The Cicero Spy Affair: German Access to British Secrets in World War II

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The episode of the opportunistic valet of Britain's ambassador to neutral Turkey during World War II - dubbed "Cicero" for the eloquence of the top-secret material he appropriated from his employer Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugesson and sold to the Nazis - is a staple of intelligence lore. Yet this remarkable and sometimes comical story has often been recounted with little regard for the facts, most prominently in the popular film "Five Fingers". Here, historian and former intelligence officer Richard Wires seeks to present a full and objective account of the Cicero spy episode, offering closure to past discrepancies and credible solutions to remaining mysteries. It is a story set in the hotbed of intrigue that was wartime Turkey, replete with a dramatic car chase, a series of colourful mistresses ever loyal to their lover the spy, and an old-school British ambassador whose documents are photographed as he plays the piano in the drawing room and at night slips into a sleeping pill-induced slumber. Despite the affair's amusing aspects, it is also a sobering tale in which there are no winners and from which there are serious lessons to be learned. Germany never made use of the highly sensitive British documents it obtained during this crucial four-month period of the war because the handling of the information was caught up in a bitter and wasteful personal rivalry between Ribbentrop and Schellenberg. It was sheer luck for the British that their war effort did not sustain any significant damage. For, while the book states definitively that security regarding the Allied invasion of Normandy was not breached in the Cicero affair, Germany did gain a potential advantage concerning campaigns in the Aegean and the Balkans. This embarrassed the British greatly, especially since Cicero walked away a free man. However, the greedy valet - the most highly paid spy in history at that time - did not achieve his goals, either; he discovered some years later that the British banknotes he insisted on as payment were counterfeited by the Germans as part of a larger counterfeiting project. Cicero died a desperate man, deeply in debt, a fitting anticlimax for an espionage episode resulting in neither bodily injury nor strategic impact, but in humiliation on all sides.

