Stool-pigeons

From 1940, Kendrick adopted the use of stool-pigeons, or SPs. Four native German speakers were selected to become stool-pigeons from refugees serving in the Army's Pioneer Corps. These were men who pretended to be German prisoners. They had fled Nazism and could speak fluent German because they had been born in Germany. They were put in a cell with a real prisoner and tried to carefully lead the conversation in a particular direction. Their conversation was being recorded by the secret listeners. The stool-pigeon had his own cover story about how he was 'captured', just in case his cellmate asked him. He even told his cellmate about his 'interrogation'. It was all cleverly designed to make the other prisoner talk about things which the British needed to know. The stool-pigeons had to have a lot of steely nerve to carry out this work without being detected. They were rewarded with preferential treatment and outings. Kendrick increased the use of stool-pigeons to forty-nine; some of them were German prisoners who had been 'turned' to work for the British instead of Nazi Germany. The use of stool-pigeons complimented the other work on the site.