German spies at Lydd, WWII

[Knouterer]

It has often been noted that the twenty or so spies (of various nationalities) sent over to England and Scotland in 1940-1941 - some by boat, some by parachute - were very poorly qualified, prepared and equipped. All were collared within a day or two, generally as soon as they made contact with the population.
In the atmosphere of general suspicion at the time, with everybody on the lookout for spies and fifth columnists, it could hardly have been otherwise. The spies did not know that road signs had been removed or painted over and some immediately drew attention to themselves by asking people where they were - in an obviously foreign accent. Others made elementary mistakes like cycling on the wrong side of the road, or asking for a drink in a pub outside licensing hours, as noted above. Almost all were carrying articles on their persons that could easily be identified as German. Only a couple had been provided with addresses of people who might be able to help them - and those people were already well known to MI5.

It would seem that all this was in fact due to deliberate sabotage of the espionage effort against Britain by a group of antinazi officers in the Abwehr. The case is convincingly made in a recent book by Monika Siedentopf: Unternehmen Seelöwe - Widerstand im deutschen Geheimdienst. Perhaps it will be translated into English.

The central figure was (naval) captain Herbert Wichmann, who was in charge of the Abwehrstelle Hamburg, which was responsible for collecting intelligence about Britain. With his co-conspirators, he carefully selected agents whose chances of success were minimal to nonexistent from the beginning, in view of their intelligence, character traits, motivation, language skills and knowledge of Britain. These agents were then "trained" by instructors who (while not themselves part of the conspiracy) were similarly unqualified for the job.

For example, the Dungeness/Lydd spies, with some others, received a few lectures on the British army (to enable them to identify units &c.) from an interpreter, a certain Werner Unversagt, who spoke good English but had never visited the country and had never had any interest in the British army until then. Nor did he have any other military experience, or experience with intelligence work, so it is hard to believe the spies could have benefited much from this instruction. 

[Knouterer]

The conspirators showed some real genius, in my opinion, by finding instructors who were not only unqualified but at the same time so vain and self-important that they were not even aware of their own limitations, and so remained convinced, even after the war, that they had done a good job under the circumstances, and put the blame for the disastrous outcome on the officers who had selected unsuitable agents.

The conspirators were playing a dangerous game but got away with it. It seems that their boss, admiral Canaris, was not himself directly involved in any plotting at this time, but he certainly protected his collaborators against unwelcome attention from the SS and SD. Many of them were later arrested for unrelated antinazi activities and executed, Wichmann and some others survived.

They were interrogated at length by MI5 in 1945-46 (Siedentopf has studied the reports) about their activities during the war but managed to deflect attention away from this particular episode.

Of course they had good reasons to be discreet. Even decades after the war, many if not most Germans considered officers who had been involved in antinazi resistance as traitors who had broken their oaths. It is also true that they knew they were sending at least some of their pitiful agents to their deaths on the gallows, and that if the invasion had been launched, lacking and faulty intelligence would have directly contributed to the deaths of thousands of German soldiers and sailors.

[John]

Your last sentence certainly strikes a chord with me. I strongly believe that many of the spies who were executed were brave patriots and / or idealists, whatever the rights and wrongs of their cause. In my opinion their deaths are, in some way, a stain on our honour. But the thought of their own side deliberately sending them to their doom makes me shudder. Canaris and the others received a lot of good press in the decades after the War, but if they were directly responsible for these deaths then they should be viewed in a different light.

[Ron Stilwell]

There are several books which are fairly easy to obtain that gives a good idea of the type of men involved and the reasons they became spies.

The Guy Liddell Diaries Vol 1: 1939-1942.  Diaries about MI5 work with spies. Edited by Nigel West.  2005
The Double-Cross Systen in the war of 1939-1945; J.C. Masterman. 1972.
Some Were Spies; The Earl Jowitt.  1954.  (By a prosecution lawyer, very good as regarding the Dungeness spies.)

[Knouterer]

Frankly John, I have my doubts about the patriotism and idealism of this motley collection of spies. Most of them were not even German, the large majority were not truly volunteers but were acting under some form of compulsion or duress, and of those who were offered the chance to work for MI5 and become double agents, not a single one refused the offer, apparently.

