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Abstract
This article charts the colourful wartime career of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Ronald Sydney Seth and presents for the first time the subsequent investigation into his wartime conduct by MI5. Seth, as Agent Blunderhead, was parachuted into German-occupied Estonia late in 1942 to destroy the country’s vital shale oil plants. Upon landing, Seth was swiftly captured and offered to work for the Germans as a double agent. In April 1945, Seth was sent over the German border into Switzerland as SD Agent 22D, where he promptly presented the British with sensational peace terms from Himmler. This article presents the British security services’ remarkable conclusions and indicates that, in their opinion, Seth was ‘spiritually so much under German domination that he intends to work for an Anglo-German understanding and an anti-Russian policy after the war’, had ‘not told us all about the services he rendered to the Germans’, was of ‘unbalanced character and rabidly anti-Soviet’, ‘extremely untruthful’, prone to ‘megalomania’ and that ‘neither his loyalty to this country nor his discretion were all that could be desired’. Seth was also considered to be a post-war security threat whose job opportunities should be restricted. Despite these revelations, Seth was never prosecuted and was able to become a successful post-war espionage author. This article explains how these seemingly obvious contradictions came to pass.
Acknowledgement
For comments and information, I am grateful to Louise Atherton and Ian Farr at the University of East Anglia.
Notes
1 The National Archives (TNA) HS 4/327, D/P section and Moscow mission, Internal SOE memorandum, 17 July 1942.
2 TNA HS 9/1344, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Flying Officer Ronald Seth to Group Captain J. Bradbury of the Air Ministry, 26 October 1941; TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 31 January 1942; and TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: SOE Report on the Case of Ronald Seth, BLUNDERHEAD, 1 September 1944, 1.
3 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 17 January 1942.
4 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 31 January 1942.
5 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 6 May 1942.
6 Ibid.
7 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 7 May 1942.
8 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Copy of translated Luftwaffe interrogation reports conducted in Oberursel on 6 February 1943, 6 December 1943.
9 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Letter from Major Hazel of SOE to Mrs. Seth, 6 November 1942.
10 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 20 May 1943.
11 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 21 June 1943.
12 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 23 June 1943.
13 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Copy of translated Luftwaffe interrogation reports conducted in Frankfurt am Main on 6 and 26 February 1943, 6 December 1943.
14 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Internal SOE memorandum written by Lt Col J.S. Wilson, 23 December 1943.
15 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 28 July 1944.
16 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Copy of translated Luftwaffe interrogation reports conducted in Frankfurt am Main on 6 and 26 February 1943, 6 December 1943.
17 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 4 September 1944.
18 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Report on interview between Major Soskice, SOE, and Air Commodore Jones, DPR, Air Ministry, at the Air Ministry Reference Ronald Seth Alias BLUNDERHEAD on 1 September 1944, 2 September 1944.
19 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: SOE Report on the case of Ronald Seth, BLUNDERHEAD, 1 September 1944, 1–4.
20 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Copy of Ronald Seth’s Paris report 24 October 1942 – August 1944.
21 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: SOE Report on the case of Ronald Seth, BLUNDERHEAD, 1 September 1944, 1–4.
22 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Letter from John Senter of SOE to SIS, 4 September 1944.
23 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Internal SOE memorandum, 19 September 1944.
24 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from John Senter at SOE to Tar Robertson at MI5, 25 September 1944.
25 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Communication from SHAEF to Felix Cowgill of SIS, 24 September 1944.
26 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Copy of Ronald Seth’s Arlon report, 2 September 1944.
27 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from D.I. Wilson at MI5 to Captain Courtney Young at the War Room, 30 September 1944. Richard Delidaise was a barman at Le Bourget airport and a keen collaborator who had qualified as a wireless instructor before the war.
28 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Tar Robertson at MI5 to Jon Senter at SOE, 10 October 1944.
29 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Internal SOE memorandum, 17 October 1944.
30 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Telegram from British Military Attaché in Berne to FO, 14 April 1945.
31 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Telegram from Clifford Norton British Minister in Berne to FO, 15 April 1945.
32 Ibid.
33 Nigel West, ed., The Guy Liddell Diaries: MI5’s Director of Counter-Espionage in World War Two, V/II, 1942–1945 (London: Routledge, 2005), 285.
34 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from AD/P at SOE to Guy Liddell of MI5, 18 April 1945.
35 West, ed., The Guy Liddell Diaries, V/II, 1942–1945, 285.
36 Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5 (London: Penguin, 2009), 250–1.
37 TNA HS 4/240, BLUNDERHEAD: Telegram from British Minister in Berne to FO, 19 April 1945.
38 West, ed., The Guy Liddell Diaries, V/II, 1942–1945, 286.
39 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Hugh Park at SOE to Seymer at MI5, 9 May 1945.
