RAFINO Report
ISSUE 20 - Spring 1998 - Return to Index

OPERATION "BIRD-DOG"
By "Chick" Cecchini

My phone rang on the 10th of February.  At the other end was Halsey Torsten, calling from Germany, who identified himself as representing ZDF television, of Germany.  He explained that his TV company produces historical documentaries.  ZDF was currently in production of a documentary dealing with the history of the German money.  Their emphasis was on the current Deutschmark and specifically on the extraordinary secrecy by which that DM was introduced into the German economy on 20 June 1948 replacing the Reichmark.  However, while ZDF had the full story from the German civilian population viewpoint, what they lacked was "eyewitness" testimony by U.S. military personnel who actually participated in the transportation and physical introduction of that new currency displacing the old highly inflated Reichmark.  It turns out that the new DM was printed in the U.S., shipped over to Germany to the U.S, Port at Bremerhaven, in about 22,000 crates weighing over 26,000 tons and distributed on the 20th of June 1948 without any leaks or breach of security.  Herr Torsten had spent months to no avail tracking down unproductive leads looking for that necessary "eyewitness."  Finally, the U.S. Army History Institute provided a good lead-"check with RAFINO".  He did.  By time he made the call to me on 10 Feb he was just a month from his deadline for locating and interviewing such an eyewitness.  I agreed (providing our President, George Beckett, would approve) that we would put out an urgent appeal to all RAFINO members who could possibly have been involved in that 1948 action-provided we would be reimbursed for our out-of-pocket costs.  ZDF agreed and George Beckett gave us whole-hearted approval.  But we were faced with a serious problem -- how to identify the possible candidates.  We have almost 700 members.  Common sense tells us, that many of you were far too young in 1948 to possibly have been a candidate for the search.  Birthdates in our database would be useful.  However, our membership database does not contain any information which would identify those who served in Germany at the time.  There wasn't time enough to send out an "all points bulletin" to narrow down the search.  What to do?  I did the "quick and dirty" thing, i.e., I made an arbitrary decision to contact those members who retired from the Army between 1948 and 1970 knowing full well that most were not in Germany in 1948 - if ever!  Thank God, we have our "computer whiz", Bob Flewelling.  A phone call to Bob got assurances that he would design a tailored program to select out those members and made a fine contribution to the selection process by reminding me that he also maintains the RAFINCO database.  Obviously, the NCOs were just as fertile a source for the "eyewitness" as the officers.  So when Bob ran his tailor-made program he came up with 265 officers and 90 NCOs -- more than I had anticipated but okay.  Bob then made still another suggestion, "Why not use Email to those members whose address we have?"  Great!  So, to me by over-night mail, came labels for 263 RAFINO members and 90 RAFINCO members.  On top of that Bob sent me a print-out of Email addresses for 33 of the "possibles" who could be reached that way.  That day I dispatched the same "Urgent Appeal to all Old Timer Finance Retirees" message to 353 of our "Finance Family" by postal means and 33 by Email Many of our Email addressees replied the same day!  Many over the next few days responded by telephone.  However, the replies were all to say, "Sorry, I'm not the guy you're looking for."  The first one who felt he might fit the bill was George Dawley.  Then later up came three other "possibles", SGM James J. Hurley, SGM Art L. Pentecost, and SGM Howard Scott.  In my discussions with them it was clear that each one was a "bingo" and knowledgeable of the operation.  As it turned out, though, the ZDF Executive Producer, with his production assistants contacted George Dawley first.  Apparently, with George he hit "pay dirt" - probably even the mother load.  He was interviewed for a good part of March 10th and was "on camera" for about two hours on the 11th.  The ZDF Executive Producer called George the "Missing Link" in his puzzle and seemed satisfied that he had his answers in that one interview.  Inasmuch as none others were contacted by ZDF it would appear that George's testimony was fully what they needed.  Following this report are extracts from the written report George sent to me at my request.  I thank the three SGMs -- whose names we sent to ZDF as "possibles" but who were not interviewed - for standing by as I had requested.  And now to--:

GEORGE DAWLEY'S REPORT

"I was contacted by Rolf Piechowski, Executive Producer of the German TV Company, ZDF……  Rolf stated that historical coverage of the miraculous recovery of the German economy following the June 1948 introduction of the D-Mark was of utmost importance in completion of his documentary.  After several years of extensive research involving interviews and review of historical documents in Germany and the U.S. he had been unable to close a "missing link" in the chain of events he was tracing.  The missing piece of information was:  How had the U.S. Military authorities been able to successfully transport into occupied Germany, in total secrecy (the huge shipment new currency)?  In May 1949, I arrived in Germany and was assigned to the 7752 Finance Center in Friedberg.  The Finance Center was comprised of the Central Disbursing Office (CDO).  The CDO served as the Central Bank providing all currency requirements to the DOs throughout the U.S. Zone of Germany.  Since I had been present in June 1948 and had played a small part in the introduction of the D-Mark, which replaced Hitler's Reichmark, Rolf was interested also in my observations concerning the German people's living conditions and of the economy "before and after" the introduction of the new D-Mark.  (As to the secrecy aspect)…."I gave Rolf an overview of the Army's procedures for introduction and utilization of Military Payment Certificates (MPCs) in occupied zones of Germany and Korea.  Since the procedures used for the distribution of new series MPCs had proven so highly successful over the years, it only followed, I believe, that a similar procedure would work for introduction of the new D-Mark.  The Army procedure for withdrawal classified an planning for introduction of a new series was restricted to a small number of individuals who were essential to the successful execution of the conversion.  Prior to conversion day (C Day) stocks of new series MPCs were pre-positioned at regional DOs responsible for the distribution of the new series to units in their respective regions.  Pre-positioning helped eliminate any flurry of activity on conversion day that might draw the attention of the civilian population and possibly compromise the entire operation.  The CDO played a key role in this, the first phase of the D-Mark distribution.  For further security, base gates were closed before daylight on "C-Day" to all traffic and troops were restricted to base until conversion was completed.  Thus the D-Mark conversion was also done with few problems.  The German people readily accepted the new currency because it meant they no longer were forced to barter heirlooms for subsistence or to continue to live in the basements of their bombed-out houses.  They could begin to rebuild their cities and their economy.  Rolf made the statement that he believed the success of the operation -- i.e., introduction of the new D-mark-- may have equaled the success of Normandy on D-Day -- when you consider the almost immediate favorable impact on the recovery of the German economy."
(Ed: Thanks, George, you did a great job!)