In WW2, breaking the enemy's codes was the highest priority.

Enter Bletchley Park - a secret estate bought with £6,000 of private funds to crack the "unbreakable" German Enigma codes.

Margaret Godfrey was one of the very first women at "the park."

This is the story:
(🧵) The highest priority in wartime is to break the enemy's codes and ciphers; and in the case of the Second World War, the various German enigma codes.

A special site was therefore required outside of London to crack the various encrypted messages between the different German services and the High Command, as well as between Hitler and his Secret Service (Abwehr).

In the 1920s-30s, MI5’s female agents outwitted communist and fascist spies threatening Britain.

From foiling Moscow’s plots to infiltrating Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, their daring coups rewrote intelligence history:
(🧵) In the 1920s and 1930s, Britain faced dual threats from Comintern’s communist spies infiltrating via the Communist Party of Great Britain and the fascist British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by Sir Oswald Mosley.

The BUF’s anti-Semitic, nationalist rallies, notably the violent Battle of Cable Street in London’s East End on 4 October 1936, saw clashes with Jewish communities and workers, highlighting the escalating tensions.

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In the 1960s, Herman Rothman recognised a name on a list of accused Auschwitz war criminals.

It was someone he once knew.

He had Perry Broad's diary in his attic.

What happened next took him to the courtroom of one of the most infamous Nazi trials in history:
(🧵) This is that story, told by Herman Rothman:

In the late 1950s in a cellar in Munich, a hoard of documents was discovered and the name of Perry Broad surprisingly appeared in the newspapers. Alarm bells rang but I temporarily filed the information, but it was to re-surface some ten years later. I was about to cross paths with Perry Broad again.

In the early 1960s I heard on the radio and read in the newspapers of the arrest of twenty-two people accused of war crimes in Auschwitz. As I scanned the list I found Perry Broad’s name amongst them. The copy of his diary which I had amongst my own papers in my attic immediately came to mind.

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In her youth, Joan Stafford King-Harman idolised Hitler—but everything changed when MI6's Director of Naval Intelligence recruited her. She became one of the service's first female desk officers.

How did a Nazi admirer flip to become a key British spy?

Let's explore:
(🧵) Joan Stafford King-Harman, who later became Lady Dunn, broke new ground as one of the earliest female desk officers at MI6, pioneering a vital intelligence role.

Born to Sir Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, the 2nd Baronet of Rockingham in Ireland, she was scouted and hired by John Godfrey—then Director of Naval Intelligence—to serve as a secretary in MI6's naval division, thanks to her strong proficiency in German.

The opportunity arose during a Scottish getaway with friends, when Godfrey casually asked if they could recommend any young women adept at typing and sworn to utmost secrecy.

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5 Cocktails favoured by Allied Intelligence Services during the First and Second World Wars

Next time you're at a bar, why not order one of these and raise a glass to the courageous heroes and heroines of that era:
(🧵) 1. Pink Gin

The preferred cocktail of British Naval Intelligence interrogators during the Second World War was Pink Gin.

Pictured here at the covert WWII listening site Latimer House, including Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond spy novels):

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In 1938, MI6 chief Hugh Sinclair bought Bletchley Park, believing intelligence would win the war.

By D-Day, 7,800+ codebreakers and MI9’s 'Secret Listeners' at Trent Park uncovered Nazi secrets, from V-1 sites to SS units, shaping Allied victory.

Let's explore:
(🧵) It was the 1st Duke of Marlborough (1715) who once said: ‘No war can be conducted successfully without early and good intelligence.’

That was also the belief of Hugh ‘Quex’ Sinclair (the head of MI6) in 1938 as Britain faced the escalating threat of war from Nazi Germany.

Sinclair believed whoever would win the intelligence game would win the war – and with that in mind, he purchased Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire and moved the Government Code & Cipher School (GC&CS) out there from Broadways Buildings (then MI6 HQ in London).

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In 1940, MI9 turned London’s lavish Kensington mansions into the chilling "London Cage," a secret interrogation centre where truth drugs & intense tactics were used on Nazi prisoners.

Declassified files expose a dark, untold chapter of history:
(🧵) In autumn 1940 British intelligence, MI9, opened a secret interrogation centre in the heart of the millionaire enclave of London’s Kensington Palace Gardens.

Taking over Nos. 6-7 and 8 & 8a, its commanding officer Colonel Alexander Scotland ensured that the mansion houses were stripped off their former luxury and the ‘cage’ was established as a grim prison.

It soon developed a formidable reputation in military circles for any prisoner of war transferred there for interrogation.

