Lucy spy ring
Encyclopedia
In World War II
espionage
, the Lucy spy ring was an anti-German operation that was headquartered in Switzerland
. It was run by Rudolf Roessler
, a German refugee and ostensibly the proprietor of a small publishing firm, Vita Nova. Very little is clear about the Lucy ring, about Roessler or about Lucy's sources or motives.
in Switzerland, was working as a publisher, producing anti-Fascist literature.
He was approached by two German officers, Thiele
and Gersdorf, who were part of a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler
, and had been known to Rossler in the 30s through the Herren Klub.
Thiele and Gersdorf wished him to act as a conduit for high level military information, to be available to him to make use of in the fight against Fascism.
This they accomplished by the simple expedient of equipping Roessler with a radio and an Enigma machine
, and designating him as a German military station (call-signed RAHS).
In this way they could openly transmit their information to him through normal channels. They were able to do this as Thiele, and his superior, Fellgiebel
(who was also part of the conspiracy) were in charge of the German Defence Ministry's
communication centre, the Bendlerblock
.
This was possible, as those employed to encode the information were unaware of where it was going, while those transmitting the messages had no idea what was in them.
At first Roessler passed the information to Swiss military intelligence, via a friend who was serving in Bureau Ha, an intelligence agency used by the Swiss as a cut-out
. Roger Masson, the head of Swiss MI, also chose to pass some of this information to the British SIS
. Later, through another contact who was a part of a Soviet (GRU
) network run by Sandor Rado
, Roessler was able to pass to the Soviet Union, recognizing the role of the USSR in the fight against Nazism. Roessler was not a Communist, nor even particularly a Communist sympathizer, and wished to remain at arms length from Rado's network, insisting on complete anonymity and communicating with Rado only through his contact, "Taylor". Rado agreed to this, recognizing the value of the information being received. Rado code-named the source "Lucy", simply because all he knew about the source was that it was in Lucerne
.
Roessler's first major contribution to Soviet intelligence came in May 1941 when he was able to deliver details of Operation Barbarossa
, Germany's impending invasion of the Soviet Union. Following the invasion in June 1941 Lucy was regarded as a VYRDO source, i.e. of the highest importance, and to be transmitted immediately.
Over the next two years "Lucy" was able to supply the Soviets with high grade military intelligence. During the autumn of 1942 "Lucy" provided the Soviets with detailed information about Case Blue, the German operations against Stalingrad and the Caucasus
; during this period decisions taken in Berlin were arriving in Moscow on average within a ten-hour period; on one occasion in just six hours, not much longer than it took to reach German front line units.
Roessler, and Rado's network, particularly Allan Foote, Rado's main radio operator, were prepared to work flat out to maintain the speed and flow of the information. At the peak of its operation Rado's network was enciphering and sending several hundred messages per month, many of these from "Lucy". Meanwhile Roessler alone had to do all the receiving, decoding and evaluating of the "Lucy" messages before passing them on; for him during this period it became a full-time operation.
In the summer of 1943 the culmination of "Lucy's" success came in transmitting the details of Germany's plans for Operation Zitadelle, a planned summer offensive against the Kursk salient, which became a strategic defeat for the German army — the Battle of Kursk
gave the Red Army
the initiative on the eastern front for the remainder of the war.
In the winter of 1942 the Germans became aware of the transmissions from the Rado network, and began to take steps against it through their counter-espionage bureaux. After several attempts to penetrate the network they succeeded in pressuring the Swiss to close it down; this occurred in October 1943 when its radio transmitters were closed down and a number of key operatives were arrested. Thereafter Roessler's only outlet for the "Lucy" information was through the Bureau Ha and Swiss Military Intelligence. Roessler was unaware this was also going to the Western Allies
.
The Lucy spy ring came to an end in the summer of 1944 when the German members, who were also involved in other anti-Nazi activities, were arrested in the aftermath of the failed July plot.
In Switzerland the Lucy network comprised:
In 1981 it was alleged by Read and Fisher that Lucy was, at its heart, a British Secret Service
operation intended to get Ultra
information to the Soviets in a convincing way untraceable to British codebreaking operations against the Germans. Stalin
had shown considerable suspicion of any information from the Americans or British about German plans to invade Russia
in 1941, so an Allied
effort to find a way to get helpful information to the Soviets in a form that would not be dismissed is, at least, not implausible. That the Soviets had, via their own espionage operations, learned of the British break into important German message traffic was not, at the time, known to the British. Various observations have suggested that Alexander Foote was more than a mere radio operator: he was in a position to act as a radio interface between SIS and Roessler, and also between Roessler and Moscow; his return to the West in the 1950s was unusual in several ways; and his book was similarly troublesome. They also point out that not one of Roessler's claimed sources in Germany has been identified or has come forward.
