German Spies Carl Hans Lody Carl Hans Lody Was The

German Spies Carl Hans Lody Carl Hans Lody was the first spy to be executed in the Tower of London since the time of George III. He was also viewed by many people as the most favourable specimen of a German agent with whom we had to deal during the war for there is no doubt that his motives were purely patriotic. On those grounds there was some talk of his death sentence being commuted to penal servitude for life, but when the proposal was brought before the head of the counter-espionage section it was refused in the basis that the public announcement of a spy's execution would have a deterrent effect on future German spies coming to this country. This decision sealed his fate, and Lody paid the supreme penalty on Friday, 6 November 1914. He met his death without flinching, and on the morning or his execution, when the Assistant Provost Marshal came to his cell to tell him his time had come, he said, rather wistfully, "I suppose you will not care to shake hands with a German spy.'' "No, I would not," said the APM, "but I will shake hands with a brave man", and so Carl Lody died. Of all the impossible tasks with which any war historian is confronted, that of analysing the mental psychology of a spy is the worst. There are patriotic spies and hireling spies. It was the latter type which predominated amongst the German agents who came tn this country during the war. Nearly all of neutral origin, they came into the game for what they could make out of it, and the inevitable conclusion one came to was that they had very little conception of the odds against them. There were Peruvians, Brazilians, Uruguayans, German-Americans, Irishmen, Dutchmen, Scandinavians and Spaniards. When captured and interrogated they behaved with the characteristics common to their race. The Dutchman and the Scandinavian would preserve a sullen indifference to everything, answering questions reluctantly, and making desperate endeavours to avoid committing themselves. Not so the South Americans - with the charming insouciance of the Latin, they would answer any and every question - too readily, in fact. But they were permitted to go on until such time as their information became nothing but a mass of contradictions - when they would cheerfully own up to lying. The German-American would be indignant, threatening his interrogator with all the pains and penalties of international law - until confronted with the evidence of his guilt when he would lapse into glowering silence. The German lied - continued lying - until his forged passport and secret ink messages were produced, when he, too, would see that the game was up, and would accordingly relapse into silence. There was one spy who broke down badly under the relentless cross-examination. As he was asked a question so would he reply and then ask, "Can you tell me if this means death?" "I cannot say," his interrogator would answer. So it went on for half an hour. Every time the spy replied to a damaging question he would ask if it meant death to him. At that his interrogator grew curious, and asked, "Why is it you want to know?" The spy whose nerves were rapidly approaching a state of collapse, burst into tears and, holding his hands over his face, sobbed, "I have an aged mother in Stettin, and would like to provide for her before I die". It could not be said of Carl Lody that he gave his cross-examiners any assistance when taken to Scotland Yard. He was a professional spy, whose appointment had been specially approved by the Kaiser, and although he made a great mystery of the fact right up to the time of his death, there is no doubt that he was sent on a special mission with the knowledge of his Emperor as soon as it became evident that we had, for the time being, wiped out the German spy system in Great Britain. Lody's past history made him eminently suitable for the precarious post. Born in 1879 in Berlin, he had been a Lieutenant in the German Navy, but resigned about 1900 owing to lack of means, and was posted to the Reserve of Officers. Speaking excellent English - with an American accent, it is true - by virtue of long residence in the United States (he had been married to an American woman from whom he was divorced by the time the war started), he was the kind of person who could find employment anywhere in the world. After his resignation he entered the employment of the Hamburg-Amerika Steamship Line as a tourist guide. In that capacity he travelled all over Britain, and was well known in London. At one time he attempted to enter the employ of Thomas Cook and Son, but that firm, being rather suspicious of his bona fides, did not engage him. Lody returned to Berlin from a Norwegian tour a few days before 4 August 1914, ready to take up his duties of spy. He moved to Berlin and volunteered for service in the German Navy, but was sent to German Naval Intelligence, because of his ability to speak good English. It was necessary to obtain him a passport which would protect him in the projected masquerade of an American citizen, and the manner by which this was brought about was typically German. An American named Charles A Inglis was staying in Berlin at that time, and he had made application to his embassy for a visa to enable him to continue travelling in Europe. This had been duly granted, and his passport had been passed on to the German Foreign Office for visa purposes. There it disappeared. Carl Hans Lody had become Mr Charles A Inglis, the latter's photograph had been removed and that of Lody substituted. It was an excellent ruse in its way, for hundreds of Americans were pouring out of Germany at the time. Provided with a substantial amount of money, he set off from Hamburg to neutral Norway, from where, on 14 August, he took a ship to Newcastle, arriving on 27 August. He then went to Edinburgh where he first stayed at the North British Station Hotel, Edinburgh. The plan was for him to monitor the British fleet in the Forth Estuary, counting the number of warships and estimating their military value. The Firth of Forth, the large estuary to the north of Edinburgh, was of great strategic importance. As well as being the main seaward approach to the Scottish capital and the site of the Forth Bridge, it was used as an anchorage by dozens of Royal Navy ships. The area was heavily fortified with gun batteries and minefields to protect it against attacks from the sea. The Germans wanted to obtain information on the British fleet and defences, as well as the aftermath of any engagements. According to the German Admiralty's files, "if or when Mr Lody comes to know that a naval battle has taken place, he will enquire as much and as unobtrusively as possible regarding losses, damage etc". He took the bus to the Firth of Forth every morning. Just five days into his mission he sent his first report back to Germany, a telegram transmitted via Sweden. It read, "must cancel. Johnson very ill. Lost four days. Shall leave shortly. Charles", indicating that there were four ships being repaired at the dock and that there were several units about to head out to sea. The German submarine U-21 immediately received orders to attack and the lead ship of the Pathfinder class scout cruisers, HMS Pathfinder, then became the first ship ever sunk by a torpedo fired from a submarine. After this, Lody no longer felt safe staying at this hotel, especially as he had named his address in the telegram. This first message, which had been sent to an Adolf Buchard in Stockholm, led to Lody being detected. MI5 knew that this address was a cover for German intelligence. Any messages sent there were intercepted and Lody's correspondence made it clear that a German spy was active in Britain. His identity was not known at that stage, as he signed his messages "Charles" or "Nazi". (The latter alias had no connection with Adolf Hitler's party, which was founded after the war. Before then, the word "Nazi" was used as a short form of the name "Ignatz"; it was also a nickname for Austro-Hungarian soldiers). It later became known that Lody was travelling using an American passport in the name of Charles A Inglis. During his month in Edinburgh, Lody sent regular messages in English and German to his contacts in Stockholm. Some of these were allowed to go through because they contained misleading information that would alarm the Germans but cause no harm to the British cause. For instance, he fell into the trap of sending the story about a supposed landing of "large numbers of Russian troops" in Scotland, repeating a rumour that thousands of Russians "with snow on their boots" had been sent to fight on the Western Front. He described with a wealth of detail how huge, bearded men, with the snow of the steppes still clinging to their boots, were landing by thousands to ultimately take up their position on the Western Front and so check the advance of the victorious German armies. That item of "news" was allowed to go through, but how far it affected the enemy plans we shall never know. There was no truth in the story but it certainly caused a great deal of concern to the German General Staff.

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