Spies

Spying And Infiltration

One of the most effective ways to gather data and information about an enemy or potential enemy, is by infiltrating the enemy's ranks. Obviously this is a very specialised job; the job of the spy.

A unique person who is usually very clever; and one who takes extraordinary risks and seizes upon opportunities.

Spies can bring or pass back, all sorts of information concerning the size and strength of an enemy's army. They are also on the lookout for dissidents within the enemy's forces, so that they can influence them to defect.

Who Caught Invisible Ink Spies?

Mabel Elliott was a "modest" spycatcher whose work was not recognised in her lifetime. A previously "unknown heroine" who helped to foil a World War I, spy plot by detecting secret messages has been discovered through the archives of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In 1915, Mabel Elliott uncovered messages about British military movements that were being sent by an undercover German agent in Britain. Her evidence given in court was screened to conceal her real identity.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, where she worked, now wants to recognise her 'astounding energy and dedication'. Professor Lesley Yellowlees, who is set to become president of the Royal Society of Chemistry next year, said: "We can be proud of the fact that chemists literally read between the lines to detect hidden messages."

Invisible Ink Discovered

During World War I, Miss Elliott worked for the War Ministry in London as a censor of letters. She spoke fluent German and Dutch and her interception of a letter sent to Holland began the unravelling of a spy network which was sending details of British shipping and troop movements over to Germany.

The German spy, Anton Kuepferle, had arrived in Liverpool from the United States, under the guise of being an American citizen and wool merchant.

The keen Miss Elliott discovered that his business letters to an address in Holland contained secret writing which was written in lemon juice, which when treated revealed information about defence deployments around London and Royal Navy movements around the coast.

Mr Kuepferle was arrested and accused of spying, and he was using invisible ink to send his messages to the German secret services.

Uproar In The USA

The United States newspapers carried stories of his claim to be an innocent American salesman, and they described how he had been under surveillance in his hotel room near Victoria Station in London.

Before his trial had been concluded, the accused spy was found hanged in his cell, after apparently using a silk scarf to kill himself. He was said to have left a message admitting that he was a German officer.

A further two spies who were accomplices of Mr Kuepferle were also caught; they were using the same invisible ink method and writing to the same address.

Miss Elliott's Screen

Miss Elliott's role in breaking this spy network was never acknowledged in her lifetime because, under this cloak of espionage and counter-espionage, her evidence was given under the assumed identity of Maud Phillips.

This case of the tinker, tailor, soldier, chemist was only uncovered when the Royal Society of Chemistry was going through its own archive, where it found the details of Miss Elliott's wartime exploits.

This modest spycatcher's involvement in this world of invisible ink and surveillance was not publicly recognised at that time.

After World War 1, Miss Elliott worked for the Royal Society of Chemistry, until retiring in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, she used her language skills as an interpreter and passed the Red Cross exams because she wanted to become a nurse.

She also helped to look after elderly people during the Blitz. She died in 1944, at the age of 59, and her obituary in the society's magazine said: "A favourite quotation of hers was Hugh Walpole's 'It isn't life that matters! It's the courage we bring to it.'"

But the Royal Society of Chemistry says that there is still much that remains unknown about her life. They believe that as a child she went to a German convent school in Holland and later trained at Pitman's College in London.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, in the week before Remembrance Sunday 2011, said; "they would like to find out more about her life and family."

Clandestine Suspicions

Siemens first came to the attention of MI5 during World War I following an anonymous letter from Chile. It described how Britons living in Antofagasta in Chile believed the company had a "clandestine wireless installation".

Suspicious activity was also reported in Siemens branches in Georgia, Spain, Switzerland, Egypt, Panama and Argentina during World War I.

MI5 Feared Siemens Staff spy links during WWII.

The file contained a diagram published in US magazine PM suggesting how companies could be linked to the Third Reich. Employees of the German company Siemens were investigated for espionage by MI5, it has been revealed.

Newly released files show a number of employees were investigated for intelligence activities while working for the company in the 1930s and 1940s. MI5 feared the company, which had branches all over the world, was assisting the Nazi regime in its foreign policy and war objectives.

The files, released by MI5, can be seen at the National Archives in Kew. British intelligence feared German companies operating in the UK or abroad, particularly in the British Empire, could be used by the German government as part of its broader foreign policy and war effort.

By 1936 the Nazi regime had made it clear "every German man and woman must render service to the Fatherland in time of war and that Germans who live abroad, including those of dual nationality, are bound to serve when called up".

The files show a number of investigations were ordered into individual employees of Siemens, a German industrial conglomerate. Some of these were requested by Lord Rothschild, who was head of the counter-sabotage unit at MI5 at the time.

In the run up to World War II, MI5 was concerned about Siemens' operations in the UK. One branch of the company, Siemens Schukert, which had factories in Ealing and Acton in west London, was described in the files as "a rabid Nazi cell".

There were suspicions that German employees of the firm were involved in intelligence work. Engineers were said to continually travel around the UK but "no-one knew where they went?

The British branch of the firm was closed down following the start of the war under the 1939 Trading with the Enemy Act.

Nazi Femme Fatale

Blamed By MI5 For WWII Defeat

Did a beautiful Nazi femme fatale undermine British forces in Norway? A glamorous Russian ballerina who worked as a Nazi spy is the subject of an MI5 file revealed for the first time.

Marina Lee, an agent in Norway, was "blond, tall, with a beautiful figure, refined and languid in manner". Her file is one of a number released by MI5 and available at the National Archives in Kew or online.

She was suspected of infiltrating the headquarters of General Claude Auchinleck in 1940. Lee reportedly got hold of a key battle plan which she passed to the German commander.

