A German Spy Landed in a British Potato Field Wearing Spats – Then Had to Fire His Pistol for Help

On the morning of the 1st of February 1941, two farmworkers near Ramsey in Huntingdonshire heard gunshots coming from a field. When they went to investigate, they discovered a man lying on the ground, unable to walk. He had been there all night, having broken his ankle while parachuting into Britain. His name was Josef Jakobs, and he had been sent over by German military intelligence.

Jakobs was supposed to be collecting weather information and sending it back to Germany. The Luftwaffe needed accurate British weather reports when planning bombing raids, so he had been supplied with a wireless transmitter and the necessary documents to establish himself in Britain. He also had nearly £500 in British banknotes, maps showing nearby RAF airfields and a pistol.

There was something rather peculiar about the way he had dressed for the journey. Beneath his flying suit, Jakobs was wearing a grey-striped suit, an overcoat, a hat and spats over his shoes. Presumably, he had hoped to look like an ordinary civilian once he had disposed of his parachute. Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity to find out whether his disguise would work.

Before the war, Jakobs had been involved in the selling of black-market passports to Jewish people trying to leave Germany. In 1938 he was arrested by the Gestapo, and was spent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp before he was released in 1940. He later told British interrogators that he had agreed to work for German intelligence because he wanted to escape Germany. Whether he really intended to renege on his agreement when he arrived in Britain is difficult to establish.

After his capture, Jakobs spent several weeks receiving treatment for his injury. He was later questioned at Camp 020, where British intelligence interrogated suspected enemy agents. Some captured German spies were recruited to work as double agents, but Jakobs was not among them. He was tried by court martial in August of 1941. He was subsequently found guilty under the Treachery Act 1940 and sentenced to death.

On the 15th of August 1941, he was taken to the Tower of London and was executed by firing squad. He was seated in a wooden chair for the execution, although he had recovered sufficiently from his injury to walk by then.

Josef Jakobs was the last person ever executed at the Tower of London. The chair used during his execution is still there and can be seen in the White Tower today.

Image info:

Josef Jakobs memorial plaque, Tower of London. Photograph: McPhail / Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0.