The Hornet's Sting (19 page)

This assurance suited the Princes because it gave them the perfect excuse to do virtually nothing, perhaps for years. However, Turnbull concluded early in his reign as operational head of SOE Denmark that it would be worth far more to the Allies to have these men waiting passively on the inside than to risk aggravating them with a few spectacular but ultimately trivial sabotage missions. And if the Princes said they had established a secret army to help drive out the Nazis when the time was right, Turnbull saw little point in provoking them by setting up a rival network.

In London, though, Turnbull’s bosses were rightly wary of relying on assurances from Danish military figures who had done nothing when Hitler had invaded their country and were, in essence, still doing nothing. Ideally, SOE’s upper hierarchy wanted action—quick results from their new Danish Section to show Churchill that the fires of resistance in occupied Europe could spread north, too. Failing that, they favored a hands-on approach to the organization of the Danish secret army. At the appropriate moment, the British wanted to be able to sound the call to arms themselves, without having to deal with middlemen in Danish Intelligence.

Tommy Sneum was the sort of daredevil character who personified the British vision of what would be required when the tables were finally turned on the Germans in mainland Europe, so perhaps it was inevitable that his brilliance would shine into the rival corridors of London’s spy world, reflecting unfavorably on Turnbull’s tentative beginnings in Stockholm.

While SIS kept Tommy away from SOE, they were under a moral responsibility to share with their rivals at least some of the information he had delivered. However, Britain’s established intelligence service didn’t bother to tell the upstarts at SOE that they had recruited Sneum for a covert mission inside Denmark. Even so, SOE were sufficiently impressed by what they heard to swing into action and exert pressure on their own field chief to take advantage. This was just the sort of dilemma Turnbull didn’t want. Sneum had supplied enough information for the Scot to begin creating a secret army under direct SOE control, rather than continuing down his favored route of channelling everything through the Princes. Nevertheless, he had to find an acceptable response to a communiqué from his superiors in London dated 14 July 1941:

Turnbull would not have been pleased to receive what in effect was an order to act on Sneum’s intelligence and have his own people move in on the Princes’ domain. Although Sneum wasn’t mentioned by name here, Turnbull’s highly placed friends, Nordentoft, Lunding and Gyth, would soon have made it their business to discover the identities of these Danish naval lieutenants who had acted independently, and thereby put them all in such an awkward position.

Such ominous political undertones would eventually catch up with Tommy. But for a young man who had stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale, at the moment it simply felt good to be alive in the capital city of a free country. While Denmark and the task ahead would always be at the back of his mind, here was a chance to sample the good life again.

The Wellington Club in Knightsbridge always offered a fun environment, especially after Tommy began an affair with Rosie, the raven-haired manageress. It hardly seemed to matter that she was married because, of course, so was he. Both seemed to sense the romance had long-term potential, although Sneum wasn’t about to be limited to one woman now, not with time so short. No one could have been more exciting or natural than Rosie, but that wasn’t the point. For a confident young man, London was a heavenly playground.

The SIS was initially prepared to turn a blind eye to Tommy’s nocturnal activities, as long as he showed dedication to their cause by day, and stayed away from certain high-profile haunts. Sneum wrote in his wartime report of this period: ‘I got a daily visit from people from the Air Ministry, who wanted reports, sketches and information about various things from Denmark. I was told to keep away from the Danish Club and the Danish Legation. The Danish Club, in particular, was regarded as one of the dirtiest places in London, virtually a center for German spies.’

But soon his new superiors grew uneasy about the number of women their agent was meeting. In vain, Rabagliati took steps to try to limit Sneum’s social life. Tommy was transferred to the Ebury Court Hotel at 24 East Street. There Flight Officer Scrivener, a junior intelligence officer at the Air Ministry, who was also attached to SIS, was a long-term resident. His lifestyle was financed by a possessive mother, who would visit the hotel to check on her boy and then sit in the foyer all day writing letters. Sneum recalled: ‘She was a jealous mother who wouldn’t allow her son to have a lot of pleasure with other women.’ Rabagliati considered the environment ideal, hoping Tommy’s passions would be tempered by Mrs Scrivener’s austere regime.

Sneum, though, had hopes of his own, and they didn’t all revolve around women. He wanted the British to start showing the Danes some proper respect by incorporating them into the existing military structure. In his military report, he wrote:

For a man who was supposed to be staying in the shadows, however, Tommy was rather busy in the social swirl of England’s capital. During his fortnight at the Ebury Court, he did enough drinking and womanizing to last most men several summers. In his mind Else and Marianne were now part of another world, far across the North Sea. And when the time came to return to Denmark on his mission, they would have to remain in that other world; for Tommy knew that he wouldn’t be able to contact his wife because of the security risks involved. This didn’t seem to bother him. In truth, he didn’t miss her and he knew for sure now that he didn’t love her either. The marriage had been a terrible mistake, a decision taken under extreme pressure. Besides, this was war; he could be dead in a month, like so many other young men. As far as he was concerned, he was single again—and time was short.

