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It was because this agreement was in place that Sneum’s arrival caused such consternation, and why the Princes demanded such incontrovertible proof of his authenticity. Unbeknown to him, Tommy could hardly have been placed in a more hostile environment if he had landed in Berlin itself. Largely due to the competitiveness among the rival British spymasters, he was already being viewed with extreme suspicion by key compatriots back home. And in this tense climate he could easily be made the scapegoat for anything that went wrong in Denmark.

But all Tommy knew at the time was the importance of recovering the parachutes. The following morning, therefore, he contacted Christophersen and demanded precise details of where the radio man had buried his canopy. Then he came up with a new cover story in case he was challenged: ‘I obtained a smock, an easel, some canvases and paints,’ he explained. ‘Then I went back out to Brorfelde, dressed like an artist in search of a landscape to paint.’ He cut a strip off each parachute and hid them between the canvases, knowing all too well that part of the canopy which had saved his life only hours earlier could now get him killed if he was stopped and searched on his way back to civilization.

When he handed over his proof to Bjarke Schou, the Princes’ intermediary, in a graveyard outside Holbaek that night, he felt more anger than relief. The face-to-face meeting with the men behind these demands promised to be lively.

It took place at the Jaegersborg Kaserne in Kongens, barracks that were home to the Royal Lifeguards. Over dinner, Lunding, the hard man of Danish Intelligence, demanded Sneum’s British codes. Refusing to take orders from someone he had just met, Tommy in turn demanded to know the codes his hosts used: ‘I told them I was serving directly with the British and that made me their superior. They told me I was talking nonsense because their rank was far superior. I wasn’t going to accept that, not when they had done so little against the Nazis since the invasion. They had never taken the sort of risks I had taken, yet they had dared to question my loyalty.’

A furious argument erupted, with Lunding and Sneum almost coming to blows: ‘Nordentoft intervened by explaining that it had been necessary to test me on the question of the parachutes for security, and that I ought to understand, especially since I had acted independently and not through them. Things calmed down after that.’

The Princes offered Sneum lodgings in a safe-house in St. Annaegade, near the Christianshavn Canal, on the Copenhagen island of Amager. In return for the accommodation, and to reaffirm his loyalty to his own country, Tommy would be expected to write Danish Intelligence a full report on his time in England. His codes would remain his own secret as part of the deal. Meanwhile, Christophersen would continue to stay with Oxlund. Sneum chose to play along in order to build some mutual trust, knowing that Rabagliati wanted these people on Britain’s side. Besides, to make enemies of the Princes would threaten not just his mission but his very survival in Nazi-occupied territory. His final report, a copy of which he retained into old age, provided some of the source material for the account of his summer stay in England presented above.

Despite his partial cooperation with Danish Intelligence, Tommy wanted to maintain his independence and set his mission for the British in motion. To do so, he needed money. Making sure he wasn’t followed, he headed for the offices of a lawyer called Aage Koehlert Park, who was based in the busy Dronningens Tvaer Gade, near Copenhagen’s spacious Town Hall Square. Rabagliati had assured Sneum that Park would have substantial funds in Danish currency ready for collection. Now was the moment to test that claim.

Tommy gave a false name to a pretty receptionist, who politely escorted him along a carpeted corridor towards a large, plush office. Park was tall, blond and well groomed, so that he looked younger than his fifty-five years. He had the natural authority of a man who had