Year: 2014

Book Review – Unternehmen Seelöwe [Operation Sealion] – Monika Siedentopf (2014)

The Book Unternehmen Seelöwe: Widerstand im deutschen Geheimdienst [Operation Sealion: Resistance in the German Intelligence Service]. Monika Siedentopf. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München, 2014. Review In the last year I have read several English-language books which have suggested that during World War 2, the German Intelligence Service (Abwehr), far from being stupid and incompetent, actively undermined […]

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The Rocky Road to Josef Jakob’s Court Martial: the Director of Public Prosecutions

For a variety of reasons, MI5 decided that Josef Jakobs was the ideal candidate to be tried by a military court martial. Primary among those reasons was the fact that Josef was an “enemy alien”, i.e. a citizen of a country with whom Britain was at war, in this case, Germany. Other “enemy aliens” had

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Book Review – Banged Up: Doing Time in Britain’s Toughest Jails by David Leslie (2014)

The Book Banged Up: Doing Time in Britain’s Toughest Jails. David Leslie. Black & White Publishing, 2014. Review According to the publisher’s website, David Leslie “was a senior journalist with the News of the World for over forty years, latterly as Scottish Crime Editor. He is the author of several books including Crimelord, the story

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BBC Documentary – The Spies Who Fooled Hitler (1999)

BBC Documentary – The Spies Who Fooled Hitler (1999) Original Air Date – 2 October 1999Series – TimewatchDuration – 45:52 minutesProducer – Tilman RemmeBBC/History Channel Co-Production Part 1 clip available here – 10 minutesPart 2 clip available here – 10 minutesPart 3 clip available here – 10 minutesPart 4 clip available here – 10 minutesPart

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PBS Documentary – Secrets of the Tower of London (2013)

The Film Title – Secrets of the Tower of LondonAired – 27 October 2013Series – Secrets of BritainDuration – 55:11 minutesProducer – Vicky MatthewsProduced by – Pioneer Productions for PBS Clip available here (link no longer works on YouTube)Or here on PBS website (also no longer available)Or purchase via PBS Review Trying to cram 1000

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Historic Royal Palaces – Podcast – Curious Connections: Spies and Us (2014)

The Podcast Title – Curious Connections: Spies & UsTaped – 14 October 2014Original Air Date -30 October 2014Series – Curious ConnectionsDuration – 59:12 minutesProducer – Historic Royal PalacesClip available here (N.B. 2021 – link no longer works and I haven’t been able to find one to replace it) Presenters:Sally Dixon-Smith – Tower Collections Curator, Historic

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Historic Royal Palaces – Podcast on Josef Jakobs

The Podcast Title – Historic Royal Palaces – Tower Prisoner Stories – JacobsOriginal Air Date – 13 February 2013Series – Stories from the PalacesDuration – 4:19 minutesProducer -unknownClip available here (N.B. 2021 – link no longer works and I haven’t been able to find a replacement) Review This programme was produced by the Tower of

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Money Money Money – Part 2

In an earlier posting, I examined the topic of the British currency that Josef had brought with him from Germany. While acknowledging that the Germans had introduced counterfeit English banknotes into circulation, I suggested that it was doubtful that the £1 notes found on Josef were counterfeit. Since then, I have confirmed that the notes

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