The Intelligence Division in occupied Germany: the untold story of Britain’s largest secret intelligence organisation

ABSTRACT

This article provides the first detailed analysis of the British Intelligence Division (ID) in occupied Germany. It examines the reasons for its undue lack of prominence in the current historiography, its organisational structure, key functions, activities, its legacy and resulting historical significance. Drawing on recently discovered and declassified documents, it argues that the ID played a crucial role in the occupation of Germany by securing the British Zone, destroying anti-democratic movements, helping to control the German population, shape government policy and to construct important elements of the modern German state. This role has been overlooked by historians who underestimate the importance of intelligence, the seriousness of post-war Nazi resistance, focus on scientific intelligence, the Anglo-American recruitment of Nazis, intelligence efforts against the Soviet Union or concentrate on the American Zone.

KEYWORDS:

• Intelligence Division
• occupied Germany
• British Intelligence
• Post-war Germany
• British Zone
• secret operations
• Nazi
• Cold War

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Simon Ball and Dr Elisabeth Leake for their invaluable help and numerous inspiring conversations, Professor Holger Afflerbach and Dr Alan MacLeod for reading an earlier version of this article, WRoCAH, the AHRC, the Schools of History at the University of Leeds and the University of Central Lancashire for funding my research and providing kind encouragement throughout my studies, Dr Camilo Erlichman, Dr Bruce Haywood and Alexander Shaw for their helpful email correspondence, the archivists and staff at the National Archives, the Liddell Hart Centre and the Imperial War Museums, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical FOI Team, my family, friends, colleagues and my partner Jessica for their endless support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ The National Archives, Kew (TNA), FO 1032/1003, Secretariat, Zonal Executive Office, Lübbecke to General Department, Control Office, “Contribution to the New Admiralty Intelligence Handbook” (January 22, 1947).

² Much research has focused on the American-sponsored Gehlen Organisation. For an excellent overview, see Jens Wegener, “Shaping Germany’s Post-War Intelligence Service: The Gehlen Organization, the U.S. Army, and Central Intelligence, 1945–1949,” Journal of Intelligence History 7, no. 1 (2007): 41–59. Paul Maddrell, Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany, 1945–1961 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 82 implies that British liaison with the Gehlen Organisation was good. However, evidence discussed in this article suggests that this was not always the case. For example, a Joint Intelligence Committee (Germany) (JIC(G)) report discussing ‘the American sponsored’ German ‘external Intelligence agency’ stated, ‘our own policy has been to have nothing to do with it’, see TNA, FO 1035/77, JIC(G), “Intelligence and the Future German Government” (June 28, 1951). Interest in the Allied usage of Nazi scientists is best demonstrated by the ‘good deal of attention’ given to the American Operation Paperclip, as described by John Gimbel in “German Scientists, United States Denazification Policy, and the ‘Paperclip Conspiracy’,” The International History Review 12, no. 3 (1990), 441–65.

³ For example, Regional Intelligence Officers (RIOs) were instructed to promote ‘democratic development and thought in German political life’, see TNA, FO 1013/320, “Relationship to be maintained at Regional Headquarters between the Regional Intelligence Officer and the Administration and Local Government Branch” (January 1947).

⁴ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Secretariat, Zonal Executive Office, Lübbecke to General Department, Control Office, “Contribution to the New Admiralty Intelligence Handbook” (January 22, 1947).

⁵ For example, see comments on the inadequacy of denazification and the resulting need for counter intelligence operations in TNA, FO 1005/1165, JIC (CCG), “Internal Security Commitment in the British Zone, 1946–1950,” Annex, p. 3, “Safeguards in the British Zone,” December 11, 1945).

⁶ Richard J. Evans, “Why are we obsessed with the Nazis?” The Guardian (February 6, 2015).

⁷ Perry Biddiscombe, “Operation Selection Board: The growth and Suppression of the Neo‐Nazi ‘Deutsche Revolution’ 1945–47,” Intelligence and National Security 11, no. 1 (1996), 59. See also Giles MacDonogh, After the Reich: From the Fall of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift (London: John Murray, 2007), 1–2; Patricia Meehan, A Strange Enemy People: Germans under the British, 1945–1950 (London: Peter Owen, 2001), 78–9.

