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Latimer WW2

When the walls had ears... De Vere Latimer Estate's secret past

2 minute read
Few guests who visit Latimer House have any inkling of its secret past and yet its role during the Second World War has now been recognised by Historic England as being on a par with the code-breaking at Bletchley Park.

Latimer House became the headquarters of one of the most successful intelligence operations against Nazi Germany. Under the command of MI6 spymaster Thomas Joseph Kendrick, Latimer House was ‘wired for sound’ and bugging devices hidden in the light fittings and fireplaces, even the trees in the grounds. Teams of secret listeners eavesdropped on the private conversations of German prisoners of war in their cells after interrogation.

There are even rumours that Hitler’ deputy Rudolf Hess was held here for a while.



 


Kendrick’s intelligence officers amassed 75,000 transcripts of bugged conversations from 10,000 German prisoners of war: from intelligence ahead of the Battle of Britain to learning of new German technology and night fighter strategy, new types of aircraft, U-boat operations and enemy operations ahead of D-Day.


After D-Day, German generals and high-ranking commanders arrived at Latimer House and nearby Wilton Park at Beaconsfield, before transfer to Trent Park (North London). Befriended by a fake aristocrat ‘Lord Aberfeldy’ (Kendrick’s officer Ian Munro), they enjoyed lunch at Simpsons on the Strand or the Ritz Hotel. The Generals were entrusted by Hitler to protect Germany’s secrets, but to the hidden microphones they gave up information on the secret weapon programme (V-1 and V-2). These conversations led to the bombing of Peenemünde on the Baltic coast in August 1943, without which Germany could have won the war.


It would be 65 years before any whisper of these secrets would come to light – and only then when former secret listener, Fritz Lustig recalled to me his first day at Latimer House in which Kendrick said to him: ‘what you are doing here is as important as fighting on the front line or firing a gun in action.’ But Fritz was never told exactly how they had won the war until I delved into the declassified files. What happened at Latimer House was one of Britain’s best kept wartime spy secrets for nearly 70 years.


By Helen Fry, author of The Walls Have Ears


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