The Guy Liddell Diaries, Vol. II: 1942–1945

WALLFLOWERS is the codename given to one of the Security Service’s most treasured possessions, the daily journal dictated from August 1939 to June 1945 by MI5’s Director of Counter-Espionage, Guy Liddell, to his secretary, Margot Huggins.The document was considered so highly classified that it was retained in the safe of suc- cessive Directors-General, and special permission was required to read it. Liddell was one of three brothers who all won the Military Cross during World War I and subsequently joined MI5. He initially served with the Metropolitan Police Special Branch at Scotland Yard, dealing primarily with cases of Soviet espi- onage, until he was transferred to MI5 in 1931. His social connections proved important because in 1940 he employed as his personal assistant and he became a close friend of both and Victor Rothschild,and was acquainted with . Despite these links, when Liddell retired from the Security Service in 1952 he was appointed security adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission, an extremely sensitive post following the conviction of the physicist Klaus Fuchs two years earlier. No other member of the Security Service is known to have maintained a diary and the twelve volumes of this journal represent a unique record of the events and personalities of the period, a veritable tour d’horizon of the entire subject. As Director, B Division, Liddell supervised all the major pre-war and wartime espi- onage investigations, maintained a watch on suspected pro-Nazis and laid the foundations of the famous ‘double cross system’ of enemy double agents. He was unquestionably one of the most reclusive and remarkable men of his generation, and a legend within his own organisation.

Nigel West is a military historian specialising in security and intelligence topics. He lectures at the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Washington DC and is the European editor of the World Intelligence Review. In 1989 he was elected ‘the Expert’s Expert’ by the Observer and in 2003 he was the recipi- ent of the US Association of Former Intelligence Officer’s Lifetime Literature Achievement Award.

THE GUY LIDDELL DIARIES

VOLUME II: 1942–1945 MI5’s Director of Counter-Espionage in World War II

Edited by Nigel West First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group © 2005 Westintel

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-415-35215-0 (Print Edition) CONTENTS

Editor’s note vi

Acknowledgments vii

Personalities viii

Executions xii

British Intelligence establishments xiii

Glossary xiv

Glossary of Operational Codenames xvii

Introduction 1

The Diaries, 1942–1945 3

Index 299

v EDITOR’S NOTE

The original diaries were dictated each evening, before he strolled down St James’s Street to dine at the Travellers Club, by Guy Liddell to his secretary, who typed them onto both sides of small 7 × 5 inch pages which were bound in twelve loose- leaf ring-binders, each with its own index and hand-written pagination.They were intended as a highly secret record of the Security Service’s contribution to the prosecution of the war, as seen from Liddell’s unique perspective.At the time (and for five decades afterwards) no thought was given to the possibility of making them available outside the organisation, so the originals tend to refer to Liddell’s closest colleagues, among them Cyril Mills, Herbert Hart,Victor Rothschild and Charles Butler, by their given names only, whereas other subordinates are mentioned by their surnames, usually without rank.The text contained no clues to indicate that ‘Ned’ was Liddell’s cousin Sir Edward Reid,‘Tommy’ was the King’s private secre- tary (Sir) Alan Lascelles and ‘Barty’ was Bartholomew Pleydell-Bouverie. Where the people concerned were unknown to Margot Huggins the spelling could be inconsistent, and foreign names are generally spelt phonetically.An added complication has been the redactions introduced during declassification for the purpose of concealing supposedly still-sensitive information, such as the names of Dick Ellis and Tim Milne, and identities of agents including Klop Ustinov,ARTIST and TATE.Where possible, the redactions have been restored, and MI5’s convention of placing agent codenames, like SNAKE, in small capitals has been adopted, as has the style used by Special Operations Executive of giving its agents’ nom-de-guerre in italics, so Francis Cammaerts becomes Roger. Operational and planning codewords also appear in capitals (HUSKY and OVERLORD) and all acronyms (CICI, CSDIC and DIB) so familiar to those directly involved during the war but now somewhat obscure, have been expanded. The editor has also intervened to clarify some of the more abstruse allusions, and has opted for consistency when, for example, the legendary MI5 interrogator Edward Hinchley-Cooke appears in the original simply as ‘Cookie’ or ‘H-C’, and Tommy Robertson merely as his initials,‘TAR’.

vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editor owes a debt of gratitude to Thomas Cheplick, who toiled in the National Archive at Kew in the preparation of this volume.Also to Hayden Peake, Ray Batvinis, Dan Mulvenna and Glenmore Trenear-Harvey who gave generously of their specialist knowledge in this field.The project could not have been com- pleted without them. Among the members of the Liddell family who assisted my research were Sir Sandy Reid, Leonard Ingrams, Georgina Rowse, Joan Booth, and Theresa Booth.

vii PERSONALITIES

John Adam MI5 officer Francis Aiken-Sneath MI5 officer Harry Allen MI5 officer John Archer MI5 liaison officer with the RAF Hugh Astor MI5 case officer BALLOON MI5 codename for Dickie Metcalfe BASKET MI5 codename for Joseph Lenihan Walter Bell SIS officer in New York Anthony Blunt MI5 officer and Guy Liddell’s personal assistant David Boyle Personal Assistant to C. Dick Brooman-White MI5 officer BRUTUS Roman Garby-Czerniawski (known to SOE as Walenti) Leonard Burt Scotland Yard detective seconded to MI5 Charles Butler MI5 officer in the D-G’s secretariat C Stewart Menzies, Chief of SIS Sir Alexander Cadogan Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office Albert Canning Head of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch CARELESS MI5 double agent Victor Caroe MI5 officer in the Irish section Bill Cavendish-Bentinck Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee Eddie Chapman Codenamed FRITZCHEN by the Abwehr, and ZIGZAG by MI5 CHEESE SIME double agent named Renato Levi COBWEB Ib Riis, SIS double agent in Iceland William Codrington Head of the Foreign Office’s Security Department COLUMBINE Abwehr defector Felix Cowgill Deputy head of SIS’s Section V Edward Cussen MI5 officer Claude Dansey Assistant Chief, SIS Jimmie Dickson Ministry of Labour official seconded to MI5

viii PERSONALITIES

General Sir John Dill Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff DRAGONFLY MI5 double agent named Hans George DUCK MI5 agent in the Spanish Embassy in John Dulanty High Commissioner for Ireland in London Bertram Ede Defence Security Officer, Malta EGGS MI5 informant Dick Ellis SIS officer attached to BSC in New York FATHER MI5 codename for a Belgian pilot Henri Arents FIDO MI5 double agent, a French pilot named Grosjean Donald Fish Scotland Yard detective seconded to MI5 Albert Foster Detective Superintendent of Special Branch Ingram Fraser SOE officer in New York FRITZCHEN Abwehr codename for Eddie Chapman Malcolm Frost MI5 officer seconded from the BBC Roger Fulford MI5 officer Friedle Gaertner MI5 double agent codenamed GELATINE Richard Gambier-Parry Head of SIS’s Section VIII and the RSS GELATINE MI5 codename for Friedle Gaertner Hans George MI5 double agent codenamed DRAGONFLY Gilbert SOE codename for Henri Dericourt John Gwyer MI5 officer Jasper Harker Director, B Division HARLEQUIN Abwehr defector named Wurmann Christopher Harmer MI5 case officer Tommy Harris MI5 case officer in the Spanish Section Herbert Hart MI5 officer and analyst Edwin Herbert Director of Postal Censorship Edward Hinchley-Cooke MI5 interrogator Sir Sam Hoare British Ambassador in Madrid Roger Hollis MI5’s expert on the CPGB Jack Hooper SIS officer Henry Hopkinson Sir Alexander Cadogan’s private secretary Reg Horrocks MI5’s management efficiency expert Waldemar Janowsky Abwehr spy in Canada Kemball Johnston MI5 officer liaising with RVPS JOSEPH MI5 double agent Kenneth Keith Assistant to General Strong Major-General Sir Vernon Director-General Kell Alex Kellar MI5 officer Sir Norman Kendal Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Scotland Yard Bernie Kiener MI5 double agent codenamed RAINBOW Klop Klop Ustinov, MI5 agent Max Knight MI5 agent-handler

