Into the Lion's Mouth: The True Story of Dusko Popov: World War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond

by Larry Loftis

  Since neither Macintyre nor Andrew provides a citation or source for the prurient allegation, their assertion is puzzling, particularly given contradictory evidence. MI5 records confirm that Popov’s code name was changed from SKOOT to TRICYCLE in February 1941 when MI5 planned and authorized two sub-agents, BALLOON and GELATINE (“TRICYCLE, BALLOON, AND GELATINE” memo, KV 2/862, p. 1156a). The first use of “TRICYCLE” in MI5 records is February 26, 1941 (correspondence from Felix Cowgill to Tar Robertson, KV 2/845, p. 44b), followed by Tar Robertson’s “TRICYCLE” memo on February 27, 1941, to William Luke (KV 2/845, p. 43a), a memo regarding sub-agent Friedl Gaertner, on which is a handwritten note: “Copy in GELATINE.”

  In 2004, Popov biographer Russell Miller attempted to lay the matter to rest: “With an embryonic ‘network’ in place, MI5 decided to change Popov’s code name to ‘Tricycle,’ reflecting the fact that he was about to run an operation with two sub-agents. Years after the war scurrilous rumors circulated, without the slightest evidence, that his new codename more accurately reflected his proclivity for what British tabloid newspapers were usually pleased to describe as ‘three-in-a-bed sex romps.’” Russell Miller, Codename TRICYCLE: The True Story of the Second World War’s Most Extraordinary Double Agent, 65.

  See also Nigel West, MI5: The True Story of the Most Secret Counterespionage Organization in the World, 198 (“He was authorized to recruit two MI5 nominees . . . Dickie Metcalf and . . . Friedle Gaertner. Popov’s value had tripled overnight and his code name was changed from SCOUT to TRICYCLE.”); Nigel West, A Thread of Deceit: Espionage Myths of World War II, 72 (“The code name was chosen for him by his case officer, Ian Wilson, because he was to head a ring of three double agents.”); Nigel West, Seven Spies Who Changed the World, 13 (“As Dusko acquired his two sub-agents so MI5 gave him a new, more appropriate cryptonym: TRICYCLE.”); Joshua Levine, Operation Fortitude: The Story of the Spy Operation That Saved D-Day, 103 (“It has often been said—wrongly, unfortunately—that the name Tricycle derived from Popov’s fondness for sexual threesomes.”).

  “TRICYCLE . . . had some” J. C. Masterman memo, March 5, 1941, KV 2/846 (p. 47k).

  Saturday, March 15 “TRICYCLE’s Itinerary,” KV 2/846 (p. 58A). Popov appears to have stayed that night at another hotel (perhaps the Aviz), as Palácio records show that Dusko checked in the following day, March 16, 1941. See Cristina Pacheco, Hotel Palácio: Estoril-Portugal: Boletins de Alojamento de Estrangeiros/Boletins Individuais, 1939–1945, 154–55.

  At what London station Miller, 67.

  sound them out Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 95.

  March 16 and 18 meetings, “some gentlemen from Berlin” Dusko Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” May 1, 1941, KV 2/847 (p. 86B).

  Canaris had been very close Paul Leverkeuhn, German Military Intelligence, 130.

  Hitler and Franco met at Hendaye Stanley G. Payne, Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II, 87–95. A protocol was prepared on October 23, 1940, (and presented on November 4 after changes requested by Italy) between Germany, Italy, and Spain, whereby Spain would join the Axis Tripartite Pact (Germany, Italy, Japan) and enter the war against England at a future date after Spain had received sufficient war materials. The agreement was signed by Spanish foreign minister Serrano Suñer about November 8, and both sides considered the protocol a success: Hitler had procured Franco’s enlistment in the war and Franco had attached such conditions so that his commitment could be delayed indefinitely.

  Hitler sent Canaris Ibid., 103.

  Spanish Air Force would regularly train in Germany KV 2/849 (p. 177b).

  Von Karsthoff warned Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 86B); Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 97.

  every German organization competed See, generally, Walter Schellenberg, The Memoirs of Hitler’s Spymaster; Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (Memoirs); Heinz Höhne, The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS.

  Operation Punishment William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 826.

  “specialists” . . . “very diplomatic” Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 86B).

  $10,000 Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 100; Richard Farrington, “Super Spy Dusko Popov: He Lived the James Bond Legend,” True Action, 77. Dusko did not mention this payment in his May 1 report. See “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 86B).

  Colonel Pieckenbrock Piecki, as he was nicknamed, was director of Abwehr I, which handled foreign espionage. See Richard Bassett, Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Story of Wilhelm Canaris, 111, 114.

