Known as the 'Secret Ladies,' their WWII work in Room 29 of the Admiralty was so secretive that even staff communicated via a hatch in the wall.

They were never photographed.

Here’s what we do know about them:
(🧵) The ‘Secret Ladies’ was the informal name for a group of female civil servants, all temporary section assistants, working in Room 29 of the Admiralty.

Accessible only through Room 30, Room 29 was restricted to these women and Room 30 staff.

Other naval personnel, like couriers, had to use a hatch in the corridor wall for communication.

Room 29 housed seven to ten women, working shifts from 9am to 6pm and 6pm to 9am, with two on duty at night and varying numbers during the day.

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In 1938, a rogue pilot, his girlfriend, and a camera flew over Nazi Germany — and changed the future of spycraft forever.

What they captured helped build the foundation for modern intelligence and they did it from a hangar near London.

This is the story of Sidney Cotton:
(🧵) In 1938, MI6 recruited Sidney Cotton to pioneer new methods of studying and analysing German rearmament, using aerial photography from reconnaissance sorties.

Cotton based his nascent unit in a hangar in Heston Airfield, west of London.

His girlfriend, Pat Martin (pictured), was a good photographer, and as his companion on secret flights over Germany, she snapped shots of military installations and sites of potential interest to British intelligence.

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During the Second World War, Geoffrey Perry, a German-Jewish refugee in the British forces, apprehended the notorious Nazi propagandist Lord Haw Haw with a non-fatal shot to the buttocks.

This is his personal account of the events on 28 May 1945:
(🧵) Berlin-born Geoffrey Perry (Horst Pinschewer), a member of T Force, successfully captured Radio Hamburg in early May 1945 as part of its mission.

He delivered the first Allied broadcast using the same microphone William Joyce (aka Lord Haw-Haw), Britain’s most wanted traitor and Fascist, had employed two days earlier for his final address to the German people.

After going into hiding, Joyce was arrested by Geoffrey and a colleague following a chance encounter in a forest north of Hamburg at the end of May.

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From an aspiring historian in Vienna to a crucial MI6 operative, Beatrice Joan Osborne’s intelligence efforts in the prelude to the Second World War have remaind an enigmatic chapter of espionage, until now.

Let’s uncover her story:
(🧵) The arrest of the 'Spymaster' Thomas Joseph Kendrick in mid-August 1938 marked the most severe setback in MI6's first thirty years of operation.

The MI6 network across Europe was withdrawn, as it was feared the Germans had obtained the identities of all its personnel and agents.

After the initial panic subsided a few weeks later, the SIS network was cautiously reinstated.

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Willy Field endured a grueling four-month ordeal at Dachau concentration camp.

Against all odds, he survived.

This could be the most intricate thread you’ll ever read on the harsh realities of daily life at Dachau:
(🧵) On 7 November 1938, German diplomat Ernst vom Rath was shot in Paris by Polish Jew Herschel Grynszpan, an act of vengeance for his family’s deportation to Zbuczyn, a border settlement in the no-man’s-land between Germany and Poland.

Ernst vom Rath lay gravely ill in a French hospital. The Jewish communities of Germany and Austria would bear a severe penalty for Grynszpan’s deed, unaware of the extensive reprisals the Nazis would unleash in response to one individual’s actions.

Retaliation struck two days later. On 9 November, vom Rath succumbed to his injuries. Coincidentally, this date marked the fifteenth anniversary of Hitler’s unsuccessful Putsch (coup) in Munich in 1923, providing the pretext he had sought to unleash a wave of violence against the Jews.

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In 1942, a unique unit was formed—made up entirely of German-speaking refugees who had fled Nazi persecution.

They trained as elite fighters, and became one of Britain’s most formidable secret weapons.

This is their story:
(🧵) The formation of the Commandos was authorised by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1942, emerging from an initiative led by Lord Louis Mountbatten after his appointment as Chief of Combined Operations. Their mission was to train elite fighters for covert intelligence-gathering, sabotage missions, and targeted raids—often working independently or attached to regular army units.

German-speaking refugees played a vital role in this effort with the establishment of 3 Troop within No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando in the summer of 1942. While several Commando units were formed throughout the war, 3 Troop—later known as X Troop—was unique: it was made up entirely of German-speaking refugees.

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In 1931, a 24-year-old entered the offices of MI5 and began a quiet career that would see her become one of Britain’s leading authorities on Soviet espionage.

