The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [139]
You know that I left Denmark by request and because a Danish politician was very greatly desired as adviser . . .
I have since been kept in complete ignorance of everything that has happened. In between I get scraps of information, that SNEUM is in prison, that there is now money in Denmark, that the Prince [Gyth] is going to Stockholm in a few days, that three new men are going to Denmark etc.—but it is quite outside your thoughts that these three should have a talk with me, without mentioning that it is obvious that my advice is not asked as to whether they should be sent . . .
I must therefore demand that the following message be sent to Arthur:
‘Christmas Moeller has demanded that we should inform Arthur and ... the Princes . . . that he has had no part in or knowledge of the messages we have sent and are sending since his departure from Denmark, and it should not be assumed that Christmas Moeller has anything to do with our work. Christmas Moeller will try by another means to secure for himself communications to Denmark . . .’
Yours, J. Christmas Moeller
Sneum was now at the center of a full-blown diplomatic incident between Britain and the Free Danes.
Helvard, meanwhile, was accepted by the RAF and sent to North Africa to fly Handley Page Hampdens. He probably felt he had done as much as he could for Tommy for the time being. By leaving his fiancée Vita, Arne had paid a heavy price to fly again, and he wasn’t about to pass up his chance.
Chapter 42
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
FIGHTING FOR HIS CREDIBILITY, Commander Ralph Hollingworth wrote to George Wiskemann, head of SOE Scandinavia, to defend himself over the Sneum affair and the complaints of the Free Danish leader: ‘Since SNEUM belongs to SIS and has never been one of our bodies I was not at liberty to tell Christmas Moeller that he was in the hands of MI5 interrogators until I had obtained permission from SIS.’
Fearing his job was on the line, Hollingworth then came out with all guns blazing. He decided that he would indeed have his SOE team get in touch with Hammer. And if he was going to tell Hammer that Christmas Moller had washed his hands of SOE, he was determined to land his own blow first. With regard to Christmas Moeller’s grievance over Sneum’s imprisonment, he mounted an argument designed to make a mockery of the politician’s objections. In the message, which he sent to Hammer on 22 July 1942, Hollingworth alleged that Sneum and Christophersen had ‘given a great deal of information to the Germans about our activities in Denmark.’ In particular he emphasized that ‘Sneum had spilt the beans.’
The timing of SOE’s ‘warning’ to Hammer about Sneum’s alleged treachery seems strange, unless the main motivation behind it was to strengthen Hollingworth’s defense in the face of Christmas Moeller’s onslaught. After all, SOE must have known for several months what Sneum told the Swedes during his time in Malmo Prison. The Princes of Danish Intelligence would have kept Ronnie Turnbull fully informed of the agent’s desperate tactics under interrogation. Therefore, if Hollingworth had really seen Sneum as a security risk to Hammer in Denmark, he could have warned his agent to that effect between April and June.
On the very day that the message was sent to Hammer, SOE’s latest crop of agents held a farewell luncheon at the Three Vikings restaurant in Glasshouse Street, London, before preparing for a parachute drop into Denmark. This meal would spark a full-scale hunt by MI5 for a possible traitor. During the investigation, Hollingworth tried to implicate Sneum, even though the Dane was still in prison at the time of the party.
No one could foresee such repercussions on the day of the luncheon itself, which began at midday and lasted