 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 do this question answered, yes. This is Cloak and Dagger. Black warfare, espionage, international intrigue. These are the weapons of the OSS. Today's story, the Black Radio, concerns an OSS agent who broadcast a lied propaganda from behind the enemy lines and is suggested by actual incidents recorded in the Washington files of the Office of Strategic Services. A story that can now be told. It was one of those quiet days. The sun was splashing into the windows and I was marking time until lunch in the cafeteria. And a date I had with the red-headed secretary. There were just the two of us in the big gadget room of the OSS in Washington. Just me and Hank Morton. Then all of a sudden Hank grabbed my arm. Mark, get down! Okay, okay, what's the big idea? Oh boy, I wish I had a camera just then. Brother, did you look scared? All right, what was that thing you just threw in a wastebasket? Just a little noise maker. Great if you get in a tight spot and want to start a riot. All right, look, let's start from the beginning, huh? How does it work? Well, like you see, it's not very big. Just about the size of a lemon. Easy to slip into your pocket. All you do is pull out the cap and throw it. And when it explodes, pow! We call it the Hedy Lamar. Major Langer, I have a job for you. Yes, sir. When our armies cross the Rhine into Germany, the Freiburg will become a strategic city. The less resistance we get from the people when we make that advance, the less lives we'll be lost. Up to date, we have no report of any underground or partisan movement there. And OSS wants me to go in there with a black radio and soften them up, is that it, sir? Right. Cut in on the Nazi local stations. Broadcast the information we want them to get. Another of our agents infiltrated that area over three months ago to get acquainted with the city and locate suitable hiding places for the radio. Of course, sir, it'll have to be moved every time we use it. Yes, that's right. Now, we haven't heard from our agent since she was sent in. We didn't want her to run the risk of trying to contact us. Uh, did you say she, Colonel? That's right. Have you any objection to working with a woman, Major? Oh, no, sir. Uh, I mean, no, sir. Her name was Lucille, Colonel said. I wondered if she was anything like the redhead. Yes, Lucille. Nobody had heard from her for months. Maybe she'd been caught. Maybe the Nazis had twisted out over the reason she'd been sent to Freiburg. Maybe, maybe I'd have a reception committee of Germans waiting for me. It gave me something to think about on the plane flying over the Black Forest in Germany a few weeks later. There's your rendezvous point straight ahead, Major. Uh, straight ahead and straight down, you mean? Running in. Ready? Ready. Go. Good luck. I tossed the radio out first, and I jumped after it. No matter how many times I jumped, it was always the first time. The feeling of falling, sick feeling, like a dream I came to with a jolt, a sharp pain across my thighs from the pull of the strap and the crack of the chute. Then air all around me. I looked down on a Black Forest that was blacker than ever at 0400, four o'clock in the morning. There were no Germans waiting, but no Lucille either. There was nothing but a foreign country, and up above the plane faded away. Then it was gone, and I was alone. The radio had floated to Earth about 50 feet away. I checked it, made sure it was all right, buried my parachute, and wondered what to do next. There was a milk wagon coming down the road. I could hear the milk can swaying with the movement of the cart. I could see a shadowy figure holding the reins. I dragged the radio behind a clump of bushes, and then I waited for the wagon to pass. For a moment I didn't recognize the song, and then all of a sudden the words wrote themselves in my head. Come away with me, Lucille, in my merry old... Lucille. Lucille. I'm sorry I was late, Major Langer. During my soldier I knew stuff to talk. I couldn't break away without being impolite. Well, just as long as you got here. Hurry, Major, let's go. Yes, I was ever so glad to see anyone in my life. But I didn't quite expect to meet the milkman. What did you think I'd be like, huh? Oh, I... Come, come, Major. Well, I had no idea. No doubt you picture the slim young thing who'd at interest your intrigue. I've been either slim or young for longer than I'd like to remember. Tell me, what did you do before the war, Lucille? Taught history in grade school. Now I'm helping to make it. It's a good feeling until you consider the possibility of getting caught. We've got to make sure we don't get caught. There is always that possibility, Major. Accept it. And it's much easier to take it if it comes. Yeah? Who is it? May I come in? Well, what do you want? It's your neighbor across the hall. I wish only to make you our acquaintance. My name is Gruber. Am I disturbing you, eh, Langer? Well, you know my name, I see. As a poor old widower, alone in this world with very few interests of the future of the fatherland, that is, I make it my business to know everyone in this roomy house. Oh, do you? You arrived in Freiburg only a few days ago, right? That's right. You have a medical discharge from the army. You are wounded at Anzio. Is there anything about me you don't know? Oh, no, no, no. Do not take offense, my friend. I asked the landlady about you. It was she who told me. Your information is right, Herr Gruber. I was wounded. I spent two months in a hospital. And I'd like to be left alone. Oh, you are bitter. Yeah. In a civilian life will not be easy, but you must mix with people, make friends. Don't keep too much to yourself. Now, here, I brought with me this bottle of schnapps and two small glasses. Will you not join me? Well, uh... Yes, yes. Do the future, Herr Langer. Well, I'll drink to that. There was something about the old windbag rented the room next door to me on a third floor that I didn't like. