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to give their names. They tried to keep moving in order to prevent the onset of hypothermia, until at last they were put on motor-sledges and driven across the ice to the Swedish mainland. A comfortable night at a police station in Helsingborg saw the town’s chief constable, Olaf Palm, lay on the most extraordinary hospitality, including a lavish dinner in their cell served professionally by the head waiter of a local hotel. But then, before their transfer to the bigger Swedish city, Palm warned his guests to prepare for the worst. Tommy remembered how awkward his host had looked as he broke the news. ‘I feel obliged to tell you,’ Palm began, ‘that they are going to send you to Germany, or at the very least back to the Germans in Denmark.’

‘I got scared when I heard that,’ admitted Sneum. ‘I knew that if the Germans got their hands on me, they would shoot me or torture me, or more likely both. I had heard about so many people being tortured, and the Germans scared everyone with their methods. I was almost sure I would have broken down. I needed to avoid it.’

As their fate hung in the balance in Malmo, they had their mugshots and fingerprints taken. Then all they could do was wait for the arrival from Copenhagen of Politikommissaer Odmar, who would help to decide what was to happen to them.

If Tommy thought that Colonel Rabagliati might be able to exert some influence over his and Arne’s precarious predicament from back in Britain, he was wrong. By then, the political wind had turned against the Secret Intelligence Service.

On 30 March 1942, Colonel Harry Sporborg of the Special Operations Executive’s Scandinavian Section revealed how he intended to outmanoeuvre his rival Rabagliati to gain control of British dealings with Denmark:

It seems to me that we have a chance to create a really good Secret Army in Denmark and although this might never be used it might be extremely useful at a later stage in the war ... If the Chiefs-of-Staff approve and authorize us to go ahead along the lines I suggest, we must then approach the Foreign Office and get them to modify their policy towards Denmark to fit in with the plan ... We must consider carefully who is allowed to see the documents and how they are to be presented. I agree that A.C.S.S. [Claude Dansey, the assistant chief of SIS] should see them and I think he should show them to Colonel Rabagliati also. I would really like it if the copy sent could then be returned to us, as for many reasons I think it would be wise not to have it in the files at Broadway [SIS Headquarters].

Under this plan, SOE’s field chief for Denmark, Ronnie Turnbull, would have authority from the very top to receive on behalf of Britain whatever information the Princes chose to provide. In return, the British would essentially leave Denmark alone for the foreseeable future, and SIS’s involvement would end.

Tommy Sneum, working for the wrong covert organization, therefore became expendable in the eyes of the power brokers in London. If the Princes wanted him locked up and kept out of the way, that is how it would be. Rabagliati’s hands were well and truly tied.

Oblivious to the political games being played in London, Tommy was concerned about striking the right note during his vital interrogation in Odmar’s presence. He wanted to appear as cooperative as possible, so that he and Helvard could avoid being delivered into the hands of the Germans. He had by now given his real name to the Swedes, and freely admitted that he was Sigfred Christophersen’s spy partner. He did this because he knew that the Copenhagen police had worked out as much already. At the time, he thought he was beyond the clutches of the Nazis in Denmark. But then Palm told him that Sweden’s neutrality might not count for anything. So Tommy knew he was going to have to give his captors a little bit more.

When the interview with Odmar began, Sneum was clear in his own mind where he would draw the line. Surviving police records show just how far he went.

‘Thomas Christian Sneum declines to give any information about what happened