The Lisbon Route

by Ronald Weber

  226 in the names: Laurie, The Propaganda Warriors, 204–205. For more on the MO Branch’s use of music, see Mauch, The Shadow War Against Hitler, 151–162.

  226 directly into Europe: Carroll, Persuade or Perish, 127.

  226 foreign broadcasts: Ibid., 115.

  227 pouch to Madrid: Balfour, Propaganda in War, 116–117.

  227 “by next December”: Quoted in Allan M. Winkler, The Politics of Propaganda: The Office of War Information, 1942–1945 (New Haven, Conn., 1978), 132.

  228 they did so: Winkler, The Politics of Propaganda, 136.

  228 “in the past”: Quoted in Cole, Britain and the War of Words in Neutral Europe, 154–155.

  229 few restrictions: These and other details about the triumph of Allied propaganda in Portugal are found in Cole, Britain and the War of Words in Neutral Europe, 155–158.

  229 “he did not!”: Quoted in ibid., 157.

  Chapter 11: The Seething Cauldron

  231 “disentangle things”: Kennan, Measures Short of War, 131.

  231 “seething cauldron”: Kennan, Memoirs, 143.

  231 “or maintained”: “Neutral Iberia,” The Economist, February 21, 1942, 243.

  232 “hair-raising”: Kennan, Memoirs, 143.

  232 “my partner”: Phillip Knightley, The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby (New York, 1989), 10l-102.

  233 “against each other”: J. C. Masterman, The Case of the Four Friends (London, 1960; orig. pub. 1956), 1961.

  233 forty to fifty: Douglas L. Wheeler, “The Archives of Portugal: A Guide to an Intelligence Treasure Trove,” International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, 4:4 (1990), 540.

  233 “make espionage”: Alexander, “The Nazi Offensive in Lisbon,” 86.

  233 “Portuguese racket”: “Enemy Intelligence Activities in Portugal,” June-September 1943, 5, 15. National Archives, IRR, File XE 135014.

  233 “linking them together”: Muir, European Junction, 40–41.

  234 “gather information”: Moats, No Passport for Paris, 13.

  234 “ones around”: Peabody, Occupied Territory, 248–250.

  234 listening post?: Wriggins, Picking Up the Pieces, 34.

  235 “top-secret documents”: Aline [Romanones], The Spy Wore Red, 62.

  235 some mail: Wheeler, “In the Service of Order,” 12.

  235 for delivery: New York Times, March 6, 1943, 2.

  235 went to prison: New York Times, November 20, 1942, 25.

  235 German handlers: New York Times, September 16, 1943, 15.

  235 back of letters: New York Times, August 27, 1943, 4; The Times (London), October 9, 1943, 3.

  236 undercover career: John Beevor, SOE: Recollections and Reflections, 1940–1945 (London, 1981), 30–43. I largely follow this work in the account below. Beevor’s memoir is examined for accuracy in Wylie, “‘An Amateur Learns His Job’?,” 441–457.

  236 in defense of: The discussions are recounted in detail in Gyn Stone, The Oldest Ally, 166–181.

  237 Beevor’s recall: For varying interpretations of Salazar’s response to the Beevor case, see Wylie, “‘An Amateur Learns His Job’?,” 450.

  237 in shambles: The failed SOE operation is briefly noted in Wheeler, “In the Service of Order,” 8–9.

  237 “had the time”: Quoted in Wylie, “‘An Amateur Learns His Job’?,” 455.

  237 took action: Wylie, “‘An Amateur Learns His Job’?,” 455.

  238 “bread is buttered”: Quoted in Cole, Britain and the War of Words in Neutral Europe, 111.

  239 to the SOE: Philip Johns, Within Two Cloaks: Missions with SIS and SOE (London, 1979), 107–110, 114–115.

  239 first OSS operative: Beevor, SOE, 132–133.

  239 posting to Portugal: Solborg’s background is set out in R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency (Berkeley, Calif., 1972), 41.

  239 march into Portugal: Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality,” I, 121–122.

  239 of the other: Balfour, Propaganda in War, 100.

  240 “await orders”: Quoted in Smith, OSS, 48. For more detail about Solborg’s North African mission and his subsequent dismissal by Donovan, see this work, pages 47–51.

  240 proceeding smoothly: Solborg’s role in the deception scheme is recounted in Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War (New York, 2004), 721–725.