  “I am not cruel enough” Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 86B).

  “You’re my closest friend” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 101.

  active espionage and counterespionage Walter Schellenberg, The Memoirs of Hitler’s Spymaster, 133.

  Samuel Hoare Lochery, Lisbon, 62, citing Samuel Hoare, Ambassador on a Special Mission, 22.

  April 9, the “specialist” from Berlin Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 87a). Warnecke’s name is variously spelled “Wernecke” in MI5 files, sometimes occurring both ways in the same report. See, e.g., Ian Wilson’s “TRICYCLE’S FIFTH VISIT TO LISBON,” KV 2/851 (p. 383A).

  For Warnecke description, see Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 86b); KV 2/849 (p. 177b); Wilson, KV 2/851 (p. 383A).

  Osten, Lido, “Joe,” Ludwig, “Konrad” H. Montgomery Hyde, Secret Intelligence Agent: British Espionage in America and the Creaton of the OSS, 124–27; William Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid, 175–76.

  “Phil’s things” Ibid., 125.

  “Rather reluctantly, BSC indicated” Stevenson, 176.

  All were tried, found guilty The last member of the spy ring, a German-born Argentinian named Teodore Erdman Erich Lau, was not captured until 1946.

  as Hemingway said of Villalta Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, 308–309.

  “He’s collapsing like Yugoslavia” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 129.

  CHAPTER 9 “HE’S NOT DEAD”

  On April 23 Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” May 1, 1941, KV 2/847 (p. 87a).

  “Popov, are you a Serb” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 129–30; Russell Miller, Codename TRICYCLE, 69.

  $14 million . . . “is still on our side” Correspondence of Felix Cowgill to Major Tar Robertson, April 19, 1941, KV 2/846 (p. 82c).

  record serial numbers of bills Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 119.

  “high-class procuress” KV2/847 (91a).

  “French popsie” . . . Daily Mail Dusko Popov, interview with Alan Road, “Double-Agent Popov and the James Bond Affair,” Observer, May 13, 1973, 29. In Spy Counter-Spy, Dusko refers to his date as “Margo Broche” and mentions that the Palácio manager told him to take Ms. Broche “back to her room” (p. 111), indicating that the woman was a guest at the hotel. There is no entry in the Palácio registration records for a “Margo Broche” at this time, but Dusko mentioned in his Foreword that he changed a few names, either by request of the individual, or to prevent embarrassment. Broche appears to have been one of them. Russell Miller, in Codename TRICYCLE, suggests that Broche was “Pinta de la Rocque” (p. 54). Miller appears to be referring to Edna La Rocque; however, she did not check into the Palácio until May 19, well after Dusko’s return to London on April 30. See Cristina Pacheco, ed., Hotel Palácio: Estoril-Portugal: Boletins de Alojamento de Estrangeiros/Boletins Individuais, 1939–1945, 156. As a result, the woman’s true identity remains a mystery.

  “I had to” . . . kicked the man in the face Dusko Popov, interview with Alan Road, “Double-Agent Popov and the James Bond Affair,” Observer, May 13, 1973, 29.

  football Dusko Popov, interview with Frederick Bear, “Dusko [007] Popov: Exclusive Interview,” Genesis, November 1974, 36.

  “He’s not dead” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 111.

  matched the manager’s Popov, O
bserver, 29.

  sixty-five tons of turpentine Popov, “Tricycle’s Report,” KV 2/847 (p. 87a); J. H. Marriott memo and attached Extract from PF. 55032, March 21, 1942, KV 2/849 (p. 236a).

  “man from the Phoenix” Guy Liddell diaries, KV 4/187 (pp. 860, 869, 897).

  “He is to take a bus” Ibid., p. 912.

  counterfeiting currency Under Operation Bernhard, the Germans began counterfeiting millions of British pounds. Schellenberg reported that he had two paper mills in full operation solely for the counterfeiting. Walter Schellenberg, The Memoirs of Hitler’s Spymaster, 419. When the German spy CICERO was leaking documents from the British Embassy in Ankara, the German Secret Service paid him an outlandish sum of money—all in counterfeited British currency. See Wilhelm Höttl, Hitler’s Paper Weapon: How the Nazis Forged Millions of British Banknotes.

  Plan Midas Masterman, The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, 85–86, 94, 96; KV 2/848 (p. 138b).

  “the party is over” See multiple MI6 memoranda, including “POPOV” note at KV 2/848 sub-file 2 (unpaginated and undated) and correspondence to William Luke on June 16, 1941 at KV 2/848 (p. 148B).

