Year: 2018

The Hague – Haunts of Spies

On 8 January 1941, Josef Jakobs was sent from Hamburg to The Hague to complete his espionage training. In some of his initial statements to the MI5 officers in April 1941, Josef stated that he had stayed at the Hotel Central while in The Hague. In later statements, he corrected that information and said that […]

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Dutchman Harm Knol Bruins – German Spy and Civil Engineer

During research for a few recent blog posts, I’ve been reviewing Guy Liddell’s diaries, the original documents from The National Archives at Kew. In that process, I’ve come across a few interesting tidbits that warranted further investigation, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. Liddell’s Diary One of those tidbits was Liddell’s reference to  H.K.

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The Second Italo-Ethiopian War and Robin W.G. Stephens

In reviewing the military file of Robin W.G. Stephens, I came across several references to Abyssinia and/or Ethiopia. On his application file, Stephens was asked: Have you an intimate knowledge of any parts of the British Empire, and/or Foreign Countries?  His handwriting is a bit of a cipher but it appears to read: Near &

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The Muscat Levy Corps and Captain Robin William George Stephens

I’ve known for a while that Robin W.G. Stephens, commandant of Camp 020, had spent some years in Muscat during the late 1920s. The more I dug into the Muscat Levy Corps, however, the more perplexed I became. What was a British officer doing commanding a group of soldiers, drawn from what is now Pakistan,

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Media Review – Nazi Murder Mysteries – Yesterday Channel (2018)

The Yesterday Channel (UK) is airing a six-part series entitled “Nazi Murder Mysteries“. I’ve reviewed each of the episodes and links to my blog posts are below: Episodes 1 (Hitler’s Niece) and Episode 2 (The Duke of Windsor) can be found here Episode 3 (A Serial Killer in Berlin) can be found here Episode 4

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MI5’s Wireless Radio Advisor – Lt. Col. Adrian Francis Hugh Sibbald Simpson

Every once in a while, I chase after intriguing stories that pique my interest. One of those stories is that of enigmatic Lt. Col. Adrian Simpson, mentioned in several Coldspur blogs. Simpson served with MI5 in B3 as a wireless expert for a brief time before moving on to serve with MI(R)in the Middle East.

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Tower of London

Blog Review – B2B or Not B2b – Coldspur blog

Another blogger, and intelligence researcher, Tony Percy has recently tackled the issue of MI5’s B-Division structure during the 1939-1941 period. B Division, under Guy M. Liddell, underwent a significant restructuring in mid 1941 and most authors reference the sections of B Division using the post-restructuring nomenclature. T.A. Robertson’s section, for example, is generally referred to

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Tower of London

National Archives Spy Files

Over the years, I’ve amassed a fair few National Archive files on some of the WW2 spies. I thought I’d list them here. Just in case anyone is interested in trading hockey cards. For private study or educational/instructional use of course… Unless otherwise noted, all are KV 2… I’m particularly interested in enhancing my Liddell

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Phyllis Gwendolen Townshend – first wife of Robin William George Stephens

Sometimes, when you hit a brick wall, it’s good to back up, and try another route. Given the current brick wall with the unknown death date of Robin William George Stephens, former commandant of Camp 020, I thought I would back up all the way to his first wife. I have tried various side tracks

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