Churchill's Secret War
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64 Churchill, op. cit., p. 173.
65 Irving, op. cit., p. 183.
66 See next chapter and Eleysa Basna, I Was Cicero; London, Andre Deutsch, 1962, and Ludwig Moyzisch, Operation Cicero; London, Wingate, 1947, pp. 148–65.
67 Deringil, op. cit., p. 157.
68 FRUS, vol. 3, op. cit., pp. 164–67, 174–75; and Weisband, op. cit., p. 178–79.
69 Churchill, op. cit., p. 362.
70 Deringil, op. cit., p. 215.
71 Sir Llewelyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War; London, HMSO, 1975, especially vol. 6, pp. 639ff.
72 I am grateful to Randal Gray for help over the Dodecanese chronology.
73 Holland, op. cit., p. 95.
74 Stephen Roskill, Churchill and the Admirals; London, Collins 1977, p. 222.
75 Principal War Telegrams and Memoranda vol. 3; London, Kraus, 1976.
76 PRO HW1/2253 (5040) naval headlines 868.
77 PRO PREM3/446/17.
78 Churchill, op. cit, vol. 5.
79 Lord Ismay; Memoirs; London, Heinemann, 1960, p. 331.
80 PRO HW1/2276, BJ 125337/1347 decrypted 12 December. See also Weisband, op. cit., p. 189.
81 Churchill, op. cit., p. 328.
82 Weisband, op. cit., p. 195.
83 FRUS, op. cit., pp. 476–82, and especially p. 478.
84 PRO HW1/2447 (5694), BJ 127854/77: Berlin to Tokyo, decrypted 9 February 1944.
85 Deringil, op. cit., p. 216.
86 Eden, op. cit., p. 429.
87 Churchill, op. cit., p. 357.
88 PRO HW 1/2287 (5173) of 14 December 1943: summaries.
89 PRO HW1/2289, BJ 126571: Ankara to all stations, decrypted 15 December 1943.
90 PRO HW11/2289, BJ 126101: Berlin to Tokyo, decrypted 15 December 1943.
91 PRO HW1/2289 BJ 126184/1460: Ankara to Berlin.
92 This instruction was not carried out, as is evidenced by its appearance in HW1.
93 PRO HW1/2289 MSS, BJ 126571: Berlin to Tokyo, decrypted 15 December 1943.
94 PRO HW1/2292, BJ 126184/1415: Berlin to Tokyo, decrypted 15 December 1943.
95 PRO HW1/2289, BJ 126571: Berlin to Tokyo, decrypted 15 December 1943.
96 PRO HW1/2298, BJ 126329: Berlin to Tokyo and all stations, decrypted 21 December 1943.
97 HW11/2309.
Chapter 8
1 Ludwig Moyzisch, Operation Cicero; London, Wingate, 1947. Walter Schellenberg, The Schellenberg Memoirs; London, Andre Deutsch, 1959, pp. 376ff. Eleysa Basna (with Hans Nogly), I Was Cicero; London, Andre Deutsch, 1962, esp pp. 62ff. Fritz von Papen, Memoirs; London, Andre Deutsch, 1952. Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War; London, John Murray, 1949. Hugessen also produced comments on Moyzisch’s story in August 1956, in a series of papers kindly lent to me by his daughter, Alethea Knatchbull-Hugessen. He denied accompanying Basna on the piano and dismisses much of what Basna may be assumed to have told Moyzisch. Basna’s own story was published six years later, and answers many of the questions Hugessen raises about what he was photographing. Unfortunately we do not have the ambassador’s comments on I Was Cicero.
2 See Nicholas Elliott, Never Judge a Man by his Umbrella; London, Philip Russell, 1991, p. 133.
3 Eden wrote to Churchill about Hugessen: ‘I consider it best to keep [him] where he is. There is another reason not mentioned in this telegram, namely that I want [Hugessen] to be in Angora [sic] when the officer we sent out to investigate charges [of insecurity] arrives there.’ Memo dated 13 February 1944 in PRO FO371/44066. On Dashwood’s return from Ankara he contacted the head of British diplomatic decryption in Berkeley Street who recorded this encounter in his appointments diary for 1944. ‘Dine with Dashwood’ was entered for 22 May 1944. It would be interesting to know what they talked about. As to where the thefts took place, Hugessen himself suggested they might have been from the chancery buildings – i.e. neither from the residence nor the embassy.