40 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Lt Colonel Baxter at MI5 to Major Mott of SOE, 7 May 1945, see also: first SIS interrogation report of Ronald Seth, 22 April 1945 and 2nd SIS interrogation report of Ronald Seth, 27 April 1945.
41 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Lt Colonel Baxter at MI5 to SIS, 6 June 1945, see also third SIS interrogation report of Ronald Seth, 14 May 1945.
42 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, 3rd SIS interrogation report of Ronald Seth, 14 May 1945.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
52 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Addendum to third SIS interrogation report of Ronald Seth, 17 May 1945.
53 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Ronald Seth to Wing Commander Redding at SOE, 8 May 1945.
54 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Hugh Park of SOE to Seymer at MI5, 15 May 1945; and Letter from Ronald Bird of MI5 to Hugh Park at SOE, 18 May 1945.
55 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 87 on Ronald Seth written by Ronald Bird to Herbert Hart, 11 June 1945.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 88 on Ronald Seth written by Herbert Hart to Ronald Bird, 12 June 1945.
64 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Ronald Bird of MI5 to Hugh Park at SOE, 19 June 1945.
65 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 95a on Ronald Seth, written by Ronald Bird to Helenus Milmo, 2 July 1945.
66 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 97ba on Ronald Seth, Extract from Otto-Ernst Schüddekopf Interrogation, 6 July 1945.
67 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 98 on Ronald Seth, Note by Lt Colonel Seymer of MI5, 11 July 1945.
68 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 98b on Ronald Seth, Extract from Walter Schellenberg Interrogation, 12 July 1945.
69 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 101 on Ronald Seth, written by Helenus Milmo to Ronald Bird, 16 July 1945.
70 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Minute regarding the position of M. Jean Soulier and Madame Lilyane Reuggli [the post-war alias of Liliane Renggli] and the promises made to them by H.M. Agent ‘Blunderhead’, minute by Ronald Seth, 16 August 1945.
71 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Minute regarding the position of M. Jean Soulier and Madame Lilyane Reuggli and the promises made to them by H.M. Agent ‘Blunderhead’, minute by Ronald Seth, 16 August 1945; and TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Hugh Park of SOE to Ronald Bird at MI5, 10 July 1945.
72 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from E.J.V. Rose of the Air Ministry to Hugh Park at SOE, 30 August 1945.
73 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Roland Seth to Group Captain Redding, 6 November 1945.
74 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Roland Seth to Group Captain Redding, 11 November 1945.
75 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 120a on Ronald Seth, United States Forces Interrogation report of Heinrich Bernard, 4 December 1945.
76 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 123 on Ronald Seth, written by Major Vesey to Hugh Shillito, 17 December 1945.
77 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Air Commodore Boyle of SOE to A.H. Jackson of the British Council, 21 January 1946.
78 Christopher J. Murphy, Security and Special Operations: SOE and MI5 During the Second World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 210–11.
79 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Ronald Seth to Major General Gubbins, 20 March 1946.
80 TNA HS 9/1345, Ronald Sydney Seth, Letter from Norman Mott of SOE to Wing Commander Thackrah at the Air Ministry, 22 March 1946.
81 TNA KV2/380, German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, MI5 Minute 145 on Ronald Seth, MI5 memo from Squadron Leader Harrison of MI5 to Squadron Leader Parry of the Air Ministry, 3 July 1947.
82 Oliver Hoare, ed., Camp 020, MI5 and the Nazi Spies: The Official History of MI5’s Wartime Interrogation Centre (London: PRO Publications, 2000), 368, 20; and Nigel West, “German Spies in Britain,” After the Battle, no. 11 (1976), 13.
83 Murphy, Security and Special Operations, 213.
84 Ronald Seth, A Spy Has No Friends: An Account of the Authors Experiences as a Spy (London: Andre Deutsch, 1952); and See also latest edition; A Spy Has No Friends (London: Headline Review, 2008).
85 Mike Bennett, “War Hero Lived to Tell Tale After Gallows Failure,” Kentish Express, October 16, 2008, 12.
86 See, for example, Robert Chartham, The Sensuous Couple (New York: Ballantine Books, 1972).
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Notes on contributors
Ben Wheatley
Ben Wheatley is a PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia, where he also studied for his BA and MA degrees. He has recently completed his thesis entitled The FRPS Baltic States Section: British Overt Intelligence from the Baltic States during the Second World War and Its Effect on British Policy towards the Soviet Union, 1941–1945. His research interests include British intelligence and sabotage operations in the German ‘East’, Anglo-Soviet relations and German occupation polices in the Soviet Union 1941–1945. A previously published author he is currently seeking his first academic position.