⁸ For further information on the historiographical overlooking of right-wing extremism in Post-war Germany, see Rand C. Lewis, A Nazi Legacy: Right-Wing Extremism in Postwar Germany (London: Praeger, 1991), XV, 4.

⁹ TNA, FO 936/675, D.L. Britton, Archivist, Hayes Middlesex to W.M. Baker, Norfolk House, “Intelligence Division Material” (May 15, 1952). See also Britton to Baker, “Intelligence Division Material” (February 6, 1953).

¹⁰ TNA, FO 936/675, Williams, DDMI (O & S), WO to Antrobus, FO, Norfolk House (July 7, 1952). See also Britton to Baker, “Transfer of Intelligence Division Archives, to War Office” (May 13, 1952).

¹¹ TNA, FO 936/675, Antrobus to Major-General A.C. Shortt, Director of Military Intelligence, WO, Secret Letter (May 19, 1952).

¹² Richard J. Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London: John Murray, 2002), 182.

¹³ Alaric Searle, “‘Vopo’-General Vincenz Müller and Western Intelligence, 1948–54: CIC, The Gehlen Organization and Two Cold War Covert Operations,” Intelligence and National Security 17, no. 2 (2002): 32.

¹⁴ Nigel West, Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence (Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, 2005), 68–9.

¹⁵ Richard J. Aldrich, “Intelligence within BAOR and NATO’s Northern Army Group,” The Journal of Strategic Studies 31, no. 1 (2008): 97.

¹⁶ Maddrell, Science, 1, 7–8.

¹⁷ For example, TNA, FO 1005/1731, “Manpower for Intelligence Division” (June 27, 1949) reveals that in April 1949, of the 331 members of staff employed at ID HQ, only 20 represented STIB. Redacted copy in author’s possession following FOI request (Ref: 0531–17) completed on July 28, 2017. See also Maddrell, Science, 7.

¹⁸ Maddrell, Science, 14, 16. See also Benjamin B. Fischer, “Their Germans and Ours,” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 21, no. 3 (2008), 590; Otis C. Mitchell, The Cold War in Germany: Overview, Origins, and Intelligence Wars (Lanham: University Press of America, 2005), 185–6.

¹⁹ TNA, FO 936/675, Antrobus to Shortt (May 19, 1952).

²⁰ TNA, FO 936/675, Britton to Baker, “Intelligence Division Material” (May 15, 1952).

²¹ Camilo Erlichman’s PhD thesis, “Strategies of Rule: Cooperation and Conflict in the British Zone of Germany, 1945–1949” (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 2015) won the British International History Group Thesis Prize. See also Frederick Taylor, Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), XXXVI. One exception is a PhD thesis in progress at Newcastle University by Guy Walters entitled “Fourth Reich or farce? The origins, significance and impact of the Naumann Affair”.

²² The quotation regarding the American Zone along with the downplaying of intelligence matters and issues relating to denazification can be found in Erlichman, “Zone,” 17–9.

²³ TNA, FO 1032/409, DDMI (S), WO, Room 055, Confidential Meeting Invitation sent to Major-General C.A. West, Major-General K.W.D. Strong, Brigadier G.R. Way, Colonel V. Vivian, Mr. D. White (June 5, 1944). See also “Counter-Intelligence Planning for Germany and Austria,” Minutes, Norfolk House (June 7, 1944).

²⁴ Keith Jeffery, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), 476. See also Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London: Allen Lane, 2009), 135.

²⁵ TNA, FO 1032/409, Maj-Gen J.A. Sinclair to Maj-Gen C.A. West (August 27, 1944) and West to Sinclair (August 23, 1944). See also Jeffery, MI6, 613.

²⁶ TNA, FO 1032/409, Strong, SHAEF, G-2 to West, Control Commission Military Sections, Norfolk House (July 23, 1944).

