Thanks to Wired Magazine in the UK for the tip that an interesting set of 77 files that form part of secret wartime diaries has now been released. For the next month you can download them for free as a PDF. You have to select the title before you see the option to download. Be warned, the file is huge (236 MB), so I wouldn't download it via a mobile network.
The Diary is that of Guy Liddell, Deputy Director General of the UK Security Service, June to November 1945. He recorded the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in his diary and the entries from this time include reference to Hitler's last days and death, Goering's interrogation report and the success of Operation Mincemeat. Liddell also recalls his reaction to the Nazi war crime trials which he believed the Russians would use for propaganda purposes: 'We are just being dragged down to the level of the travesties of justice that have been taking place in the USSR for the past 20 years.' The beginning of the Cold War era is marked by the defection of Konstantin Volkov, an NKGB officer stationed in the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul.
Volkov, referred to in the diary as WOLKOFF, told handlers about two agents in the Foreign Office, and seven inside British intelligence, including the 'head of a section of the British counter-espionage service.' The diary also contains Liddell's reaction to Sir Findlater Stewart's 1945 report on the future of MI5.
Been going through the manuscript to see if there are any references to clandestine broadcasting. Still fascinated by the black propaganda operations in Milton Bradley that were broadcast from a transmitter near Crowborough. If you share my interest, you may like to know that two episodes I made in 1993 are still on line.
If you want to download these episodes, you'll find Part One is Here and the concluding part is here.
A complete list of the 284 episodes so far uploaded can be found in the iTunes store.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Jonathan. In the first para. (line 7), there's an interesting Dutch connection, in that Lidell mentions Hans (Henri) Christian Pieck, a Dutch agent of the Soviet secret service OGPU (one of the predecessors of the KGB). The main target of Pieck was the UK, where he reportedly recruited several agents.
ReplyDeleteThe Dutch journalist Igor Cornelisse has published an interesting account of the 'Dutch branch' of the OGPU, entitled 'The OGPU on the Overtoom' (referring to an Amsterdam street. Henri Pieck was the twin brother of Anton Pieck, one of the most famous illustrators of the Netherlands.