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The recent passing of Betty Webb MBE, a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, reminds us of the extraordinary role played by female intelligence analysts in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

This is my tribute thread to her:
(🧵) At the age of 101, Betty Webb could still be seen at the wheel of her car, driving around the small village where she lived in Worcestershire, in the English Midlands.

In retirement she was spritely and active in education, giving talks to over 200 schools and travelling abroad to speak to groups on her wartime career.

When asked about her war years, she once said, ‘I wanted to do something more for the war effort than bake sausage rolls.’

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Stephen Dale (Heinz Günther Spanglet), a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, later parachuted into enemy territory with the SOE.

Captured by the SS, he faced execution.

What happened next will leave you speechless:
(🧵) Stephen Dale (Heinz Günther Spanglet), born in Berlin and a survivor of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, arrived in England in spring 1939, taking various jobs to support himself.

Interned in Australia in 1941, he later joined the Pioneer Corps with 87 Company. In 1943, he transferred to the SOE and commenced training.

In June 1944, he flew to Gibraltar, joining three others for their mission, then proceeded to a rudimentary camp in Algiers before reaching Fasano on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Before parachuting, he adopted the name Stephen Patrick Turner.

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As British Forces advanced beyond Bayeux, Harry Rossney faced the sombre task of burying thousands of fallen Allied soldiers in Normandy.

He painted war cemetery signboards and carved inscriptions on countless graves, a stark reflection of his duties:
(🧵) Harry Rossney, a sign-writer by trade, transferred from 93 Company of the Alien Pioneer Corps to 32 Graves Registration Unit in Bayeux, where the brutal realities of war were constant.

He supervised and trained workers to create temporary grave markers, later replaced by white stones from the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission).

Rossney also hand-painted large signboards for war cemeteries across Normandy, including Bayeux, Ranville, and Hottot.

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He was not a British traitor!

Fresh evidence exonerates MI6’s Charles Howard Ellis from betraying Spymaster Thomas Kendrick in 1938, unmasking a real double agent elsewhere in the network...

Discover the real role Ellis played in British intelligence history:
(🧵) On 17 August 1938, Thomas Joseph Kendrick, Britain’s foremost spy in Europe with nearly three decades in the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6), was apprehended by the Gestapo while attempting to cross the Austrian border to safety—a calamitous blow to MI6 in its first 30 years.

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In WW2, the 'Three Witches on Broomsticks' was worn by IS9(WEA) operatives aiding Allied escapers and POWs.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth to sow “toil and trouble” for the Nazis, it was crafted with gold or silver thread.

Let's learn about this forgotten badge:
(🧵) During the Second World War, operatives of the secretive Intelligence School No. 9, Western European Area (IS9(WEA)), wore a striking and rare insignia featuring three witches on broomsticks, crafted by Captain Leo Fleskins, a former member of the Dutch Resistance since 1941.

This covert unit specialised in aiding escapers, evaders, and prisoners of war, orchestrating daring operations to undermine Nazi forces.

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George Rosney was a German Jew who fought for Britain during the Second World War.

His parents perished in Auschwitz concentration camp.

This is the poignant and deeply tragic tale of the 2,000-mile journey he undertook to uncover that reality:
(🧵) Amid the utter devastation and the grim reality that much of Central European Jewry had been annihilated in Hitler’s Final Solution, the German and Austrian members of the British Forces embarked on the heart-wrenching and uncertain quest to find surviving relatives.

All too often, they received confirmation that their families and friends had perished in the Holocaust.

George Rosney (Georg Jakob Rosenfeld) journeyed over 2,000 miles from Kiel on the Baltic coast to Theresienstadt (Terezin, north of Prague in the Czech Republic) in search of his parents.

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In her youth, Joan Stafford King-Harman was an ardent admirer of Hitler, but her perspective transformed when she was recruited by the Director of Naval Intelligence.

She became one of MI6's first female desk officers:
(🧵) Joan Stafford King-Harman (later Lady Dunn) was among the first female desk officers at MI6, taking on a trailblazing role.

The daughter of Sir Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, 2nd Baronet of Rockingham (Ireland), she was recruited by John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence, as a secretary in MI6’s naval section due to her proficiency in German.

While on a trip to Scotland with friends, Godfrey inquired if they knew any young women skilled in typing and capable of maintaining confidentiality.

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Wolfgang Likwornik was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Austria to join the British Army’s Gordon Highlanders.

Landing in Normandy in 1944, he fought through fierce battles, interrogated POWs, and survived the war, only to erase his past by defacing his own name years later:
(🧵) Born into an assimilated Viennese Jewish family in 1924, Wolfgang Likwornik escaped Austria sometime after the Anschluss to join his aunt and uncle in France.

