Execution of Spies in England WW2
binnacle
Six were executed in Pentonville Prison between 1940-1944.
I understand the firing squad was the method used in the Tower
and the hangman at Pentonville. Why was one shot and six hung,
when they were all guilty of the same crime - spying ?.
Bill
Mike Potter
was offered the choice of passing false information back to Germany (the
double-cross system), or public trial for violating the Treachery Act.
Upon conviction the only punishment was death. Only one chose trial and
he was convicted. The 20 Committee (20 = Roman XX = double cross) did
not mind occasional executions of spies because they thought that this
reassured the public that the security services were competent, and
reasured the Germans that apparently functioning spies were real. I
think postwar evidence revealed that at least toward the end of the war
German intelligence analysts were not fooled.
Actually about 15 spies were hanged in various British prisons during
WW2. Two or three were executed at Gibraltar, for example. The main
reason for hanging them was that in WW1 local guardsman and policemen
had greatly disliked being assigned to duty on firing squads, while
professional executioners did not object. The German spy who was shot
was found in a field with his leg broken from landing by parachute. He
possessed but was not wearing a military uniform so he received a proper
military-style death penalty.
binnacle
"Mike Potter" < wrote in message .
snip for brevity
>
> Actually about 15 spies were hanged in various British prisons during
> WW2. Two or three were executed at Gibraltar, for example. The main
> reason for hanging them was that in WW1 local guardsman and policemen
> had greatly disliked being assigned to duty on firing squads, while
> professional executioners did not object. The German spy who was shot
> was found in a field with his leg broken from landing by parachute. He
> possessed but was not wearing a military uniform so he received a proper
> military-style death penalty.
>
On further checking I find that nine spies were executed at Wandsworth.
This brings the total so far to sixteen executed in U.K. prisons. 1 shot, 15
hung.
My source - http://www.murderfile.co.uk/index.htm
Regards,
Bill
Scott D. Orr
wrote:
>Thanks for the info.
>On further checking I find that nine spies were executed at Wandsworth.
>This brings the total so far to sixteen executed in U.K. prisons. 1 shot, 15
>hung.
I apologize for the nitpick, but the word for an exexcution is
"hanged".
Scott Orr
Rich Rostrom
>The 20 Committee (20 = Roman XX = double cross) did
>not mind occasional executions of spies because they thought that this
>reassured the public that the security services were competent, and
>reasured the Germans that apparently functioning spies were real. I
>think postwar evidence revealed that at least toward the end of the war
>German intelligence analysts were not fooled.
There is no evidence of this that I have seen.
The Germans relied on GARBO for V-weapon target
data right up to the end of the war.
In 1945, Rodger Winn (of the U-Boat Tracking Room)
used TATE to sell the Germans an imaginary minefield
at a seamount used as a reference point by U-boats
running submerged - and the Germans ordered the
U-boats to stay 50 km away from the seamount.
--
Never consume legumes before transacting whatsoever | Rich Rostrom
even in the outermost courtyard of a descendant of |
Timur the Terrible. | rrostrom@dummy
--- Avram Davidson, _Dr. Bhumbo Singh_ | 21stcentury.net
Osmo Ronkanen
<w....@btinternet.com wrote:
>On further checking I find that nine spies were executed at Wandsworth.
>This brings the total so far to sixteen executed in U.K. prisons. 1 shot, 15
>hung.
That sounds to be quite a small number. Of course Britain being
an Island could affect it much. In Finland about 400-500 Russian spies
were executed. All by firing squad as we had no other
infrastructure for executions (death penalty had not been used in
peace time for over 100 years)
Osmo
Bill Twist
Interestingly, the UK gave many German spies a choice. Work for us, or be
executed. I think most of them worked for the English. Generally, spies
inserted into England would be captured quite quickly, and then turned and
used to feed disinformation (along with some real information) to the
Germans. That might also have contributed to the low number of
executions. "Operation North Pole" comes to mind, but I think that was
the German name for a spy ring the British had successfully turned.