²⁷ TNA, FO 1032/409, French, WO to Kirby, Control Commission Planners (July 20, 1944).

²⁸ TNA, FO 1032/409, The Under Secretary of State for War, WO to Control Commission for Germany (British Element), Norfolk House “Subject: Control Commission – Intelligence Organisation” (August 26, 1944).

²⁹ TNA, FO 1032/409, West, Norfolk House to Kirby, Control Commission Planners, WO (July 25, 1944).

³⁰ TNA, FO 1032/409, Secret “Intelligence Organisation in Control Commission (British Element)” (August 10, 1944). See also Kirby, CCG (BE), Norfolk House to French, WO (August 10, 1944).

³¹ TNA, FO 1032/409, C.H.M. Wilcox, Treasury Chambers, Great George Street to H.C. Rayner (September 21, 1944).

³² Ibid. See also TNA, FO 1032/409, “Intelligence in Civil Divisions” (September 21, 1944).

³³ TNA, FO 1032/409, Wilcox, Treasury Chambers to Rayner (September 21, 1944).

³⁴ TNA, FO 936/247, CCG (BE), Norfolk House to The Under Secretary of State (DSD), WO, “Establishment for the Major-General Intelligence and Joint Intelligence Co-ordinating Section” (December 14, 1944). See also CCG (BE), Norfolk House to The Under Secretary of State (D.S.D.), WO, “War Establishment for the Censorship Bureau,” Appendix A, “Organisation – Intelligence Group – HQ, Control Commission for Germany (British Element) Censorship Bureau (Posts and Telecommunications)” (January 24, 1945).

³⁵ TNA, FO 1032/409, Commissioners Office, Norfolk House to All Divisions, “Joint Intelligence Co-ordinating Section” (November 14, 1944).

³⁶ TNA, FO 936/247, CCG (BE), Norfolk House to The Under Secretary of State (D.S.D.), WO, “War Establishment for the Censorship Bureau” (January 24, 1945). See also Bruce Haywood, Bremerhaven: A Memoir of Germany, 1945–1947 (editandpublishyourbook.com: 2010), 139–40.

³⁷ TNA, FO 936/247, “Establishment for the Counter Intelligence Bureau” (December 22, 1944). See also Edward Harrison, ‘Editor’s Introduction: Hugh Trevor-Roper’s Secret War’ in Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Secret World, Behind the Curtain of British Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014), 29.

³⁸ TNA, FO 936/247, “War Establishment for the Counter Intelligence Bureau,” (December 22, 1944).

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ TNA, FO 936/247, CCG (BE), Norfolk House to The Under Secretary of State (DSD), WO, “War Establishment for the Major-General Intelligence and Joint Intelligence Co-ordinating Section” (December 14, 1944).

⁴¹ TNA, FO 936/247, “War Establishment for the Counter Intelligence Bureau” (December 22, 1944). See also TNA, DEFE 4/41/52, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Minutes of 52^nd Meeting (March 22, 1951), “Future of Intelligence Division in Germany.”

⁴² Anthony Clayton, Forearmed: A History of the Intelligence Corps (London: Brassey’s, 1993), 196. See also TNA, FO 936/247, Control Office for Germany and Austria, Norfolk House to the Under Secretary of State, WO, “Intelligence Group Area Security Unit, Hamburg An Investigation Section” (December 2, 1945).

⁴³ Thomas Boghardt, “America’s Secret Vanguard: US Army Intelligence Operations in Germany, 1944–47,” Studies in Intelligence 57, no. 2 (2013): 10. See also Mitchell, Germany, 187; MacDonogh, Reich, 12.

⁴⁴ TNA, FO 1038/105, Air Commodore A/C.A.D. “Minute Sheet” to D/C.A.D. A.D. Int. (July 8, 1946).

⁴⁵ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Lethbridge, Chief Intelligence Division to D.M.G., Zonal Executive Offices, 60 HQ, CCG, Lübbecke, BAOR, “Intelligence Division Communications” (December 17, 1946).