Hence their suspicion that, even more so than for most espionage operations, the Lucy ring was not what it seemed.
However this is flatly denied by Hinsley
, the official historian for the British Secret Services in World War II, who stated that "there is no truth in the much-publicized claim that the British authorities made use of the ‘Lucy’ ring..to forward intelligence to Moscow".
Knightley
also dismisses the thesis that Ultra was the source of Lucy. He indicates that the information was delivered too quickly (often within 24 hours) to Moscow, too fast if it would have to go through Bletchley. Further, Ultra intelligence on the Eastern front was less than complete; many of the German messages were transmitted by landlines, wireless messages were often too garbled for timely decoding, and the Enigma
code of the Eastern Front was only broken intermittently. Knightley also suggests that the source was Karel Sedlacek, a Czech military intelligence officer. Sedlacek died in London in 1967 and indicated that he received the information from one or more unidentified dissidents within the German High Command. Another but less likely possibility Knightley suggests is that the information came from the Swiss secret service.
Tarrant echoes Knightly’s objections, and in addition points out that Read and Fisher's scenario was un-necessary, as Britain was already passing Ultra information to the Soviet Union following the German invasion in June 1941. While not wishing to reveal Britain’s penetration of Enigma, Churchill ordered selected Ultra information to be passed via the British Military Mission in Moscow, reported as coming from “a well-placed source in Berlin”, or “ a reliable source”. However as the Soviets showed little interest in co-operation on Intelligence matters, refusing to share Soviet intelligence that would be useful to Britain (such as information on German air forces in the Eastern Front) or agreeing to use the Soviet mission in London as a transmission route, the British cut back the flow of information in the spring of 1942, and by the summer it had dwindled to a trickle. This suggestion, that Britain lost the motivation to share intelligence with Stalin after this time, is also at variance with Read and Fisher's theory.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, the Lucy spy ring was an anti-German operation that was headquartered in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. It was run by Rudolf Roessler
Rudolf Roessler
In World War II espionage, Rudolf Roessler was the central figure in the Lucy spy ring. He was a German refugee who had moved to Switzerland in 1933, and was the proprietor of a small publishing firm in Switzerland, Vita Novi...
, a German refugee and ostensibly the proprietor of a small publishing firm, Vita Nova. Very little is clear about the Lucy ring, about Roessler or about Lucy's sources or motives.
History
At the outbreak of World War II Roessler, a German emigreEmigre
Emigre, also known as Emigre Graphics, is a digital type foundry, publisher and distributor of graphic design centered information based in Berkeley, California, that was founded in 1984 by husband-and-wife team Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko. The type foundry also published Emigre magazine...
in Switzerland, was working as a publisher, producing anti-Fascist literature.
He was approached by two German officers, Thiele
Fritz Thiele
General Fritz Thiele was a member of the German resistance who served as the communications chief of the German Army during World War II.Thiele was born in Berlin and joined the Imperial Army in 1914...
and Gersdorf, who were part of a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, and had been known to Rossler in the 30s through the Herren Klub.
Thiele and Gersdorf wished him to act as a conduit for high level military information, to be available to him to make use of in the fight against Fascism.
This they accomplished by the simple expedient of equipping Roessler with a radio and an Enigma machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, and designating him as a German military station (call-signed RAHS).
In this way they could openly transmit their information to him through normal channels. They were able to do this as Thiele, and his superior, Fellgiebel
Erich Fellgiebel
Fritz Erich Fellgiebel was a career German Army officer and a "July 20th" conspirator in the plot to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.-Military career:...
(who was also part of the conspiracy) were in charge of the German Defence Ministry's
Ministry of the Reichswehr
In the history of Germany, the Ministry of the Reichswehr was the defence ministry of the Weimar Republic and the early Third Reich. The 1919 Weimar Constitution provided for a unified, national ministry of defence to coordinate the new Reichswehr, and that ministry was set up in October 1919,...
communication centre, the Bendlerblock
Bendlerblock
The Bendlerblock is a building in Berlin, located on the Stauffenbergstraße , south of the Tiergarten. The building was erected between 1911 and 1914 for the Imperial German Navy Offices. During the Weimar Republic it served as the seat of the Reichswehr command and the Ministry of Defence...
