The wartime spy case files contain no consolidated inventory of equipment; each agent’s gear must be reconstructed from scattered documentation. Any attempt to identify patterns requires scanning hundreds of documents across dozens of individual files. Years ago, I began compiling a spreadsheet to track key information on the wartime spies, specifically those tried under the Treachery Act.
In attempting to determine the provenance of certain items now held by the Imperial War Museum, I have extracted a subset of data from that spreadsheet relating to the equipment under examination: parachute gear, head protection, flying suits, pistols, knives, and wireless sets.
The documentation is uneven. Local police were often the first to detain an agent and inventory his possessions, and their thoroughness varied. The London Colney police, for example, recorded that Karel Richter carried a Browning pistol and noted its serial number. The Edinburgh police, by contrast, recorded that Werner Walti carried a Mauser pistol but did not record its serial number. In other instances, particularly in the files of double agents such as Wulf Schmidt and Gösta Caroli, material has been weeded over the decades. We may learn that an agent carried a “pistol,” yet must infer the presence of a knife from references to cutting up a parachute.
What follows is therefore a working reference point. Some files contain exceptionally detailed descriptions — particularly of parachute equipment — which will prove useful when examining the surviving artifacts. Nikolay Steen Marinus Hansen has been included, although not tried under the Treachery Act, because he arrived by parachute and his equipment is a potential candidate for comparison with the IWM parachute gear.
| 1. Spy | 2. Arrived via: | 3. Arrival Date | 4. Parachute & Harness | 5. Head Protection | 6. Flying Suit | 7. Firearms | 8. Knives | 9. Wireless Set | 10. Wireless Serial Number |
| WALDBERG, Jose | small boat | Sep 5, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | dropped overboard | 1 double-bladed pocket knife in pig leather case and a triple bladed pocket knife | S 88 (transmitter only) | T #8 |
| MEIER, Karl Heinrich | small boat | Sep 5, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | see Waldberg | not recorded | S 88 (transmitter only) | T#8 |
| KIEBOOM, Charles Albert van den | small boat | Sep 5, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | Browning pistol FN (cal 7mm 85) | 2 pocket knives (1 single-bladed and 1 double-bladed) | S 88 (transmitter only) | T#9 |
| PONS, SJord | small boat | Sep 5, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | see Kieboom | 1 pocket knife | S 88 (transmitter only) | T#9 |
| CAROLI, Gösta | parachute | Sep 10, 1940 | type not recorded | none | none | German pistol (make not recorded) | knife in leather sheath and a pocket knife | SE 92/3 – suitcase | T/R #35 |
| SCHMIDT, Wulf | parachute | Sep 17, 1940 | type not recorded | flying cap | yes | “revolver” (make not recorded) | not listed (inferred from parachute being cut up) | SE 88/5 two separate pieces | T #46 R #SO24 |
| DRUECKE, Karl Theodore | seaplane & inflatable boat | Sep 30, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | Mauser pistol | pocket knife | SE 92/3 – suitcase | T/R #6 |
| WALTI, Werner Heinrich | seaplane & inflatable boat | Sep 30, 1940 | – – – | – – – | – – – | Mauser pistol | jack or gravity knife with spring-loaded blade | SE 92/3 – suitcase | T/R #21 |
| GOOSE, Kurt Karl | parachute | Oct 3, 1940 | parachute cut up and stuffed in rabbit holes (type not recorded) | flying cap | yes | small pistol (make not recorded) | not listed (inferred from parachute being cut up) | transmitter only | T #40 |
| FUKKEN, Engelbertus aka BRAAK Jan Willem ter | parachute | Nov 1, 1940 | camoflage parachute | leather flying cap | yes | Browning pistol FN 468225 | knife in leather sheath and a pocket knife | SE 92/3 – suitcase | T/R #24 |
| JAKOBS, Josef | parachute | Jan 31 / Feb 1, 1941 | camoflage parachute | paratrooper steel helmet | yes | Mauser pistol 489366 | pocket knife marked “Swing” | SE 92/3 – suitcase | T/R #26 |
| MOE, John | seaplane & inflatable boat | Apr 7, 1941 | – – – | – – – | – – – | Venus “revolver” – 7.65 – 6 cartridges in magazine | pocket knife and sheath knife | suitcase set similar to Hansen’s | T/R #38 |
| GLAD, Tor | seaplane & inflatable boat | Apr 7, 1941 | – – – | – – – | – – – | “Allies” automatic pistol with 6 cartridges in magazine | not recorded | suitcase set similar to Hansen’s | T/R #38 |
| RICHTER, Karl Richard | parachute | May 13, 1941 | camoflage parachute | paratrooper steel helmet | yes | Browning pistol FN 42098 | empty leather sheath and a combination knife | components | n/a |
| HANSEN, Nikolay Steen Marinus | parachute | Sep 30/Oct 1, 1943 | camoflage parachute | not recorded | yes | not recorded | jack knife in leather sheath | SE 99/10 and another of uknown specs | T/R #20 |
Agents who entered Britain posing as refugees, and who carried no wireless equipment, have been omitted.
Columns 4, 5, 6: A triple en dash (– – –) indicates that the item is not applicable to that method of arrival (e.g., no parachute gear for agents arriving by boat).
Column 9: “S” denotes Sender (transmitter) and “E” denotes Empfänger (receiver), as recorded in the German documentation.
Column 10: “T” denotes transmitter and “R” denotes receiver. Some agents arrived carrying only a transmitter.
This table does not attempt to interpret the equipment, only to record what the surviving files document. In the posts that follow, we will examine individual categories of gear in greater detail and compare the recorded inventories with the surviving artifacts.
Sources
MI5 Case Files at the National Archives – often including police reports and property inventories.