Spy of the Century by John Sadler

Author:John Sadler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The ‘Ace of Spies’

Everything was peaceful. Vienna was sound asleep under the falling snow. The Emperor was asleep in the Hofburg and fifty million of his subjects were asleep in his lands. The son of the Officer of the Guards felt that this silence was also in part his responsibility, that he, too, was keeping watch over the sleep and safety of the Emperor and his fifty million subjects, even when he was doing no more than wearing his uniform with honour, going out in the evening, listening to waltzes, drinking French red wine, and saying to ladies and gentlemen exactly what they wished to hear from him. He felt that he obeyed a strict regime of laws, both written and unwritten, and that this obedience was also a duty which he fulfilled in the salons just as he fulfilled it in the barracks or on the drill ground. People had to be certain that everything was in its place.

(Sándor Márai, Embers)

‘It has so far been established that Redl’s espionage goes back to March 1912. It can therefore be assumed impossible that he started many years ago.’ It is safe to say that hardly anybody believed Defence Minister’s statement bore any resemblance to the truth. But is it now, more than 100 years later, any easier to establish when exactly Redl started his ‘second’ career? The answer is no. Existing sources are patchy. Archive materials got destroyed, and many top-secret events were never even written down. Then of course the picture gets blurred by countless adventurous assumptions, fictional adaptations and sheer disinformation.

There are, however, traces of believable information that lead, if not to final conclusions, at least to a clearer understanding of this spy master’s games.1 Amongst the countless statements from people who suddenly remembered that they had always had their suspicions about him and produced even more questionable stories, some remain that seem to bear at least hints of truth. Two of these occurred at high diplomatic levels.

In 1907 Count Lelio Spannocchi had taken on the post of military attaché in St Petersburg. In February 1909 he mentioned in a conversation with his British colleague, Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Wyndham, that he had been approached by a Russian officer who offered his espionage services. To his great surprise, Wyndham replied: ‘Dear Spannocchi, no reason to get proud. I know of a high ranking Officer in the General Staff in Vienna who gives the Russians anything they want.’ Wyndham refused to reveal details, which left Spannocchi rather worried. He decided to travel to Vienna and inform Colonel Hordliczka, then Head of the Evidenzbureau. At first he was not taken seriously and it was only when he showed his determination to get the War Ministry involved that Hordliczka agreed to take action. He delegated to case to the second in command, no other than Alfred Redl, who promised to do his best to solve the case, and asked Spannocchi to maintain silence.

One year later Spannocchi was accused of espionage himself. He was suspected of having received secret papers through the agent Count Eduard Ungern-Sternberg.

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