[Ron Stilwell]

This is a very relevant passage by Lord Jowitt, who was responsible, as Solicitor-General, for the conduct of the trials of people accused of espionage, between June, 1940 and March, 1942.  These proceeding were usually held 'in camera'.
He got to know, and talked to many of these men.

'The Germans had almost certainly established schools for spies and would have almost certainly had amongst their students Dutch and Belgian refugees and other neutral persons.  They would no doubt have used persons who had committed offences against occupation laws and were, therefore, subject to pressure.  I am surprised that they did not select from their students those who spoke English really well.  One of the men, whose case I shall consider, spoke no English at all.  He had in fact been training at a school for spies at Wiesbaden.  He, it seems clear enough, was a convinced supporter of Hitler and all his works.  But what of the others?  What chance had they of sending back useful information?  Only one of the persons whom I prosecuted spoke English fluently; the others spoke little or no English.  They all must have known the adventure upon which they were embarking was highly dangerous.  What was the explanation of their being willing to undertake such a task?  One of the men who landed said frankly that he had only consented to come to escape from German pressure, and that he intended to surrender to the first soldier he met on reaching dry land.  He was, in fact, apprehended directly he landed; and the jury accepted his story as being the truth.
It is of course, possible that none of them realised the difficulty of the task.  Perhaps they believed the propaganda of Goebbels and his myrmidons, and imagined that we were groaning under a corrupt plutocratic regime and were longing to welcome Adolf Hitler as our leader.  They may even have thought that crowds of sympathisers and well-wishers would greet them on their arrival.  They probably expected that the German invasion would take place a few days after they had landed, and no doubt anticipated that the invasion would succeed.'
The Earl Jowitt.

[Knouterer]

Another strong indication of deliberate sabotage by the Abwehr is the fact that the training of the spies took place right on the French coast, in various places near Brest, Boulogne, and Le Touquet, where they could get a good view of the German invasion preparations, and in fact Waldberg, Meier, Pons and Kieboom told their interrogators what they had seen, confirming what the British already knew about those preparations.
A really unbelievable breach of the most basic principles of intelligence work, and therefore almost certainly deliberate.

[John]

The landing, and subsequent capture, of these spies certainly helped to make the nervous authorities even more jittery..

[alysloper]

Your last sentence certainly strikes a chord with me. I strongly believe that many of the spies who were executed were brave patriots and / or idealists, whatever the rights and wrongs of their cause. In my opinion their deaths are, in some way, a stain on our honour. But the thought of their own side deliberately sending them to their doom makes me shudder. Canaris and the others received a lot of good press in the decades after the War, but if they were directly responsible for these deaths then they should be viewed in a different light.

I am hopefully the last person to make excuses for Nazi ideology, but did British Intelligence not end up sending some spies to their certain doom during WW2?
Just a thought and please don't take it the wrong way

[Man of Kent1]

By way of a diversion!
I was today watching a recording of the BBC1 programme, 'Repair Shop' when a chap and his wife brought in a sorry-looking, late 19C./early 20C. French mantel clock for restoration.
This clock had once belonged to the lady's grandmother who, with her husband, ran the 'Rising Sun' pub in Lydd in 1940 and who became known in the national press as the 'Spy Catcher'!
She was the one who realised that a stranger she had spoken to in the pub was not 'quite right' due to his ignorance of British licensing laws, coinage &c. and who, in her words, asked too many questions about British troops stationed in the area.
She thus set into motion the search for, and subsequent arrest of, the spies who had come ashore in a small boat.

Ah, yes, the clock:  it was presented to the couple by the 'Repair Shop' in pristine, working condition with the strike operating just as the lady had remembered it as a small child when it had sat on the mantel over the fireplace in the pub.

[Graham Cooke]

Good morning!
A much retold family 'tale' has at last led me here!
My Grandmother's sister, Great Aunt Winnie was married to Sgt Joe Tye, Kent Constabulary. We visited the area staying at Appledore a few years ago, but were unaware of the locations. We will return and find them. Thanks to all for the research and knowledge. Graham Cooke.

[pomme homme]

..... and when you've done so, Graham, I trust that you will recount here what you discover. In the meantime, welcome to the forum!