Christopher Andrew - The Sword and the Shield

2. The handle must only be turned and the container tilted and taken out of the hole after the explosive device has been disarmed.

3. In order to disarm the device, one must have a pocket torch battery of not less than 3.5 volts. Attach two wires of 30-50 cm length to the battery, with sharp probes at the end (a nail or a needle).

4. Without taking the container out of the cache, place one of the battery contacts on the body of the container, and the other on the left lock fitting, assuming that the lid of the container faces the operator. The contact points must be applied after scratching the paintwork on the body of the container and on the lock fitting.

5. When contact is made with the battery, a “click” should be heard inside the container; this indicates that the explosive device has been disarmed. If there is no “click,” check the contact points again and repeat the operation to disarm the device.

6. If when the operation is repeated there is still no “click,” it is forbidden to take the container out of the cache and the cache must be filled in. To open the container and remove the electric detonators from the two-way radio:

• remove the padlocks and lift the lid of the container with the key which is inside the container. Unscrew the four screws and remove the metal casing under which the two-way radio is located in the ALIOT packaging;

• cut each of the wires which connect the container with the ALIOT packaging and remove the package from the container. 77

On May 15, 1966, the KGB residency in Berne, Switzerland carried out an operation to deposit a booby-trapped BR-3U agent radio transmitter No. 624471/2329 in a hiding place codenamed CACHE No. 3. In July 1972, the residency was ordered to check the area where the transmitter had been buried and to devise an operation to remove it. Directorate S sent Berne the following description of the route to the cache and of its location:

Leaving Friburg by the Avenches road. Six kilometers from Friburg, the road goes through the township of Belfaux. There is a farm standing on its own on the right-hand side of the road as you leave Belfaux. About 100 meters beyond this farm, a track on the right-hand side goes up to a wood on a hillock. The entrance to this track is immediately opposite a railway crossing. Go up this track to the edge of the wood, where there is a large covered chapel with the image of a saint and benches for sitting.

A path passes by the chapel on the edge of the wood. Take 55 steps along the path from the left-hand side of the chapel (as you face it). At that point, on the right-hand side, there is a stone pillar inscribed with the letters FC, and next to it on the left there is a large pine tree (the only one in the sector between the chapel and the little pillar). Start counting steps again from the edge of the path. Proceed at right angles to the path, passing between the pine tree and the little pillar. After taking 36 steps, you will be at the point between two large leafy trees, the only ones in the sector. The distance between the trees is three paces. The area between the trees has been used for the cache.

If no motor car is available, one can reach the cache by rail from Friburg, alighting at Belfaux and proceeding on foot. The distance from the Belfaux railway station up to the cache is about 1,500 m.

There are three containers in the cache: a case, a waterproof package and a stone.

The case container has an explosive device which was made live by means of the MOLNIYA [“Lightning”] system when it was put into the cache.

A board has been put on top of the case container in order to protect the handle when the cache is opened.

Close to the center of the cache, a glass jar has been buried 30 cm below the surface, and above the suitcase a 15 cm length of metal piping has been stuck vertically into the earth, the upper end being 5-7 cm below the surface. These items were placed there for the special purpose of indicating whether the cache had been opened by third parties. At the same time, they can act as markers during the excavation. The overall depth of the cache is 1 m. The case contains a BR-3U radio transmitter.

After inspecting the area, the Berne residency reported to the Centre that, because of the lack of leaf cover at the site, it would be difficult to conceal signs of excavation. It would also be difficult to devise a cover story for the presence of operational officers in the area of the cache for one or two hours, which might well attract attention. Directorate S eventually proposed to the leadership of the FCD that the cache be written off, partly because of the difficulties of excavation, and partly because the fact that the shelf life of the MOLNIYA device had expired might make removal of the transmitter hazardous. The proposal was approved. 78

The cache was eventually emptied in December 1998 by Swiss Federal police using the finding instructions from Mitrokhin’s archive reproduced above. The MOLNIYA device was, as Directorate S had anticipated, dangerously unstable and exploded when fired on by a water cannon. 79(See illustrations.)

On April 15, 1962, a BR-3U radio transmitter No. 609072/9126 was placed in a waterproof package in the MEZHOZERNY cache.

The MEZHOZERNY cache is located 30 km from Rome in a wooded area between Lakes Albano and Nemi, 50 m from the Via dei Laghi, on the right-hand side of the road when traveling from Rome to Velletri.

Leave Rome by the Appia Antica, and 17 km later (the lower end of Champino airfield) turn left into the Via dei Laghi, leading to Velletri. Proceed for 13 km along the Via dei Laghi up to the 13 km milestone and continue in the same direction for 120 m beyond the 13 km milestone and at that point a broad path goes off to the right into a wood.

Go along this path for 90 m up to a fork where there are two paths, continue along the path to the right which begins 10 m from four large stones on the main path.

These two paths go round either side of a hillock. After following the right-hand path for 15 m from the point where it branches off, turn left and go up the hill for 7-8 m. On the hill and on its slopes there are holes, apparently left after trees had been uprooted. Among all these holes there is a group of four which are side by side.

The cache in which the load was secreted is a square hole which is next to another large hole of irregular shape like the figure eight.

At the bottom of the hole a chamber has been dug in the direction of the fork in the paths and it is in this that the trunk with the two-way radio has been placed. It is covered with earth and stones to a depth of 55-60 cm. After the case had been covered with 25 cm of earth a first marker was placed: two lengths of green wire were put across the spot diagonally and the case was then covered with another 50 cm of earth, when a yellow wire was also placed diagonally across the spot; this was then covered with a 55-60 cm layer of earth. On the opposite side of the hole there is a large stone.

The distance from the Via dei Laghi and Ariccia-Rocca di Papa crossroads up to the broad footpath when traveling away from Rome is about 1,450 m. 80

(THE CACHE WAS emptied by the Rome residency on February 6, 1970, apparently because of concern that the condition of its contents might be deteriorating and becoming unsafe.) 81

On September 20, 1962, two containers were placed on the MARINO cache: a notebook with instructions on the removal and packing of the two-way radio, and a capsule containing instructions for operating the two-way radio together with schedules for two-way and one-way communication; all the materials were on soft film in English.