.
This was possible, as those employed to encode the information were unaware of where it was going, while those transmitting the messages had no idea what was in them.
At first Roessler passed the information to Swiss military intelligence, via a friend who was serving in Bureau Ha, an intelligence agency used by the Swiss as a cut-out
Cut-out (espionage)
In espionage parlance, a cutout is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication, facilitating the exchange of information between agents. Cutouts usually only know the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, but are unaware of the identities of any other...
. Roger Masson, the head of Swiss MI, also chose to pass some of this information to the British SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
. Later, through another contact who was a part of a Soviet (GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
) network run by Sandor Rado
Sandor Rado
Sándor Radó was a distinguished Hungarian psychoanalyst of the second generation, who moved to United States of America in the thirties....
, Roessler was able to pass to the Soviet Union, recognizing the role of the USSR in the fight against Nazism. Roessler was not a Communist, nor even particularly a Communist sympathizer, and wished to remain at arms length from Rado's network, insisting on complete anonymity and communicating with Rado only through his contact, "Taylor". Rado agreed to this, recognizing the value of the information being received. Rado code-named the source "Lucy", simply because all he knew about the source was that it was in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
.
Roessler's first major contribution to Soviet intelligence came in May 1941 when he was able to deliver details of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, Germany's impending invasion of the Soviet Union. Following the invasion in June 1941 Lucy was regarded as a VYRDO source, i.e. of the highest importance, and to be transmitted immediately.
Over the next two years "Lucy" was able to supply the Soviets with high grade military intelligence. During the autumn of 1942 "Lucy" provided the Soviets with detailed information about Case Blue, the German operations against Stalingrad and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
; during this period decisions taken in Berlin were arriving in Moscow on average within a ten-hour period; on one occasion in just six hours, not much longer than it took to reach German front line units.
Roessler, and Rado's network, particularly Allan Foote, Rado's main radio operator, were prepared to work flat out to maintain the speed and flow of the information. At the peak of its operation Rado's network was enciphering and sending several hundred messages per month, many of these from "Lucy". Meanwhile Roessler alone had to do all the receiving, decoding and evaluating of the "Lucy" messages before passing them on; for him during this period it became a full-time operation.
In the summer of 1943 the culmination of "Lucy's" success came in transmitting the details of Germany's plans for Operation Zitadelle, a planned summer offensive against the Kursk salient, which became a strategic defeat for the German army — the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
gave the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
the initiative on the eastern front for the remainder of the war.
In the winter of 1942 the Germans became aware of the transmissions from the Rado network, and began to take steps against it through their counter-espionage bureaux. After several attempts to penetrate the network they succeeded in pressuring the Swiss to close it down; this occurred in October 1943 when its radio transmitters were closed down and a number of key operatives were arrested. Thereafter Roessler's only outlet for the "Lucy" information was through the Bureau Ha and Swiss Military Intelligence. Roessler was unaware this was also going to the Western Allies
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
.
The Lucy spy ring came to an end in the summer of 1944 when the German members, who were also involved in other anti-Nazi activities, were arrested in the aftermath of the failed July plot.
List
The Lucy network in Germany comprised ten persons, all high ranking military officers or civilians. Seven of these have been identified; the three others remain unknown.- Major General Hans OsterHans OsterHans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
, chief of staff to Adm CanarisWilhelm CanarisWilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
, the head of AbwehrAbwehrThe Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only... - General Erich FellgiebelErich FellgiebelFritz Erich Fellgiebel was a career German Army officer and a "July 20th" conspirator in the plot to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.-Military career:...
, head of communications German High CommandOberkommando der WehrmachtThe Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.- Genesis :...
(OKW) - Lt Gen Fritz ThieleFritz ThieleGeneral Fritz Thiele was a member of the German resistance who served as the communications chief of the German Army during World War II.Thiele was born in Berlin and joined the Imperial Army in 1914...
, deputy head of communications - Colonel Rudolph von Gersdorf, chief of Intelligence Army Group CentreArmy Group CentreArmy Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
- Colonel Fritz Boetzel, chief of Intelligence Evaluation, Army Group South-East (Athens)
- Carl Goerdeler, a politician; ex-mayor of LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and head of the conservative opposition - Hans Bernd GiseviusHans Bernd GiseviusHans Bernd Gisevius was a German diplomat and intelligence officer during World War II. A strong opponent of the Nazi regime, he served as a liaison in Zürich between Allen Dulles, station chief for the American OSS and the German Resistance forces in Germany.-Pre World War II:Gisevius was born...
