on a cipher generated on an Enigma machine.
Because S NOW ’s original messages had been drafted by MI5, the RSS cryptanalysts knew the plaintext version of the Enigma signals they were intercepting and were able to reverse-engineer the daily settings of the machine’s rotors. By the end of 1940 the hand cipher traffic was being circulated by RSS under the codename ISOS, and the Enigma version as ISK. This remarkable breakthrough encouraged the codebreakers to extend their study of the enemy’s Enigma traffic from the Abwehr to the Luftwaffe, and then to the many other circuits dependent on the device. Thus S NOW ’s morning broadcasts to his Abwehr controllers would become the daily ‘crib’ that helped the teams of RSS cryptographers to break not just his Enigma traffic, but all the rest of the Abwehr’s most secret communications for the rest of the day, until the settings were changed again at midnight. While S NOW himself had no inkling of this vital game being played by an organisation he had never heard of, and was never let in on the secret, his contribution to the ultimate Allied victory was far, far greater than even his vivid imagination could ever have guessed.
* * *
After the success of his first transmission, it was decided that Owens should be allowed to make the trip to Holland. The detention order was lifted and Owens’ passport was returned to him by Robertson. Arthur Owens was back in business and, on top of this, Lily was released from prison and given instructions to get everything she required for their new flat. Simultaneously , Hinchley-Cooke arranged with Superintendent Albert Foster of Special Branch for two police officers to keep a watch on the couple. MI5 also warned ‘that on no account when he returns to this country is he to give the impression that he is on a special mission, but is to conform in every way to the requirements of the immigration authorities.’
Before his departure, Owens pointed out that Dr Rantzau would expect him to provide the name and address of a member of the Welsh Nationalist Party whom he could contact, and MI5 made arrangements to find asuitable nominee. The man they picked was Gwilym Williams, a retired Swansea police officer who had been born in Morriston near Swansea in March 1887 and had joined the police in Salford in 1907, where he remained for three years before transferring to the Swansea constabulary. During the First World War he had served with the 2 nd Battery, the Royal Garrison Artillery. He had an imposing physical presence and was five foot ten inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. His police personnel file described him as having a ‘fresh complexion’ with three round scars on his right leg and a mole on his left elbow.
As a young man Williams had run away to sea where he had educated himself, having left school an illiterate. However, while away he was said to have picked up as many as seventeen languages, which included Welsh, French, Spanish and German, doubtless attributes that increased his value to MI5. He had often been employed by the police as a court interpreter, and his background, including his marine knowledge, would prove useful as MI5 tried to prepare S NOW ’s army of notional sub-agents. Physically strong, having been captain of the Swansea police’s water polo team, he had been known to swim from Swansea pier to the Mumbles pier and back, a distance of six miles. He was also one of those likely to be called upon whenever there was trouble on the docks.
Williams had reached the rank of chief inspector when, in January 1939, he retired from the police, but within the year he was to begin a new career as an MI5 double agent. Part of Williams’ task was to ensure that Owens was as loyal to the British war effort as he claimed, but before they left to see Rantzau, Owens went to Swansea to prepare himself for the encounter.
On his next visit to Hamburg, via Tilbury and Flushing, Owens gave the name of the Welsh
Because S NOW ’s original messages had been drafted by MI5, the RSS cryptanalysts knew the plaintext version of the Enigma signals they were intercepting and were able to reverse-engineer the daily settings of the machine’s rotors. By the end of 1940 the hand cipher traffic was being circulated by RSS under the codename ISOS, and the Enigma version as ISK. This remarkable breakthrough encouraged the codebreakers to extend their study of the enemy’s Enigma traffic from the Abwehr to the Luftwaffe, and then to the many other circuits dependent on the device. Thus S NOW ’s morning broadcasts to his Abwehr controllers would become the daily ‘crib’ that helped the teams of RSS cryptographers to break not just his Enigma traffic, but all the rest of the Abwehr’s most secret communications for the rest of the day, until the settings were changed again at midnight. While S NOW himself had no inkling of this vital game being played by an organisation he had never heard of, and was never let in on the secret, his contribution to the ultimate Allied victory was far, far greater than even his vivid imagination could ever have guessed.
* * *
After the success of his first transmission, it was decided that Owens should be allowed to make the trip to Holland. The detention order was lifted and Owens’ passport was returned to him by Robertson. Arthur Owens was back in business and, on top of this, Lily was released from prison and given instructions to get everything she required for their new flat. Simultaneously , Hinchley-Cooke arranged with Superintendent Albert Foster of Special Branch for two police officers to keep a watch on the couple. MI5 also warned ‘that on no account when he returns to this country is he to give the impression that he is on a special mission, but is to conform in every way to the requirements of the immigration authorities.’
Before his departure, Owens pointed out that Dr Rantzau would expect him to provide the name and address of a member of the Welsh Nationalist Party whom he could contact, and MI5 made arrangements to find asuitable nominee. The man they picked was Gwilym Williams, a retired Swansea police officer who had been born in Morriston near Swansea in March 1887 and had joined the police in Salford in 1907, where he remained for three years before transferring to the Swansea constabulary. During the First World War he had served with the 2 nd Battery, the Royal Garrison Artillery. He had an imposing physical presence and was five foot ten inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. His police personnel file described him as having a ‘fresh complexion’ with three round scars on his right leg and a mole on his left elbow.
As a young man Williams had run away to sea where he had educated himself, having left school an illiterate. However, while away he was said to have picked up as many as seventeen languages, which included Welsh, French, Spanish and German, doubtless attributes that increased his value to MI5. He had often been employed by the police as a court interpreter, and his background, including his marine knowledge, would prove useful as MI5 tried to prepare S NOW ’s army of notional sub-agents. Physically strong, having been captain of the Swansea police’s water polo team, he had been known to swim from Swansea pier to the Mumbles pier and back, a distance of six miles. He was also one of those likely to be called upon whenever there was trouble on the docks.
Williams had reached the rank of chief inspector when, in January 1939, he retired from the police, but within the year he was to begin a new career as an MI5 double agent. Part of Williams’ task was to ensure that Owens was as loyal to the British war effort as he claimed, but before they left to see Rantzau, Owens went to Swansea to prepare himself for the encounter.
On his next visit to Hamburg, via Tilbury and Flushing, Owens gave the name of the Welsh
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