She would go on to raise early warnings about the double agent Kim Philby.

This is the story of Milicent Bagot:
(🧵) Milicent Bagot joined MI5 in 1931 at the age of 24, following her graduation from Oxford with a degree in Classics.

Born in March 1907, she was the great-granddaughter of William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot. Her education included Putney High School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

She began her career in intelligence two years earlier in 1929, working as a secretary for the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police.

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Molly Sasson was a WW2 spy whose remarkable service has largely remained in the shadows.

From examining enemy correspondence to extracting information from wounded German soldiers—she risked everything to gather crucial intelligence on SS units.

This is her wartime story:
(🧵) Molly Sasson exemplifies the untold stories of female intelligence operatives who served in the field at the close of the Second World War.

She pursued a career with SIS/MI6.

Her mother, a professional pianist trained at the Royal Academy, spent three years in France before and during the First World War, covertly working for the War Office in England and France. The details of her intelligence activities were never revealed.

During Molly’s childhood, the family journeyed from their home in Putney, south London, for holidays in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, and France.

At 17, Molly enrolled at the International Ladies College, six miles from The Hague in Holland.

The curriculum strongly emphasised languages, the arts, and etiquette, preparing students for university education. She was set to pursue a career as a classical music singer, but the outbreak of war in 1939 altered her path.

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Have you ever wondered what it was really like to land on Normandy’s beaches, on this day in 1944?

Ken Ward, a German-Jewish refugee serving with the British forces, arrived with his squadron on Gold Beach on D-Day+1.

Here is his extraordinary first-hand account:
(🧵) The signal was raised for the launch of D-Day, and elements of the invasion force advanced in large, cumbersome convoys towards their embarkation ports.

The atmosphere buzzed with anticipation, excitement, and apprehension.

Women waved from windows, cheering the troops on their journey.

Ken Ward recalls that day:

"I realised that I might not be coming back and would not need the money I had in my pocket and threw it down to the children who whooped with joy when they saw the coins spilling on the pavement.

I called out to the other members of my crew, ‘Come on, throw your money to the kids, we won’t need it when we land over there.’ The boys on the other tanks realised what we were doing and joined us in throwing money to the waving crowd.
The harbour was black with landing craft right on the quay, with others waiting further out to berth with destroyers and different types of warships laying offshore, protecting the invasion fleet with hundreds of barrage balloons floating in the air.

There was a huge traffic jam which the harbour master and his officers were frantically trying to sort out.

The squadron kept very closely together and we followed our troop, which was finally directed onto an LST [Landing Ship Tank].

We drove up the ramp straight into the hold and were directed by a member of the ship’s crew to the other end, parking right against the closed ramp at the far end of the ship.

It was very dark, smelt of fumes, and there was a lot of clanging of chains as the crew secured the tanks to heavy metal rings let into the floor."

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Gideon Behrendt was among the 10,000 German Jews who fought for Britain during the Second World War.

In 1943, he volunteered for the Parachute Regiment and went on to jump out of the sky on D-Day.

He fought—and survived—to tell his story.

This is it:
(🧵) Gideon Behrendt, born Günter Behrendt, first joined the Pioneer Corps before volunteering for the Parachute Regiment in 1943.

He was assigned to a special platoon made up of men of German origin, during which he changed his name to Gene O’Brian for safety and secrecy.

In his privately published memoir, *The Long Road Home*, he reflects on the rigours of his training:

"The discipline was stricter now, the physical demands more strenuous than in our previous unit. While we were used to marching 15 or 20 miles a day, now we started off with a ‘comfortable’ day march of 45 to 50 miles. At first, the commandos and paratroopers trained in the same camp; later we split up for specific training and studies.."

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Geoffrey Stuart was a German-born Jew who served with British forces on D-Day.

As his tank squadron advanced through the treacherous town of Villers-Bocage, their only means of identifying enemy positions was to draw German fire—forcing them to reveal themselves:
(🧵) Geoffrey Stuart (born Gerd Werner Stein, August 1922) served with A Squadron of the 8th Hussars.

He was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, approximately 100 kilometres from Berlin, near what is now the German-Polish border. At the time, the city had a population of around 100,000. Geoffrey’s family led a comfortable and prosperous life, employing a chauffeur, a cook, and a nanny.

Their residence was equipped with central heating—an uncommon luxury during that era.

