Codename Tricycle: The True Story of the Second World War's Most Extraordinary Double Agent

319 Pages·2005·2.25 MB·English

by  Russell Miller

Contents
About the Book
About the Author
Also by Russell Miller
Dramatis Personae
Dedication
Title Page
Foreword
1. The Arrival of a Spy
2. An Unlikely Agent
3. The Great Game Begins
4. The Lisbon Connection
5. Plan Midas
6. The Pearl Harbor Questionnaire
7. Radio Games
8. Hoover on the Rampage
9. Back in the Game
10. The Yugoslav Escape Route
11. Enter ‘Artist’
12. Fortitude and Disaster
13. In Search of Revenge
Picture Section
Postscript
Notes
Appendix 1: The Pearl Harbor Questionnaire
Appendix 2: The Lisbon Memorandum
Select Bibliography
Index
Copyright
About the Book
A wealthy lawyer, debonair ladies’ man, consummate actor, and courageous
gambler, Dusko Popov played the role of playboy amongst the top echelons of
British society to become one of Germany’s most trusted spies. In fact, he was
one of Britain’s most successful double agents, and, some say, the inspiration for
James Bond. With full access to FBI and MI5 records, along with private family
papers, his incredible adventures can now be told authoritatively for the first
time.
Recruited by the Abwehr in 1940, 27-year-old Popov immediately offered his
services to the British. His code-name was Tricycle. Throughout the war he fed
the Germans with a constant stream of military ‘intelligence’, all vetted by MI5,
and came to be viewed as their most important and reliable agent in Britain. But
when he was ordered by the Abwehr to the United States to report on the
defences at Pearl Harbor, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, failed to heed his
warnings, distrusting all spies and detesting Popov in particular, whom he
considered to be ‘a moral degenerate’.
Facing the danger of exposure, arrest and execution on a daily basis, Tricycle
went on to build up a network known as the Yugoslav Ring, which not only
delivered a stream of false information to Berlin but also supplied vital
intelligence to the Allies on German rocketry, strategy and security. After the
war Dusko Popov was granted British citizenship and awarded an OBE. The
presentation was made, appropriately, in the cocktail bar at the Ritz.
About the Author
Russell Miller is a prize-winning journalist and the author of seven previous
books. His book on the Magnum photo agency was described by John Simpson
as ‘the best book on photo-journalism I have ever read’, and his oral histories of
D-Day, Nothing Less Than Victory, and the SOE, Behind The Lines, were widely
acclaimed, both in Britain and in the United States.
Also by Russell Miller
Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy
The House of Getty
Bare-Faced Messiah
Nothing Less Than Victory
Ten Days in May
Magnum
Behind the Lines
Dramatis Personae
DUSKO POPOV: double agent. British codename ‘Tricycle’, though briefly known
as ‘Skoot’; German codename ‘Ivan’.
IVO POPOV: Dusko’s older brother, also a double agent, in Belgrade. British
codename ‘Dreadnought’; German codename ‘Paula’.
‘JOHNNY’JEBSEN: Popov’s best friend. An Abwehr officer recruited by British
intelligence. Codename ‘Artist’.
DICKIE METCALFE: Popov’s sub-agent. British codename ‘Balloon’; German
codename ‘Ivan II’.
FRIEDL GAERTNER: Popov’s sub-agent and lover. British codename ‘Gelatine’;
German codename ‘Yvonne’.
LUDOVICO VON KARSTHOFF: Dusko’s German controller.
ADMIRAL WILHELM CANARIS: director of the Abwehr, the German intelligence
service.
‘TAR’ ROBERTSON: head of the MI5 section dealing with double agents.
EWEN MONTAGU: naval intelligence officer and friend of Dusko.
WILLIAM LUKE: Dusko’s first MI5 case officer.
IAN WILSON: Dusko’s final MI5 case officer.
FELIX COWGILL: Dusko’s MI6 contact.
FRANK FOLEY: Dusko’s subsequent MI6 contact.
WALTER ‘FRECKLES’ WREN: MI6 head of station, Trinidad.
STEWART MENZIES: head of MI6, known as ‘C’.
J. C. MASTERMAN: chairman of the XX (‘Double Cross’) Committee.
J. EDGAR HOOVER: director of the FBI.
PERCY FOXWORTH: FBI agent in charge in New York.
CHARLES LANMAN: Dusko’s FBI handler.
SIMONE SIMON: Hollywood actress with whom Dusko had an affair.
To Harvey, Nancy, Archie & Lulu
in the hope they never have to live through a World War
Codename Tricycle
The True Story of the Second World War’s Most
Extraordinary Double Agent
Russell Miller
Foreword
Unravelling the life of a double agent in the Second World War, even with full
access to the official records in London and Washington, is no easy task since in
the murky world of espionage lies become intertwined with the truth. To add to
the complications, Dusko Popov, indisputably one of Britain’s most successful
and courageous double agents, had three wartime lives.
First, there was Popov himself, a wealthy Yugoslav lawyer with a reputation
as a ladies’ man, he was fluent in several languages, and his charm was
captivating. To the outside world he was a businessman, an entrepreneur
uninterested in politics. Only his closest friends knew that his louche, devil-may-
care lifestyle concealed a deep-rooted hatred of Fascism and Communism.
Then there was ‘Ivan’, viewed by the German intelligence service as one of its
most successful agents, a man with excellent social connections and few moral
scruples, apparently willing do anything for money – even risk his life by spying
on Britain. Although there were some in Berlin who were suspicious of him,
‘Ivan’ shuttled back and forth between London and Lisbon for nearly four years,
supplying the grateful Germans with a mass of information – much of it bogus –
about Britain’s military preparations.
Finally there was ‘Tricycle’, the enigmatic double agent working for British
intelligence, fighting a lonely and dangerous war. Troublesome and demanding
(who else could ask to be supplied with chocolates and silk stockings for his
girlfriends?), ‘Tricycle’ was a vital player in Britain’s top-secret operations to
confuse and deceive the enemy. He was required to pass to the Germans as
genuine a mélange of lies and half-truths concocted by the British. He was never
sure, each time he visited Lisbon, if his cover was still intact and if the thread
from which his life dangled had been cut. It was because of agents like ‘Tricycle’
that, when the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, the Germans were still
waiting for the main assault to be unleashed on the Pas de Calais.
Popov was required, throughout the war, to switch between his various lives
and keep track of who he was, in order to stay alive. One slip, one careless
remark, one moment of absent-mindedness during interrogation by his German