Polish spy who fed information on Hitler's secrets?

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide

♂

Edited by: Ziemowit Feb 14, 10, 20:58 #1

MI6 obtained vital secrets from a spy operating at the very heart of Hitler’s high command during the most crucial years of the war, newly discovered intelligence documents have revealed - says The Times of London (13 February 2010).

Agent Knopf was initially recruited and run by Polish Intelligence. In 1940, the Polish Government in exile in London agreed to hand over all its intelligence material to the Secret Intelligence Service [SIS], better known as MI6, providing Britain with a steady stream of top-grade intelligence for the rest of the war.

One British intelligence report noted: “The source, of whom the Poles think very highly, is not himself a Pole. He has not specified his informants, but states that they are highly placed and in touch with the German High Command.”

The officer in charge of liaising between Polish and British Intelligence was Commander Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale, the former MI6 station chief in Paris. A friend of Ian Fleming, who was then working in naval intelligence, Biffy Dunderdale was one of the models for the character of James Bond.

Dunderdale and MI6 were plainly delighted with the stream of accurate intelligence arriving in Whitehall via the Polish Secret Service.

Historians have tended to play down the wartime role of MI6 — in comparison with the crucial importance of the messages decoded at Bletchley Park — but the discovery of Agent Knopf by the Cambridge historian Paul Winter shows that Britain obtained accurate and highly valuable intelligence from a network of agents in the upper ranks of the Third Reich.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7025406.ece

A comment to this article by Ivan Nydia says:
I forgot to mention that it was the POLISH who first cracked the ENIGMA code ...AND supplied us with details of the V2 rockets ... but they never seem to get the recognition for it ?? I wonder why ?

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Feb 14, 10, 21:40 #2
The British government had info for a long time but stuck to their policy of appeasement, thanks to Chamberlain. The Foreign Minister was pretty vocal in his endorsement of action being taken but high command did nothing. Hitler was very careful who he trusted.

TITThreads: 9 Posts: 353 Joined: Jan 7, 10 ♂	Feb 14, 10, 21:40 #3
After British sold us down the river Soviets invented Polish version of James Bond During '60-ties they were feeding Poles in TV with its own version. We call him Hans Kloss :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kloss Propaganda of the highest sort

Bratwurst BoyThreads: 11 Posts: 14,563 Joined: Apr 2, 07 ♂	Edited by: Bratwurst Boy Feb 14, 10, 22:23 #4
Oh boy...the whole german Abwehr was a joke....the boss of it, Admiral Canaris, got rightly hanged as he was found out eventually shortly before the war was over. We just don't do this spy stuff...

TITThreads: 9 Posts: 353 Joined: Jan 7, 10 ♂	Feb 14, 10, 22:35 #5
Bratwurst Boy: We just don't do this spy stuff... nice one, everybody likes sarcasm

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 15, 10, 00:28 #6
Ziemowit: The source, of whom the Poles think very highly, is not himself a Pole So the spy is not a Pole but you say that he is Polish. Right. One would assume that this is the reverse of the Antoni Sawoniak syndrome, where any Pole who did anything wrong during WWII becomes anything other than Polish.

TITThreads: 9 Posts: 353 Joined: Jan 7, 10 ♂	Feb 15, 10, 00:35 #7
I wouldn't be surprised if the spy was a polish Jew, Harry. Brits knew that this guy was not polish:)

♂

Feb 15, 10, 16:15 #8

Harry:

So the spy is not a Pole but you say that he is Polish. Right

Your semantic instinct has been letting you down here, Harry. A "Polish" spy means that the spy worked for Poland or the Polish government, and not that he was Polish by birth or nationality. Kim Philby was a Soviet spy, not an "English" spy, although he was English by nationality.

One should assume that you suffer from the so-called syndrome of Harry, where your instincts are evidently blurred by your supposedly anti-Polish stance everywhere you turn you head.

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Edited by: Harry Feb 15, 10, 16:32 #9
Ziemowit: Kim Philby was a Soviet spy, not an "English" spy, although he was English by nationality. Really? Would that be why he was a Soviet citizen, held the title Hero of the Soviet Union and given a hero's funeral in Moscow? Was it Agent Knopf who gave the Polish government the information they used to plan Operation Runaway before the start of WWII?

♂

Feb 15, 10, 19:21 #10

Harry:

Really? Would that be why he was a Soviet citizen, held the title Hero of the Soviet Union and given a hero's funeral in Moscow?

I think he held his British citizenship at the time of spying for the Soviet Union, thus being an Englishman and a Soviet spy at the same time. All the "awards" you mention were granted on him when he fled his country; he would then be a Soviet citizen, not a Soviet spy.

Your "cognitive" instinct has been letting you down this time.

ZIMMYThreads: 10 Posts: 2,353 Joined: Feb 21, 09 ♂	Feb 15, 10, 21:11 #11
It's been noticeable that Harry's political prism is very skewed as evidenced by his constant reinterpretations of what is posted. His arguments begin with default criteria which is antiPolish and he works his continual fiction from there.

joepilsudskiThreads: 44 Posts: 2,529 Joined: Apr 27, 07 ♂	Feb 15, 10, 21:19 #12
Harry: Really? Would that be why he was a Soviet citizen, held the title Hero of the Soviet Union and given a hero's funeral in Moscow? He was made a citizen after he was 'found out', or right at the same time...Illustrates problems with 'dual citizens'...Serious problem in the US currently.

♂

Edited by: 1jola Feb 16, 10, 09:07 #13

The spy was a German.

The spy also identified the location of the Wolfsschanze, or Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s fortified military headquarters on the Eastern Front. The lair was built in the woods of Eastern Prussia in the run-up to Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and Hitler spent many months there between 1941 and November 1944. The British noted that Knopf’s “accurate information on... the position of Hitler’s HQ [is] confirmed from Most Secret Sources”.

Hitler spent over 800 uninterupted days there. The myth that the allies didn't know its location goes on.

While gratefully accepting Polish Intelligence, Britain was secretly spying on the Polish Government in exile by intercepting and decoding its messages. These intercepted messages provided additional evidence of Knopf’s value and reliability as a spy.

The Brits are so thorough.

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 16, 10, 09:18 #14
1jola: Hitler spent over 800 uninterupted days there. On that point you are most certainly getting confused. Hitler did indeed spend more than 800 days there between 24 June 1941 and 20 November 1944 but that time period was very much interrupted by numerous trips to various places in Europe. 1jola: The Brits are so thorough. The first rule of spying is not to trust anybody....

60 [Guests - 40 / Members - 20] users on live forums now

Home \| Unanswered \| Archives \| Random \| Statistics	Time in Poland: 18:40 / May 26
About Us \| Contact Us \| Rules, Privacy \| Poland Advertising	© 2005-12 PolishForums.com

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Unanswered \| Archives
POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Poles in Poland and Abroad	Witamy, Guest \| PF Members \| Gold Members