Polish pilot spied for Germany and Britain before MI5 jailed him
By Harlan Pryce ·
Axis forces were deceived by Clarc Korab during Operation TORCH before his "complete personal unreliability" led to internment at the interrogation facility Camp 020R.
Clarc Korab was a Polish pilot shot down by the Germans in 1939. By the time he reached Spain, he had transitioned from a combatant to a candidate for the Abwehr, volunteering to spy for the Germans in England. This trajectory, detailed in the catalogue entry for file KV 2/1442 at the National Archives (UK), marks the beginning of a career defined by opportunistic shifts and eventual failure.
Spain and the Abwehr
According to the file's catalogue description, Korab’s journey from the cockpit to the world of intelligence began in the immediate aftermath of the 1939 invasion. After being shot down, he made his way to Spain, where he entered the service of German intelligence. The Abwehr sought operatives who could infiltrate the United Kingdom, and Korab fit the profile of a displaced national with the necessary linguistic and professional background to move through Europe.
He was shipped to the UK in July 1941, traveling via Portugal. However, the moment he arrived on British soil, Korab performed a pivot that was common among the era's deep-cover agents but rare in its timing. He volunteered his services to the British. In the high-stakes environment of 1941, where MI5 was aggressively seeking to turn German agents into double agents to feed the Abwehr misinformation, Korab appeared to be a valuable asset.
"Complete personal unreliability"
While the Security Service (MI5) had a sophisticated system for managing these turns—documented in the Personal (PF Series) Files—not every volunteer proved useful. The catalogue entry for KV 2/1442 does not mince words regarding Korab’s performance. It records that "complete personal unreliability" led to his internment at Camp 020R.
Camp 020 was the MI5 facility designed specifically for the detention and interrogation of captured spies and the management of double agents. For some, it was a staging ground for the most successful deception operations of the war. For others, it was simply a cage for those who could not be trusted. Korab fell into the latter category. The phrase "complete personal unreliability" suggests a failure of character or a lack of consistency that made him a liability in a game where precision was the only currency.
Camp 020R
Despite his unreliability, Korab was not entirely without value. The catalogue description notes that his Abwehr questionnaires provided "useful information." These questionnaires were the primary tools the Germans used to vet their agents, often asking for deep biographical details and specific observations about the target country. For MI5, these documents provided a window into the Abwehr’s priorities and their methods of interrogation.
Furthermore, the record states that Korab "participated in deception for TORCH." Operation TORCH, the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, relied heavily on a massive intelligence screen to convince the Axis that the primary attack would come elsewhere. Even a "personally unreliable" agent could be used as a conduit for carefully scripted lies, provided they could still pass for a credible source in the eyes of their original handlers.
This pattern of double-agent management is visible across the wider KV 2 series. Other entries in the same catalogue search, specifically KV 2/63, 64, 65, 66, and 67, detail the operations of Juan Pujol Garcia, codenamed GARBO. Where Pujol Garcia became one of the most successful double agents in history, providing a deluge of British deception material to the Germans, Korab’s record is one of utility followed by collapse.
For a time, Korab was a tool of the Security Service, a Polish pilot turned German spy turned British asset. But the appetite of the intelligence services for such figures was conditional. Once the usefulness of his questionnaires had been exhausted and his role in the TORCH deception concluded, the "unreliability" that had led to his internment became his defining characteristic.
The catalogue entry records that Korab refused to co-operate with the British after January 1943. The record stops there, leaving the final disposition of the man who had volunteered for both sides of the war an open question.