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The Biography of Sterling Ralph Ryser
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CALLED TO SERVE
Missionary
Photo. Click photo for full image.
Sterling and Allen entered the Missionary Home on November
16, 1936, and remained there until December 3, 1936. At the time, the Mission
Home was an old school on the north side of North Temple Street. It had stacked
bunk beds and offered very cramped space for the army of new missionaries. An
extensive tour of the Salt Lake Temple interior was given to all missionaries,
who were then exposed to many inspirational talks by church general authorities.
On December 2, 1936, Sterling was set apart as a missionary by Elder Steven L.
Richards. Once set apart, they were ready to embark on the journey to their
mission field—the Swiss-German Mission. A crowd of families and friends
gathered at the Union Pacific Depot on the evening of December 3rd to bid
farewell to the large group of departing missionaries, including Allen and
Sterling. The train scheduled to leave to 6:40 p.m. left a little late. That
night, Sterling was overcome with feelings of homesickness. He wept as the train
carried him further and further from home.
Countless plains and small towns passed by, then Niagra
Falls, and finally, the Empire State. There they learned their ship, a 46,000
ton British vessel of the Cunard White Star Line, R.M.S. Berengaria was
not due to sail for three days. The boat had been a German prize, the Deutschland
from World War I, and was a grand spectacle. Three days was quite enough time
for sight seeing in New York. On the morning of December 9, 1936, the pair
eagerly boarded with about twenty six other missionaries (including five sister
missionaries) and found their state room. Sterling had room 404 on perch
"D" Tourist Class. Neither could have predicted the degree of Allen’s
seasickness. From the time they left port to the time of their stopover in
France—five days, twenty hours and forty minutes, until December 15, 1936—Allen
remained in bed. Nevertheless, even the queasiest traveler would manage to
revive at the prospect of seeing Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and
parliament. The end of the line for the ship was Southampton, putting the boys
in position to tour London for two days. Another trip by train would deliver
them to Harwich on the east coast, then, unfortunately for Allen, on to the Hook
of Holland by way of the Batavia, "the smelliest boat in
existence." From there to Hamburg via train. The original plan was to dock
directly in Hamburg. However, this round-about route was made necessary due to a
single political activist who was flexing his muscles at the time—Adolf
Hitler.
Finally, on December 18, 1936, at 1:30 p.m., they arrived in
Hamburg. Sterling and Allen were met after some delay at the train by the
missionaries. They were greeted by the message to go to Hanover to language
school. Arville Stredbeck was the instructor who didn’t believe in fooling
around. Their education in German consisted of the memorization of one speech
and a firm directive to begin tracting immediately. "If anyone asked us a
question, we were dead," Sterling mused. In a matter of days, Allen was
transferred to serve in Stuttgart, Germany, and later Basel, Switzerland. The
duo who had thus far gone through every aspect of the mission experience
together, was now splitting up. They would enjoy an occasional, brief reunion
during the next nearly two and a half years.
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Click photo for full image.
Rysers in their 1936 Ford Sedan.
If the Headquarters European Theater of Operations was to plan for the
intelligence exploitation of prisoners of war and provide linguist interpreters
for the theater. I planned on base training and experiences at Camp Ritchie. My
recommendations that we use six man teams (two officers and four men), two teams
per division, three per corps headquarters, and four per army headquarters was
finally approved. I had to plan and staff (get approvals) for the tables of
organization and equipment for the teams and their supervisory headquarters
(which became the FID or Field Interrogation Detachment.) It was an interesting
and challenging experience. In the process, I made numerous visits to British
Prisoner of War Cages, and combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centers. I
also met many very interesting people—British, French, Polish and others.
Click photo for full image.
