A Hundred Years of Spying by Phil Carradice

Author:Phil Carradice [Carradice, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781526781413
Google: uxk9zgEACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2021-06-15T01:05:44+00:00

In Berlin it was believed at that time that the more fanatical Welsh nationalists – not the Welsh Nationalist Party – might provide useful recruits for certain work in the event of war with England, and there was competition among different German groups for the Welshmen’s services.2

A large number of German spies were therefore despatched to Wales in the years before war broke out. They were a varied and all-encompassing group.

To all intents and purposes Hans Heinrich Kuenemann was just the director of a German engineering firm in Cardiff but in reality he was also a spy for Reinhard Heydrich. He provided information on British industrial plants and fled his home in Marlborough Road in Cardiff just twenty-four hours before Britain and Germany went to war.

Other Welsh spies included Professor Friedrich Schoberth, a visiting lecturer at Cardiff University, and Franz Richter who, in 1933, took up a position as manager of an enamel factory in Barry. Both of them were warned of the approaching war and managed to leave the country before hostilities began. A nurse who operated out of Pembrokeshire – later found dead near Wantage in 1943 – and Dr Walter Reinhard, German consul in Liverpool, who concentrated his efforts on Welsh extremists in North Wales, were among the most notable of these agents.3

Perhaps the most famous, or infamous. of them all, however, was Arthur Owen or, as the Abwehr knew him, Johnny O’Brien. Born in the Swansea Valley of South Wales, he had spent several years in Canada and hated the English with a degree of vitriol that surprised even Nikolaos Riter who was Owen’s handler for most of his time as a spy.

Arthur Owen actually began his spying career working for the Russians. He was on business in Kiel, centre of German shipbuilding, when he was approached by a Soviet agent. Despite his natural right-wing views he was soon reporting to his agent on the progress of German shipbuilding in Kiel and other ports. He saw no harm in passing on this information, which could have little impact on Britain, but even as he developed his espionage skills he knew that his real target was Germany.

Owen’s motivation was simple – money. He sold his services to the Abwehr, just as he had sold them to the Soviets, for a handsome return. Provided with a radio transmitter, stored in the left luggage department of Victoria Station, Owen operated as the chief Abwehr agent in Britain up to and including the early days of the war. Operating under the codename Snow, he seemingly had no qualms about betraying his country, at least not to begin with.

There is a degree of confusion over what happened next. In some accounts Owen simply had second thoughts, and with war now raging spying for Germany was, at best, a perilous occupation. And so he turned himself in to MI5. He also handed over his secret codebooks and radio transmitter.

The other story is that he was eventually reported to MI5 by his wife. An inveterate philanderer, Arthur Owen had transgressed once too often.

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