  June 28, 1941 Correspondence from William Luke to Felix Cowgill, June 28, 1941, KV 2/848 (p. 169a); BOAC Civil Air Transport Warrant, June 28, 1941, KV 2/848 (p. 169b).

  “Don’t do anything” Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 122.

  It was a lovely day MI6 Lisbon reported to Major Tar Robertson on July 6 that “TRICYCLE is of the opinion that he is not compromised in any way.” KV 2/849 (p. 175a).

  CHAPTER 10 TARANTO AND THE TARGET

  Ivo had been condemned to death Milorad (“Misha”) Popov (Ivo’s son), unpublished memoirs.

  Dr. Ante Pavelić Wilhelm Höttl, The Secret Front: Nazi Political Espionage, 1938–1945, 110–13.

  campaign of genocide See, e.g., Marko Attila Hoare, Genocide and Resistance in Hitler’s Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, 1941–1943; Misha Glenny, The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804–1999, 498–502.

  official doctor Milorad (“Misha”) Popov, unpublished memoirs.

  treated countless patients free of charge Ibid; correspondence of Nicolas Popov with the author, February 12, 2015.

  Disguised as a monk Milorad (“Misha”) Popov, correspondence with the author, February 13, 2015. The escape ruse was unconfirmed, Misha Popov believed, but this was what he later heard.

  “Pavelić’s accession to power” Fitzroy Maclean, Eastern Approaches, 334–35.

  von Gronau . . . Matsuoka Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 142–44.

  British raid at Taranto See, generally, A. J. Smithers, Taranto 1940: Prelude to Pearl Harbor; Major-General I.S.O. Playfair, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume 1, The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941), History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series.

  first aerial assault against a defended port Ibid., 84.

  Fairey Swordfish Ibid., 48.

  For ships involved, and damage, see Ibid., 78–79, 118–22.

  twenty-seven barrage balloons Ibid., 84.

  Taranto map Major-General I.S.O. Playfair, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume 1, The Early Successes Against Italy (to May 1941), History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series, Chapter XII, map 14, p. 235 (reprint at ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-Med-I/U).

  mikropunkt Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 146; Russell Miller, Codename TRICYCLE, 86; Dusko Popov, “Pearl Harbor: Did J. Edgar Hoover Blunder?” True, October 1973, 47.

  Englishman John Dancer William White, The Microdot: History and Application, 4, 8.

  Frenchman René Dagron Ibid., 10–12.

  Dr. Emanual Goldberg Ibid., 25–27. Ironically, the invention of the microdots has widely been credited to the inventor of the MINOX 9.5 mm subminiature camera, Walter Zapp. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, in his fictional account of how the FBI captured Popov and discovered the secret German technology of microdots, stated that “the Balkan playboy” studied under “the famous Professor Zapp, inventor of the micro-dot process, at the Technical High School in Dresden.” J. Edgar Hoover, “The Enemy’s Masterpiece of Espionage,” Reader’s Digest, vol. 48, April 1946, 3. Popov may have informed Hoover that Zapp was the inventor. Popov, too, cites Zapp as the inventor, in Spy Counter-Spy, p. 103, but the FBI denies that the two ever met. Further, Popov studied law at Freiburg rather than technology in Dresden, and Zapp was never a professor. Countless authors and historians have furthered Hoover’s statement that Zapp was the inventor. See, e.g., Leslie B. Rout, Jr., and John F. Bratzel, The Shadow War: German Espionage and United States Counterespionage in Latin America During World War II, 8 (identifying him as “Dr. Rudolf Zapp”).

  Dr. William White addresses and refutes the “Zapp Myth,” including as an Appendix a letter from Zapp to Frederic Luther on August 10, 1981, detailing his entire career. Zapp, White contends, had no involvement with microdot technology, and White’s chronology of dot development, particularly with Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Ammann-Brass, seems compelling. William White, The Microdot: History and Application, 65–67, 128–147.

  Dr. Hans Ammann-Brass Ibid., 39, 44–45.

  microdot-producing apparatus in the fall of 1940 See Stanley E. Hilton, Hitler’s Secret War in South America, 1939–1945: German Military Espionage and Allied Counterespionage in Brazil, 34–35. See also Rout and Bratzel.