Geoffrey’s father, Georg Stein, had served with distinction in the First World War and had been awarded the Iron Cross.

He operated a successful fashion enterprise, encompassing three workshops that produced and sold garments, including furs, men’s suits, ladies’ attire, and underwear. The family’s shop was destroyed during Kristallnacht.

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During WW2, 10,000 German & Austrian Jews escaped Nazi persecution and enlisted in the British Armed Forces.

They became known as 'Churchill’s German Army'.

Here are 9 Quotes From German Jews Who Fought for Britain on D-Day.

A thread to mark the 81st anniversary of D-Day:
(🧵) 1.

“I wanted to give something back to Britain for saving my life ... But for all the risks, I never once regretted being part of the biggest invasion force ever to land in the Normandy beaches in June 1944, even though it brought personal losses.” - Willy Field

He parachuted into Normandy on D-Day.

Later, he taught SS prisoners the truth about the Holocaust.

This is the story of a Jewish refugee turned British paratrooper, who helped re-educate Nazi POWs in the heart of Cumbria—through the process of denazification:
(🧵) Ex-Berliner Harry Brooke (Heinz Brück) was posted to No.76 Camp, Merrythought Camp, Calthwaite in Cumberland (now Cumbria).

It was part of a group of POW camps in the north of England which came under Northern Command and constituted the furthest north of all the German POW camps.

Brooke had been parachuted into Normandy just hours before D-Day with the 8th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division.

‘When I was dropped into France,’ he commented, ‘in the early hours of D-Day, half of my Parachute Regiment did not survive to see freedom and live a full life. They did not make it to the ground alive. I was lucky and survived.’

When the fighting was over, Harry returned from Germany to a military base in Tilshead, Salisbury Plain.

He was called into the CO’s office because the army was looking for interpreters to deal with the influx of Germans being held in camps across Britain.

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At just 22 years old, she founded her own covert intelligence network during World War One.

Captured by the Germans, she was imprisoned, tried, and condemned to death.

She faced the firing squad with unwavering courage—refusing a blindfold.

This is Gabrielle Petit:
(🧵) At the age of twenty-two, Gabrielle Petit was formally recruited by a British Secret Service officer in the summer of 1915, during a crossing of the English Channel en route to England.

During their conversation, she expressed a desire to contribute to the war effort by volunteering for medical service. Her boldness and fearless demeanour left a strong impression on the officer, who invited her to work as an agent for Britain in occupied Belgium.

The opportunity thrilled her—not only for the sense of purpose it offered, but also because it came with the promise of payment.

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He escaped Nazi Berlin at 16, intercepted coded submarine messages for British intelligence, parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, and helped re-educate POWs to rebuild Germany.

Let's explore the incredible WW2 life of Harry Brooke:
(🧵) At the age of 16 Harry Brooke, then known as Heinz Bruck, left Berlin and arrived at Kitchener Camp in May 1939.

Although he came over on his own and not as part of a group, he was under the auspices of the Kindertransport operation.

Initially he worked as a labourer digging trenches and rebuilding the roads around Kitchener Camp.

Then he was posted to the Radio Station which monitored German short-wave signals being transmitted to their submarines.

The British Intelligence Service used some of the refugees to listen to, and decipher, German radio messages.

A designated hut was fitted with short-wave receivers and recording equipment.

The Germans used five wave lengths at that time and would code their submarines using girls’ names.

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From escaping Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to risking it all for Palestine, Henry Hutton’s journey through war, betrayal, and survival will leave you speechless.

This is his WW2 story:
(🧵) Henry Hutton came from the Czechoslovakian town of Novy Bohumin bordering Germany and Poland.

After the Munich agreement in 1938, his family decided that it was best for him to emigrate to Palestine.

Czechoslovakia had mutual aid agreements with Britain and France, but in 1938 the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed away Czechoslovakia to Germany without any consideration for the Czechs, believing that the country was too small to survive the power of Germany.

To avert another war, Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler.

Ultimately this did not work.

The region around Henry’s hometown of Novy Bohumin was claimed by Poland and there were both Polish and German Custom posts there.

Henry was old enough to be conscripted into the Polish Army and at that time Poland had begun to enforce the conscription of men aged 19 or 20.

The Poles took over the territory, Hungary took over Slovakia, the Russians took land to the east and the Germans took the rest - leaving very little of Czechoslovakia.

