RAINBOW and the Abwehr's Failed Spy Network in Britain
A British national with German roots was turned into a weapon against the Reich, only for his operational history to vanish abruptly in 1943.
By Vera Kessler ·
double agents
Morris Childs and the Psychic Surveillance of Solo
Kept secret for 31 years, the record shows the agency attempting to use "Viewer 032" to track a double agent they already owned.
By Miriam Adler ·
PEASANT and the 1943 Fabrication of a US Spy
A Dutch adventurer recruited to spy in Latin America became a fiction used by the FBI to mislead the Abwehr after he was deemed too unstable to enter the United States.
By Vera Kessler ·
Solo and the $28 Million Soviet Pipeline
Morris Childs played both sides of the Iron Curtain for decades, but the record of one critical debriefing remains a digital wreck, kept secret until 2000.
By Vera Kessler ·
Alfred Naujocks and the 1939 Venlo Disaster
He helped launch World War II with a false flag and kidnapped two British agents in the Netherlands; his file remained a cold record of a "callous murderer" for decades.
By Constance Bell ·
Alan Nunn May and the Job Offer for a Convicted Atomic Spy
A physicist gave the Soviet Union the secrets of the bomb and stayed silent about his handlers, yet he found the British Security Service acting as his employment agent upon release.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Zigzag’s Iron Cross and the MI5 Discontinuance Lie
A criminal’s double life was used to shield British factories and mislead German high command, leaving behind a record that lies about when the operation truly ended.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Dusko Popov and the 1941 Failure of the Abwehr's American Ring
A Serbian lawyer played the Reich and the Crown for years, leaving a trail of redacted finances and early warnings of Pearl Harbor that the West failed to heed.
By Constance Bell ·
Morris Childs and the $28 Million Pipeline of Betrayal
Kept secret until 2000, a corrupted file tracks the interrogation of a man who stole millions from Moscow for the FBI while playing both sides of the Cold War
By Vera Kessler ·
A Polish Forced Labourer and the V-Weapon Deception
A man recruited by the Abwehr in 1942 spent two years in the shadows before surfacing in Gibraltar to become a vital link in a British deception operation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
BALLOON and the Private Sales to the Abwehr
He was a disgraced officer turned arms dealer who spent three years playing the British and Germans against each other, though his full record remains buried in the Security Service files.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Mathilde Carré’s Death Sentence and the Failed WALENTY Deception
Dozens of resistance operatives in occupied France were handed to the German executioners because of a single woman’s betrayal, a failure MI5 tried to weaponize.
By Harlan Pryce ·
LIPSTICK and the 1943 Gamble in Barcelona
Held in the Double Agent files, the records of a Catalan nationalist’s double-game show how London manipulated the Abwehr to shield a larger deception.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Family Threats and the Manchester Photographer’s Microfilm
A Manchester businessman was coerced into German service through threats against his kin, only for his intelligence operations to vanish from the record in 1941.
By Constance Bell ·
Austrian spy GELATINE traded social contacts for modest intelligence gains
An Austrian woman lived a double life in London before 1939, attempting to sell political secrets to Lisbon through micro-dots while reporting back to British intelligence.
By Vera Kessler ·
Polish Pilot Sold Loyalty to Both Sides Before British Internment
Both Berlin and London were played by a volatile Polish pilot who aided Operation TORCH before refusing to cooperate and facing internment at Camp 020R.
By Constance Bell ·