⁴⁶ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Lethbridge to D.M.G., Zonal Executive Offices, 60 HQ, CCG, Lübbecke, BAOR, “Intelligence Division Communications” (December, 17, 1946).

⁴⁷ TNA, FO 936/247, “Intelligence Group, Area Security Unit, Hamburg An Investigation Section” (December 2, 1945).

⁴⁸ TNA, FO 936/247, Telegram from Concomb to Confolk Piccy London (Undated – Likely January 1945).

⁴⁹ TNA, FO 936/247, Office of the Deputy Military Governor and Chief of Staff (British Zone), Main Headquarters, CCG (BE), 7, Kaiser Strasse, Lübbecke, BAOR to HQ, BAOR, “Control Commission War Establishments Committee” (November 18, 1945). See also FO 938/63, Lethbridge, IG Main H.Q., Lübbecke to Dean, Deputy Secretary, Control Office for Germany and Austria, Norfolk House, London (June 3, 1946); Clayton, Forearmed, 196.

⁵⁰ TNA, FO 936/247, Lethbridge, IG, CCG (BE), Main HQ, Lübbecke, “Intelligence Directive No. 11” (December 1, 1945).

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² TNA, FO 936/247, Rear Headquarters, IB, CCG (BE), Room 326, 45, Princes Gardens, Kensington, S.W.7. “Subject: Organization” (January 8, 1946).

⁵³ TNA, FO 936/833, Brian H. Robertson, Private Office of the High Commissioner, CCG (BE), Wahnerheide, Top Secret letter to E.A. Seal, Foreign Office (March 16, 1950). Redacted copy in author’s possession following FOI request (Ref: 1123–16) completed on February 2, 2017.

⁵⁴ Aldrich, Hidden, 181.

⁵⁵ TNA, FO 1038/105, Secret, “Reorganisation of H.Q. Int Div” (June 1946).

⁵⁶ TNA, FO 1038/105, ID Organisation Chart (June 30, 1946).

⁵⁷ TNA, FO 936/247. Staff Group, G.S. Branch, Office of the Deputy Military Governor, Main Headquarters, CCG (BE) to CCG (BE), Establishments Board (June 11, 1946).

⁵⁸ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Secretariat, Zonal Executive Office, Lübbecke, 60 HQ, CCG, BAOR to General Department, Control Office, “Contribution to the New Admiralty Intelligence Handbook” (January 22, 1947).

⁵⁹ Jeffery, MI6, 668.

⁶⁰ Imperial War Museum (IWM), Haydon Private Papers, John L, Bad Salzuflen (MI6 main HQ in Germany) Letter to Haydon dated 10 January, presumably 1951. On Bad Salzuflen and MI6 see Jeffery, MI6, 664–5 and Stephen Dorril, MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations (London: Fourth Estate Limited, 2000), 99.

⁶¹ TNA, FO 1032/1003, N.L. Macaskie, Chief, Legal Division, HQ, CCG (BE), Berlin to G.H.R. Halland, Public Safety Branch, Zonal Executive Offices, 62 HQ, BAOR (July 11, 1947).

⁶² Meehan, Strange, 69–87.

⁶³ IWM, Haydon Papers, Letter to Haydon signed John L, Bad Salzuflen (MI6 main HQ in Germany), dated 10 January, presumably 1951.

⁶⁴ This report remains classified but the redacted comments of senior officials on its contents have been made available to the author via a successful FOI request to declassify FO 936/833.

⁶⁵ IWM, Haydon Papers, “Intelligence Operations in a Free Society,” Notes for Lecture to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA, 1962 or 3.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ TNA, FO 936/833, Robertson, Private Office of the High Commissioner, Top Secret letter to Seal, Foreign Office (March 16, 1950). Redacted copy in author’s possession following FOI request (Ref: 1123–16) completed on February 2, 2017.

⁶⁸ TNA, FO 936/833, Seal, Top Secret Minutes (April 20, 1950). Redacted copy in author’s possession following FOI request (Ref: 1123–16) completed on February 2, 2017.

