Carl Hans Lody story of How MI5 captured a German spy in UK
Carl Hans Lody story of How MI5 captured a German spy in UK
Carl Hans Lody story of How MI5 captured a German spy in
Britain in 1914
Carl Hans Lody was a junior lieutenant in the German Naval
Reserve who spied in Britain and Ireland at the start of the First World War.
Before the war, he had been married to an American woman
(from whom he was divorced by the time the war started) and spoke fluent
English.
He had been a personal acquaintance of the first director
of German Naval Intelligence, Commander Fritz Prieger, and in May 1914 he
volunteered for service with the department.
He was originally given the task of reporting from
southern France, but he was re-tasked in August 1914 with spying against
Britain and specifically the naval bases in the Edinburgh-Leith area.
When he was put on trial for spying some months later, he
claimed that he had not wanted to become a spy and had sought an exemption from
service on medical grounds so that he could return to New York.
However, the German admiralty's files show that Lody had
in fact become a spy of his own free will and had signed a formal agreement
with the naval intelligence department before the war had begun.
Spying in Scotland and Ireland –
The Germans provided Lody with a substantial amount of
money and an American passport under the name of "Charles A. Inglis".
On 14 August, he set off from Hamburg to neutral Norway, from
where he took a ship to Newcastle, arriving on 27 August. He then went to
Edinburgh, where he found lodgings.
The Firth of Forth, the large estuary to the north of
Edinburgh, was of great strategic importance. As well as being the main seaward
approach to the Scottish capital and the site of the Forth Bridge, it was used
as an anchorage by dozens of Royal Navy ships. The area was heavily fortified
with gun batteries and minefields to protect it against attacks from the sea.
The Germans wanted to obtain information on the British fleet and defences, as
well as the aftermath of any engagements. According to the German Admiralty's
files, "if or when Mr. Lody comes to know that a naval battle has taken
place, he will enquire as much and as unobtrusively as possible regarding
losses, damage etc."
However, Lody had little training for espionage. His only
means of communication with his superiors in Germany was by telegrams and
letters to neutral countries. He sent a number of telegrams using a simple
code, but other highly incriminating messages were sent in plain text without any
coding. He did not know that MI5 was monitoring letters and telegrams abroad,
or that his messages would be intercepted.
Lody was detected in his very first message home, which
had been sent to an Adolf Buchard in Stockholm. MI5 knew that this address was
a cover for German intelligence. Any messages sent there were intercepted and
Lody's correspondence made it clear that a German spy was active in Britain.
His identity was not known at that stage, as he signed his messages
"Charles" or "Nazi". (The latter alias had no connection
with Adolf Hitler's party, which was founded after the war. Before then, the
word "Nazi" was used as a short form of the name "Ignatz";
it was also a nickname for Austro-Hungarian soldiers.) It later became known
that Lody was travelling using an American passport in the name of Charles A.
Inglis.
During his month in Edinburgh, Lody sent regular messages
in English and German to his contacts in Stockholm. Some of these were allowed
to go through because they contained misleading information that would alarm
the Germans but cause no harm to the British cause. For instance, he sent
letters about a supposed landing of "large numbers of Russian troops"
in Scotland, repeating an infamous rumour that thousands of Russians "with
snow on their boots" had been sent to fight on the Western Front. There
was no truth in the story but it caused great concern to the German military.
Lody travelled to Dublin in Ireland on 29 September,
travelling via the busy port of Liverpool. He took the opportunity to write a
detailed letter in German describing ships in the harbour and conversations
that he had overturned. Unlike some of his earlier letters, it contained
information of real military value to the Germans, but was written without any
coding. Postal censors intercepted the letter and MI5 decided to order his
arrest.
The Edinburgh police carried out an urgent investigation
that uncovered the movements of "Charles Inglis" and identified his
hotel in Dublin. The Irish police in turn tracked him to Killarney in County
Kerry, where Lody had travelled with the intention of "disappearing for
some time", in the awareness that he was under suspicion.
He was finally arrested in his hotel on 2 October 1914.
The police discovered Lody's true identity when they
found a tailor's ticket in his jacket bearing his real name and an address in
Berlin.
Lody on trial
Having been transported back to London, Lody was put on
trial for "war treason", a rarely-used charge which treated espionage
as a war crime and was punishable by the death penalty.
Lody admitted in court that he had been a spy and had
been sent to Britain by his superiors in Berlin.
He refused to name Fritz Prieger, the person who had
recruited him: "that name I cannot say as I have given my word of
honour".
Unlike later captured spies, Lody was tried in public and
the case was widely reported in the press. His declarations of patriotism and
honour attracted widespread admiration in both Britain and Germany.
When he was convicted and taken to the Tower of London to
be executed on the morning of 6 November 1914, he was reported to have said to
the officer who escorted him from his cell to the execution ground: "I
suppose that you will not care to shake hands with a German spy".
"No," the officer replied; "but I will shake hands with a brave
man."
Lody's story is retold in detail in Shot in the Tower, by
Leonard Sellers.
Files on the case from the War Office and Director of
Public Prosecutions can be viewed at The National Archives.
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Thursday, November 12, 2015
Tags - MI5 Capture
German Spy Britain 1914