  241 “and intemperate”: Quoted in Bradley F. Smith, The Shadow Warriors: O.S.S. and the Origins of the C.I.A. (New York, 1983), 218.

  241 “their judgment”: Hayes, Wartime Mission in Spain, 77–78.

  241 “virtually amateurs”: Quoted in Smith, The Shadow Warriors, 219.

  241 “of the Azores”: Kennan, Memoirs, 150.

  241 “dangerous Fascist”: Ibid.

  241 trashcan burglary: Accounts of the burglary are given in, among others, Anthony Cave Brown, The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan (New York, 1982), 305–307, and David Alvarez, “Tempest in an Embassy Trash Can,” World War II, 22:9 (2008), 54–59.

  242 “of the nation”: Quoted in Smith, The Shadow Warriors, 220–221.

  242 who also informed: Alvarez, “Tempest in an Embassy Trash Can,” 56.

  242 “pick up any”: Quoted in Brown, The Last Hero, 306.

  242 “further activities”: Ibid., 306–307.

  243 been weakened: On this point, see Brown, The Last Hero, 307, and Smith, The Shadow Warriors, 221.

  243 subagents: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, 301.

  243 “of their art”: J. C. Masterson, The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945 (New Haven, Conn., 1972), 142, 114.

  243 Juan Pujol: A primary source of information about Garbo is his memoir: Juan Pujol, with Nigel West, Operation Garbo: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Double Agent of World War II (New York, 1985). The book has interspersed chapters by West—the pseudonym of the British intelligence writer Rupert Allason—that add detail and occasionally correct Pujol’s account. A necessary addition to, and corrective for, Pujol’s memoir is Tomás Harris, Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (Richmond, UK, 2000). Harris wrote his “Summary of the Garbo Case 1941–1945” for internal distribution within MI5. It was published in book form in 2000 under the title indicated above. Among numerous other accounts of Garbo’s spy career, see especially Michael Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War (New York, 1995), 231–241.

  245 Pujol went to: This is Pujol’s version of contacting an American official. Harris records that initial contact was made by Pujol’s wife, who was then living with him in Lisbon, and without her husband’s knowledge. Harris, Garbo, 62.

  246 “direction and example”: Norman Holmes Pearson, foreword to Masterman, The Double-Cross System, xi. Masterman’s book was written in 1945 as a government report. He sought to publish the report in book form in Britain in the 1960s, but it was not until 1972, with the aid of Pearson and permission of the British government, that it was put out by Yale University Press. For further detail on the publication history of the book, see Nigel West, introduction to The Guy Liddell Diaries, ed. Nigel West, vol. 1 (London, 2005), 3–4. For more on Pearson’s career with the OSS, see Robin W. Winks, Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War (New York, 1987), 247–321.

  246 to do so: Nigel West, A Thread of Deceit: Espionage Myths of World War II (New York, 1985), 71.

  246 controlled the entire: For a skeptical view of the British claim, see Phillip Knightley, The Second Oldest Profession, 144ff. For a German assessment that accepts it, see Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, and Detlef Vogel, Germany and the Second World War, vol. 7 (Oxford, UK, 2006), 493–494. Terry Crowdy writes in Deceiving Hitler, page 77, that during the war four German spies in England eluded MI5.

  247 his wife: Harris states in Garbo that Pujol’s wife played an active role in his earlier spy work in Madrid and Lisbon. He also notes that she was highly temperamental and posed many difficulties for MI5. See pages 327–332.

  248 diplomatic
bag: For a full listing of Pujol’s network of notional agents and their activities, see appendices to Harris, Garbo.

  248 “one-man band”: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 142.

  248 do and know: The security controls are described by Harris, Garbo, 375–377.

  248 allowed to keep: Ibid., 335–336.

  249 added importance: For Garbo’s work in Fortitude, see especially Roger Hesketh, Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign (New York, 2000), 131–148.

  249 three hours together: Pujol’s meeting with the case officer is recounted at length in Harris, Garbo, 285–288.

  Chapter 12: One World to Another

  251 “from the regime”: Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 48.

  251 “go to war”: Quoted in ibid.

  251 control from Berlin: F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War (New York, 1990), vol. 4, 298.

  251 currency transactions: Howard makes these points in Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 48–49.