Reviews

"A comprehensively thorough yet absorbingly readable account of a major episode in World War II espionage. Richard Wires provides a delectable feast for scholars, practitioners, and spy buffs alike: vast research treated with expert feel, cogent judgment, intriguing presentation. So close to definitive that it may never be superseded."-H.Bradford Westerfield, Yale University
"The story of the most famous spy of the century--Cicero--has long been haunted by mysteries. Was he a double agent What role did the long-legged secretary play What effect did his intelligence have Now Richard Wires, exploiting fresh scholarly sources, exhausting every aspect, and examining them with a critical eye, takes us to the heart of the Cicero affair--once and for all."-David Kahn, author of Hitler's Spies
.,."this account of the Cicero spy affair is a very good read by all standards."-The Historian
...this account of the Cicero spy affair is a very good read by all standards.-The Historian
[T]his book is far more than just an overview-reaching some conclusions previously unreached....The Cicero Spy Affair is scholarly research presented in exciting and concise fashion. You won't be able to read it without learning something. Or learning a lot. You'll find it hard to put down.-The Star Press
A thrilling plunge into the world of the legendary WWII spy code-name "Cicero," a shadowy figure whose mysteries have challenged the best efforts of expert intelligence officers, historians, and journalists....A great true spy adventure full of dramatic suspense. Wires has done exhaustive research in discovering what is known today, despite the web of lies and false clues of a master spy operating in the guise of a faithful servant.-Kirkus Reviews
Professor Wires is as critical of the intrigues inside the Nazi intelligence machine as he is of the faulty security inside the British Embassy; and he disposes of several popular legends.-Times Literary Supplement
This is a briliantly researched and reconstructed piece of history. Both the text itself and the notes let us into details and side issues, such as the example of Moyzisch's assistant secretary who turned out to be a spy for the Americans. There is a detailed analysis of the complex Turkish situation. The dramatis personae are well characterized as to personality and motivation. The shadow war of intelligence in World War II is crowded with spies on all sides and there is a rich literature published especially in England about the subject. This book deserves a place of honour among them. It clarifies for the first time the story of the so-called "spy of the century," "the highest paid spy," the man codenamed, unknown to him at the time, Cicero.-International Social Science Review
Wartime spying is one of the most intriguing areas in the Historiography of World War II, and Wires has given us the best account yet of the remarkable espionage career of Elyesa Bazna, a valet who in 1943-44 microfilmed dozens of top-secret papers belonging to the unsuspecting British Ambassador to Turkey....This is a great tale, all the more so because it is true. Recommended for general collections and those strong in World War II studies.-Library Journal
Wires is superb, with research as definitive as a field riddled with intentionally misleading sources will permit, with analysis that asks all of the right and important questions, and with lively, cool prose that retains the drama inherent in the story without a hint of exaggeration. This book, which appears in David Kahn's series, Perspectives on Intelligence History, is a model for the field...Time and again Wires presents the evidence, weighs it with care, and gives us his own considered conclusions. Wires no doubt is helped in his balancing act by having degreed in European history and in law, and having served in southern Germany in the Counter-Intelligence Corps, as well as having lived in London, but his best ally is a sturdy commonsense. The result is an astute, sensible, very readable book that is unlikely ever to be overtaken by the work of others...a fine book: were that there were more like it in this crowded and often murky field.-Albion
"This book is far more than just an overview-reaching some conclusions previously unreached....The Cicero Spy Affair is scholarly research presented in exciting and concise fashion. You won't be able to read it without learning something. Or learning a lot. You'll find it hard to put down."-The Star Press
..."this account of the Cicero spy affair is a very good read by all standards."-The Historian
"[T]his book is far more than just an overview-reaching some conclusions previously unreached....The Cicero Spy Affair is scholarly research presented in exciting and concise fashion. You won't be able to read it without learning something. Or learning a lot. You'll find it hard to put down."-The Star Press
"A thrilling plunge into the world of the legendary WWII spy code-name "Cicero," a shadowy figure whose mysteries have challenged the best efforts of expert intelligence officers, historians, and journalists....A great true spy adventure full of dramatic suspense. Wires has done exhaustive research in discovering what is known today, despite the web of lies and false clues of a master spy operating in the guise of a faithful servant."-Kirkus Reviews
"Professor Wires is as critical of the intrigues inside the Nazi intelligence machine as he is of the faulty security inside the British Embassy; and he disposes of several popular legends."-Times Literary Supplement
"This is a briliantly researched and reconstructed piece of history. Both the text itself and the notes let us into details and side issues, such as the example of Moyzisch's assistant secretary who turned out to be a spy for the Americans. There is a detailed analysis of the complex Turkish situation. The dramatis personae are well characterized as to personality and motivation. The shadow war of intelligence in World War II is crowded with spies on all sides and there is a rich literature published especially in England about the subject. This book deserves a place of honour among them. It clarifies for the first time the story of the so-called "spy of the century," "the highest paid spy," the man codenamed, unknown to him at the time, Cicero."-International Social Science Review
"Wartime spying is one of the most intriguing areas in the Historiography of World War II, and Wires has given us the best account yet of the remarkable espionage career of Elyesa Bazna, a valet who in 1943-44 microfilmed dozens of top-secret papers belonging to the unsuspecting British Ambassador to Turkey....This is a great tale, all the more so because it is true. Recommended for general collections and those strong in World War II studies."-Library Journal
"Wires is superb, with research as definitive as a field riddled with intentionally misleading sources will permit, with analysis that asks all of the right and important questions, and with lively, cool prose that retains the drama inherent in the story without a hint of exaggeration. This book, which appears in David Kahn's series, Perspectives on Intelligence History, is a model for the field...Time and again Wires presents the evidence, weighs it with care, and gives us his own considered conclusions. Wires no doubt is helped in his balancing act by having degreed in European history and in law, and having served in southern Germany in the Counter-Intelligence Corps, as well as having lived in London, but his best ally is a sturdy commonsense. The result is an astute, sensible, very readable book that is unlikely ever to be overtaken by the work of others...a fine book: were that there were more like it in this crowded and often murky field."-Albion

Author Bio

RICHARD WIRES is Professor Emeritus of History at Ball State University, where he chaired the department and later became Executive Director of the University's London Centre./e He holds degrees in European History and law, and he served with the Counter-Intelligence Corps in southern Germany. His recent research interests include early espionage fiction as well as actual intelligence operations.