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was the way his eyes, like patent leather buttons, kept darting around the room. Good schnapps, nine, Herr Langer. Yeah, very good. Not like we used to get before the war. Of course, I'm not complaining. It's such a little sacrifice to make for the right. Yes, of course. Yes, of course. What are you planning to do here in Freiburg, Herr Langer? Well, I have my craft card as a Union motion picture projectionist. I worked in a film house in Berlin before the war and was hoping to find a position here. You had no success yet? No, no, not yet. The motion picture house. A block from the mining university. Have you tried there? Well, no, I haven't. Oh, do, do, do, do, do try it. Tell the manager, Herr Schmidt, that you are a friend of mine. He's always complaining to me about being short of help. That also is just a little sacrifice to make for the right, of course. Yes, of course. I'll go there tomorrow. Oh, tell me, what is your business? I am a clerk. A clerk? Yes, in the administration building of Gestapo headquarters. Moschnaps? Yeah, Moschnaps. I may not have liked the old windbag, but I took his lead anyway. I went to the movie house near the university and got myself a job there on a day shift. And I counted the hours until the Thursday when I'd meet Lucille at the deserted car barn we'd agreed on. On Wednesday, I was in the projection room running a half-hour newsreel, most of which was a close-up of Hitler making a speech in Berlin and foaming at the mound. I looked down over the heads of the audience, wondered if all of them were as enthusiastic about the furs they pretended to be, wondered how much it would take to push them into starting their own underground, wondered how many of them would be listening to their radio the next night, listening to me. How long ago? I came to tell you... I came to tell you you only have tomorrow afternoon off. Tomorrow afternoon, but I don't understand. I will want you tomorrow night instead. But tomorrow night is impossible. How long ago? You have a good job here. I'll ask you to take the night shift this once. I see no need for arguments. Is what you have to do that important that it cannot be postponed? Uh, nine. Schmidt? Not so important. I'll be here. The next night at twenty minutes past ten the feature film went off. I set the machine. The newsreel would run by itself for half an hour. No more. That didn't give me much time before the reel would run out. Just a half hour to get to the car barn, broadcast, and get back. Now that's it, Lucille. I've been thirty kilo cycles, but I can't seem to get an exception. Ah, they are signing off. This is Reichsstation KLDA signing off. Until tomorrow morning, Heil Hitler. Well, here we go. Keep your fingers crossed. Don't turn off your radios. People of Freiburg. This is for you. I am your voice of freedom. Bringing you news as it actually exists. Not as the propaganda ministry would like you to believe. Mark, that's good. Wonderful. It wasn't fifty sons of Freiburg who died at the Anzio beachhead, but five hundred. You, mothers, wives, sweethearts who have not heard from your men. You think the males are slow? Is that why you haven't received letters? Your men will never write again. They were killed at Anzio. Then they are taking your men away. What do you have for compensation? You have no food. You're cold. The leaders want to sacrifice everything but themselves. Haven't you sacrificed enough? Mark, it's late. It's all right. And now, until another time soon, this is the voice of freedom. Good night. I will not say Heil Hitler. He said, God be with you. The first of many. God be with us both. We dismantled the radio. I lifted it into the back of the milk wagon, ran as fast as I could back to the theater, and slid in through the side door. And then I heard it. Hey, Lange! Lange! Where were you? Schmidt? Well, I... What business had you to leave the protection during the newsreel of the Fuhrer? Our leader cut off in the middle of his speech. Where were you? Where was I? I was in the washroom. I was just going up to see if you had fallen asleep. When did this happen? Just a minute ago, of course. It's a wonder you couldn't hear the disturbance from the washroom. I ran up the stairs to the projection room. God must have been with me that first night. If the machine had broken down five minutes earlier, Schmidt would have known I'd left the theater. The next week, and the next, and the