The Peculiar Truth about the Spies Nobody Knew About

• Culpeper, Virginia, 2001: A new family bought an old property. It came with a barn. One day, a barn wall gave way. Hidden behind it were a trove of classified documents. What the files were doing in the barn was a mystery. Some were labeled ‘CIA.’ Others were labeled ‘The Pond.’

• The CIA was contacted, and agents came to investigate. They didn’t know what ‘The Pond’ meant.

• The documents, which went to the National Archives, revealed sketchy information about a US spy group who operated for years during and after World War II - codename The Pond.

• Their existence was such a secret that no one alive in 2001 had ever heard of them. Once the files were unearthed, however, some of the Pond’s clandestine operations came to light.

• Years before the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, there was the OSS - the Office of Strategic Services. President Roosevelt signed it into existence in June 1942. The US had little experience in international espionage, which it needed during wartime.

• William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a military man and attorney, headed the new organization. He didn’t shy away from the spotlight, which some felt was unbecoming a man leading a spy agency.

• John “Frenchy” Grombach joined the OSS. He was of French descent (hence the nickname), raised in New Orleans, and a West Point graduate. His assignment was to form a group of radio operators, multi-linguists, and codebreakers.

• Grombach never trusted Stalin and the Soviets, despite them being wartime allies. He suspected a US colonel of being a Communist sympathizer who was purposefully dismissing Grombach’s Soviet intelligence material.

• High-ranking officers in the War Department disliked Donovan and wanted a rival to the OSS. They assigned Grombach to form an ultra-secret subgroup. Supposedly, Wild Bill Donovan was unaware of the Pond, even though it operated right under his nose.

• Grombach disguised his operation as the Universal Service Corporation, a public relations firm based in NYC. Philips Electronics, American Express, and Chase Manhattan Bank helped to make the company appear legitimate. The Pond was funded by the War Department and the State Department.

• The spy group had an impressive network. Each American embassy in 32 selected countries had one diplomat who served the Pond. Operatives also included international businessmen, foreign religious leaders, and some unsavory individuals.

• One agent was a French doctor who was also said to be a serial killer. Marcel Petiot’s patients in France included Nazi spies, and he provided the Pond with their identities. Petiot also informed the Pond about Josef Stalin’s massacres during the takeover of Poland.

• James McCargar was a brave US diplomat in Budapest who worked for the Pond. He warned about the Soviet takeover of Hungary and helped dozens of Hungarian aristocrats escape the country.

• Raoul Wallenberg was also believed to have been associated with the Pond. The Swedish diplomat became famous for rescuing 10,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis.

• October 1945: With the war over, President Truman disbanded the OSS. It’s unclear whether or not he knew of the Pond’s existence, but the group kept operating, even more secretive than before.

• What did the Pond accomplish in the post-War years? Not much, it seems. Grombach had two objectives: 1. Search for Communists in the US government. 2. Keep the Pond funded and running.

• The few people in the US Intelligence world who even knew of the Pond’s existence questioned why it still operated and wanted it eliminated. But Grombach was a bulldog in keeping it alive. The State Department stopped financing the Pond, so it was folded into the CIA, even though the Agency didn’t want them.

• Grombach’s communist paranoia led him to slip unverified intelligence to Sen. Joseph McCarthy during his Red Scare. That caused turmoil with the CIA and instigated a thorough evaluation of the Pond’s body of work. The assessment was summed up in one word: Crap. That led to the subgroup’s disbandment in 1955.

• Why the Pond’s files were hiding in a Virginia barn is unclear. But those who participated in or knew of the ultra-secret spy group took the knowledge of its existence to their graves.