⁶⁹ Peter Speiser, The British Army of The Rhine: Turning Nazi Enemies into Cold War Partners (Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2016), 23.

⁷⁰ Ibid, 23.

⁷¹ Aldrich, “BAOR,” 97.

⁷² TNA, FO 936/833, Robertson, Private Office of the High Commissioner, Top Secret letter to Seal, FO (March 16, 1950). Redacted copy in author’s possession following FOI request (Ref: 1123–16) completed on February 2, 2017.

⁷³ IWM, Haydon Papers, Letter to Haydon dated (October 17, 1950). See also Letter to Haydon from John (undated, presumably 1950); Letter to Haydon dated 6 December, presumably 1950.

⁷⁴ IWM, Haydon Papers, Letter to Haydon signed ‘Keith’, ID, Herford (December 13, 1950).

⁷⁵ Chris Cook, Sources in British Political History 1900–1951 Volume 2: A Guide to the Papers of Selected Public Servants (London: Macmillan, 1975), 138.

⁷⁶ TNA, FO 371/85353, Kirkpatrick, Private Office of the High Commissioner, Top Secret Letter to W.I. Mallet, FO (August 23, 1950). See also TNA, ADM 223/699, G.D. Kirwan, Secret Letter to ‘Whittle’ concerning “future responsibility for the Intelligence Division” (November 30, 1950).

⁷⁷ Sabine Lee, Victory in Europe: Britain and Germany Since 1945 (London: Longman, 2001), 51–5, 59.

⁷⁸ Ibid, 55–7, 61–3.

⁷⁹ Aldrich, “BAOR,” 97.

⁸⁰ TNA, DEFE 4/41/52, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Minutes of 52^nd Meeting (March 22, 1951), “Future of Intelligence Division.”

⁸¹ TNA, DEFE 5/28/130, “Chiefs of Staff Committee, Future of Intelligence Division in Germany” (March 9, 1951).

⁸² TNA, ADM 1/27785, JIC Report, “Future of the British Intelligence Organisation, Germany” (August 13, 1953).

⁸³ Ibid.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ TNA, ADM1/27785, JIC Report, “Future of the British Intelligence Organisation, Germany” (August 13, 1953). See also Speiser, Rhine, 22.

⁸⁶ TNA, ADM1/27785, JIC Report, “Future of the British Intelligence Organisation, Germany” (August 13, 1953). See also TNA, DEFE 4/64, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Minutes of the 98^th Meeting (August 21, 1953), “Future of the British Intelligence Organisation, Germany.”

⁸⁷ IWM, Haydon Papers, D.P. Reilly, FO letter to Haydon, ID, Herford (December 14, 1950).

⁸⁸ Scott Andrew Selby, The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It (New York: Berkley, 2012). See also, Boghardt, “Operations,” 1–18; Erlichman, “Zone,” 19, 22; Haywood, Bremerhaven, 27.

⁸⁹ Meehan, Strange, 78–9.

⁹⁰ Erlichman, “Zone,” 2, 20–2, 24, 41–2. The ID is directly referred to only five times in this thesis, see pp. 138, 140, 197, 229, 262.

⁹¹ Ibid, 15, 17, 37. Erlichman does not include the ID in his list of the CCG’s “key divisions” on p. 40.

⁹² TNA, FO 1032/1003, Lethbridge to D.M.G., Zonal Executive Offices, 60 HQ, CCG, Lübbecke, BAOR, “Intelligence Division Communications” (December 17, 1946).

⁹³ Peter Levenda, Ratline: Soviet Spies, Nazi Priests, and the Disappearance of Adolf Hitler (Lake Worth, Florida: Ibis Press, 2012), 20, 23, 31.

⁹⁴ Selby, Axmann, 11, 50, 60, 65, 103. See also TNA, FO 1005/1700, ID, Intelligence Review Number 13, “Nursery” (October 1946).

⁹⁵ Selby, Axmann, 212.

⁹⁶ Ibid, 65, 79–80, 106, 118, 161. See also TNA, FO 1005/1700, ID, Intelligence Review Number 13, “Nursery” (October 1946).