  Dusko’s 1941 questionnaire German original and British translation at KV 2/849 (p. 207, group entry). The German original as contained on the four microdots Popov carried into the United States can be found in the FBI archives at Record Group No. 65, Box 6, Entry ID: 146913 (A1 38-B), 65-HQ-36994-7, NARA. The FBI English translation can be found in FBI Special Agent C. F. Lanman’s report regarding Informant ND-63 [Dusko Popov] dated September 17, 1941, and located in the archives at Record Group No. 65, Box 6, Entry ID: 146913 (A1 38-B), 65-HQ-36994, Section 1, Serial 34x, pp. 6–9, NARA.

  would not see this questionnaire until 1972 J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, 196–98.

  the next section—Hawaii Popov, Spy Counter-Spy , 148; Popov, True, 47 et seq; Dusko Popov, “A Spy’s Spy Tells It All,” People, June 17, 1974, 19.

  transferred the death sentence Milorad (“Misha”) Popov, unpublished memoirs.

  CHAPTER 11 CASINO ESTORIL

  “The Twenty Committee” Guy Liddell diaries, KV 4/188. Liddell’s confusion about the plan would continue, as on August 3, after TATE had arrived for the pickup, Liddell recorded that MI5 would receive a £20,000 credit to a bank in New York.

  “In Lisbon Tricycle represented” J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, 85.

  Berlin had approved the exchange According to MI5 files, the exchange rate was £2/$, or $40,000. Felix Cowgill accounting memo to Tar Robertson, September 6, 1941, KV 2/849 (p. 210a).

  Erik Sand While Popov remembered in his memoirs that he had given von Karsthoff the name of “Charles Sand,” MI5 files reveal that the name given was “Erik.” See below, Eric Glass.

  10 percent commission June 7, 1941, correspondence of Felix Cowgill to Tar Robertson, KV 2/848 (p. 136b).

  Eric Glass Guy Liddell noted in his August 3 entry that Dusko’s telegram was addressed to “Erik Sand,” resulting in complications that were eventually resolved. Liddell diaries, August 3, 1941, entry, KV 4/188 (p. 4). Interestingly, Mr. Glass’s theatrical agency, Eric Glass, Ltd., continues in business to this day, run by his family. Correspondence of Janet Glass, Eric Glass’s widow, with the author on December 9, 2014.

  On July 31, 1941, Dusko sent the telegram Original telegram at KV 2/849 (p. 192a).

  the arranged code “PLAN MIDAS” memorandum, KV 2/849 (p. 186b); Felix Cowgill memo to Tar Robertson on September 6, 1941, KV 2/849 (p. 210a).

  “HARRY should confirm” MI6
correspondence to John Marriott, August 1, 1941, KV 2/849 (p. 186c).

  increments of £5 August 5, 1941, memo to file of J. C. Masterman at KV 2/849 (p. 191a).

  £85,000 Masterman, The Double-Cross System, 15.

  another $30,000 Popov’s remembrance of the dollars received was foggy. In Spy Counter-Spy, he mentions collecting $80,000 in the exchange (p. 150), then states that he carried $60,000 to the U.S., $40,000 from von Karsthoff “the day before,” $12,000 of his own money, and $8,000 belonging to the Bailonis (p. 153). In interviews promoting his memoirs, he consistenty claimed that he received $80,000 in the exchange, and had $80,000 on him the night of the casino scene with Bloch. See Dusko Popov, interview with Frederick Bear, “Dusko [007] Popov: Exclusive Interview,” Genesis, November, 1974, 48; Dusko Popov, interview with Alan Road, “Double-Agent Popov and the James Bond Affair,” Observer, May 13, 1973, 22; Dusko Popov, interview with Jonathan Braun, “Superspy Dusko Popov: The Real-Life James Bond,” Parade, May 19, 1974, 27.

  MI5 files reveal, however, that Popov received $40,000 in the Midas exchange (see Felix Cowgill accounting memo to Tar Robertson on September 6, 1941 at KV 2/846, p. 210a), insufficient to fund his $50,000 bet at Casino Estoril.

  FBI files show that Popov brought $70,000 into the United States on August 12, 1941, and that he told the FBI that most of the funds were from the Germans. FBI report of Special Agent C. F. Lanman, September 17, 1941, Record Group 65, Entry ID 146913 (A1 38-B), Box 6, 65-HQ-36994, Section 1, Serial 34x, NARA.

  Popov’s statement of carrying $60,000 to the U.S. matches neither his reference to having $80,000 at the casino, nor the $70,000 the FBI recorded upon his arrival. It appears that Dusko jumbled several numbers. If one adds the $10,000 given to him by Johnny in Madrid, his total would equal the $70,000 that the FBI recorded. It appears that, writing some thirty-two years after the event, Dusko confused the original Midas exchange goal of $80,000 (an exchange rate of £4/$ being originally discussed), or perhaps rounded up to $80,000 the $70,000 he carried into the States. In either case, the amount he carried into Casino Estoril was sufficient for his $50,000 bet.