ix PERSONALITIES

Walter Krivitsky Soviet defector LEMON MI5 double agent Joseph Lenihan MI5 double agent codenamed BASKET Cecil Liddell Head of MI5’s Irish Section LIPSTICK MI5 double agent Josef Terradellas Billy Luke MI5 B1(a) case officer Mr Machell MI5 officer Noel Mason Macfarlane Governor of Gibraltar Alan MacIver MI5 officer in charge of the RSLOs Ivan Maisky Soviet Ambassador to London John Marriott MI5 officer and secretary of the Twenty Committee J.C. Masterman MI5 officer and chairman of the Twenty Committee John Maude MI5 officer Raymund Maunsell Head of Security Intelligence Middle East Sir Alexander Maxwell Permanent Under-Secretary Home Office Tito Medlam DSO Gibraltar Dickie Metcalfe MI5 double agent codenamed BALLOON METEOR MI5 double agent Eugn Sostaric Cyril Mills MI5 case officer, later DSO in Ottawa Helenus “Buster” Milmo MI5 officer Eric Mockler-Ferryman War Office, Home Forces Ewen Montagu NID representative on the Twenty Committee Home Secretary in the war coalition government Desmond Morton ’s intelligence adviser Sir Oswald Mosley Leader of the British Union of Fascists OSTRO MI5 codename fot Paul Fidrmuc Arthur Owens MI5’s double agent codenamed SNOW Denys Page GC&CS cryptographer PEACH MI5 double agent John Pepper SIS officer in New York PEPPERMINT MI5 double agent José Brugada Wood Toby Pilcher MI5 officer in the legal section Dusan Popov MI5 double agent codenamed SKOOT, then TRICYCLE PUPPET MI5 double agent named Fanto RAINBOW MI5 double agent named Bernie Kiener Peter Ramsbotham MI5 officer in the American section Ronnie Reed MI5 radio operator Ned Reid MI5’s financial expert and Guy Liddell’s cousin T.A.Robertson Head of MI5’s B1(a) section Adm Edmund Ashbrooke Director of Naval Intelligence Hugh Trevor Roper SIS’s expert on ISOS ROVER MI5 double agent Michael Ryde RSLO

x PERSONALITIES

Wulf Schmidt MI5’s double agent codenamed TATE F.A.Sclater Wireless expert attached to B3(b) MI9 interrogator John Senter MI5 officer seconded to SOE as security officer SHADOW MI5 double agent Hugh Shillito MI5 officer SILVER Double agent run in the Far East Derek Sinclair MI5 officer and son of C, Sir Hugh Sinclair. The SNARK MI5 codename for a Yugoslav double agent SNOW MI5 codename for double agent Arthur Owens Reg Spooner Scotland Yard detective seconded to MI5 SPRINGBOK MI5 codename for Hans von Koetze, a double agent based in Canada Robin “Tin-Eye” Stephens Commandant of Camp 020 John Stephenson MI5 officer William Stephenson Director of British Security Co-ordination in New York Major Richard Stevens PCO in The Hague Harry Stone MI5 officer Richman Stopford MI5 officer Kenneth Strong Former British assistant military attaché in Berlin TANGERINE MI5 agent Derek Tangye MI5’s press liaison officer TATE MI5’s codename for Wulf Schmidt Arthur Thurston FBI legal attaché in London TRICYCLE MI5 codename for Dusan Popov Theo Turner MI5 officer Klop Ustinov MI5 agent Sir Robert Vansittart Chief Diplomatic Adviser at the Foreign Office VELOCIPEDE MI5 double agent Sir Philip Vickery Director of Indian Political Intelligence Victoire SOE codename for Mathilde Carr Walenti SOE codename for Roman Garby-Czerniawski (known as BRUTUS TO MI5) WATCHDOG MI5 codename for Waldemar Janowsky The WEASEL MI5 double agent WENDY MI5 double agent Geoffrey Wethered MI5 officer MI5 officer and future Director-General Ian Wilson MI5 B1(a) case officer The WORM MI5 double agent Walter “Freckles”Wren MI5 officer in New York Courtney Young MI5’s Japanese expert ZIGZAG MI5 codename for Eddie Chapman

xi EXECUTIONS

Oswald Job Aged 58, Job was arrested in London in November 1943, tried at the Old Bailey in January 1944 and executed at Pentonville in March 1944. Pierre Neukermans A Belgian seaman, Neukermans landed in England in July 1943 as a refugee but was arrested in February 1944. He was convicted under the Treachery Act in May 1944 and hanged at Pentonville the following month. Duncan Scott-Ford A British seaman recruited by the Germans in Lisbon, Scott-Ford was tried at the Old Bailey in August 1942 and hanged at Wandsworth in October 1942. Joseph Vanhove A Belgian waiter,Vanhove was arrested in London in May 1944, tried at the Old Bailey at the end of the same month, and executed at Pentonville in July.