⁹⁷ TNA, FO 1005/1700, ID, Intelligence Review Number 13, “Nursery” (October 1946).

⁹⁸ Ibid. See also Selby, Axmann, 102.

⁹⁹ Los Angeles Times, “Hitler Fanatics Battle Allies” (March 31, 1946) quoted in Selby, Axmann, 225.

¹⁰⁰ Selby, Axmann, 114–5, 221–4.

¹⁰¹ TNA, WO 208/3789, T.J. Sands, HQ, USFET, G-2 Division, Counterintelligence Branch to Brigadier E.R. Haylor, IB, CCG (BE), Bad Oeynhausen (January 23, 1946).

¹⁰² TNA, FO 1005/1702, “Intelligence Division Summary No. 1” (July 8, 1946), 1, 16–7.

¹⁰³ Ibid, 1–2, 17–8.

¹⁰⁴ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Lethbridge to D.M.G., Zonal Executive Offices, 60 HQ, CCG, Lübbecke, BAOR, “Intelligence Division Communications” (December 17, 1946).

¹⁰⁵ Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (LHCMA), Kings College London, Lethbridge Private Papers, “Extract from the Daily Mirror” (February 24 1947).

¹⁰⁶ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the News Chronicle” (February 24, 1947).

¹⁰⁷ TNA, CAB 191/1, HQ ID, “’Deutsche Revolution’ Appreciation of Investigations into German Subversive Movements culminating in Operation Selection Board” (April 3, 1947) Report submitted to the JIC.

¹⁰⁸ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the News Chronicle” (February 24, 1947).

¹⁰⁹ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the Daily Telegraph” (February 24, 1947). See also “Extract from the Daily Mirror” and “Extract from the Daily Mail” (February 24, 1947).

¹¹⁰ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Daily Sketch Cutting” and “Daily Express Cutting” (February 25, 1947).

¹¹¹ Direct quotation from LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the Daily Worker” (February 24, 1947). Bormann’s possible involvement is also mentioned in “Extract from the Daily Telegraph” and “Extract from the Daily Graphic” (February 24, 1947).

¹¹² LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the Daily Telegraph” (February 24, 1947).

¹¹³ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Times Cutting” (February 25, 1947).

¹¹⁴ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, James McDowall, “Nazi Plot for Germ War is Smashed,” Daily Graphic (February 24, 1947).

¹¹⁵ For example, in Wellington Long’s excellent account of post-war Nazi organisations, the ID is unmentioned throughout. Operation Selection Board is briefly discussed but unnamed. Conversely, the American CIC is specifically mentioned by name, as is Operation Nursery. See Wellington Long, The New Nazis of Germany (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1968), 40–1, 44–5. Similarly, in Taylor, Hitler, 35–6, 259, 278 the CIC are referred to directly, but the ID is unmentioned throughout.

¹¹⁶ TNA, FO 1005/1715, Hamburg Regional Intelligence Office (RIO), “Monthly Counter Espionage/Security Summary” (June 30 1947), 2.

¹¹⁷ TNA, FO 1005/1715, Hamburg RIO, “Monthly Security Intelligence Summary” (April 1, 1947), 3.

¹¹⁸ TNA, DEFE 5/28/130, “Chiefs of Staff Committee, Future of Intelligence Division” (March 9, 1951).

¹¹⁹ Norbert Frei, Adenauer’s Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration (Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2002), 277.

¹²⁰ Holger Afflerbach, “The West German Secret Services During the Cold War,” in Secret Intelligence in the European States System, 1918–1989, eds. Jonathan Haslam and Karina Urbach (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014), 216. See also David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 285.

¹²¹ Frei, Adenauer’s, 277.

¹²² TNA, FO 371/103904, Major-General J.M. Kirkman, Commander, British Intelligence Organisation (Germany), “Operation ‘Terminus’ 14/15 January 1953” (February 5, 1953). See also Frei, Adenauer’s, 277–9, 281, 283.

¹²³ Biddiscombe, “Operation,” 59.

¹²⁴ Ibid.

