The Vatican Pimpernel (22 page)

On top of all of that, Simpson had disappeared. A heavier load now fell on John Furman but he was becoming too well known. He dyed his hair jet black and changed the position of his hair parting. This, together with the shaving off of his moustache, altered his appearance and he now looked like a fairly typical Italian. Within a couple of days, he met a friend who was able to tell him that the authorities had identified him as the most important person regularly out and about on the streets of Rome for them to capture next. Renzo Lucidi stepped into the breach and devoted himself full time to the work of the organisation. Whenever there was a warning that it was dangerous for Furman to be out on the streets, Renzo and his wife Adrienne dealt with all deliveries of money and supplies to escapees. Things were getting very difficult in the city because there was a rash of minor explosions, assassinations and other events as the running battle between the authorities and the resistance developed.

One of the helpers, Giovanni Cecarelli, was looking after five men who had been evacuated from Mrs Chevalier's flat. All five were at home when the Fascist Gestapo hammered on his door. As there was no other exit, he bundled them through the French window onto the tiny balcony outside and drew the curtain across. He admitted the raiding party who searched the flat and found nothing incriminating, but just as they were leaving, the sergeant pointed to the French window and demanded to know what was through there. ‘Only the balcony', said Giovanni and, in an effort to distract the sergeant, offered him a drink. However, the sergeant decided to go through with a routine check of the balcony but, much to Giovanni's surprise, returned a few seconds later and asked for the drink. After the Fascists had gone, Giovanni went out on the balcony and was surprised to see nothing. He owed his life to the fact that he routinely stored a ladder on the balcony and the five had climbed up to the balcony above and pulled the ladder up with them.

Despite all this, the organisation was very active. The income for that month was in excess of 2,750,000 lire (approximately €350,000 in current terms), consisting of about 250,000 lire from Tittmann and the balance from Sir D'Arcy. Derry's careful accounts show that the money was spent on 164 escaped prisoners of war who were being catered for in Rome and in excess of 3,500 in the countryside around. These latter escapees were in 32 different locations with the groups varying in size from 3 to 110.

The difficulties the organisation had experienced in recent weeks continued into the month of May, while at the same time, the numbers seeking their assistance were increasing by about a hundred per week. The Monsignor was called to a meeting with His Holiness.

It seems reasonable to assume that this report is relatively accurate. However, it would be wrong to take that as evidence of papal disapproval. After all, at this stage the Allies were weeks away, though as it turned out it took longer for them to arrive than anticipated. During the entire period of his activities, O'Flaherty's life was in danger. In addition, of course, the Pope would have been concerned about the inevitable embarrassment that would have been caused had the Monsignor been captured. The most likely explanation of this meeting is that that Pope had decided O'Flaherty should run no more risks. The person best placed to judge O'Flaherty's position throughout this period was his closest associate, Sam Derry. The Englishman's consistent view was that the Monsignor had the tacit approval of the Pope for what he was doing and there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of that observation.

At the same time, controls on visitors to the Vatican were tightened up and it was not possible to gain access to Monsignor O'Flaherty in the German College. Yet again, John May and his unusual relationship with the Swiss Guard came to the rescue.

May then would pass on whatever messages were necessary to Monsignor O'Flaherty or indeed bring him down to meet the visitors if that was needed.

On 12 May, the Allied Forces opened a major new offensive on the southern front.

Derry was afraid that escapees, hearing what was going on, would now begin to engage in rash actions, such as coming out of hiding to try and join the battle. So he issued strict instructions for all to stay in their accommodations. Not all obeyed and two decided to visit Mrs Chevalier to get a good meal. She was renowned for the quality of catering provided to escapees. There were no longer any soldiers billeted there but it acted as a clearing house on occasions and as a general base for food distribution. However, the family were aware that the house was under observation. Two German SS men, who were regularly on the street, had questioned the caretaker Egidio about the inhabitants of Apartment 9 (Mrs Chevalier's) and she subsequently telephoned O'Flaherty warning him that she was now under full-time observation. Furman passed a message to all escapees who knew her to stay away from the apartment but presumably these two, Martin and Everett, did not get the warning. When they knocked at her apartment door she was horrified and told them to go away immediately as the Germans were watching. They knew that to go back downstairs was to face the likelihood of immediate arrest. They also knew their first duty was to Mrs Chevalier so they went down the flight of stairs as quickly as possible. Her quick warning had bought them some time. But as they turned into the street, one of the Germans left the café opposite and followed them.

Furman reported this episode to O'Flaherty who immediately decided the situation was getting too close for comfort and arrangements were made to evacuate Mrs Chevalier and her family. One at a time, at brief intervals, without baggage of any sort, the members of her family including herself left the premises. It did not occur to the watching SS men that an entire family was abandoning its accommodation. Presumably they were looking out for clearly identifiable Allied ex-prisoners. By different routes, the various members of the family made their way to the home of a friend a distance away and eventually the whole family moved to a farm on the outskirts of the city where they remained until the Germans had left Rome. Furman recalls the Maltese widow:

Fr Anselmo Musters (Dutchpa) was a native of Holland and had been one of O'Flaherty's earliest recruits. His arrest was perhaps one of the things O'Flaherty dreaded most and it occurred on the first day of May. He had just left the billet where a South African sergeant, Carl Schwabe, was located, when he became aware that he was being followed. He stopped for a moment and his follower stopped too, looking fairly suspiciously into a shop window. Fr Musters strolled on but changed direction and made for the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Before he reached the church, the plain-clothes man overtook him and demanded identity documents. The Dutch priest attempted to gain the sanctuary of the church but the policeman jumped in front of him, pulled a pistol from inside his coat and demanded that he stop. Fr Musters pushed him aside but then he felt a vicious blow to the back of his head and he crumbled. A Palatine guard, who from within the church had seen the attack, rushed forward and dragged the semi-conscious priest inside. The German soldier disappeared. Contact was made with the Vatican authorities who instructed Fr Musters to stay where he was until the following morning when he would be collected by an escort and taken back to his mother house. It was presumed he was safe in the church but this was not the case.

He was interrogated daily in the prison on the Via Tasso for over a fortnight by two members of the Gestapo, Captains Schulz and Wolf, who questioned him endlessly about the organisation which they knew existed to assist Allied ex-prisoners of war. They even produced a diagram which outlined the structure of the organisation. He was shocked to see that it was very accurate. However, through the two weeks of physical and mental abuse, he maintained he knew nothing about the organisation. Eventually his captors admitted defeat and threw him into a dark cell where he remained for another fortnight. The plan was to send him to Germany and so he was put on a train. His likely fate, had he arrived in Germany, was fairly clear. However, the train halted at Florence and he managed to make a getaway and he returned to Rome immediately.

A couple of days after Fr Musters had been arrested, Furman very nearly joined him in captivity. He was travelling on a tram when it was raided by the SS. He was delivering money and tobacco to various billets. The cellophane-wrapped tobacco was an American troops issue captured by the Germans and sold on the black market where it had been bought by those working for O'Flaherty's organisation. His last visit before he got on the tram was to Johnny Johnstone who had now moved into a Vatican-owned block of flats in Trastevere, one of the toughest quarters of Rome ‘where he was guest of Monsignor Giobbelina, a friar tuck of a man. Living in the same block, with different families were three South Africans and Garrad-Cole.'
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He then hopped on a tram which was subsequently stopped by a cordon of Fascist soldiers.

The soldiers in the street had formed a line from the front door of the tram to the entrance of one of the block of flats and the intention was to shepherd the men in there and allow the women and children go free.