The first people to find Josef Jakobs on the morning of 1 February, 1941, were two farmers: Charles Baldock and Harry Coulson. Their discovery was passed along to an ever expanding circle of people. One of the farmers went to a nearby farm and notified Henry James Godfrey, a Home Guard Volunteer. Godfrey, in turn, […]
Ramsey Company Home Guard – Two Officers of Mystery Read More »
The court martial of an enemy agent was no simple matter. Josef Jakobs was a member of the German military, the English had decided that he could be tried by a court martial. But in order to comply with military law, Josef needed to have a commanding officer who could implement the proceedings. In late
The Rocky Road to Josef Jakobs’ Court Martial: The Officer Commanding Grenadier Guards Read More »
MI5’s application to have German spy Josef Jakobs tried by court martial had been accepted by the Attorney General in late June. The officers of MI5 had anticipated that the court martial would take place within two weeks of the AG’s approval but there was some difficulty in arranging military prison accommodations for Josef within
The Rocky Road to Josef Jakobs’ Court Martial: the Judge Advocate Read More »
In late June 1941, MI5 made a request to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have German spy Josef Jakobs tried by court martial, rather than by a civilian court. The DPP forwarded the request to the Attorney General for his approval, which was granted on June 24, 1941. The very next day, the
The British Security Service (MI5) needed to jump through several bureaucratic hoops in order to have German spy Josef Jakobs tried by court martial. Their application for a court martial first landed on the desk of the the Director of Public Prosecutions who, after reviewing it, sent it on to the Attorney General on June
For a variety of reasons, MI5 decided that Josef Jakobs was the ideal candidate to be tried by a military court martial. Primary among those reasons was the fact that Josef was an “enemy alien”, i.e. a citizen of a country with whom Britain was at war, in this case, Germany. Other “enemy aliens” had
The Rocky Road to Josef Jakob’s Court Martial: the Director of Public Prosecutions Read More »
N.B. See my February 12, 2017 blog for a break in the case. In addition to the 1936 diary, the Birmingham Police sent a small black notebook to MI5. The envelope noted “One diary and one notebook containing suspicious entries. See B’ham City Police report dated 5th June 1941”. The cover note that accompanied the
Kenneth C. Howard’s Little Black Book Read More »
N.B. See my February 12, 2017 blog for a break in the case. If you were to visit the National Archives at Kew in London, and order file KV 2/27, you would receive a box containing some of the spy paraphernalia of German spy Josef Jakobs. Two small notebooks within that box would perplex you,
The Mysterious Diary of Kenneth C. Howard Read More »
One of the last people to see Josef Jakobs alive on the fateful morning of his execution was Lt. Col. William Edward Hinchley-Cooke. Cookie, as he was affectionately known by his MI5 colleagues, later noted that he was impressed by Josef’s calm pluck on the morning of August 15. In fact, Cookie was fluent in
Britain’s Spy-Catcher – Lt. Col. William Edward Hinchley Cooke Read More »
After the previous post on Colonel R.W.G. Stephens was published, a magazine I had ordered online almost a month previous finally came in the mail. It had a four page article on Robin Stephens written by Chris Bilham. Review The article was quite extensive and stitched together the scanty facts of Robin’s life into a
Article Review – Medal News – Two Gurkha Officers: Part II – May 2014 Read More »