¹²⁵ Lee, Germany, 9, 40.

¹²⁶ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO Fortnightly Intelligence Summaries, No. 1–6 (April 19, 1946–June 29, 1946). See also Boghardt, “Operations,” 9.

¹²⁷ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 2” (May 4, 1946). See also TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Intelligence Report No. 6” (January 25, 1947).

¹²⁸ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 1” (April 19, 1946). See also Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 2” (May 4, 1946); Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 3” (May 10, 1946); Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 6”; TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Intelligence Report No. 6” (January 25, 1947).

¹²⁹ TNA, FO 1005/1715, Hamburg RIO, “Monthly Security Intelligence Summary” (April 1, 1947), 1–3. See also Hamburg RIO, “Monthly Counter Espionage/Security Summary” (April 30, 1947), 1–2; TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 1” (April 19, 1946); TNA, FO 1005/1702, ID, “Summary No. 1” (July 8, 1946), 1; Boghardt, “Operations,” 7.

¹³⁰ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 1” (April 19, 1946), 10–2. See also Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 2” (May 4, 1946), 10; Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 3” (May 18, 1946), 8–9; Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 4” (June 1, 1946), 8–9; Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 5” (June 15, 1946), 8–9.

¹³¹ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Secretariat, Zonal Executive Office, Lübbecke to General Department, Control Office, “Contribution to the New Admiralty Intelligence Handbook” (January 22, 1947).

¹³² TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO “Summary No. 2” (May 4, 1946), 10.

¹³³ For example see TNA, FO 1005/1700, Intelligence Bureau, Intelligence Review Number 6, “Distribution List” (February 20, 1946). See also TNA, FO 1005/1715, Hamburg RIO “Monthly Counter Espionage/Security Summary No. 21” (August 31, 1947), “Distribution”.

¹³⁴ TNA, FO 938/63, Lord Marley, House of Lords, “Memorandum on the Intelligence Division” (May 9, 1946).

¹³⁵ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, M.E. Pelly, H.J. Yasamee, G. Bennett, eds., Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series I, Volume V (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, Undated Copy), No. 95, “Control Commission for Germany (British Element) Intelligence Review No. 1” (December 12, 1945), 439.

¹³⁶ TNA, FO 1005/1700, ID Review No. 15, “Personal Message from Major General J.S. Lethbridge” (December 1946).

¹³⁷ David Aaronovitch, Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History (London: Jonathan Cape, 2009), 5.

¹³⁸ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO Summaries No. 1–6 (April 19, 1946–June 29^, 1946). See also TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Intelligence Report No. 6” (January 25, 1947) and “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Political Intelligence Summary No. 8” (March 29, 1947).

¹³⁹ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO “Summary No. 2” (May 4, 1946).

¹⁴⁰ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Office of the Public Safety Advisor, “No. 771 Document Centre, Berlin” (January 12, 1949). See also TNA, FO 1005/1702, ID Summary No. 1 (July 8, 1946).

¹⁴¹ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO “Summary No. 3” (May 18, 1946).

¹⁴² TNA, FO 1005/1715, Hamburg RIO, “Monthly Counter Espionage/Security Summary” (April 30, 1947). See also Hamburg RIO, “Monthly Counter Espionage/Security Summary” (May 31, 1947).

¹⁴³ Luke Daly-Groves, “The Death of Adolf Hitler: British Intelligence, Soviet Accusations and Rumours of Survival” (BA Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2015), 1, 12, 21, 32. See also Aldrich, Hidden, 183.

¹⁴⁴ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO “Summary No. 3” (May 18, 1946), 9.

¹⁴⁵ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 4” (June 1, 1946), 2.

¹⁴⁶ Elspeth O’Riordan, “Rethinking Britain’s Foreign Policy and the Occupation Zone in Germany 1945–1947: Questions of Structural and Functional Continuity in British Foreign Policy-Making,” The International History Review (2017), 1, 3, 5, 7–8, 9–10, 14.

¹⁴⁷ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 6” (June 29, 1946).

¹⁴⁸ TNA, FO 1005/1713, Hamburg RIO, “Summary No. 6” (June 29, 1946), Appendix A, “Anti-British Demonstration.”

