List of spies in World War II

Last updated

The following is an incomplete list of notable spies during World War II.

Contents

Spies for France

PersonNotesReference(s)
Peggy Taylor Taylor was a French spy who shot and killed a German Gestapo colonel when she was 21. [1] 4
Gabrielle Bonheur (spy) Gabrielle was a French nazi spy who reported information to French colony. Was later accused.

Spies for Germany

PersonNotesReference(s)
Mathilde Carré Carré was a double agent. [2]
Coco Chanel Chanel was a Nazi spy, proven in declassified documents by historian Hal Vaughan in 2011. [3]
Harold Cole Cole betrayed the French resistance. He was shot and killed by French police in 1946. [4]
Astrid Dövle Dollis Dahlgren She was a Norwegian employed by the Germans. [5]
Fritz Duquesne was a former Boer soldier and big-game hunter who had spied for Imperial Germany in WWI, and was the ringleader of the Duquesne Spy Ring in the US during WWII . [6]
Jessie Jordan Scottish hairdesser actually arrested in 1937 and imprisoned until she could be deported [7]
Horst Kopkow Kopkow was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of captured Allied agents. [8]
Elyesa Bazna Code name Cicero; worked for the British ambassador in Ankara and photographed many top-secrets documents for Nazi Germany
Edward Kerling Kerling was the leader of Operation Pastorius. Executed in 1942.
Herbert Hans Haupt Haupt was a member of Operation Pastorius. Executed in 1942.
Richard Kauder Kauder was the leader of the Max and Moritz Networks supplying rumours and convincing made-up reports on Soviet Union and Mediterranean region from Sofia

Spies for Italy

PersonNotesReference(s)
Carmelo Borg Pisani Carmelo Borg Pisani was a Maltese-born artist and Italian Fascist who, on being discovered during an espionage mission in Malta, was found guilty by a British war tribunal and executed for treason.
Rodolfo Siviero Siviero was an Italian secret agent, art historian and intellectual, most notable for his important work in recovering artworks stolen from Italy during the Second World War as part of the 'Nazi plunder'.
Pino Lella Lella claimed to have led Jews fleeing Italy through the Alps into Switzerland to freedom and later, as a Nazi, to have passed information to the Italian resistance.[ citation needed ] Critics note that none of his claims have been corroborated, [9] either by those he claimed to rescue or by the Italian resistance [10] and that such claims might have been self-serving fabrications to avoid recriminations after World War II for enlisting as a Nazi. [11]

Spies for the Netherlands

PersonNotesReference(s)
Dirk Klop Klop was killed in the Venlo Incident. [12]

Spies for Japan

PersonNotesReference(s)
Frederick Rutland Was a former WWI British naval aviation officer who was paid by the Japanese to Spy on American military aviation developments in California and Hawaii before Pearl Harbor. [13] [14]
William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill Was a Scottish Peer and British Royal Air Force Officer who passed military secrets to the Japanese before Pearl Harbor [15]
Velvalee Dickinson Known as the Doll Woman, Dickinson used her New York City Doll shop as base of operations to spy on the US Navy and send stenographic messages to her Japanese handlers in South America. She was caught by the FBI in 1944 and was sentenced to ten years in prison. [16]
Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan Heenan was a British Indian Army Captain who used radio equipment to transmit intelligence to Japanese forces during the Battle of Malay. His espionage discovered by his fellow officers and was summarily executed before the British defeat in the Battle of Singapore [17]


Spies for Poland

PersonNotesReference(s)
Roman Czerniawski Czerniawski was a D-Day spy. [18] [19]
Jan Kowalewski Kowaleski helped Poland achieve victory in the Battle of Warsaw. [20]
Andrzej Kowerski (also called Andrew Kennedy)Kowerski was a Lieutenant for Poland during the war.
Kazimierz Leski Leski was a pilot during the war. He was captured and went to prison, and then he escaped. [21]

Spies for the Soviet Union

PersonNotesReference(s)
Alexandru Nicolschi He was a Soviet spy. [22]
Richard Sorge Worked in Japan and Germany; Passed Information about Japan were crucial for the Soviet victory in Operation Barbarossa

Spies for Sweden

PersonNotesReference(s)
Karin Lannby Lannby was a spy for Sweden. [23]

