Letter sent from Biberach contained coded information
A LETTER written by Occupation police inspector Arthur Langmead while he was incarcerated at Biberach contained hidden messages about the Germans’ activities in the island, according to the daughter of the woman who received it.
Anne Misselke said that the letter gave the UK important information about the occupiers’ activities.
After being evacuated from the island at the start of the Occupation, she and her family ended up living in Coventry.
She said she remembered being at home sick one day when a letter arrived from Mr Langmead, addressed to her mother, Ruth Alexandre.
By that time Mr Langmead had been found guilty of theft and sent to Biberach along with his wife.
Among the family news was some information about a character called ‘Big Bertha’, said Mrs Misselke.
In the letter he wrote: ‘You know Big Bertha, don’t you? She used to live down at Baubigny, but she’s moved now.
'She felt it was too cold in the north of the island, so she’s gone up now to the Houguette. She’s bought a lovely bungalow there with a garden, and she can see the sea.’
In another part of the letter Mr Langmead wrote about the sisters of her father James, who were nurses. He said they would have no trouble finding work in the island, since there was a new place they could go.
‘It’s in the lanes, on the way to Ava and Jim’s in St Andrew’s, opposite that old wooden bungalow, but it’s underground. I suppose it might be all right, just to keep the rain out, it’s a new method. I don’t think I care for that.’
‘Big Bertha’ was a nickname given to Batterie Mirus, the largest gun battery in the Channel Islands, and Mr Langmead’s second reference was to the German Underground Hospital.
He signed off his letter saying ‘Don’t forget to tell Mr and Mrs Blue around the corner’, a reference to the police.
Mrs Alexandre took the letter to the local police station and that led to her being taken to Manchester, where the information in the letter was welcomed by officials to the extent that they kept the relevant sections.
She later received an official letter thanking her for helping the war effort.
Mrs Misselke said she felt it was important that Mr Langmead’s grandson, James, knew about this letter and what it had meant, given his efforts to have his grandfather’s name cleared of theft.
‘I wanted to set his mind at rest if he was thinking about his poor grandpa,’ she said. ‘It’s only right if you know anything that you should set people’s minds at rest.’
