Russell Miller - Codename Tricycle: The True Story of the Second World Wars Most Extraordinary Double Agent

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A wealthy lawyer, debonair ladies man, consummate actor, and courageous gambler, Dusko Popov played the role of playboy amongst the top echelons of British society to become one of Germanys most trusted spies. In fact, he was one of Britains most successful double agents, and, some say, the inspiration for James Bond. With full access to FBI and MI5 records, along with private family papers, his incredible adventures can now be told authoritatively for the first time.

Recruited by the Abwehr in 1940, 27-year-old Popov immediately offered his services to the British. His code-name was Tricycle. Throughout the war he fed the Germans with a constant stream of military intelligence, all vetted by MI5, and came to be viewed as their most important and reliable agent in Britain. But when he was ordered by the Abwehr to the United States to report on the defences at Pearl Harbor, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, failed to heed his warnings, distrusting all spies and detesting Popov in particular, whom he considered to be a moral degenerate.

Facing the danger of exposure, arrest and execution on a daily basis, Tricycle went on to build up a network known as the Yugoslav Ring, which not only delivered a stream of false information to Berlin but also supplied vital intelligence to the Allies on German rocketry, strategy and security. After the war Dusko Popov was granted British citizenship and awarded an OBE. The presentation was made, appropriately, in the cocktail bar at the Ritz.

Russell Miller is a prize-winning journalist and the author of seven previous books. His book on the Magnum photo agency was described by John Simpson as the best book on photo-journalism I have ever read, and his oral histories of D-Day, Nothing Less Than Victory, and the SOE, Behind The Lines, were widely acclaimed, both in Britain and in the United States.

Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy

The House of Getty

Bare-Faced Messiah

Nothing Less Than Victory

Ten Days in May

Magnum

Behind the Lines

To Harvey, Nancy, Archie & Lulu
in the hope they never have to live through a World War

DUSKO POPOV : double agent. British codename Tricycle, though briefly known as Skoot; German codename Ivan.

IVO POPOV : Duskos older brother, also a double agent, in Belgrade. British codename Dreadnought; German codename Paula.

JOHNNY JEBSEN : Popovs best friend. An Abwehr officer recruited by British intelligence. Codename Artist.

DICKIE METCALFE : Popovs sub-agent. British codename Balloon; German codename Ivan II.

FRIEDL GAERTNER : Popovs sub-agent and lover. British codename Gelatine; German codename Yvonne.

LUDOVICO VON KARSTHOFF : Duskos German controller.

ADMIRAL WILHELM CANARIS : director of the Abwehr, the German intelligence service.

TAR ROBERTSON : head of the MI5 section dealing with double agents.

EWEN MONTAGU : naval intelligence officer and friend of Dusko.

WILLIAM LUKE : Duskos first MI5 case officer.

IAN WILSON : Duskos final MI5 case officer.

FELIX COWGILL : Duskos MI6 contact.

FRANK FOLEY : Duskos subsequent MI6 contact.

WALTER FRECKLES WREN : MI6 head of station, Trinidad.

STEWART MENZIES : head of MI6, known as C.

J. C. MASTERMAN : chairman of the XX (Double Cross) Committee.

J. EDGAR HOOVER : director of the FBI.

PERCY FOXWORTH : FBI agent in charge in New York.

CHARLES LANMAN : Duskos FBI handler.

SIMONE SIMON : Hollywood actress with whom Dusko had an affair.

Unravelling the life of a double agent in the Second World War, even with full access to the official records in London and Washington, is no easy task since in the murky world of espionage lies become intertwined with the truth. To add to the complications, Dusko Popov, indisputably one of Britains most successful and courageous double agents, had three wartime lives.

First, there was Popov himself, a wealthy Yugoslav lawyer with a reputation as a ladies man, he was fluent in several languages, and his charm was captivating. To the outside world he was a businessman, an entrepreneur uninterested in politics. Only his closest friends knew that his louche, devil-may-care lifestyle concealed a deep-rooted hatred of Fascism and Communism.

Then there was Ivan, viewed by the German intelligence service as one of its most successful agents, a man with excellent social connections and few moral scruples, apparently willing do anything for money even risk his life by spying on Britain. Although there were some in Berlin who were suspicious of him, Ivan shuttled back and forth between London and Lisbon for nearly four years, supplying the grateful Germans with a mass of information much of it bogus about Britains military preparations.

Finally there was Tricycle, the enigmatic double agent working for British intelligence, fighting a lonely and dangerous war. Troublesome and demanding (who else could ask to be supplied with chocolates and silk stockings for his girlfriends?), Tricycle was a vital player in Britains top-secret operations to confuse and deceive the enemy. He was required to pass to the Germans as genuine a mlange of lies and half-truths concocted by the British. He was never sure, each time he visited Lisbon, if his cover was still intact and if the thread from which his life dangled had been cut. It was because of agents like Tricycle that, when the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, the Germans were still waiting for the main assault to be unleashed on the Pas de Calais.

Popov was required, throughout the war, to switch between his various lives and keep track of who he was, in order to stay alive. One slip, one careless remark, one moment of absent-mindedness during interrogation by his German controllers could have cost him his life and put at risk Britains fragile deception plans.

Yet in some ways he enjoyed a uniquely comfortable war. He never had to wear a uniform, never suffered the tribulations of military life. He was paid handsomely (by the Germans). Since he insisted that his cover as a spy was to act the part of a playboy, Popov took to the role with relish, always stayed in the best hotels, ordered silk shirts by the dozen, squired numerous beautiful women to the best parties and behaved as if he did not have a care in the world. When he was sent on a mission to the United States, he rented a penthouse on Park Avenue in New York, resumed an affair with a Hollywood actress and was a favoured patron of the Stork Club.

Thousands of pages of documents lodged in the National Archives in Washington and London chronicle Popovs astonishing career, although they are a minefield for the unwary researcher. One afternoon at the Public Records Office in Kew I was reading a long and extraordinarily detailed report about how Popov had met an Indian technician in New York, who had agreed to build a radio transmitter for him only to discover, belatedly, that the whole story had been dreamed up by British intelligence as part of Popovs cover. None of it was true.

After the war Popov liked to say that he was afraid when he started being a spy, and only stopped being afraid when he stopped being a spy. If this is the case, it is certainly not reflected in the record. Nowhere is there even a hint that he was worried for his own safety. Indeed, on one occasion his British case officer warned him not to go to Lisbon as there were indications that his cover had been blown; he faced arrest, torture and execution. Popov would not countenance the idea, but met his suspicious German controller as arranged and literally talked his way out of trouble. However, the tension took its toll and it is perhaps not surprising that he ended the war with nine ulcers.