Spies for the United Kingdom

PersonNotesReference(s)
Sverre Bergh Bergh spied on missile facilities in Germany. He illegally moved German plans Wasserfall surface-to-air-missiles out of Germany. [24]
Blanche Charlet Charlet worked with SOE, a British organization that went against the Axis powers. [25]
Roman Czerniawski Czerniawski was a D-Day spy. [18] [19]
Madeleine Damerment Damerment worked for SOE and was later shot. [26]
Claude Dansey Dansey was assistant chief of the SIS. [27]
Wilfred Dunderdale Dunderdale was a commander during the war. [28]
Ian Fleming Fleming was a Lieutenant Commander RNVR in the British NID and was a key member of the NID 17. [29]
Juan Pujol García (a.k.a. Garbo and Alaric)A Spanish double agent loyal to Great Britain, García played a key role deceiving Nazi Germany during Operation Fortitude, delaying reinforcements from Nazi Germany to Normandy.
Tor Glad (a.k.a. Jeff) [30]
Kurt Glauber Glauber was a Jewish Austrian who escaped to Britain. He joined MI6. On his second mission, part of which involved gathering information on Nazi Nuclear developments, he was betrayed. Glauber was severely brutalized by the Nazis for being both a Jew and a British spy, refused to reveal any information. He was murdered in Mauthausen Concentration Camp. [31]
Graham Greene Greene was involved in the SIS (also known as MI6). [32]
Virginia Hall Hall was a spy for the SOE, American OSS and the CIA. Note that the OSS was a precursor to the CIA. [33]
Mary Katherine Herbert Herbert worked as a translator at Air Ministry in London after working with the British Embassy.
Ron Jeffery [34]
Noor Inayat Khan Khan was a SOE agent and became the first female wireless operator to be sent into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during the war. [35]
Andrzej Kowerski (also called Andrew Kennedy)Kowerski was a Lieutenant for Poland during the war.
Lionel Lee Lee was a British Jew. He joined MI6. On his second mission,he was betrayed. and captured. Lee was murdered in the Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp. [36]
Patrick Leigh Fermor Leigh Fermor was an SOE operative in Heraklion, Crete, who abducted the German General Heinrich Kreipe to Egypt. [37]
Stewart Menzies [38]
Merlin Minshall Minshall worked for Ian Fleming as a spy. [39]
John "Helge" Moe (a.k.a. Mutt) [30]
Eileen Nearne Nearne was a SOE for the United Kingdom. [40]
Jacqueline Nearne [41]
Paddy O'Sullivan O'Sullivan was a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
John Pendlebury Pendlebury worked for the British intelligence. [42]
Paddy Ridsdale Ridsdale was Ian Fleming's secretary. [43]
Peter Smithers Smithers helped Ian Fleming collect German spies in Britain. [44]
Violette Szabo [45]
Halina Szymańska Szymańska had a French identity card, which identified her as a Marie Clenat. She used this card to aid Britain. [46]
Col. Ted Tingling Tinlin was a colonel for the British intelligence. [47]
Jona von Ustinov Ustinov was a British spy. [48]
Valentine Patrick Terrell Vivian [49]
Pearl Witherington Witherington was known by many names. [50]
Forest Frederick Edward "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas Yeo-Thomas was a SOE agent. [51]

Spies for the United States

PersonNotesReference(s)
Juliette May Alexander Alexander was an American spy who gathered intel from German troops occupying France. She remained in Clermont-Ferrand for nearly two years, and reported her findings back to the US military. [52]
Moe Berg Morris Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. [53]
Julia Child Child worked for the OSS on the development of shark repellents. This was to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. [54]
William J. Donovan Donovan was the head of the OSS. [55]
Helias Doundoulakis Doundoulakis was a spy in the Secret Intelligence Branch (SI) of the Office of Strategic Services, sent to Salonica Greece. [56]
Arthur Goldberg Goldberg was a United Nations ambassador. [57]
Virginia Hall Hall was a spy for the SOE, American OSS and the CIA. Note that the OSS was a precursor to the CIA. [33]
Sterling Hayden Hayden was an agent for the OSS. [58]
Rene Joyeuse Joyeuse was an agent/operative for the OSS, who after the war became a physician and researcher and Co-founder of the American Trauma Society. [59]
Sidney Mashbir Mashbir headed the top secret intelligence gathering organization Allied Translator and Interpreter Section during WWII. In 1942, Colonel Mashbir working with Ellis M. Zacharias created the first draft for the implementing directives for the creation of the CIA. Commander Zacharias later became the Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence. [60]
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. He worked for the OSS. [61]
Jim Thompson Thompson served as an operative in the OSS. [62]
Stephanie Czech Rader U.S. Army Capt. Stephanie Czech Rader was X-2. She moved around Poland, tracking troop movements and ferrying sensitive documents.. [63]
Ellis M. Zacharias Zacharias became Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence [64] [65]
Nicholas Deak Agent for the OSS [66]

Those who 'leaked' stories to the media, as opposed to spying for a country

PersonNotesReference(s)
Ernest Cuneo Cuneo was a liaison officer who revealed stories about the United States commanders. [67]

Spies for other countries

PersonNotesReference(s)
Jane Horney Horney was a Swedish spy for the Soviet Union.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Strategic Services</span> 1940s United States intelligence agency

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp X</span> WWII Allied training base in Canada

Camp X was the unofficial name of the secret Special Training School No. 103, a Second World War British paramilitary installation for training covert agents in the methods required for success in clandestine operations. It was located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario between Whitby and Oshawa in Ontario, Canada. The area is known today as Intrepid Park, after the code name for Sir William Stephenson, Director of British Security Co-ordination (BSC), who established the program to create the training facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noor Inayat Khan</span> WW2 SOE British agent (1914–1944)

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC, also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British resistance agent in France in the Second World War who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elyesa Bazna</span> Secret agent for Nazi Germany during World War II, operating under the code name Cicero

Elyesa Bazna, sometimes known as Ilyaz and Iliaz Bazna, was a secret agent for Nazi Germany during World War II, operating under the code name Cicero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Stephenson</span> Canadian spymaster

Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of the British Security Coordination (BSC) for the western allies during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence code name, Intrepid. Many people consider him to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming himself once wrote, "James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true spy. The real thing is... William Stephenson."

