Bungling German spy sent back 'worthless' information

A bungling German spy posted to Britain to uncover RAF secrets sent back only "entirely worthless" information, his MI5 file shows.

Swiss-born Werner Strebel became involved in espionage because he thought it would be an easy way of getting money to fund a cushy lifestyle, his Nazi controller complained.

After being trained and given a stock of secret ink, he was told to obtain an RAF pilot training manual and to report in detail on the RAF station in Dunstable, near Luton, Bedfordshire.

Posing as a Swiss journalist, 42-year-old Mr Strebel arrived in London just before the outbreak of the World War II. But he apparently sent back only three secret messages, all of which were considered "quite useless" by Nazi spy chiefs.

Explaining his failures, he told his controller that he went to Luton and "saw the aerodrome in the distance" but could not reconnoitre it because of the "strict guard".

Mr Strebel, who was born in June 1897 in Lucerne, Switzerland, was recruited as a spy in Bremen, Germany, in July 1939 by Heinrich von Wenzlau, a field officer with the German military intelligence agency Abwehr.

He told von Mr Wenzlau he followed the motto "good food, good drink and easy living", but agreed to take on a spying mission in return for £7 or £8 a week.

Mr Strebel was tasked with finding out everything about the RAF station at Dunstable, including its exact location, size, the length of the runway, how many airmen were based there, how it was illuminated at night and whether it was used for fighter or bomber planes.

He was told to send back information to a cover address using secret ink that involved dissolving a white powder in water and writing with a toothpick.

The would-be spy went to Britain in August 1939 and posted just three messages in the following three months.