4 Allen Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence; New York, Harper and Row, 1963 and Dulles (ed), Great True Spy Stories; London, Robson, 1984, pp. 15ff, and his The Secret Surrender; London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967, pp. 22–24; Kim Philby, My Silent War; London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1967, p. 63: ‘The telegrams exactly matched the intercepted telegrams already deciphered, and others, proving of the utmost value to [Denniston’s] cryptographers in their breakdown of the German diplomatic code.’ Elliott, op. cit., p. 133. See also Elliott’s With My Little Eye; London, Phillip Russell, 1993, p. 122.
5 Nigel West, Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War; London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, pp. 99ff. David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies; German Military Intelligence in World War Two; London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, pp. 340–46 and 591. On p. 342 he reproduces one ‘of the documents that the spy CICERO photographed in the British Embassy [sic] in Ankara (Angora) Turkey and telegram 1751 from the FO to Ankara quoting T-120, the National Archive designation for microfilms of German records. See also Anthony Cave Brown, The Secret Servant: The Life of Sir Stewart Menzies, Churchill’s Spymaster; London, Michael Joseph, 1988, pp. 476ff; also Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies; London, Michael Joseph, 1978, pp. 399–401.
6 Bradley Smith, The Shadow Warriors: OSS and the Origins of the CIA; London, Andre Deutsch, 1983, pp. 131–33.
7 F.H. Hinsley, et al, British Intelligence in the Second World War: its Influence on Strategy and Operations vol. 3 pt 1; London, HMSO, 1984, pp. 501ff and 616; ibid, vol. 3 pt 2, London, HMSO, 1988, p. 1016; and ibid, vol. 4, London, HMSO, 1990, pp. 213–15, 230 and 506. ‘Cicero certainly photographed a vast amount of material, some of it of the highest secrecy.’ See also Howard, Michael; Strategic Deception in the Second World War; London, Pimlico, 1990.
8 Hinsley, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 214.
9 Moyzisch, op. cit. Anthony Cave Brown relies heavily on Moyzisch in his account of Cicero in Bodyguard of Lies, p. 400. Some of the more exotic details must have been lies told by Basna to Moyzisch, since Basna himself omits them in his own book.
10 Moyzisch, op. cit., p. 113.
11 Ibid p. 103.
12 Von Papen, op. cit., pp. 512–13.
13 Ibid p. 514.
14 Ibid p. 517. Telegram No. 36 of 7 January 1944 – Hugessen to FO – appears in von Papen’s Memoirs – C.H. Fone in FO371 44064 pp. 23–26 (Moscow Conferences of October 1943); pp. 44–45 (approached German embassy on 26 November 1943; p. 58 (Moscow Conference) Telegram No. 875.
15 Basna, op. cit., p. 21.
16 Telegram No. 875 Ankara to London.
17 These, though undated, were written in 1963, as Hugessen refers to ‘the whole episode, now twenty years old’. There are three papers:A) Cicero (4 pages); B) notes on Operation ‘Cicero’ (7 pages); and C) (no heading) (6 pages).
18 Basna, op. cit., pp. 35, 38. This is confirmed by private information from Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop.
19 Cave Brown, quoting some disenchanted British diplomats as saying he played extremely badly, is wrong here: all the evidence amassed by this diplomatic research suggests the contrary. His daughter, however, reported that Lady Hugessen was not the most appreciative of audiences.
20 Though with counterfeit British money.
21 Ibid, p. 60.
22 Kahn, op. cit., p. 343.
23 Schellenberg thought the plain texts of the telegrams might be useful to the Forschungsamt in reading the British diplomatic cipher, but as the FO routinely used the OTP which was by definition unreadable, Cicero’s material was not usable.
24 Nigel West, Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War; London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, p. 104. Hitler definitely learned that Operation ‘Overlord’ would take place on the Normandy beaches from Cicero material, as one of his aides records his astonishment not that the Allies had made this decision but that the British FO had thought it necessary to inform its ambassador in Turkey of the fact. (Information from David Irving.)
25 Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence, op. cit.,
p. 153.
26 PRO HW1/2292, decrypted 18 December 1943. Preamble scrambled to Duty Office Hut 3 (BP) 7.10 p.m. same date. ‘Following for ?Robertson from “C”: Pass following to Martin for Colonel Warden [Churchill] from “C”. Following from Duty Officer Hut 3 from CSS secretary. All copies to be destroyed after passing to addressee.’ The full text of Oshima’s report was distributed to twenty regular recipients of BJs, including of course Churchill who would not have been content with the FO’s summary sent by Eden.