next, we were on the air. We moved the radio to a deserted warehouse, to a cave in the black forest, to a barn on the outskirts of town. As the voice of freedom I told the people of Freiburg, you are fighting a lost cause. The losses of the Luftwaffe are 75% higher than reported. Resistance and all German-occupied territories growing stronger. People in the city look the same, for as respectful as ever to the Nazi soldiers that walk the streets. None of them showed by so much as a look or a word that they ever heard those broadcasts. And then I received my first indication. I saw you through the window of the coffee shop. May I join you at your table? If you'd like. Thank you. So, have you been listening to your radio lately? I have no radio. If you get one then, I advise you not to listen to Reichstazion car a day. Why not? Because the Gestapo will arrest anyone caught listening to the man who calls himself the voice of freedom. What does he talk about this voice of freedom? It's nonsense, of course. A lied propaganda nonsense. You sure you have never heard him? I told you, Herr Gruber, I have no radio. Oh, but of course. I forgot. Why is it, Herr Lange, I have the feeling I've seen you somewhere before? It was ridiculous to suppose that he had ever seen me before, but he told me one thing. The people were listening, and the Gestapo was looking for me. I had never heard him before. And the Gestapo was looking for me. Unser Führer wird uns ziegreich aus den Klick brechen. Dürn it of Mark. Mark, with that cough of yours perhaps I'd better broadcast tonight. No, no, no, I'll be all right. People of Freiburg, this is your voice of freedom. I want to tell you, my friends, how step by step Hitler has developed his program. Step by step he has carried it out successfully. First he took our men and destroyed them. And now Hitler is destroying our cities and our factories. Allied bombings will destroy all Germany. Our men are already dead in a hundred battlefields. This is the Führer's greatest achievement for Germany. He is accomplishing it all in less than twelve short years. Twelve short years of Hitlerite's success. We are jamming the radio, Mark. You'd better sign off. It's all right. This is the voice of freedom saying good night. I will not say, Heil Hitler, I say instead God be with you. I'm afraid they may be closing in. Yes, it's the first time they've jammed our broadcast. We'll have to move fast. Dismantle the radio and get out of here. The wagon is right outside, hurry. Less than five minutes later we'd left the basement of the schoolhouse near the cathedral. It was quiet in the streets. Too quiet. As if the city were holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. Good night, until Friday. You know the place. Yes, let me take the radio tonight. Oh, back to your room with it under your arm. What foolishness. Yes, but Lucille, you always take the risk of being caught. I have the milk wagon to hide it and the barn to bury it. We'd better not stand here any longer. Good night again. And take care of that car. I started to walk quickly in the opposite direction. If German triangulation had found the general location of the radio, the neighborhood would be swarming with Gestapo any minute. The headlights of the official car came out of nowhere around a corner and blinded me. I started to run. I ducked into a doorway, up the stairs to the roof, across the roof, down some stairs again, back into the street. Somehow I'd shaken them. I was free of them. I had to find somewhere to go, somewhere to hide. The movie house where I worked was close by. I went in through the side door. Punched down in a seat, anonymous in the darkness. I was one of hundreds of people watching the travel. And then something happened to the film and the soundtrack went solid. Forged identification would pass inspection easily. But the men who were chasing me had a general idea of my height and weight. I couldn't take the chance. I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a round disk about the size of a lemon. The noisemaker O.S.S. called the Heddy Lamar. I yanked out the cap and threw it. The soldiers couldn't hold them back. They practically walked over them and they rushed to get out. And I walked out too. Swept along in the tide of panic. Just on your way to work I see. I will walk with you partway. Well, if you'd like. Tonight when you get home from your work, listen to your radio. I told you I have no radio. I do keep forgetting. You are welcome to listen to mine then. There has to be an important announcement at seven o'clock. Announcement? About what? I learned about it this morning at the administration building where I work. There has to be a hanging in the square at noon tomorrow. An aligned spy who was caught with a radio. What did you say? A woman, a spy. She was picked up last night, driving a mill question. Can you imagine such a... Look, are you... I haven't been well. They haven't caught the man yet. The one who calls himself the voice of freedom. But I have no doubt they will soon. They're offering a large reward. Are they? That's a very bad call, Helanger. Tonight when you return from work, remind me to give you some of my cough medicines. It's very... I