Historical Spy Cases Carl Hans Lody was a German naval officer and spy in the First World War. He travelled to Scotland and Ireland to spy on the Royal Navy and British defences. However, he was caught two months after the war started. He was put on trial for "war treason", was convicted and sentenced to death. In November 1914, he became the first person in 150 years to be executed in the Tower of London. Eddie Chapman was a British career criminal who was captured by the Germans during the invasion of Jersey in 1940. He was trained as a spy by the Germans and was sent to Britain to sabotage vital aircraft factories. However, he switched sides and worked for MI5 as a double agent, deceiving the Germans with false information. He was so successful that Hitler awarded him the Iron Cross, Germany's highest honour. Klaus Fuchs was a German-born scientist who fled to Britain as a refugee from the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. He was also a communist and supporter of the Soviet Union and spied for the Soviets throughout the 1940s. His information helped the Soviets to build their own atomic bomb only four years after the Americans developed theirs. He was caught in 1950, convicted of espionage and sent to prison for 14 years. SIS – Our History
Fuchs gets a bit of a mention in this, I think... "We Are History" - Podcast - Agent Sonya Agent Sonya In a life that began in the Weimar Republic and outlived the Berlin Wall, Ursula Kuczynski spied for Communism all around the world, and not even her own children suspect anything. The less-than-serious history podcast with stand up comedian Angela Barnes (The News Quiz, Mock The Week and Live at The Apollo) and writer John O'Farrell (An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, Things Can Only Get Better, Spitting Image). In each podcast our two history nerds discuss, explain and laugh at interesting and quirky episodes from the olden days, such as East German Nudism, Spy Pigeons or Vlad the Impaler. Angela and John’s in-depth knowledge of world history has been described as ‘laughable’ - and now they read the history books so that you don't have to. The We Are History podcast - not as world-changing as the Black Death, but slightly funnier. Klaus Fuchs "Introduction to Klaus Fuchs Emil Klaus Fuchs was a German citizen who joined the German Communist Party in the 1930s but was forced to flee to Britain in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. He earned a doctorate in physics from Edinburgh University and obtained a teaching post at the university. In 1939, when the Second World War broke out, he was detained on the Isle of Man and later sent to Canada as the citizen of an enemy nation. He was eventually released and returned to Edinburgh in 1941, where his scientific expertise led to him being recruited to join the TUBE ALLOYS nuclear weapons programme - Britain's equivalent of the Manhattan Project. In late 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Fuchs contacted the exiled German Communist Jurgen Kuczynski to offer the Russians information on the TUBE ALLOYS project. He was put in touch with a contact in the Russian GRU military intelligence agency, to which he passed secret atomic research. Fuchs later stated that he had been motivated by a belief that the Soviets had a right to know about the atomic bomb project. Dick White, who became Director General of MI5 in the 1950s, contrasted Fuchs' motives with the desire for money that motivated many other spies and concluded that his motives "were relatively speaking pure. A scientist who got cross at the Anglo-American ploy in withholding vital information from an ally fighting a common enemy." Spying for the Soviets Fuchs was given the codename REST and was transferred in 1942 to another GRU agent, Ursula Beurton (codenamed SONYA). The two met regularly in Banbury, Oxfordshire where Fuchs passed secret documents to Beurton. In 1943, Fuchs was sent to join the Manhattan Project as part of a British team of scientists. He played a key role in the project over the next three years, developing many of the designs, equations and techniques used to build the first atomic bombs. Etc.
The Documentary - The bomb - BBC Sounds "Who was Klaus Fuchs, the man who stole the bomb? How did a prodigious young talent at the beginning of a promising academic career, evolve into a fully committed Soviet spy? Journalist Rosa Ellis grew up hearing stories about her great aunt, Ursula Kuczynski, aka Agent Sonya, Klaus Fuchs’ handler. How did Fuchs and her aunt come to cross paths? Fuchs comes of age in Nazi Germany, but his scientific brilliance offers him an escape - to England. An ‘enemy alien’ with Communist leanings, he is deemed as a risk to the country and shipped off to Canada, where he falls into the Soviet espionage web. Upon his return to England, his double life begins. At the same time, another German emigre and scientist, Rudolf Peierls, seeks a trustworthy assistant and a brilliant scientist for the burgeoning British atomic bomb project. So begins a human chain reaction with devastating potential. Fuchs soon finds himself in the belly of the beast, assisting Peierls on the bomb whilst simultaneously slipping secrets to Agent Sonya, aka Ursula Kuczynski, Rosa’s great aunt and the Red Army’s leading intelligence officer in Britain. Fuchs and Peierls’ friendship grows stronger and the two are quickly snapped up for the new US atomic effort. Suspicions are raised about Fuchs and his double life suddenly becomes even more dangerous, as his espionage skills are put to the test. Finally MI5 begin to close in on both Fuchs and Ursula, and top interrogator Skardon pushes their loyalties to the limit. Will Fuchs reveal himself to his closest friends, the Peierls, who trusted him enough to let him stay under their roof? Or will he remain loyal to the cause, and die with his secrets?"
The Documentary - The bomb - BBC Sounds It is 1949. British intelligence have both Klaus Fuchs and Ursula Kuczynski caught in their crosshairs. They put their top interrogator, Jim Skardon, on the case. Could this be the end for history’s most dangerous spy? Meanwhile, Fuchs is oblivious. He’s left espionage behind, is focusing on academia and enjoying life in England, a country he has, despite everything, come to call his home. He’s just been offered a potentially life-changing opportunity at the University of Leipzig, in communist East Germany. Unfortunately for Fuchs, this provides the perfect excuse for Skardon to size him up. Will Skardon get Fuchs to finally come clean? Will Fuchs reveal himself to his closest friends, the Peierls, who took him in and trusted him enough to let him stay under their roof, all whilst he was slipping nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union? Or will he remain loyal to the cause, and die with his lies? Presenter Rosa Ellis grew up hearing stories about her great aunt, Ursula Kuczynski, aka Agent Sonya, Klaus Fuchs’ handler. Their partnership changed the course of history and set the stage for today’s nuclear threat As Fuchs’ double life draws to a close, Rosa wants to know what the fallout of this human chain reaction was, and how Fuchs and Ursula’s actions are still affecting us today.
