The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [140]
Convinced, as ever, of Sneum’s loyalty, Christmas Moeller continued to vent his fury about his fellow countryman’s imprisonment in meetings with the British later that week. On 27 July, M.L. Clarke, secretary of the Danish Committee and an official in the Northern Division of the Foreign Office, made a list of Moeller’s grievances, as they had been told a few days earlier to his confidant, Christopher Warner, the committee’s chairman and another key figure in the Northern Division. The grievances included the controversial treatment of Sneum:
Mr Christmas Moeller said that this man, who had flown backwards and forwards between Denmark and this country more than once (as far as I could understand it) was now in prison here. Could he not be released? I said that I thought this was also a matter for Sir Charles Hambro. I have since made enquiries and understand this may not be the case, and that the matter should be looked into.
By this last remark, Warner meant that he had originally believed that Sneum’s fate lay in the SOE chief’s hands, since he thought Sneum had been an SOE agent. When he made further enquiries, however, he learned that Sneum had in fact been an SIS agent, which explained the necessity for further investigation.
But Christmas Moeller wasn’t prepared to wait around while the matter was ‘looked into’ by the appropriate British department, and demanded the right to visit Sneum in Brixton Prison. He had known the young man for years through Tommy’s uncle, Axel, who was also a politician. Fully aware of Sneum’s efforts on behalf of the British since the German occupation, Christmas Moeller trusted him completely. When he was granted permission for the visit, he was accompanied by his wife Gertrud, who brought jam as a gift for her compatriot. The couple both expressed their surprise at Sneum’s haggard appearance. Tommy looked so much older than the young man they had known during happier times in Denmark.
Christmas Moeller outlined his efforts to secure Tommy’s release, and claimed that neither SOE nor SIS seemed willing to take any responsibility for his imprisonment.
Sneum was baffled. ‘Sorry, sir, but I don’t know what you mean by all these initials.’
‘Don’t you know who you were working for?’ asked the Free Danish leader, clearly shocked.
‘I just assumed it was British Intelligence,’ replied Tommy.
So Christmas Moeller had to explain the difference between the Special Operations Executive, which had facilitated his own escape from Denmark a couple of months earlier, and the Secret Intelligence Service, which had dropped Tommy into Denmark. He also had to break the news that the man who had recruited Sneum no longer had any influence, and that SOE was now the only service running active agents in Denmark. As far as Christmas Moeller could see, Sneum had been the victim of a political game, but he assured the young man that he wasn’t going to stop bothering the British until they let him out.
Even the tenacious Christmas Moeller probably didn’t understand the size of his task. To release Tommy would require the British to defy the Princes, who were still arguing that Tommy was a traitor. And as SOE relied on the Princes for the vast majority of their information from Nazi-occupied Copenhagen they didn’t want to offend them.
Decades later, the celebrated Danish resistance hero Stig Jensen wrote to Tommy to confirm that Danish Intelligence had made Sneum pay for his threat to expose Swedish spies in Germany and Poland:
Afterwards they say such a bad joke has to be punished. They warn England and get you put out of business. Was that any way to behave? Do they not understand the mentality of a desperate prisoner? They should have