turn off here. I didn't stop by for the cough medicine. After work I locked myself in my room and stayed up all night. Looking out of the window. Up at the ice blue stars that hung over Germany. And I tried to think of something to do to help Lucille. Before noon the next day I went to the square. But I still didn't have the answer. Isn't it frightening, Helanger? The way an execution will draw the people like flies to honey? Is it fascination do you think of? Seeing someone else suffer? You tell me, her grubber, you should know you're here. Ah, so I am. But then, so are you. What? Woman, have you anything to say before you die? Your radios. Remember what the voice of freedom told you. It was the truth. It was all over. And I hadn't done a thing to stop it. Yes, who is it? Only I. Here, grubber. Go away, will you please? Go away, I don't want to talk to anyone. You said how are you, my friend, about the hanging this afternoon? No. No, I... I just don't feel well. Now, don't torment yourself this way. There was nothing you could do to prevent it. What are you talking about? Trust me. You have no one else to trust. The Gestapo is going to check and cross-check every man's papers. Every man in Freiburg. Are you sure you can stand a thorough investigation? Are you crazy? Are you accusing me? You are the voice of freedom. I suspected it for a long time. I was never sure. I was afraid to step forward soon. No, listen to me. I know you don't like me. I have not liked myself for years. Afraid of my own shadow. Afraid to think. Afraid. But no longer. Grubber, look. I am a discharged soldier from the Wehrmacht. I have your face looked familiar. It was not your face. But it was something about your voice. I thought I recognized it. And then I started to think... I would have been afraid to think for years. You came to Freiburg. About the same time the broadcast began. You were too ignorant of what was going on. And then yesterday you coughed as he had. I was almost sure then. Now today I watched your face when she was hanged. And then I knew. Trust me. You have no one else. He was right. I had no one else. And I had to get out of Freiburg. Grubber offered to drive me across the bridge that night. From there it would be only a few miles to the border of France. With his official pass from Gestapo headquarters, Grubber would be able to get past the guard. I got into the trunk of the car. It was open just enough to let me breathe. I still didn't know whether to trust him. There was a pretty big price on my head. The car slowed down when we reached the bridge. Let me see your identification. There you are. What is your business outside of Freiburg? Official business for the administration. Fair. This looks all right. I have orders to search all cars. Well, you can see that. It's nothing in mind. Please, will you hurry? This is official business for the Gestapo. One moment. One moment. Not so fast. What's in your trunk? Well, go see for yourself. I have an American spy there. I'm smuggling him across the board. Don't be impudent. You understand? I'm sorry. I was just having my little joke. Well, I don't like jokes. You work as a clerk for the administration so your head swells you think you're Himmler. All right, pass. All right, pass. I want to apologize for the things I thought when you told the guard what you did. It was the only thing I could think of at the moment that would prevent him from searching the trunk. Well, goodbye. Yes, and thank you. No, wait. Don't feel the woman died for nothing. She did not. You and she have given us the courage to look at ourselves in the mirror. We will continue to talk and whisper, but after you have gone, there will be many of us who will no longer think in whispers. Yes, well, you go, goodbye, goodbye. Be the same. Major Mark Langer made his way back to Allied lines, and when Freiburg was taken over some months later, he'd offered little resistance thanks to the strong underground that had been encouraged by the black radio. Thus once again, the report of another O.S.S. agent closes with the words, Mission accomplished. Listen again next week for another true adventure from the files of the O.S.S. on... Cloak and Dagger. Heard in today's Cloak and Dagger adventure is Mark was Larry Haynes, Lucille, Lily Darvoss, and Gruber, Barry Kroger. Others were Raymond Edward Johnson, Arnold Moss, Stefan Schnabel, Bob Weil, and Jerry Jerry. Script was written by Winifred Wolfe and Jack Gordon. The music was under the direction of John Garth. Sound effects by Chet Hill, Dick Gillespie, and Art Cooper. Today's O.S.S. adventure was based on the book, Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alistair McBain. This program was produced by Lewis G. Cowan and Alfred Hollander under the direction and supervision of Sherman Marks. Three times mean good times on NBC. There's mystery and music tonight on NBC. The mystery is Sam Spade's latest case in which the romantic private eye solves the caper of too many clients. The music is the NBC Symphony Summer Concert with Anton Dorati as guest conductor and the American album of familiar music, one of radio's best-loved musical programs which returns to the air tonight. Three times mean good times on NBC.