  252 “agents at all”: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 86n.

  252 “was very small”: Ibid., 152.

  252 driven to France: Jebsen’s kidnapping is recounted by Nigel West in Pujol, Operation Garbo, 122.

  252 from his villa: Dusko Popov, Spy/Counterspy: The Autobiography of Dusko Popov (New York, 1974), 300. See also Hesketh, Fortitude, 109–110, and Crowdy, Deceiving Hitler, 255.

  252 agent working on the Continent: Popov’s spy career is recounted in his autobiography Spy/Counterspy and in Russell Miller, Codename Tricycle (London, 2004). I follow both works in the account below.

  253 Under the name: To American military intelligence in Lisbon he was known as Albert Von Karsthof.

  253 aspects of spying: Miller makes this point in Codename Tricycle, 51.

  254 (Tar) Robertson: A career Security Service officer, Robertson is credited with being the principal architect of the double-cross system in Nigel West, A Thread of Deceit, 71.

  255 “emergencies only”: Quoted in Popov, Spy/Counterspy, 74–77.

  255 “went wrong”: Quoted in Miller, Codename Tricycle, 67.

  255 “in the lead”: Quoted in Popov, Spy/Counterspy, 276.

  256 “fondness for”: Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (New York, 2009), 253.

  258 loan of Tricycle: Holt, The Deceivers, 157.

  258 “could be made”: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 138.

  258 deception scheme: Popov credits Jebsen with conceiving the plan. Spy/Counterspy, 232.

  259 “run me”: Quoted in Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2

  260 intimate contact: This point is strongly emphasized in Miller, Operation Tricycle, 211.

  261 “contrasts with”: Quoted in ibid., 215.

  261 “we were saved”: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 154.

  261 “disclosed nothing”: Holt, The Deceivers, 564. For more on why Jebsen might have been taken into custody, see Hesketh, Fortitude, 110–111.

  263 “someone named”: A “von Carnap” is identified as Fidrmuc’s Abwehr controller in John P. Campbell, “Some Pieces in the Ostro Puzzle,” Intelligence and National Security, 11:2 (1996), 251. I follow this closely detailed article for much of my account of Fidrmuc. See also a reference to “von Karnap” as Ostro’s controller in The Guy Liddell Diaries, vol. 2, 154.

  263 “to Berlin”: Quoted in Popov, Spy/Counterspy, 267.

  264 in their endeavors: The Guy Liddell Diaries, vol. 2, 285.

  264 “invented in Lisbon”: “Enemy Intelligence Activities in Portugal, June–September 1943,” 5, National Archives, IRR. File XE135014.

  264 assault took place: Roger Hesketh writes in Fortitude, page 356n1, that “on 31 May, 1944, OSTRO gave a correct forecast of the [Normandy] invasion. There is no evidence to show that his message was based on anything more solid than his own imagination.” Hesketh goes on to suggest why the Germans discounted the information.

  264 none succeeded: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 151.

  264 “bump him off”: The Guy Liddell Diaries, vol. 2, 273.

  265 “without trace!”: Johns, Within Two Cloaks, 111.

  265 could be made: Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 4, 279.

  265 report on Fidrmuc: National Archives, IRR Personal File, Paul G. Fidrmuc, Box 49A, Folder 2, CI Final Interrogation Report 154.

  266 “fantastically so”: Quoted in C. G. McKay, “MI5 on OSTRO: A New Document from the Archives,” Intelligence and National Security, 12:3 (1997), 181. Emphasis in the article.

  266 “for U-boats”: Quoted in Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2, 173. Fidrmuc’s skill as an oarsman is noted in the Final Interrogation Report indicated above.

  266 “leaving London”: Quoted in Howard, Strategic Deception in the Second World War, 178.

  266 She was based: Lily Sergueiev, Secret Service Rendered (London, 1968). I follow this work for the account below.

  268 in a diary: Passages from the diary appear within Sergueiev’s memoir.

  268 road accident: This is Sergueiev’s report of what happened. Andrew in Defend the Realm, page 304, says that the dog died in Portugal.

  271 “in Europe!”: Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 169.

  271 “Could be”: Popov, Spy/Counterspy, 150.

  271 “Bond adventure”: Ibid.

  272 is uncertain: See Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond (Atlanta, Ga., 1995), 128.

  272 “been exciting”: Quoted in ibid., 127.