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

She outsmarted the Gestapo and was only 25 years old at the time.

Her name was Andrée De Jongh.

This is the story of a heroine who co-built a WW2 secret escape line:
(🧵) An effective MI9 escape line had already been operating since the summer of 1941 from Belgium, across France to Spain, that was later named the Comet Line.

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

The purpose was to set up safe houses along the Pyrenees to bring Allied airmen and soldiers out of Europe and form an escape line.

De Jongh was the daughter of a Brussels schoolmaster Frédéric De Jongh and part of a tight-knit family.

Her father had nicknamed her ‘Little Cyclone’ because she swept through life in a whirlwind of energy.

She was trained in first aid and drew her inspiration from Edith Cavell, the British nurse who had been shot by the Germans in the First World War for helping Allied soldiers and airmen in Belgium.

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Sigmund Freud’s grandson was arrested during a maths exam, deported to Australia, mocked during basic training—then dropped behind enemy lines with the SOE.

Anton Freud was incredibly brave—and this is his Second World War story:
(🧵) Anton, grandson of Sigmund Freud and the eldest child of Martin and Ernestine Freud, born 3 April 1921, had left Vienna with his family in 1938.

Once in England, Anton studied chemical engineering at Loughborough College but was arrested during a maths exam and interned as an ‘enemy alien’ on the Isle of Man in 1940.

As was the case with many of the first younger internees, he was sent on the Dunera to Australia.

His identity number is recorded on the Dunera list as E.39327.

He was released in August 1941 and returned to England in November 1941 on the SS Stirling Castle.

Like his father Martin Freud, Anton joined the Pioneer Corps in Ilfracombe where he completed his basic training.

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He escaped a death sentence, fought Nazis in WW2, received the Military Cross from Field-Marshal Montgomery in 1945—and built a billion-pound empire before dying mysteriously at sea.

This is the unbelievable rise and fall of Robert Maxwell:
(🧵) Robert Maxwell, a colourful, bombastic and controversial figure, was born on 10 June 1923 into an impoverished family in the Czech village of Slatinské Doly on the disputed Romanian border.

His original name was Abraham Lajbi Hoch.

He received an Orthodox Jewish education at a yeshiva (Jewish school) in Sighet and later at the Pressburger Yeshiva in Bratislava.

He left Czechoslovakia for Hungary just before the start of the Second World War and was imprisoned there under sentence of death until the French consul negotiated a fair trial for him.

On the way to his trial, he managed to escape and crossed the border into Yugoslavia.

Aided by the French consulate in Belgrade he escaped via Salonika, Istanbul and Aleppo, finally reaching Beirut where he joined other Czechs who had enlisted in the Foreign Legion and were awaiting their transfer to France.

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Just before Easter 1940, 'Coco the Clown' volunteered to join the British Forces, also bringing laughter to the Pioneer Corps on Dartmoor during the Second World War.

This is Nicolai Poliakoff's vivid first-hand account of his wartime circus showbusiness:
(🧵) Throughout his long career as an entertainer, Coco the Clown brought immeasurable happiness and laughter to children and adults alike.

Known to everyone as simply Coco the Clown, his stage name masked his Russian roots. He was born Nicolai Poliakoff in 1900 in a theatre in Besinowiz where his mother worked.

His career as an entertainer began at the age of five when he sang and danced in an army officers’ club to earn money to feed his impoverished family.

During the Revolution he served in the 11th Siberian Regiment and later with the Red Army.

During the 1920s he worked in the Circus Busch in Berlin, from where he received a contract to perform in England.

In 1929 he joined Bertram Mill’s Circus and thereafter made England his permanent home.

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Today marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

During WW2, across three secret sites, 100 German-Jewish refugees bugged and recorded the conversations of Nazi generals on British soil.

Let's remember their vital work that paved the way for Victory in Europe:
(🧵) As Allied armies struggled in hard fought battles to take Berlin in the final days of World War II, victory was in sight.

On 7 May 1945 Germany signed unconditional surrender to the Allies and the war in Europe was over.

The following day on 8 May 1945, there were celebrations in towns, cities and villages for VE Day – Victory in Europe Day.

As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day there is now greater understanding of how years of intelligence gathering enabled that victory.

There is an appreciation that everyone played their part – whether fighting on the frontline or working on the Home Front.

This was a united effort to defeat Nazi tyranny.

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