The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [102]
From the moment he had turned up at Ronald Turnbull’s office at the British Legation in Stockholm, however, SOE had earmarked Rottboell as a young man with the potential to be a future agent and leader. Pretty soon, he was invited to undergo training with the organization. When Bruhn was killed trying to parachute into Denmark in late December, Rottboell was hurriedly prepared for essentially the same role that Sneum had been performing for SIS since September.
Seemingly oblivious to the potentially disastrous effects of his interdepartmental rivalry with SIS, Ralph Hollingworth, the head of SOE Denmark in London, later recalled proudly: ‘I chose Rottboell, though he was very young and had not yet completed his long training in the Special Schools, because he was very intelligent, understood security, and like Bruhn was a man of great integrity, inspired confidence and had all the qualities which make a leader of men.’
As he checked his equipment above the pre-arranged rendezvous point, Rottboell was ready for action and unaware of the problems encountered by the SOE-affiliated reception committee below. Their car had broken down and they were nowhere near the drop-zone. Worse still, there had been no time to let Rottboell’s plane know what had happened.
Descending to just a few hundred meters above the appointed place, the aircraft continued to circle as it assessed the situation on the ground. To the pilot, there appeared to be a reception committee as expected, because he could clearly see three cars parked on the road. However, he had still not received any of the signals he needed in order to give Rottboell’s jump the green light. Frustratingly, since everything else seemed perfect, the pilot followed procedure and turned back without unloading his human cargo. It was the correct decision. The reception committee must have been bogus, which semed to indicate that the Germans had been tipped off about Britain’s latest plans.
For his attempt to leave the country that Rottboell was so keen to reach, Sigfred Christophersen had recruited his brother Thorbjoern as a fellow escapee. This tactic suited Tommy down to the ground, because he wanted both of them out of his way for good. The Christophersens had decided to cross the ice from a point near Kastrup Airport and aim for Malmo in Sweden, as Sneum had suggested.
To Tommy’s dismay, however, Sigfred and Thorbjoern returned from the darkness less than an hour after they had set out, claiming the ice was too precarious. Duus Hansen claimed later: ‘The first try failed and they came back, saying there was open water in the channel and therefore they couldn’t continue, but that they would try again as soon as they had found out where there was continuous ice all the way from Denmark to Sweden.’
The brothers then rejected another short route, from Helsingoer to Helsingborg, because they feared that police patrols would pick them up immediately. After further failed attempts on a short route between Sletten and Rydeback, a crisis meeting was called with the Princes, who had been monitoring the situation with mounting frustration. Nordentoft, Lunding and Gyth met Christophersen and Sneum in the Jaegersborg Kaserne, the military barracks in Copenhagen. Clearly looking for sympathy, Christophersen documented all the difficulties he had experienced.
‘I’ve been giving this some thought,’ said Lunding at last. ‘I recommend that you try to make your crossing from Stevns to Falsterbo.’
‘It’s too far,’ scoffed Sneum, ‘and takes them right across the southern mouth of the Oeresund. We all know how unpredictable the weather and the currents can be down there.’
Christophersen seemed to resent the interruption. He pointed out that it