  272 a new post: Greene’s work for British intelligence is recounted in two biographies: Michael Shelden, Graham Greene: The Enemy Within (New York, 1994), 245–259, and Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2, 166–183.

  272 clandestine activity: The figures are given in Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2, 174.

  273 “office job”: Quoted in Ibid., 177.

  273 “endless files”: Graham Greene, Ways of Escape (New York, 1980), 307.

  273 “of the obvious”: Quoted in Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 2, 168.

  273 “work with us”: Ibid., 176. For the range of Ustinov’s other activities in Lisbon, see The Guy Liddell Diaries, vol. 2, 249.

  274 “a separate peace”: Ibid., 177.

  274 “activity in Portugal”: Greene, Ways of Escape, 246.

  275 turns with it: Christopher Hitchens phrases it this way in “Death from a Salesman: Graham Greene’s Bottled Ontology,” an incisive introduction to the 2007 Penguin edition of Our Man in Havana, xviii.

  Chapter 13: Wolfram by Day

  277 “at night”: Hayes, Wartime Mission in Spain, 85.

  277 coherent replies: Eccles, By Safe Hand, 334.

  277 “of the nation”: Quoted in Douglas L. Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality: Portugal, the Wolfram Question, and World War II,” Luso-Brazilian Review, 23:2 (1986), 108. This is the second of a two-part study of the Portuguese wolfram trade. Hereafter cited as “The Price of Neutrality,” II.

  278 national resource: This point is made in John H. Kemler, The Struggle for Wolfram in the Iberian Peninsula, June 1942–June 1944 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1949), 69. The study draws on the author’s personal experience of the wolfram trade as a staff member of the United States Commercial Company in Lisbon and Madrid from 1942 to 1946.

  278 “had any wolfram”: Eccles, By Safe Hand, 309.

  279 “worth having”: Ibid., 98.

  279 sent letters: All quotations below come from ibid., pages, respectively, 105, 106, 133, 172, 329, 332, 335, 356.

  281 exchanged in Lisbon: Douglas L. Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality: Portugal, the Wolfram Question, and World War II,” Luso-Brazilian Review, 23:1 (1986), 112–113. Hereafter cited as “The Price of Neutrality,” I. See note above.

  281 military equipment: Leitz, Sympathy for the Devil, 161.

  281 facilitate purchases: U.
S. and Allied Wartime and Postwar Relations and Negotiations with Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey on Looted Gold and German External Assets and U.S. Concerns About the Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury, Supplement to Preliminary Study, coordinated by Stuart E. Eizenstat, prepared by William Slany (Washington, D.C., 1998), 25. Hereafter cited as Supplementary Eizenstat Report.

  281 offered for sale: The Times (London), November 23, 1943, 3.

  281 export tax: Payne, Franco and Hitler, 239–240.

  281 the wolfram business: Supplementary Eizenstat Report, 27.

  282 “our production”: Eccles, By Safe Hand, 411–412.

  282 for new riches: Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality,” I, 114.

  282 to their heads: Anglo-Portuguese News, June 15, 1944, 4.

  283 favored treatment: For details of the regulatory effort, see Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality,” I, 116–117.

  283 severely stressed: For an account of the various agreements, see especially Kemler, The Struggle for Wolfram in the Iberian Peninsula, 66–84.

  283 “one to do?”: Eccles, By Safe Hand, 367.

  283 “have to carry”: Ibid., 415.

  283 “present agreement”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1943, II, 518.

  283 good prices: Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality,” II, 98.

  284 in an ally: Kay, Salazar and Modern Portugal, 179.

  284 “control its flow”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1943, vol. 2, 520.

  284 Hitler’s response: Kay, Salazar and Modern Portugal, 179.

  284 able to satisfy: Leitz, Sympathy for the Devil, 166.

  284 “is lying low”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1944, vol. 4, 92.

  284 among themselves: For details of the disagreement, see J. K. Sweeney, “The Portuguese Wolfram Embargo: A Case Study in Economic Warfare,” Military Affairs, 38:1 (1974), 23–26. See also Supplementary Eizenstat Report, 34–36.

  285 in the lead: Wheeler, “The Price of Neutrality,” II, 100.

  285 lion’s share: New York Times, January 19, 1944, 8.

  285 “of the family”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1944, vol. 4, 132.