27 Kermit Roosevelt, The War Report of the OSS, p. 278.
28 Ibid.
29 Information supplied to Rupert Allason, MP, and quoted in, op. cit., p. 106.
30 The 1942–43 Venona intercepts from the Internet were kindly lent me by Rupert Allason.
31 See Appendix 7.
32 See P.W. Filby, ‘Floradora and a Unique Break into One-time Pad Ciphers’, in Intelligence and National Security, vol. 10, no. 3, 1995, pp. 408–22, for a recent technical account of how Floradora and the German diplomatic cipher OTP system were solved.
33 DENN 1/4 in the Churchill Archives; also PRO HW3/32, as well as the edited version in Intelligence and National Security, vol. 1, no. 1, 1986, p. 56.
34 ‘Later events suggest that Allen Dulles of OSS Berne and Philby of Section V provided technical evidence in 1943 that led to the large-scale decryption of Floradora from late 1943 onwards.’ Cave Brown, The Secret Servant, op. cit., p. 406.
35 Philby, My Silent War, op. cit., p. 63.
36 Ibid p. 63.
37 PRO HW1 2743 (6351) dated 26 April 1944.
38 See F.H. Hinsley’s entry on Denniston in The Dictionary of National Biography, supplementary volume 1950–59; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1979.
Chapter 9
1 J. Ehrman, History of the Second World War – UK Military Series (ed J.R.M. Butler): Grand Strategy, vol. 5; London, HMSO, 1956, especially pp. 88–103 on the Dodecanese fighting in autumn 1943. G.E. Kirk, ‘The War and the Neutrals’ in Survey of International Affairs 1939–46; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1956. W.N. Medlicott, The Economic Blockade, vols 1 and 2, from History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Civil Series (ed Sir Keith Hancock): vol. 1 chapters on Turkey pp. 269–79 and 18 pp. 601ff; vol. 2 chapters 8 and 18; also pp. 236–54 and 525ff; London, HMSO, 1952 and 1959.
2 Brig E.T. Williams, Montgomery’s chief intelligence officer, reported on 5 October 1945: ‘Very few armies went into battle better informed of their enemy and it is recognised by those who ostensibly provided the information that they were but useful hyphens between the real producers at Bletchley Park and the real consumers, the soldier in the field whose life was made that much easier by the product.’ War Office WO/208/3575 ‘Birth of Ultra’.
3 Hennessy, Whitehall, op. cit., p. 79.
4 E. Basna (with Hans Nogly), I Was Cicero; London, Andre Deutsch, 1962, p. 72.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Public Record Office
ADM1
Admiralty and Secretarial Papers.
ADM223
Naval Intelligence Division.
AIR40
Directorate of Air Intelligence.
CAB23
Cabinet Minutes.
FO195
Embassy and Consular Archives Turkey: correspondence.
FO198
Embassy and Consular Archives Turkey: miscellaneous.
FO226
Embassy and Consular Archives Turkey: Beirut correspondence, etc.
FO366
Chief Clerk’s Dept Archives.
FO371
FO general correspondence: the main series of FO papers.
FO837
Industrial Intelligence Centre and MEW.
For DIR/C (HW1) and other HW files see Appendix 1.
FO371
These are FO general correspondence, arranged by date, nation, topic. Since recipients burnt their BJs immediately after use, the FO371 series contain no wartime diplomatic sigint though plenty of summaries, paraphrases, ‘gists’ and general references.
Other PRO Sources
Premier Series
PREM1
Correspondence and papers of the PM’s office.
PREM3
Operational papers of the PM’s office. PREM3/446 contains almost all the relevant Turkey material: also PREM3/448.
PREM4
Confidential papers of the PM’s office. These include unsent drafts of memos and internal correspondence between Churchill and his staff, often very informal.
DEFE
DEFE3
Intelligence from enemy radio communications: SCU/SLU signals to Allied commands conveying special intelligence reports based on intelligence from German naval and air force traffic; teleprinted translations of decrypted German and Italian naval radio messages (3.2. 963). These are Enigma messages processed through the Special Liaison Units for commanders in the field. There is overlap between the teleprints in DIR and those in DEFE3.
WO
WO32/4897, WO204/893 and WO208/3573.
Other Locations
Churchill College, Cambridge (Churchill Archives)
DENN1/3 (also in HW3/2).
DENN1/4 (see Appendix 7).
HALL papers.
Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen diary for 1943 (manuscript).
Ian Jacob war diary covering the Adana Conference (typescript).
