MI5 files reveal details of British agent's wartime treachery
The treachery of the first German agent to penetrate MI5, a Dutchman who hoodwinked Britain's security and intelligence throughout the second world war, is spelt out in the files released on Friday.
Folkert van Koutrik was taken on by MI6 before the war. He was subsequently recruited by Germany's military intelligence service, the Abwehr, which gave him the codename Walbach.
On 9 November 1939, two MI6 officers, Richard Stevens and Sigismund Best, were called to a clandestine meeting at Venlo, on the Dutch-German border. They were expecting to meet German army officers plotting to get rid of Hitler. Instead, they were seized by the Gestapo....