The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [146]
For Sneum, whose love of flying surpassed all other passions, this new existence would be torture. All around him were airfields and American pilots, fighting the kind of war that he had always wanted to fight. Instead he was grounded, sentenced to what amounted to continued imprisonment. His only hope of action, it appeared, would be as a farm laborer, and even that small outlet for his frustration would become a reality only if his behavior in his new surroundings proved exemplary. The British were clearly still at pains to ensure that, one way or another, Tommy Sneum’s war was over. But he wasn’t beaten yet.
Turning on the charm, he received a warm reception from his host, Leslie Andrews, and the farmer’s much younger wife, Irene. ‘He was in his sixties; she was only about thirty,’ Sneum recalled. ‘She was slim, dark-haired and attractive.’
He maintained his charm offensive and soon won concessions. ‘First I was allowed into the village only if I was accompanied by a security man. Then I was allowed in without an escort. “Where’s his manservant today?” I heard one woman say. They thought the security people were my staff and I was some kind of lord.’
Tommy was happy to be put to work on the farm after months of inactivity in prison. Irene seemed to take an interest in his lithe young body as he worked. She began to show the newcomer increasing affection and asked him to call her Reeny. Typically, Tommy took every opportunity to get close to her. ‘She was in love with me from the beginning and we began an affair,’ he confirmed. ‘It was always going to happen. She called me Tommy and I began to call her “sweetheart.”’ They took advantage of her husband’s many trips away and long hours in the fields. Before long, they were so intimate that she was helping Sneum to make secret visits to London, without his absence ever being noticed by those who should have been keeping a close eye on his movements. ‘The security was very slack by then and I was even left to play golf on the farm if I felt like it. Reeny didn’t join me—she was only sporting in bed.’
Gordon Andrews of SIS realized that Tommy was having an affair with his stepmother, but he chose not to tell his father. ‘Gordon said he was sorry for his dad but he knew Mr Andrews was unable to have sexual relations,’ claimed Tommy. ‘The clock had stopped at half past six, so to speak. Gordon told me he could understand why Reeny wanted a younger fellow. I don’t think he really liked his father very much.’
The police in Copenhagen were preparing for the return of Thomas Sneum, and would have been amazed to know that he had been packed off to live anonymously in the English countryside. First, they had prison mugshots of Sneum and Helvard sent over from Sweden; then they dug out records of police interviews conducted with Kaj Oxlund’s neighbors. Paying special attention to any descriptions of the clothing worn by suspicious visitors to Noekkerosevej, two of whom had since been identified as Tommy and Arne, they were able to build up accurate pictures of both men. Using the latest technology, they compiled wanted posters of both Sneum and Helvard, which were promptly distributed around the city. Both the Abwehr and the Danish authorities were convinced that, sooner or later, the British would send their most experienced spy back into the field, perhaps with his sidekick.
Tommy explained:
In late 1942 the head of the Abwehr in Copenhagen, Fregatten-Kapitan Albert Howoldt, told the Danish Army’s liaison officer, Colonel Vagn Bennicke: ‘We have put a stop to the Danish resistance movement. The only man we haven’t been able to catch is Sneum, but we’ll do that one day because he will have to come back. The British don’t have anyone else of his calibre.’ The reason I know he said this is because Bennicke told Bertelsen, my brother-in-law.
Sneum’s account