Eventually, the Germans figured out what was going on, and the British
figured out that the Germans had figured out what was going on. They
danced about a bit, and then the whole thing was terminated by the British
(IIRC) with a witty message to the Germans. I'd have to look it up to be
sure.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Real men use flintlocks... In the rain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Osmo Ronkanen
>
>Interestingly, the UK gave many German spies a choice. Work for us, or be
>executed.
That was often done here also. I do not have any data on how many
accepted but there were some.
Osmo
binnacle
"Bill Twist" < wrote in message
> > In Article <"binnacle" wrote:
>Osmo wrote
.
> > >On further checking I find that nine spies were executed at Wandsworth.
> > >This brings the total so far to sixteen executed in U.K. prisons. 1
shot, 15
> > >hung.
> >
> > That sounds to be quite a small number. Of course Britain being
> > an Island could affect it much. In Finland about 400-500 Russian spies
> > were executed. All by firing squad as we had no other
> > infrastructure for executions (death penalty had not been used in
> > peace time for over 100 years)
> >
> > Osmo
>
> Interestingly, the UK gave many German spies a choice. Work for us, or be
> executed. I think most of them worked for the English. Generally, spies
> inserted into England would be captured quite quickly, and then turned and
> Germans. That might also have contributed to the low number of
> executions. "Operation North Pole" comes to mind, but I think that was
> the German name for a spy ring the British had successfully turned.
> Eventually, the Germans figured out what was going on, and the British
> figured out that the Germans had figured out what was going on. They
> danced about a bit, and then the whole thing was terminated by the British
> (IIRC) with a witty message to the Germans. I'd have to look it up to be
> sure.
IIRC Operation North Pole was a successful operation carried out by the
Germans. SOE were dropping agents into Holland unaware that a German
reception was awaiting them. An SOE wireless operator had been captured
and used by the Germans to communicate with London. SOE failed to recognise
that his message contained a prearranged indication in his signal that he
was in German control. SOE over a period of time gave the locus and ETA of
the next agent's arrival to the Germans.This resulted in the capture and
deaths of many brave men and women. Only after an escaped prisoner
managed to alert London did SOE realise they were being fooled by the
Germans, who eventually sent a witty message to London when they realised
the British had belatedly woken up to what was happening.
Regards,
Bill
>
> --
Bill Twist
You are correct Sir. I do remember reading about the British doing the
same thing to the Germans, I think it was in one of David Kahn's books.
David Thornley
binnacle <w....@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>IIRC Operation North Pole was a successful operation carried out by the
>Germans. SOE were dropping agents into Holland unaware that a German
>reception was awaiting them. An SOE wireless operator had been captured
>and used by the Germans to communicate with London. SOE failed to recognise
>that his message contained a prearranged indication in his signal that he
>was in German control.
According to "Between Silk and Cyanide", by Leo Marks, SOE did notice
the indications (or, rather the lack of the deliberate mistake an
operator was supposed to make when not in German control), since
the messages Marks saw were all marked as lacking the confirmation.
This didn't seem to stop the Dutch section of SOE from assuming that
all was well. Marks tells how he spent a great deal of time and
effort trying to get SOE to acknowledge the fact that the entire
Dutch network was compromised.
Recommended reading.
--
David H. Thornley | If you want my opinion, ask.
da...@thornley.net | If you don't, flee.
http://www.thornley.net/~thornley/david/ | O-
binnacle
"Osmo Ronkanen" < wrote in message .
> In Article "binnacle" > wrote:
> >On further checking I find that nine spies were executed at Wandsworth.
> >This brings the total so far to sixteen executed in U.K. prisons.
>1 shot, 15 hung.
>
> That sounds to be quite a small number. Of course Britain being
> an Island could affect it much. In Finland about 400-500 Russian spies
> were executed. All by firing squad as we had no other
> infrastructure for executions (death penalty had not been used in
> peace time for over 100 years)
>
details below may be of interest.
George Johnson Armstrong -
http://www.etherington.demon.co.uk/george_johnson_armstrong.htm
Duncan A.C. Scott-Ford -
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/27-1-1999-22-53-36.html
A third, Oswald John Job, may have been British, no info. available
Regards,
Bill
> Osmo