Did the Axis have any spies monitoring the Arctic Convoys?

[Hyus]

Is there any evidence that the Axis attempted to plant spies, whether successful or not, in places like Britain, Iceland, or even at sea to try and monitor the Arctic convoys that supplied Russia?

It was just something I began wondering about, after reading about how the Axis had spies in other parts of Europe monitoring Allied shipping (for example in Spain near the entrance to the Mediterranean, or aboard the Portuguese fishing fleets in the North Atlantic).

[Carl Schwamberger]

Short answer is yes. The Abwehr & later the Sicherdeinst littered the globe with spies. The 'BUT' is they were not very good at it. Some were successful, most were mediocre at best and there was a large failure rate.

In the case of Britain it looks like all the spies were identified and jailed or 'turned' before the end of 1940. Many have searched German and Brit records and failed to find a successful spy closer than Ireland. Those not hanged in Britain were used as part of the Double Cross system. Their handlers in Spain, Portugal ect... were fed false information on Allied operations. The amazing thing is the Germans fell for this & the Brits were able to spoon feed Hitler directly false information to the end of the war.

Spain, Turky, Persia, Mexico, all of South America, even isolated Afghanistan, were like flea ridden dogs. Most of these spies or agents were a waste of money, but some created problems. The US mounted a major effort to clear the spies out of Mexico. That was run by Naval intelligence with probable Army involvement, & seems to have been reasonably successful. While the US was still neutral the German embassy worked hard at building spy networks. Those had some qualified success. Its claimed that the FBI was singularly bad at rolling up these agents networks. Post war examination of German records shows a very small number continued unhindered in the US to the end of the war. They all seem to have been ineffective, providing very low grade information, and not much of it.

There were two attempts to insert groups of agents via submarine in the US in 1942. Both failed when some of the putative agents deserted and reported to local police.

A weather station of a dozen men was established on Greenland. Eventually the Brits figured out from its radio transmissions what was up and shut it down.

[Hyus]

A weather station of a dozen men was established on Greenland. Eventually the Brits figured out from its radio transmissions what was up and shut it down.

Thanks for the reply Carl. Interesting to hear about the weather station in Greenland, I'll have to look that up, never heard of it.

Regarding the spies that were tasked with monitoring the Arctic Convoys, do you have any details to share regarding stuff like names, locations where they were posted, periods of operation, etc?

[Carl Schwamberger]

Nothing for the Arctic convoys. Like I wrote it's fairly certain there were no agents in Britain then. Most of the information on the Arctic convoys came vis radio intercepts. The Germans broke the Brit convoy codes early in the war. The Brits did not shut them out until the end of 1942 or a bit later.

[Hyus]

Alright, I was confused. At first you said "short answer is yes", so I thought you had some info on this...

[Carl Schwamberger]

There were spies capable of monitoring the attic traffic previous to 1940, but they were all turned or hanged before the end of 1940.

[Rob Stuart]

Nothing for the Arctic convoys. Like I wrote it's fairly certain there were no agents in Britain then. Most of the information on the Arctic convoys came vis radio intercepts. The Germans broke the Brit convoy codes early in the war. The Brits did not shut them out until the end of 1942 or a bit later.

The Germans needed Humint on the Arctic convoys less than on other convoys, given that the route to northern Russia was predicable and that air reconnaissance could in principle find them comparatively early, weather permitting.

[Aufklarung]

Hi Hyus

U-357, after a perilous journey, did manage to set up a remotely operated weather station on the northern shore of Labrador, in Canada in 1943.

Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26 ("Kurt")worked for a bit, failed and then was forgotten until 1977 and re-discovered in 1981. Most people just walk by it today at the War Museum in Ottawa.

https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/artic ... n-labrador

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world- ... -kurt.html

regards
A

[Sid Guttridge]

The short answer is "No", for the reasons given by others above. The British had captured or turned all German spies in the UK well before the Arctic convoys began and Germany never managed to establish any more afterwards.

Sid.

[Hyus]

The short answer is "No", for the reasons given by others above. The British had captured or turned all German spies in the UK well before the Arctic convoys began and Germany never managed to establish any more afterwards.

What about spies in Iceland? Or Greenland? Or Canada? Or Ireland? Britain wasn't the only place from where the Arctic convoys could have been monitored...
I have looked up the weather station in Newfoundland, but it appears to have been unmanned. However, if wikipedia is to be believed, there were German prisoners taken in Greenland manning a weather station there. I don't know if their work also involved watching for ships involved with the Arctic convoys.

[Sid Guttridge]

No, none in Iceland. The British picked them up as soon as they were landed. Greenland only had occasional weather stations, not spy outposts. Eire wouldn't have been much use regarding Arctic convoys, as its information would have to have come from the UK in the first place. I have never heard of successful German spies in Canada, probably because there weren't any.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Hyus]

No, none in Iceland. The British picked them up as soon as they were landed.

So you're saying there were attempts to land Axis spies in Iceland? Can you share any details? And what about attempts to hire locals?

Eire wouldn't have been much use regarding Arctic convoys, as its information would have to have come from the UK in the first place.

I had heard some of the Arctic convoys departed via Liverpool, so that's why I mentioned Ireland. An Irish-flagged fishing vessel in the Irish Sea or off the coast of northern Britain could have conceivably been used as a platform for spies watching the ships, similar to how the Germans hired a spy (Gastao Ferraz) aboard the Portuguese cod fishing fleets in the North Atlantic to watch Allied shipping there. But I'll just have to take the word of folks here, I don't know enough about this topic.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Hyus,

From memory, the Germans subborned the crew of an Icelandic fishing boat selling its catch in neutral Spain to land a couple of spies in Iceland. Both were picked up on landing and turned. I have fuller, and probably more accurate, details but they are not immediately accessible.

The Germans also tried to install a transmitter on a French sail trawler sent on behalf of Vichy to fish off the Grand Banks in 1941, but it and five other sail trawlers were picked up by the RN and RCN.

Do you have a source on Gastao Ferraz that I can follow up?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Hyus]

From memory, the Germans subborned the crew of an Icelandic fishing boat selling its catch in neutral Spain to land a couple of spies in Iceland. Both were picked up on landing and turned. I have fuller, and probably more accurate, details but they are not immediately accessible.

The Germans also tried to install a transmitter on a French sail trawler sent on behalf of Vichy to fish off the Grand Banks in 1941, but it and five other sail trawlers were picked up by the RN and RCN.

That's interesting Sid, thank you. If you find any more detail on this, I'd be interested to hear it.

Do you have a source on Gastao Ferraz that I can follow up?

Wikipedia has a brief blurb on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gast%C3%A ... tas_Ferraz

He is also mentioned in 'Historical Dictionary of Naval Intelligence' by Nigel West, on page 85. He seems to have been primarily involved in monitoring Allied maritime movements in the leadup to Operation Torch, sending reports of what he saw for German U-boats to follow up on. I just mentioned him as an example of something I wondered if the Germans might have tried re: the Arctic convoys.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Hyus,

The common thread in the attempted use of fishing boats by the Abwehr for intelligence gathering seems to have been that they be neutral, so I would expect the Spanish cod fleet was approached as well. However, for a couple of years in the middle of the war the British forbade it to fish off the Grand Banks for precisely thus reason.

The Abwehr also used an ex-French fishing boat to land agents in Argentina, so there is a bit if a theme developing here!

It also put a transmitter on a Norwegian fishing boat used to deploy one of its early weather stations on Greenland.

All the above is from memory, so do not take any minor details as gospel.

Cheers,

Sid