¹⁴⁹ Aldrich, Hidden, 183. See also TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Political Intelligence Summary No. 7: Denazification” (February 22, 1947).

¹⁵⁰ TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Political Intelligence Summary No. 7: Denazification” (February 22, 1947).

¹⁵¹ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the Daily Worker” (February 24, 1947). See also “Extract from the News Chronicle” (February 24, 1947); TNA, FO 1005/1724, “Schleswig-Holstein Region Monthly Political Intelligence Summary No. 8,” “Public Opinion: Operation ‘Selection Board’” (March 29, 1947).

¹⁵² LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, “Extract from the Daily Worker” (February 24, 1947).

¹⁵³ IWM, Haydon Papers, B.H. Robertson “Extracts Confidential Report” (January 1949).

¹⁵⁴ IWM, Haydon Papers, “Confidential Report Signed High Commissioner” (December 29, 1949).

¹⁵⁵ IWM, Haydon Papers, Chief Political Officer, Office of Land Commissioner, Düsseldorf, BAOR 4, letter to Haydon (December 31, 1950).

¹⁵⁶ TNA, FO 938/208, C.P. Mayhew, Parliamentary Under Secretary, Draft Letter to G.C. Touche, M.P., House of Commons (June 1948).

¹⁵⁷ IWM, Haydon Papers, Lockhart to Haydon undated letter.

¹⁵⁸ IWM, Haydon Papers, Dick White letter to Haydon (July 30, 1957).

¹⁵⁹ IWM, Haydon Papers, Lockhart to Haydon undated letter signed ‘John’.

¹⁶⁰ TNA, FO 371/85353, Haydon, Top Secret, Personal & Guard, “Comments by Chief Intelligence Division on a letter dated 19 July 1950 from Mr. I. Mallet, FO, to the High Commissioner” (August 8, 1950). See also Wegener, “Gehlen,” Journal of Intelligence History 7, no. 1 (2007): 42.

¹⁶¹ TNA, FO 1035/77, JIC(G), “Intelligence and the Future German Government” (June 28, 1951). This contrasts with the more positive examples of British collaboration noted in Maddrell, Science, 82.

¹⁶² TNA, FO 371/85353, Hand Written Minutes (August 31, 1950).

¹⁶³ TNA, FO 371/85353, Haydon, Top Secret, Personal & Guard, “Comments by Chief Intelligence Division on a letter dated 19 July 1950 from Mr. I. Mallet, FO, to the High Commissioner” (August 8, 1950).

¹⁶⁴ IWM, Haydon Papers, Hans Ritter von Lex letter to Haydon (February 22, 1952).

¹⁶⁵ IWM, Haydon Papers, Ritter von Lex to Haydon (November 8, 1960).

¹⁶⁶ Afflerbach, “West German,” in Secret Intelligence, eds. Haslam and Urbach, 210–1.

¹⁶⁷ Tom Polgar, “The Intelligence Services of West Germany,” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 1, no. 4 (1986): 91.

¹⁶⁸ TNA, FO 1005/1700, ID Review No. 15, “Personal Message from Major General J.S. Lethbridge” (December 1946).

¹⁶⁹ TNA, FO 1032/1003, Office of the Deputy Military Governor, Zonal Executive Offices, Control Commission for Germany (BE), “Visit of Representative of Joint Intelligence Bureau” (June 2, 1947).

¹⁷⁰ LHCMA, Lethbridge Papers, Pelly et al. British Policy Overseas, “Intelligence Review No. 1” (December 12, 1945), 439.

¹⁷¹ TNA, FO 1032/409, West, Norfolk House, Secret Letter to Kirby, Control Commission Planners, WO (July 25, 1944).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities – Arts and Humanities Research Council (GB).

Notes on contributors

Luke Daly-Groves

Luke Daly-Groves is a WRoCAH (AHRC)-funded PhD Researcher at the University of Leeds.  His doctoral research analyses Anglo-American intelligence relations in occupied Germany.