Treasure's little Treasure

I have recently read a few books on the British response to Hitler's spies in Britain. Every single German spy landed on the shores of Britain was caught by the ruthless efficiency of Mi6 and Mi5. The first couple of spies were caught within days of their arrival, doing silly things like asking for cider in a Northern pub with a dodgy 5 pound note and a foreign accent. All of these spies were very quickly given a binary choice, work for us or die.

From this point on Mi5 were in direct communication with Hitler's intelligence community. They knew when and where new spies were coming and knew what they were coming to get. If you can discover what your enemy wants to know, you then discover what he does not know. Then he can be told a very big lie. It has been said (at least by me) that the purpose of a pro active intelligence service is to cloud the truth and present a credible lie in its place. Probably the biggest lie they got Hitler to believe was the D-Day landing site.

Normandy beaches were the obvious alternative to the shortest route, direct to Calais. Hitler was convinced that the landings in Normandy were a feint, the real attack would come later at Pas De Calais. It was days before they discovered the truth, and as a result the Normandy landings were a great success, and began a retreat for Hitler that was to continue almost uninterrupted, all the way to Berlin.

The whole secret was nearly betrayed by one of the double agents codenamed Treasure, who was constantly requesting her dog be brought in from Gibralta, and serious consideration was given to sending a submarine to pick it up. In the end they probably arranged for its assassination, she certainly believed its death was arranged by Mi6. Distraught, she was apparently about to reveal the D-Day secrets to the Germans by omitting a letter sequence put there to ensure it was she that was transmitting.

Treasure must have weighed the consequential death of tens of thousands of men against her puppy and thought better of it. If she had omitted the word the Germans would have known everything she sent previously was a lie and all of her fellow spies would be compromised too. From this any idiot would be able to figure out that the secret was Normandy. Free civilisation was momentarily precariously balanced upon the fate of a little French dog.