Lucy Spy Ring - Controversy

Controversy

Roessler’s story was first published in 1967 by the French journalists Accoce and Quet. In 1981, it was alleged by Read and Fisher that Lucy was, at its heart, a British Secret Service operation intended to get Ultra information to the Soviets in a convincing way untraceable to British codebreaking operations against the Germans. Stalin had shown considerable suspicion of any information from the Americans or British about German plans to invade Russia in 1941, so an Allied effort to find a way to get helpful information to the Soviets in a form that would not be dismissed is, at least, not implausible. That the Soviets had, via their own espionage operations, learned of the British break into important German message traffic was not, at the time, known to the British. Various observations have suggested that Alexander Foote was more than a mere radio operator: he was in a position to act as a radio interface between SIS and Roessler, and also between Roessler and Moscow; his return to the West in the 1950s was unusual in several ways; and his book was similarly troublesome. They also point out that not one of Roessler's claimed sources in Germany has been identified or has come forward. Hence their suspicion that, even more so than for most espionage operations, the Lucy ring was not what it seemed.

However, this is flatly denied by Hinsley, the official historian for the British Secret Services in World War II, who stated that "there is no truth in the much-publicized claim that the British authorities made use of the ‘Lucy’ ring..to forward intelligence to Moscow".

Knightley also dismisses the thesis that Ultra was the source of Lucy. He indicates that the information was delivered too quickly (often within 24 hours) to Moscow, too fast if it would have to go through Bletchley. Further, Ultra intelligence on the Eastern front was less than complete; many of the German messages were transmitted by landlines, wireless messages were often too garbled for timely decoding, and the Enigma code of the Eastern Front was only broken intermittently. Knightley also suggests that the source was Karel Sedlacek, a Czech military intelligence officer. Sedlacek died in London in 1967 and indicated that he received the information from one or more unidentified dissidents within the German High Command. Another but less likely possibility Knightley suggests is that the information came from the Swiss secret service.

Tarrant echoes Knightly’s objections, and in addition points out that Read and Fisher's scenario was unnecessary, as Britain was already passing Ultra information to the Soviet Union following the German invasion in June 1941. While not wishing to reveal Britain’s penetration of Enigma, Churchill ordered selected Ultra information to be passed via the British Military Mission in Moscow, reported as coming from "a well-placed source in Berlin," or "a reliable source." However as the Soviets showed little interest in co-operation on intelligence matters, refusing to share Soviet intelligence that would be useful to Britain (such as information on German air forces in the Eastern Front) or agreeing to use the Soviet mission in London as a transmission route, the British cut back the flow of information in the spring of 1942, and by the summer it had dwindled to a trickle. This suggestion, that Britain lost the motivation to share intelligence with Stalin after this time, is also at variance with Read and Fisher's theory.