EPPLER AND SANDSTETTE SET OFF on their four-kilometre walk to Assiut, suitcases in hand. About two kilometres from the town they buried their German uniforms and a W/T set between two hills, marking the spot with a pile of stones.1
The original plan had called for Sandstette to stay in Assiut, while Eppler went on to Cairo. However the two men decided to stick together; when they decided this is not known. It may have been that Sandstette was uncomfortable travelling to or staying in the town alone. Eppler later observed that ‘Sandy was no good at finding places.’2
The road the two men trudged along ran straight through a British Army camp. Sandy wondered whether this would spell the end of their mission, but Eppler told him to calm down. Their cover was good, for only a lunatic would attempt to get to Cairo by the route they had taken, no one would suspect them. They strode on.
They were stopped by the sentries and questioned by a Major. Eppler writes:
I explained that our car was some way back behind the hill and that we had broken down. As we had managed to get this far, we should be grateful for a lift to the railway station, since we had to be in Cairo by the next day. I can still hear him asking in amazement. ‘To the station? I can’t do that without knowing who you are. We are not running a taxi service, you know.’3
The two men introduced themselves and showed the Major their passports. Eppler mentioned that his family were the ‘Gaafars’ and that the Englishman might have heard of them, his stepfather being a well known judge and pro-British. This broke the ice and they were invited to the officers’ mess for a drink, while transport was arranged to take them to Assiut station. The ‘cool whisky and soda’ was wondrous after eleven days driving across the desert.
Some of the officers observed that they were fools to have gone into the desert without a second car. Eppler, who appears to have done most of the talking, agreed that they had been unwise. His account of events states that they were invited to stay for lunch, but this seems somewhat unlikely given the timing; according to Almásy the two agents were only dropped off in the desert at 14:00, so by the time they arrived at the British camp it would have been well past the lunch hour.4
Finally, after many thanks, they were driven to the station, no doubt relieved that their story had been swallowed. But they were well aware they might have to endure a rather more searching examination on the train or on arrival in Cairo. In their cases they were carrying thousands of pounds in sterling and Egyptian pounds, which no one in their right mind would be carrying. Furthermore, Sandy’s case ‘contained a very superior radio transmitter, purpose-built for long-distance communications work, a neat little 40-Watt transmitter/receiver.’5 How would they talk themselves out of that?
Eppler reserved two first class seats on the late afternoon Luxor-Cairo express. He did not want their luggage placed in the baggage van and it was likely that the Field Security Police would be inspecting baggage on their arrival in Cairo.
While standing outside the booking office, still with their cases, they came across some Nubians also waiting for the train. These men explained that they hoped to obtain work in Cairo, and told Eppler that they were tribesmen from Dangola. He considered Nubians to be honest. ‘Not even the missionaries, for all their painstaking efforts had succeeded in turning them into dishonest Africans.’
Eppler asked the youngest, who was about seventeen and called Mahmoud, if he would be interested in becoming his servant in Cairo. They haggled briefly over money, another essential convention, and then settled on £6 a month. For this princely sum Mahmoud assured him ‘the prophet would this very day order you a divan from the heavenly carpenter, on which you should experience heavenly joys with three virgins, delivered fresh each day.’ Eppler found the prospect pleasing, albeit he could not enjoy such a prospect until he departed ‘from this wicked world’.5
Sandy was watching the luggage and was startled when Eppler returned with a servant who duly picked up their cases and walked off. He had been given enough money for a third-class ticket, and instructions to meet them at the exit of the Cairo main station.
Eppler assured Sandy, who was under the impression they would never see Mahmoud again, that no one would ever bother to check the Nubian. Arriving in Cairo that night they found their new servant waiting for them outside the station with their cases. They had trouble finding accommodation, but Eppler knew the city well and he was resourceful, finally finding them quarters in a brothel, the Pension Nadia, for two nights.
As Eppler and Sandy disappeared into the seedy districts of Cairo, British GHQ in the city still knew nothing of Operation Salam or Kondor. This was despite the best efforts of Jean Alington at Bletchley Park, and the work of Y Section of Eighth Army in the field (radio reconnaissance). A month was lost before the Salam intercepts were read and passed onto GHQ Cairo, and the British missed the opportunity to deploy the LRDG to intercept Almásy. A further problem was that the Salam commando had been unable to raise Schildkroete, so there was not much for the Allies to read once the agents set off. Bureaucracy at GHQ no doubt further delayed the flow of information due to the ‘lassitude of the ‘Long Range Shepherd’s Group’, the staff officers who spent most of their time propping up the bars in clubs and hotels like Shepheard’s.6
It was not until 25 May that GHQ Cairo learned of Almásy’s journey across the desert to Assiut. Even then LRDG might have been able to catch him on the return journey, but at that time all Kufra’s patrols were out searching for three downed South African Air Force Blenheim bombers that had gone missing on a training flight three weeks earlier. It was only on 5 June that LRDG and SDF sent out patrols looking for Almásy. Captain Ken Lazorus’ patrol found Almásy’s fresh tracks at the Wadi el Aqaba, the main route through the Gilf Kebir. They mined the track and set up an observation post, but Almásy was long gone.7
See here for a list of abbreviations used in the below notes
1 KV/2/1467 Appendix A
2 ibid, Appendix D
3 Eppler, p.215
4 IWM-LOP Operation… p.10
5 Eppler, p.216
6 ibid, p.217
7 Bierman, p.184