacted the real leader of the Maquis.
Two weeks later, the commando struck it in his air and wiped out that sub pen.
When they went back to England, Tom Barnes and I went with them.
And so did our friend, Carl Mueller.
And once again, the report of another OSS agent closes with the words, mission accomplished.
And again next week for another true adventure from the files of the OSS on...
Cloak and Dagger.
Heard in today's Cloak and Dagger adventure as Captain Daggett was Carl Eastman, Tom Barnes,
Ian Martin, Carl Mueller, Louis Van Ruten, Marie Louise Erickson, Etienne Raymond Edward
Hansen, Martin, Arnold Moss, and the Nazi, Carl Weber.
The script was written by Ken Field and music was under the direction of John Garth.
Sound effects by Manny Siegel and John Powers.
Engineering, Don Avin.
Today's OSS adventure was based on the book Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alastair
McBain.
This program is produced by Louis G. Cowan and Alfred Hollander under the direction and
supervision of Sherman Marks.
Three chimes mean good times on NBC.