With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

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....

Read entire article at Guardian (UK)