From there he came to Britain in May 1939 and found work as an apprentice printer in Glasgow. In the summer of 1940 he was interned. In December 1943 he enlisted in the British Forces and was sent to Maryhill, near Glasgow for infantry training. His army records show that he may have been under military age when he volunteered because the words ‘age limit to be waived as a special case’ appear on one of the official forms.

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She crossed Nazi-occupied Europe on foot and smuggled Allied soldiers over the Pyrenees mountains.

She outwitted the Gestapo with finesse—and she was only 25 years old.

This is the story of a heroine who co-created a secret escape line during WW2:
(🧵) Her name was Andrée De Jongh.

Let's dive in:

By the summer of 1941, an effective MI9 escape line was already operating from Belgium, through France, and into Spain. It would later become known as the Comet Line.

In June 1941, Belgian businessman Arnold Deppé – who owned a residence in Spain and knew the Pyrenees well – travelled to the region with a 25-year-old Belgian woman, Andrée De Jongh.

Their mission was to establish safe houses along the Pyrenees to help Allied airmen and soldiers escape from occupied Europe.

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Are you interested in the detailed history of the women of MI5 during the First World War?

If so, this thread is for you.

Let’s dive in:
(🧵) In August 1914, the War Office was inundated with letters from citizens reporting suspected German spies—some believed to be signalling the enemy with codes or wireless messages.

These reports were passed to MI5.

For the first two months of the war, MI5 staff (including its women) worked 12+ hour days, including Sundays, with only two half-days off.

For the next 18 months, they still averaged 10+ hours daily.

By 1915, they were handling around 3,000 papers a month, opening 1,000+ new files on suspects.

The sheer volume of intelligence also made their work invaluable to other departments.

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In August 1944, 21-year-old Elaine Madden boarded a B-24 Liberator at Harrington, preparing to parachute into Nazi-occupied Belgium for 'Operation Amelia'.

With a cyanide pill concealed in her lipstick and unwavering courage, she jumped into the darkness:
(🧵) Within weeks of D-Day, the Allies anticipated liberating Belgium, but progress through Normandy and northern France was frustratingly slow.

By early August 1944, Paris remained under German control.

Fierce and hard-fought battles preceded Paris’s liberation on 25 August 1944.

Despite the sluggish advance, the SOE was actively preparing to coordinate support from the Resistance Movement for Allied forces upon their entry into Belgium.

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Anton Walter Freud, grandson of Sigmund Freud, fled Vienna after the Anschluss in 1938 and went on to serve Britain during WW2.

He was later parachuted into Austria and took part in the Neuengamme war crimes investigations.

Here's his shocking account of Nazi atrocities:
(🧵) Walter Freud, parachuted into Austria’s Styria region with the SOE, worked on the Neuengamme war crimes investigations at the end of the Second Worl War. Although based in Hamburg rather than at the camp itself, he visited Neuengamme on several occasions.

He was also tasked with investigating the activities of the Hamburg-based company Tesch & Stabenow.

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German-Jew Leo Horn, fighting for Britain in WW2, landed in France after D-Day with the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.

At one point, his regiment thought he had deserted them, when in reality he was wounded.

He was gaining strength, looking to get back in action:
(🧵) Leo Horn (born Leo Schwarz) was born in Berlin in January 1924 to Chaim Baruch Schwarz and Jochweta Schwarz.

On 28 October 1938, his father was arrested and sent to Zbonczyn, a border town between Germany and Poland where thousands of Jews were stranded in a ‘no-man’s land’.

Four of his brothers had already emigrated to Palestine between 1932 and 1937, leaving Leo, the youngest, and his sister in Berlin with their mother.

Tragically, his parents ultimately perished in Auschwitz, the town of his father’s birth.

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In WW2, Ian Monroe, posing as "Lord Aberfeldy," charmed captured German generals at Trent Park, North London, with walks, cigarettes and extra polish for their boots.

He turned their vanity into a goldmine of intelligence for the Allies.

Here's how he did it:
(🧵) During the Second World War, Trent Park in North London served as a unique facility for housing captured German generals, and the designation of "Lord Aberfeldy" as their Welfare Officer was a masterstroke of British intelligence.

This role, carefully crafted to exploit the psychology of the high-ranking prisoners, was filled by Ian Monroe, an intelligence officer within the British Secret Service.

Under the guise of a benevolent aristocrat, Monroe engaged the generals in seemingly mundane conversations about their daily needs and comforts within the mansion house.

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