, vice-consul in ZurichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and an Abwehr officer
In Switzerland the Lucy network comprised:
- Rudolf RoesslerRudolf RoesslerIn World War II espionage, Rudolf Roessler was the central figure in the Lucy spy ring. He was a German refugee who had moved to Switzerland in 1933, and was the proprietor of a small publishing firm in Switzerland, Vita Novi...
- Xavier Schnieper, Roessler's Bureau Ha contact
- Christian Schnieder, code-named “Taylor”, Roesslers GRUGRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
contact - Rachel Dubendorfer, code-named “Sissy”, Schneiders handler
- Alexander RadoAlexander RadoAlexander Radó, born as Sándor Radó and also known as Alexander Radolfi , was a Hungarian cartographer and a Soviet military intelligence agent in World War II.-Life:...
, code-named “Dora”, head of the GRUGRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
in Switzerland - Allan Foote, code-named “Jim”, the "Dora" network’s main radio operator
Controversy
Roessler’s story was first published in 1967 by the journalists Accoce and Quet.In 1981 it was alleged by Read and Fisher that Lucy was, at its heart, a British Secret Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
operation intended to get Ultra
Ultra
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
information to the Soviets in a convincing way untraceable to British codebreaking operations against the Germans. Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
had shown considerable suspicion of any information from the Americans or British about German plans to invade Russia
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
in 1941, so an Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
effort to find a way to get helpful information to the Soviets in a form that would not be dismissed is, at least, not implausible. That the Soviets had, via their own espionage operations, learned of the British break into important German message traffic was not, at the time, known to the British. Various observations have suggested that Alexander Foote was more than a mere radio operator: he was in a position to act as a radio interface between SIS and Roessler, and also between Roessler and Moscow; his return to the West in the 1950s was unusual in several ways; and his book was similarly troublesome. They also point out that not one of Roessler's claimed sources in Germany has been identified or has come forward.
Hence their suspicion that, even more so than for most espionage operations, the Lucy ring was not what it seemed.
However this is flatly denied by Hinsley
Harry Hinsley
Sir Francis Harry Hinsley OBE was an English historian and cryptanalyst. He worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and wrote widely on the history of international relations and British Intelligence during the Second World War...
, the official historian for the British Secret Services in World War II, who stated that "there is no truth in the much-publicized claim that the British authorities made use of the ‘Lucy’ ring..to forward intelligence to Moscow".
Knightley
Phillip Knightley
Phillip Knightley is a journalist, critic, and non-fiction author, visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, England, and media commentator on the intelligence services and propaganda.-Biography:...
also dismisses the thesis that Ultra was the source of Lucy. He indicates that the information was delivered too quickly (often within 24 hours) to Moscow, too fast if it would have to go through Bletchley. Further, Ultra intelligence on the Eastern front was less than complete; many of the German messages were transmitted by landlines, wireless messages were often too garbled for timely decoding, and the Enigma
Enigma
An enigma is a type of riddle generally expressed in radical or allegorical language that requires ingenuity and careful thought for its solution.Enigma, aenigma, or enigmatic may also refer to:-Music:...
code of the Eastern Front was only broken intermittently. Knightley also suggests that the source was Karel Sedlacek, a Czech military intelligence officer. Sedlacek died in London in 1967 and indicated that he received the information from one or more unidentified dissidents within the German High Command. Another but less likely possibility Knightley suggests is that the information came from the Swiss secret service.
Tarrant echoes Knightly’s objections, and in addition points out that Read and Fisher's scenario was un-necessary, as Britain was already passing Ultra information to the Soviet Union following the German invasion in June 1941. While not wishing to reveal Britain’s penetration of Enigma, Churchill ordered selected Ultra information to be passed via the British Military Mission in Moscow, reported as coming from “a well-placed source in Berlin”, or “ a reliable source”. However as the Soviets showed little interest in co-operation on Intelligence matters, refusing to share Soviet intelligence that would be useful to Britain (such as information on German air forces in the Eastern Front) or agreeing to use the Soviet mission in London as a transmission route, the British cut back the flow of information in the spring of 1942, and by the summer it had dwindled to a trickle. This suggestion, that Britain lost the motivation to share intelligence with Stalin after this time, is also at variance with Read and Fisher's theory.
External links
- Rado’s memoirs Pod Psevdonimom "Dora" (in Russian).