With the defeat of German forces in North Africa and the capture of thousands of
Italian and German prisoners, it was decided to send 21,200 German POW’s to
the UK. Most were to be turned around and sent to the U.S. and Canada. This
number of prisoners offered a valuable training exercise for the U.S.
interrogators that were in the UK. On June 6, 1943, POW’s were to arrive at
Glasgow and Liverpool. We and the British assigned personnel to each of the
places the POW’s were to be sent. We met and coordinated with the British. I
decided to go to Sterling Castle north of Glasgow. The POW’s arrived as
scheduled. At my location, Polish troops of the Polish government in exile
controlled the prisoners in a very no nonsense manner. Only a couple of POW’s
were injured. The German Africa Corps were, I believe, the best troops Germany
had and they looked it. They all had a dark tan and appeared very healthy, which
was a great contrast to us. The plan was to get enough data and information from
a large number of prisoners to permit breaking the German code for assigning
Field Post Numbers to German units. This goal was accomplished. Another goal was
to select prisoners with special knowledge or experience for specific
intelligence purposes. The British knew the Germans were working on new weapons
(i.e., the V1 and V2 rocket systems), but at that stage they could not let
either the Germans or their own people, including us, know they were aware of
these developments. So selection of special prisoners was done on the basis of
earmarking individuals with certain skills, training, or experience and a few
select German units.
Near the end of the day, I received an urgent message from my
boss that we had failed to send U.S. interrogators to a certain location and the
British were very unhappy to say the least. I had checked the arrangement we had
with them before I left and all appeared in order. I didn’t attend the last
meeting with them prior to the beginning of the operation and I was told there
were no changes. I suspect a change was made and we were not informed. But I
could have goofed too!
By late 1943, the planning and staffing was completed and the
implementation phase began. The G2 of ETO (European Theater of Operations)
called me in and asked what I would like to do, as my job was about finished
here. He suggested I could become a detailed interrogator at the CSDIC (Combined
Services Interrogation Center) near London, or could go with the FID as I’d
planned. I chose to go with FID which was activated September 12, 1943.
Intelligence teams were beginning to arrive from the U.S. prior to our
activation. The C.O. was Major, later Lt. Col. Harold Hochshild, a wealthy,
directly commissioned former President of American Metals, Inc. I was the
executive officer. Because Harold had no military experience, I ran the
organization and he took care of the political/social end of things.
We were activated in London and assigned space in a building
on Upper Brook Street, just around the corner from Headquarters, European
Theater of Operation on Grosvenor Square. The building was a row house converted
to office space.
When I arrived at the office one morning a few weeks after we
took over the space, a pretty young lady was sitting on the steps. She said she
was Irish. In a heavy Irish accent, she said she could provide me with plenty of
Irish whisky and inferred other favors. She wanted a place to stay. I told her I
wasn’t interested in her whisky and was sorry I couldn’t help her. Later I
wondered if she wasn’t a British agent testing our security.
In summer 1943, Germany launched its last large air raid on
London with about one hundred planes. It was a fire bomb raid using two kilo
magnesium incendiary bombs. The target was very likely Grosvenor Square. They
missed Grosvenor Square and most of the bombs landed around Marble Arch and Hyde
Park doing little damage. Many bombs did not explode and burn. The next morning
when I came to work, the men had unthinkingly brought numerous magnesium bombs
into our building as souvenirs. I was very upset, because none of our men were
trained in handling dangerous explosive devices, so I made them take them out of
the building and turn them in to proper authorities.
For training purposes, the British turned over to the U.S.
Provost Marshal a German Prisoner of War camp at Bourton on the Hill. The
nearest railroad station was Moreton in the Marsh about three miles down the
hill in an easterly direction. We needed access to German POW’s so we arranged
to move our unit to Broadway, UK, ten miles north west of Bourton in the Hill.
This beautiful picturesque, sleepy village untouched by war
became our town. We soon learned that Stratford upon Avon was only about fifteen
miles to the north northeast and Shakespeare plays were still presented
regularly.
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Sterling received orders to attend the Strategic Intelligence School. But
prior to his departure, he received a call from the Pentagon requesting that he
volunteer for active duty— (the Korean War was getting hotter.) Sterling
explained that he was awaiting clearance for a position with CIA and didn’t
feel he could volunteer at that time, but, he added, he was to attend the
Strategic Intelligence School in Washington and would discuss the matter upon
arrival. At the S.I.S., Sterling sat next to a member of G-2 staff who was
assigned to the very unit that wanted him to volunteer for extended duty. Near
the end of the academic portion of the school, this officer whispered to
Sterling, "You’re going to be ordered to active duty." (The
Secretary of Defense had to approve all involuntary active duty orders of
reserve officers.) He was right. While in school, he received orders for
extended active duty and to report to the G-2 section at the Pentagon on
November 10, 1951. He was excused from the practical field work of the course to
return home to make necessary arrangements.
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