Tommy’s attitude had a life-changing impact on Flight Officer Scrivener, his previously oppressed fellow guest at the hotel. Since young Scrivener had been designated to keep an eye on Sneum, he had no option but to go out with the Dane on his nights of debauchery. ‘His mother thought I would lead him astray ... and she was right,’ recalled Tommy.

Some mornings they would stagger back into the hotel nursing headaches or trying to hide the smiles on their faces. The vigilant Mrs Scrivener was not pleased by this dramatic change in her offspring’s behavior; and it wasn’t hard for her to work out who was to blame. Furious, she let her feelings be known in a series of confrontations with Tommy at the hotel. ‘Christ Almighty, she was livid with me, this old dragon. But it was time her boy lived a little, and I made sure he did just that,’ Tommy chuckled years later.

How much of this was reported to Rabagliati is not known. But it seems unlikely that Scrivener cut his own throat by relaying the full extent of his and Sneum’s hedonism. Besides, on many of their nights out they bumped into none other than Flight Lieutenant Otto Gregory, Tommy’s erstwhile interrogator in Battersea. Since Gregory was attached to the SIS it may have been no coincidence that their paths kept crossing, but if the dashing flight lieutenant was on a reconnaissance mission to see what Sneum was getting up to, he certainly didn’t seem to find it an arduous task. In fact, despite being ten years older, his capacity for fun seemed to surpass even Tommy’s. Sneum recalled:

Although that was a joke, Tommy did remain deadly serious in all his dealings by day, as he continued to take part in conferences with Rabagliati about the Danish situation and the dangerous task ahead. The older man gradually won Sneum’s confidence, even though he didn’t always tell his fledgling spy what he wanted to hear. And Tommy seemed to impress his new boss, even though Mrs Scrivener complained vociferously about the wild young Dane. The fun-loving pilot and worldly spymaster did their best to ignore the old woman, which contributed to such an excellent rapport that one day Rabagliati asked a very specific question: ‘How highly do you rate Christian Michael Rottboell?’

Tommy remembered later how he answered: ‘I liked Rottboell, he was an awfully nice chap. But it was his natural way to be as honest as he could be, he couldn’t lie or do anything underhand. That’s what I told Rabagliati.’

The colonel looked horrified at Sneum’s reply, and screwed up his face. ‘Rottboell can’t lie? But you have to lie. It’s the only way to survive in this game. If you ever bump into him again, don’t tell him anything.’

Of course, Rabagliati had not merely been making conversation when he’d posed the question. Rottboell had ignored Sneum’s instruction to wait for contact from England. Instead, he had used his political connections to reach Sweden by boat and had headed straight for the British Legation, where he had met Ronald Turnbull. On 28 July, the SOE field chief for Denmark had sent his immediate boss in London, Commander Ralph Hollingworth, the following communication:

1. Young Danish officer named Christian Rottboell visited me this morning with the following story.
   
2. He and friends Sneum and Pedersen, former a pilot, have made plans to extricate themselves and 20 flying officers from Denmark.
   
3. Sneum and Pedersen flew off in Moth from Flyn one month ago, in an attempt to reach England. They had agreed with Rottboell to send code message on BBC after arrival indicating day and time when RAF Flying Boat could pick up 20 Danes from Tissoe Lake South East of Kallundberg on Sjaelland, which lies in wooded district free from German troops.
   
4. Sneum himself visited Air Attaché here some months ago and was handed on to [BLANKED OUT] from CO. This confirmed.
   
5. Rottboell says he is nephew of Consul General in England, said to be keen vigorous young man.
   
6. Can you check this story? Think I could use R inside Denmark. He has visa for only two days so please reply immediately if you have any knowledge of the matter.
   
7. R says they have been listening for message on BBC but nothing comes through.
   
8. Suggest checking with Consul General if Nephew is tallying with Brown-Blond hair with deep-set strong brown eyes. R says he is mechanic not pilot.
   

Rabagliati’s interest in Rottboell indicated that he thought the young Dane was about to be recruited by the SOE, for what might turn into a rival mission inside Denmark. The spymaster knew that time was short if he was going to get his own, SIS, agent back into Denmark early enough to take control of intelligence operations there for the British. The battle between the rival British departments was gathering pace, with the Danes their unwitting pawns. Tommy Sneum, who didn’t even know the difference between SIS and SOE at the time, observed later: ‘From what I understand there was a lot of jealousy from SOE people, afraid of their position, scared that they would not be recognized as proper intelligence officers.’ But the insecurity ran two ways, with SIS equally concerned that their secret domain had been invaded by a bunch of bright, eager but inexperienced young SOE men, not long out of Oxford and Cambridge.