One night in September 1940, a man parachuted into a field near Willingham, Cambridgeshire. He had been sent by German military intelligence to gather information about Britain, at a time when fears of a German invasion were widespread.
His name was Wulf Schmidt, a Danish citizen recruited by the German Abwehr. He carried wireless equipment, money and false identity documents, and his mission was to establish himself in Britain and begin sending intelligence back to Germany.
Unfortunately for Schmidt, things went wrong almost immediately.
After making his way into Willingham, he visited a café for breakfast and bought a few supplies. His behaviour and accent attracted attention, and residents became suspicious.
A member of the Home Guard named Tom Cousins eventually found Schmidt asleep in a field. He took him to the Three Tuns pub, where he was questioned. Schmidt’s carefully planned mission had lasted barely half a day before he found himself in British custody.
He was taken to Camp 020, a secret interrogation centre at Ham Common, where MI5 questioned suspected enemy agents. Schmidt initially attempted to maintain his cover, but eventually agreed to cooperate with British intelligence.
He was given the codename TATE and became part of Britain’s Double Cross system, which used captured German agents to feed misleading information back to Germany.
In October 1940, Schmidt resumed wireless contact with his German handlers. They believed he was secretly operating somewhere in Britain, completely unaware that his messages were being controlled by MI5.
Over the following years, TATE supplied intelligence designed to support British deception operations. His German handlers were so impressed with his supposed successes that they awarded him the Iron Cross, a German military decoration.
I find that rather extraordinary. Here was a man who had been captured almost as soon as he arrived in Britain, but the Germans believed he was doing such valuable work for them that they rewarded him for it!
Schmidt continued assisting British intelligence during the preparations for D-Day and throughout the later stages of the war. He remained in contact with Germany until May 1945, making him one of the longest-serving wireless double agents in the Double Cross system.
After the war, Schmidt remained in Britain and adopted the name Harry Williamson, which he had already used as part of his wartime cover. He settled in Watford, where he worked as a photographer for the Watford Observer.
What is remarkable is that the Germans continued to trust him for years, despite his original mission failing almost immediately. The intelligence that they believed was from a trusted agent was actually being carefully managed.
Had you heard of Agent TATE before? Don’t you think that it is extraordinary that a spy could be captured within only hours of arriving in Britain, then spent the next several years convincing his German handlers that he was one of their most successful agents?
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Image info:
ATS wireless operators learning Morse code at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 24th November 1941. Photograph by Lieutenant Spender, War Office. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Illustrative photograph, not Agent TATE.
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