House of Lords Library
Lloyd George papers: F/209 7/10/1922 contain intercepts of Turkish diplomatic messages from the Turkish ambassador in Paris to Constantinople, as a result of reading which Churchill, with Lloyd George, Curzon and Lord Lee, instigated the Chanak crisis of 1922.
India Office Library
Prewar product of GCCS, including L/WS/1/73 and 72 – weekly letters from MI WO in 1939.
Canada: National Archives of Canada (NAC)
RG25: see Appendix 2
Internet
Venona 1943: see Appendix 4.
Unpublished histories, private papers, memoirs and diaries
Lord Alanbrooke papers, LHCMA, King’s College, London.
Sir Alexander Cadogan papers, PRO and Churchill College, Cambridge.
Winston Churchill papers, Churchill College, Cambridge.
Clarke, W.F.; From Room 40 OB to Bletchley Park; Churchill College, Cambridge.
Hugh Dalton’s typescript diaries of the war: held at the London School of Economics.
Alastair Denniston’s papers in Churchill College, Cambridge.
Oliver Harvey’s manuscript diary in BM.
Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen papers, PRO and Churchill College, Cambridge.
Lt-Gen Sir (Edward) Ian Jacob GBE, CB, DL 1899–1993. A number of his reports in 1942–43 of his travels with Churchill were deposited in the Churchill College Archives in 1994.
Sir Patrick Reilly: unpublished wartime memoir with useful material on the role and function of the MEW: pp. 2–9, 12, 17, 18, 24, 26–30, 32–3, 34–6, 38–42, 45–50, 54, 58–63, 65–7, 71–5, 85–92 (kindly lent me by its author).
Published Documents
Cantwell, John D.; The Second World War: a guide to documents in the PRO; London, HMSO, revised edn 1993.
Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 2nd and 3rd series; London, HMSO, 1955–84.
Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers 1941; vol. 111; Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, 1943–64.
Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–45. War Years, 1940–41 Series D; vol. 10 (23 June–31 August 1940); vol. 11 (1 September 1940–31 January 1941); vol. 12 (1 February–22 June 1941); vol. 13 (23 June–1 December 1941).
Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, Series 3; vol. 5 (4 April–8 June 1939); vol. 8 (15 August to 3 September 1939).
Gilbert, Martin; Companion volumes to vol. V of Winston S. Churchill; (i) 1922–29 London, Heinemann, 1979. (ii) 1929–35 London, Heinemann, 1981.(iii) 1936–39 London, Heinemann, 1982. Also two companion v
olumes: The War Years (i) First Sea Lord September 1939–June 1940; (ii) Prime Minister: June–December 1940; London, Heinemann, 1993 and 1994.
Irving, David (ed); Breach of Security: The German secret intelligence file on events leading to the Second World War; London, Kimber, 1968, pp. 123–166 and 175–184.
Kimball, W. (ed); Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, vol. 2 ‘Alliance Forged’ November 1942–February 1944; Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1984.
Principal War Telegrams and Memoranda, 1940–3 ‘The Middle East’; London, Kraus, 1976.
Führer Conferences: German Navy 1940, 1942.
Review of the Foreign Press 1939–45, Series A; vol. 5 nos 93–117 7/7–22/12–41; RIIA/Kraus, p. 504.
Keesing’s Archives: 1943–5.
Who Was Who; London, A. and C. Black.
Published Memoirs and Diaries
Annan, Noel; Changing Enemies: The Defeat and Regeneration of Germany; London, HarperCollins, 1995.
Basna, Eleysa; I Was Cicero; London, Andre Deutsch, 1962.
Bond, Brian (ed); Chief of Staff: The Diaries of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pownall, vol. 1 1933–40; London, Leo Cooper, 1972.
Brooke-Rose, Christine; Remake; Manchester, Carcanet, 1995, esp. p. 108.
Bryant, Arthur (ed); The Turn of the Tide: Alanbrooke 1939–45; London, Collins, 1957.
Chandler, A.D.(ed); The Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower: The War Years, vol. 2; Baltimore, 1970.
Churchill, Winston S.; The Second World War:
Vol. 2 Their Finest Hour; London, Cassell, 1949.
Vol. 3 The Grand Alliance; London, Cassell, 1950.
Vol. 4 The Hinge of Fate; London, Cassell, 1951.
Vol. 5 Closing the Ring; London, Cassell, 1952.
Vol. 6 Triumph and Tragedy; London, Cassell, 1952.