OfAntonio Carioti
A book hypothesizes the “double game” of Anthony Blunt, a Soviet spy who infiltrated British intelligence and may have also passed information to the Nazis
Possible that a Soviet spy infiltrated the British secret services passed on valuable information, towards the end of the war, even to the Nazis, despite the alliance then existing between London and Moscow against Adolf Hitler? This is the hypothesis, reported in The Sunday Times on 28 April, put forward in the book The Traitor of Arnhem by Robert Verkaik, who points the finger at Anthony Blunt, illustrious art historian and at the same time informer in the service of the Kremlin.
The sabotage hypothesis
According to the author of the essay, the agent of the Soviets would have sabotaged the Allied military operation Market Garden, directed in September 1944 against the city of Arnhem in Holland, which should have hastened the collapse of German resistance on the Western Front and instead ended in failure. In this way the Red Army’s objective of reaching Berlin was favored, as in fact happened, before the Anglo-Americans.
Who was Blunt
Blunt, who died in 1983 aged 75, had been recruited by Stalin’s secret services in the 1930s. He was one of the famous «Cambridge five»students of the prestigious university who chose to side with the USSR and provide it with information aimed at expanding the influence of communism in the world. He had joined MI5the United Kingdom’s internal security service, during the Second World War, in 1940, and left at the end of the conflict.
Espionage activity
His espionage activity was discovered in 1963: The following year Blunt confessed and was granted immunity from prosecution. Only in 1979 was his clandestine activity made known by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and he was stripped of any honors he had received for his work as a scholar. But if what Verkaik claims were true, even though he admits that he has not found decisive evidence in this regard, the following would be added to his profile: a very serious stain.
The Allied plan for the invasion of Germany
Blunt was certainly well informed about the plan of theOperation Market Gardenwhich was supposed to allow the Allies to take the Wehrmacht by surprise and implement a rapid invasion of Germany. Equally certainly, the British paratroopers dropped into Holland encountered unexpected and strenuous German resistance, which determined the failure of the offensive. It was a Dutch double agent, Christiaan Lindemans, who warned the Nazis, but he was not the only one. Berlin received a more detailed report from a mysterious spy codenamed “Josephine”.
Blunt’s liability, if any
A year later Blunt himself, as an MI5 officer, was put in charge of discover the identity of «Josephine». He would paradoxically find himself, according to Verkaik, a investigate yourself. If this were the case, the English art historian would have a very heavy responsibility. He would have delayed the end of the Third Reich, contributing, Verkaik observes, “to the deaths of tens of thousands of Allied servicemen and countless civilians who perished as a result of the prolongation of the war.”
April 28, 2024 (modified April 28, 2024 | 12:21)
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