basement at Charlottenburg churned out “results” twenty-four
hours a day. Göring’s SigInt specialists “looped into” the great
Indo-Cable that carried all London’s telegraphic traffic with In-
dia. (“At first,” recalled FA specialist Walter Seifert, “that was
quite bountiful.”) The cable from Paris, France, to Tallin, Esto-
nia, navigated the Baltic Sea; Göring’s frogmen tapped that, and
of course the landlines between Vienna, Prague, Moscow, and
London all of which crisscrossed Reich territory.
The biggest customers for the Brown Pages were Hitler’s
new Propaganda Ministry and the Ministry of Economics. An
intercept of any story being filed by a foreign correspondent in
Germany enabled Goebbels to plant an immediate reply in rival
foreign newspapers overnight. The FA could also supply inside
economic information with a speed and reliability that assisted
Göring and the Reich to make dramatic “kills.” Seifert’s evalua-
tion section built up a card index of names and subjects; his
subsection -C kept tabs on every spoken or enciphered refer-
ence to vital raw materials like rubber, nonferrous metals, wood,
and newsprint. Göring’s secret agency made him an expert in
everything from international egg prices to the yield of low-
grade iron ores.
He had laid down two rules: He was to be supplied auto-
matically with copies of everything; and all FA intercepts of his
conversations were to be drawn to his attention to enable him to
check his own phone security. Surviving data shows that he
used the system well, as a routine check on the Reich’s ponder-
ous and inefficient bureaucracy. Two typical Brown Pages that
came rattling through the pneumatic tube in December
were number N, about German explosives manufacture,
entitled, “Managing Director Dr. Müller complaining about lack
of official cooperation from Berlin”; and N, about aircraft
production: “Ernst Heinkel Aircraft Works, Vienna, having se-