British, French and Norwegian troops under General Auchinleck were later defeated at the Battle of Narvik and forced to withdraw from German-controlled Norway.

The Russian-born Lee, whose maiden name was Alexievna, went missing in Spain after the war and one note expresses fears she may have gone to work for the Soviets.

"She is in fact the type to transfer her allegiance having once had a taste of the game," said a note on her file. "It's a classic femme fatale story, if it's true.”

Marina Lee was in Norway at the time that Germany invaded and fought the Allies in Norway. It ended up being a complete disaster for the British."

she was thought to have infiltrated the British headquarters at Tromso. It has not confirmed that it was true; but it could be that Auchinleck or his staff were seduced or persuaded by this lady to hand over the battle plan.

It's something that could almost come out of a pulp novel of the time. Her file describes Marina Lee as being a ballerina, born in St Petersburg in 1902, who married a Norwegian in the 1930s.

She seems to have left quite an impression on a number of German officers who had been in contact with her and were later interrogated by MI5 at their base, Camp 020, in Richmond, south west London.

In 1940 there was a widespread fear of German spies infiltrating Britain One of them, Finckenstein, described her as a "beautiful blonde. Another report, in French, describes her as "slim, very blonde (natural), blue grey eyes, very pretty legs".

Sadly no photograph of her remains on the file as Finckenstein threw the last remaining one into the sea when he was seized off the coast of Norway.

While Marina Lee existed in the shadows, another suspected spy in the MI5 files lived openly in Finsbury Park, north London, and frequently expressed her support for Hitler.

Margaret Newitt, who ran a London agency for German and Austrian domestic servant girls, was interned in 1940. MI5 suspected she was working with the German Embassy to plant spies in the homes of key people in London.

The widow's MI5 file includes a letter she wrote to the Daily Express in 1936. She wrote: "Only people what have been in Germany three years ago can fully appreciate what Hitler has done for Germany.

"If Germany wants to get rid of the Jews, let them. It is entirely their own affair and I am sure we can do with a few more." Perhaps unsurprisingly MI5 kept a close watch on her and her agency.

One MI5 officer wrote: "There is no doubt that she knew perfectly well that the employment agency was being used by the German Embassy to send people into this country who might be useful to the German government."

In October 1940, she was arrested and interrogated at Holloway prison in north London. Where she admitted she had applied in 1936 to become a member of the Nazi Party and the file adds: "This was a rather strange thing for a loyal British subject to be doing."

The officer adds: "I scarcely think that I need add anything more in order to show that Newitt is a dangerous woman deeply involved in the Nazi cause, who has prevaricated and lied in order to evade the appropriate action."

Soon afterwards the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, signed an order detaining her indefinitely. On her file it states: "Mrs Newitt said that she would welcome internment, not because she had done anything wrong, as she had a clear conscience, but she was at her wits' end for livelihood."

She is thought to have been freed after the war but it is not clear what became of her.

MI5 Suspect Was Bond Screenwriter

Wolf Mankowitz was said to discuss Marxist theories with his friends, he was a screenwriter for James Bond films. He was himself suspected of being a communist agent, newly released Security Service files show.

The MI5 file on Wolf Mankowitz, a "convinced Marxist," shows he was monitored for more than a decade. Mr Mankowitz wrote the screenplay for the unofficial Bond film Casino Royale in 1967, and was also involved in the film Dr No.

The files are available at the National Archives in Kew or online. Mr Mankowitz, who died in 1998, introduced film producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to each other.

He was subsequently involved in writing the script for their first Bond film together, Dr No. Born in London's East End, Mr Mankowitz attended the University of Cambridge where he joined the university's Socialist Society and met his wife Ann, a Communist Party member.

Highly strung

MI5 first became interested in Mr Mankowitz in 1944, when the couple were living in Newcastle. A letter mentioning the pair from suspected communist David Holbrook was intercepted by MI5, prompting the agency to ask Newcastle police to investigate them.

Mr Holbrook wrote that the couple were "avoiding National Service and doing themselves well" earning £6 a week lecturing for the left-wing Workers' Educational Association.

Reporting back to MI5, Newcastle police said Mr Mankowitz "is known to frequently discuss the theories of Marxism with his friends whilst in lodgings".

Despite surveillance by the authorities, Mr Mankowitz was able to enlist with the Territorial Army. His commanding officer described him as a "highly strung individual of nervous temperament" who was awaiting an interview with a psychiatrist.

The MI5 file contained surveillance photos of Mr Mankowitz But he doubted he was a subversive influence. "Even if he possesses communist views I do not think he has the personality or strength of character to pass them on to his fellow soldiers," the officer wrote.

"There is no evidence that he has attempted to air these views whilst with this unit," he added.

Surveillance

In 1948 Mr Mankowitz applied for a job with the Government Central Office of Information but was blocked from joining the organisation. In a letter, MI5 told the Commanding Officer: he was "known to be the husband of a Communist Party member and himself a convinced Marxist".

In 1951, Mr Mankowitz was commissioned by the BBC to translate the Chekhov play The Bear. MI5 warned the corporation of Mr Mankowitz's communist past but suggested his working on the translation did not pose a threat.

Mr Mankowitz was still of interest to the security agency into the mid-1950s, particularly after he visited Moscow in 1956, as a guest of the Soviet Union.

He visited the World Youth Fair in Moscow during a 10-day visit and announced to the press on his return his ambition to set up a "British Soviet co-film production".

But interest in Mr Mankowitz tailed off after he cancelled a follow-up visit to Moscow, choosing to go to the West Indies instead of a film location.

There are many other worthy stories that have been lost through time; which is a shame; because when stories are lost they are lost forever!!!

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