xii BRITISH INTELLIGENCE ESTABLISHMENTS

Barnet Headquarters of the Radio Security Service Blenheim MI5 headquarters in Oxfordshire Broadway SIS headquarters in London Duke Street Headquarters of Free French Intelligence Ham Camp 020, Richmond Huntercombe Camp 020R, Oxfordshire Norfolk House Headquarters of SHAEF Kinnaird House Headquarters of the Security Executive Room 055 MI5’s room in the War Office Ryder Street London headquarters of Section V St James’s Street MI5 headquarters in London Woldingham Radio Security Service intercept site

xiii GLOSSARY

4th Department Soviet military intelligence service ACSI Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence ADMI Assistant Director of Military Intelligence ADNI Assistant Director of Naval Intelligence AFHQ Allied Forces Headquarters AMGOT Allied Military Government B1(a) MI5’s German double agent section B1(g) MI5’s Irish section B2 MI5’s agent section B5(b) Max Knight’s section B6 MI5’s Watcher Service BCRA French intelligence service BGSI Brigadier (General Staff) Intelligence BJ Diplomatic intercept BSC British Security Co-ordination C. Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service CCAO Chief of Combined Allied Operations CCO Chief of Combined Operations CICI Combined Intelligence Centre Iraq CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff COSSAC Chief of Staff Supreme Allied Commander CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CSDIC Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre DDMI Deputy Director of Military Intelligence DF Direction-Finding DGER Direction Générale des Etudes et Recherches DMI Director of Military Intelligence DNI Director of Naval Intelligence DPP Director of Public Prosecutions DSO Defence Security Officer DUFF Microdot

xiv GLOSSARY

ENSA Entertainment National Service Association F2(c) MI5 section dealing with Russian intelligence FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FUSAG First United States Army Group FSP Field Security Police G-2 US Army military intelligence GC&CS Government Code & Cipher School GOC General Officer Commanding Group 1 Wireless intercepts of Abwehr hand ciphers HOW Home Office mail and telephone intercept warrant IB Intelligence Branch of the General Staff IRA Irish Republican Army ISBA Intelligence Service/British Agents ISCOT Intercepted Comintern radio traffic ISLD Inter-Service Liaison Department ISOS Decrypted Abwehr hand cipher wireless traffic ISPAL Intercepted Jewish cipher traffic ISSB Inter-Services Security Board ITS Italian intelligence intercepts IZAK Intercepted German intercepts JMA Intercepted Japanese military attaché traffic KD Kameradshaftsdienst radio station MI8 Radio Security Service MI9 Escape & Evasion Service MI(L) War Office liaison with Allied services MSS Most Secret Sources NID Naval Intelligence Division NSDAP Nazi Party OGPU Soviet intelligence service OKW German High Command OSS Office of Strategic Services OVRA Italian secret police PCO Passport Control Officer PID Political Intelligence Department PPF Partie Populaire Français RSLO Regional Security Liaison Officer RSS Radio Security Service RVPS Royal Victoria Patriotic School SB Special Branch SCI Special Counter-Intelligence Unit SIC Security Intelligence Centre SIS Secret Intelligence Service SIME Security Intelligence Middle East SLB3 MI5 renegades investigation unit

xv GLOSSARY

SLU Special Liaison Unit S02 Special Operations 2 Special Material Intercepted diplomatic telephone conversations Tube Alloys Atomic bomb research VACNA Vice Admiral Commanding North Atlantic VCIGS Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff ZIP Intercepted enemy diplomatic traffic ZPT Intercepted enemy naval wireless traffic