A number of real-life inspirations have been suggested for James Bond, the fictional character created in 1953 by British author, journalist and former Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming (1908–1964); Bond appeared in twelve novels and nine short stories by Fleming, as well as a number of continuation novels and twenty-six films, with seven actors playing the role of Bond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Hall</span> American SOE spy

Virginia Hall Goillot DSC, Croix de Guerre,, code named Marie and Diane, was an American who worked with the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in France during World War II. The objective of SOE and OSS was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE and OSS agents in France allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. After World War II, Hall worked for the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Jona Freiherr von Ustinov, often known as Klop Ustinov, was a German journalist and diplomat who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi regime. His father was the Russian-born emigre Baron Plato von Ustinov (1840–1918). His son was the actor Sir Peter Ustinov.

Peter Tompkins was an American journalist, World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) spy in Rome, and best-selling author.

The Pond was a small, secret organization formed by the government of the United States which operated between 1942 and 1955. It engaged in espionage. It was formally acknowledged by the US government in 2001.

Charles Fraser-Smith was an author and one-time missionary who is widely credited as being the inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond quartermaster Q. During World War II, Fraser-Smith worked for the Ministry of Supply, fabricating equipment nicknamed "Q-devices" for SOE agents operating in occupied Europe. Prior to the war, Fraser-Smith had worked as a missionary in North Africa. After the war he purchased a dairy farm in Burrington, Devon, where he died in 1992.

Jennet Conant is an American non-fiction author and journalist. She has written five books about World War II, three of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list: Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of WWII, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, and A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS.

María Aline Griffith (y) Dexter, Countess of Romanones was an American-born Spanish aristocrat, socialite, and writer who worked in the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II and later for the CIA as a spy. The spouse of Luis Figueroa y Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, a Spanish grandee, she was a close friend to world leaders and celebrities including Nancy Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Audrey Hepburn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helias Doundoulakis</span>

Helias Doundoulakis was a Greek American civil engineer who patented the suspension system for the at-the-time largest radio telescope in the world. During WWII he served in the United States Army and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Elizabeth Thorpe</span> British intelligence agent (1910–1963)

Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, also known as Betty Pack, Betty Thorpe, Elizabeth Pack, and Amy Brousse; was an Anglo-American spy, codenamed Cynthia, who worked for British Security Coordination (BSC) which was set up in New York City in 1940 during World War II by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). She later worked for the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Her method was sexual and romantic seduction of high-level foreign diplomats. She successfully obtained some intelligence on the German Enigma machines and the Black Chamber in Poland, obtained the cipher books of fascist Italy, and stole the Vichy French naval codes out of a locked safe within an embassy. In an article published two months before her death she wrote, "...in the dangerous years of Nazi aggression I looked upon myself as a soldier serving my country. No sacrifice was too great for the soldiers. I felt that, in my own way, I could do no less than they."

The head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), William Donovan, created the X-2 Counter Espionage Branch in 1943 to provide liaison with and assist the British in its exploitation of the Ultra program's intelligence during World War II. A few months before, Donovan had established a Counterintelligence Division within the Secret Intelligence Branch of the OSS but rescinded this order upon development of the X-2. The X-2 was led by James Murphy, whose branch would have the power to veto operations of the Special Operations and Secret Intelligence Branches without explanation. Donovan modeled the Counter Espionage Branch on British Counter Espionage. With the creation of the X-2 Branch, the British insisted that it follow British security procedures to maintain the secrecy of Ultra. The X-2 established separate lines of communication for itself as a self-contained unit. By the end of World War II, the X-2 had discovered around 3,000 Axis agents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidney Mashbir</span> US Army military intelligence officer (1891–1973)

Sidney Forrester Mashbir was a senior officer in the United States Army who was primarily involved in military intelligence. Born in New York, he served in the Arizona Army National Guard during the Mexican-American Border War. Mashbir then held several posts in intelligence positions, taking credit for catching the first German spy in the United States, before departing for on a four-year assignment as a language officer to Japan in 1920. He resigned from the army in 1923 in an attempt to execute his own master plan devised to extract intelligence from Japan in event of a war. His plan failed as a result of the Great Kantō earthquake in September 1923 and he was left bankrupt; he consequently returned to the US as an engineering businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Musulin</span>

George "Guv" S. Musulin was a Serbian-American army officer of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) who in 1950 became a CIA operative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz</span> German diplomat (1899-1975)

Wolfgang Gans Edler Herr zu Putlitz was a German diplomat. He resisted the Nazis and provided information to the British Secret Service. After the war, he became a communist and settled in the German Democratic Republic, whose nationality he assumed in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Pünter</span> Swiss journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter

Otto Pünter was a Swiss journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter. During the Second World War, his codename was Pakbo, and he was a member of the Rote Drei.

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