The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [150]
Despite his romantic distractions, Sneum noticed that he was still followed occasionally. It was as if someone had decided that a grave mistake had been made in granting him freedom. And he knew that it wasn’t just elements within SIS who harbored lingering doubts about him. Fortunately for Tommy, though, he still had many female admirers in the close-knit Danish community. One was a former secretary to Commander Frank Stagg, the SOE officer who felt that Sneum’s imprisonment was ‘disgraceful.’ Although Stagg had since left SOE, disillusioned that his efforts to persuade the British to work more closely with the Danes had fallen on deaf ears, his secretary had remained in the Danish Section.
‘I had a relationship with this girl from SOE for a while,’ Sneum said. ‘And she warned me that they were still suspicious of me and following me.’
These hostile undercurrents didn’t lead Sneum to modify his playboy lifestyle, however. During the war, the general feeling was that time was short, and life should be enjoyed while it still could be. It was a philosophy also embraced by Sneum’s former spy partner, although his idea of personal fulfilment was rather more traditional.
Sigfred Christophersen was no longer working for SIS, but he had become involved with someone extremely well connected to that murky world. Perhaps it was more than coincidence that he had chosen to court a private secretary in the Foreign Office. If he had wanted to cultivate further ill-feeling towards Sneum in the corridors of power, he could hardly have chosen a better channel for his bitterness. Mary Anita Blackford Wood was five years younger than Christophersen, who had now turned twenty-eight. As romance blossomed, the couple soon realized they had much in common, since their families shared a background in market gardening. Sigfred’s father was a nurseryman, and had introduced his son to the trade before the war. Anita’s father was a horticultural contractor, and she too retained a keen interest in plants and flowers.
Thanks to her administrative role in the Foreign Office, Anita already knew something of Sigfred’s story. But it appears that he soon gave her full details of how Sneum had repeatedly threatened to kill him during their mission. She must also have learned of Christophersen’s escape to Sweden, and how his brother Thorbjoern and Kaj Oxlund had died so horribly on the ice. It seems that Sigfred soon convinced Anita that there was only one villain of the piece—Tommy Sneum. He also warned her that if, for any reason, he should die unexpectedly or mysteriously, Sneum would probably be behind it.
Anita foresaw a happier future, especially when Sigfred proposed. Although he had known her only a matter of months, this was wartime and strong bonds were often forged quickly. Anita accepted and their wedding day was fixed for 2 June 1943. The ceremony was held at the Register Office in Anita’s home town of St. Albans.
By then, Sigfred was Pilot Officer 151948 of the RAF and stationed far to the north, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. However, he was given a special weekend pass to tie the knot, and the couple spent their wedding night in a St. Albans hotel. Unfortunately, with the war never far away, there was no time for a proper honeymoon. That following Monday, Anita Christophersen returned to her duties at the Foreign Office. Her husband was already back in the cockpit in Yorkshire, preparing for the day when his skills might be needed against the fighters of Hitler’s Luftwaffe.
Thomas Sneum would have given anything to be able to fly again and test himself in real action. His work translating and summarizing intelligence reports in John Christmas Moeller’s office was occasionally interesting, but Tommy hated working indoors. He knew that a daring spy wasn’t meant to sit behind a desk.
Leslie Mitchell, the man who