xvi GLOSSARY OF OPERATIONAL CODENAMES

ALACRITY Allied occupation of the Azores AMATEUR Wireless deception scheme ANVIL Allied invasion of the south of France BODYLINE Committee to assess enemy secret weapons BUNBURY Bogus sabotage of a power station CROSSBOW Committee to assess enemy rockets DREAM Scheme to finance double agents HUSKEY Invasion of Sicily in 1943 LIFEBELT Allied occupation of the Azores MINCEMEAT Deception scheme to cover the invasion of Sicily OATMEAL Supply of material to MUTT and JEFF OVERLORD Invasion of Normandy in 1944 RANKIN Allied invasion of STARKEY Deception scheme in Calais in 1943 TORCH Invasion of North Africa in 1942 VAULT Allied occupation of the Azores

xvii

INTRODUCTION

In the first volume of The Guy Liddell Diaries the author was preoccupied with internment, German espionage and the threat of German infiltration in Ireland. He was also concerned with the development of the double-cross system and its man- agement through a new branch of the Security Service created during a disastrous period of reorganisation. In this second volume, the threat of imminent invasion of Britain has been lifted and MI5 is on the offensive, exploiting intercepted German wireless traffic to interdict enemy spies, but nevertheless there remains a continuous demarcation wrangle between SIS’s Section V and B Division over the proper supervision of that most secret of sources, ISOS. Known generically as MSS, an abbreviation for Most Secret Sources, wireless interception proved to be the key to MI5’s many successes in identifying enemy spies, checking up on the performance of their double agents and mounting elab- orate deception schemes to dupe their Abwehr opponents. Liddell was preoccupied with three significant areas of concern. Firstly, MI5’s relations with the FBI and the problem of liaison through Bill Stephenson, the controversial Director of British Security Co-ordination. Stephenson’s relationship with J. Edgar Hoover was always stormy because BSC conducted clandestine oper- ations in the United States, behaviour that Hoover strongly disapproved of, especially when it interfered with his own efforts to penetrate foreign embassies in Washington DC. SIS opposed MI5’s wish to establish a direct link with the FBI and wanted all communications to be channelled through Section V. Liddell’s second continuing anxiety was his deteriorating co-operation with Section V whose inflexible head, Felix Cowgill, had spent most of his career study- ing Communist infiltration in India and had a highly-developed sense of tight compartmentalisation. Cowgill recognised that ISOS with its derivatives was the holy grail, a source that had to be protected at all costs. Liddell, on the other hand, while acknowledging the value of signals intelligence, wanted to exploit the opportunities it offered. As Liddell documented, the two opposing cultures fre- quently came into long and bitter conflict, and threatened to compromise numerous other areas of mutual interest. Third, as MI5 gained the upper hand in the management of double agents and the interdiction of spies in the Middle East, South Africa and the Caribbean, there

1 THE GUY LIDDELL DIARIES, VOL. 1I: 1942–1945 were worries about the deployment of suitable personnel to manage an increas- ingly complex game being played with the enemy.As MI5’s deception techniques developed, the stakes increased as the plans for OVERLORD, the opening of the long-awaited Second Front, became dependent on surprise and misleading the Abwehr.A single blunder, a casual indiscretion or a deliberate leak could jeopardise tens of thousands of lives on D-Day, placing a heavy burden on Guy Liddell to exercise discipline over his double agents, carefully vet defectors, penetrate neutral embassies in London and maintain surveillance on suspected spies.As the pages that follow demonstrate, this was a juggling act that he accomplished with characteris- tic humour and consummate skill. However, although there is scarcely a hint of the pressure he was forced to work under, Liddell was not only playing the espionage game for the very highest stakes, he was also distracted by the fate of his four chil- dren, Peter, Gay, Juno and Maude, who had been taken suddenly to America by their eccentric mother, Calypso. In fact, following their abduction, Liddell only learned of their arrival in New York by chance, having spotted them in a publicity photograph reporting the Queen Mary’s arrival.Thereafter, he made many attempts through the courts to recover them, and on one occasion, while making an official visit to the United States, travelled to the Carolinas to find them. Such anxieties were never confided to his faithful secretary, Margot Huggins, who struggled each evening after office hours to catch Liddell’s quiet voice as he dictated what must now be regarded as one of the most remarkable documents of the Second World War. Nigel West

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