Snow: The double life of a World War II spy [Hardcover]

War produces the unexpected, especially with regards to intelligence. After the famous "Garbo" during D Day Garbo: The Spy Who Saved D-Day (Secret History Files), and the infamous conman, Eddie Champion or "Agent Zigzag" Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: The Most Notorious Double Agent of World War II, the historian Nigel West and TV producer Madoc Roberts have unearthed "Snow".

Arthur Owens, inventor and proprietor from South Wales, alias "Johnny", "Snow", "Der Kleiner", and 3504, was a bigamist, and a double agent both for the British Secret service and for the German Abwehr throughout the late 1930s to the middle of Second World War; he was able until the fall of France to travel fairly freely backwards and forwards to the continent, and, subsequently until his imprisonment, to fly to neutral Portugal with one of his wives to meet his handler and spymaster, Maj. Nikolaus Ritter, known as "Dr Rantzau". He handled an organisation of real and bogus enemy agents in Britain intended to supply Germany with vital military and meteorological data, carry out acts of sabotage on airfields, factories and ports, and was supposed to maintain nominal contacts with extremist violent anti-British establishment bodies, such as the BUF, the IRA, and the Welsh Nationalists.

The information in the book ought to be read together with Andrew's authorized history of MI5 (2010)The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 on the of the amateurish state of intelligence during the interwar and early years of the war; on the inability of people to refrain from talking loudly in public places despite the campaign of Careless talk costs lives (see Suzanne Hamilton as Matty Firman in episode when training for SOE in Wish Me Luck Wish Me Luck the complete first series). Such should be viewed in contrast with the speed with which Nazi Germany appeared to be recruiting and establishing informants around Britain looking for details on particular key issues; what is more they were also already making full use of secret service gadgets to pass on material in minute form two years before they were added to the British kit.

On the other hand, everything just noted occurred while British intelligence successfully managed to turn many of the countless German agents by psychological methods and fed their masters with already known and useless deceptive information: such as the British planned attack on Bergen and not on Trondheim, in April1940, and in turn extracted vital titbits from the many sources. Owens, himself, learnt first of a planned German airborne attack on targeted towns and airfields in southern England (something also unknown to Churchill) at the time when Chamberlain was proudly waving his "Peace in Our Time" paper, - which would have made a mockery of the Prime minister's appeasement strategies in late1938 had Hitler and Goering chosen to attack. Secondly, in September 1939, it was incredibly discovered that Owens' radio message contact with Germany drafted by MI5 had undergone encryption on a cipher generated on an Enigma machine, and as the cryptanalysts intercepting were able to reverse-engineer the daily settings of the machine's rotors by the end of 1940 cipher traffic could circulate as ISOS and the codebreakers at Bletchley could extend their traffic from the Abwehr to the Luftwaffe. Finally, by February 1940, Owens had heard that the Phoney war would soon become a real war, but unfortunately for Britain as Chamberlain did not take the information seriously it was he and not Hitler who tragically had "missed the bus" in May with the preparations.

Owens' War did not conclude behind bars as an enemy. He transformed himself; this time choosing to act as a stool-pigeon in late 1943. Through his scientific background he realized he was listening to useful details bragged by prisoner, a Dane, Jurgen Borreson, who wished to talk that he was aware of German rocket experiments being carried out in Heligoland, which at that moment unknown to both were the prototypes of the V1s which eventually were launched in 1944.This hunch was a missing piece of a larger jigsaw puzzle.

In my opinion, the real weakness of this book is that around a quarter (over 50 pages) focuses on a long winded chapter on his interrogations examining inconclusively whether Owens was still from 1941 actively working for Germany. In the end, without the necessary available evidence, the authors played safe and deduced that Arthur Owens always tended to operate pragmatically like a chameleon as would a mercenary on each occasion on his feet as a means of self-preservation; showing to be neither for or against Britain or Germany, and only changed his allegiances when the war seemed to be lost for Germany.

More interesting was their comments about his handler in Germany, Dr Rantzau, who at one moment claimed to know that Owens was operating for Britain whilst still in German pay, but preferred to continue the lie to his political masters of his agent being reliable and promising future German successes, rather than face his own immediate dismissal, his eventual call up for active military service to the dreaded Eastern Front, leading to his likely death. They even hinted that the Abwehr might have fallen into the hands of Nazi opposition, perhaps thinking of the plotters of July 20th, 1944 - something which may at first sight may seem amazing, but not far fetched had events happened slightly differently. There is a feeling that Ritter and his kin were pleading innocence to the victors, and no one now could be any certain of their last minute honesty.

So what is certain in the entire tale? What is certain in intelligence, however, is that there are only still many unfinished threads and conclusions in the narrative caused by secrets and lies, not forgetting that the main protagonist chose to abide by Official Secret's Act and did not leave any written testament even for his children, -one always believing him to have been a traitor, disappearing from public and his past private family lives, preferring instead to resurface in a new unfamiliar environment with a new wife and family, dying in 1957 during a different post-war era when interests of an enemy of an earlier war was much less important to that of the immediate Soviet peril.

The book fills an empty niche, and has unearthed interesting and valuable nuggets in the field. Its real worth might be seen in future when discovering other general areas where Owens may have had a secondary role. Until then, Owens may still be viewed as a conman a rogue, though a likeable one. Unlike Kim Philby and the Cambridge band, his own particular mannerism did not meet the snobbish norms of the establishment of the time, and was falsely and cruelly treated as a traitor. When it was noticed that they had been mistaken they were not even decent to pardon and rehabilitate him for their errors. Maybe this book will be a small important step for him and his families in that direction.

Ever wondered how the Britains famous wartime 'double cross' system came into being? It's all here. Somewhat surprisingly it was down to a Welshman who is largly unknown, even amongst those who inhabit the valley of Arthur Owens birth today. That he was the father of a famous Hollywood film star would gain him 'status' in todays 'personality' centric world. In point of fact Arthur Owens deserved personality status in his own right. I feel sadly that the more class concious world of post war Britain denied him the peace his 'freelance'forays into the heart of the most powerful dictatorship in the world brought about. The book is intriguing.I found myself believing first one explanation as to Owens actions only to be seduced a few paragraphs later by the 'evidence' being sifted by the cynical 'spooks' of MI5 who, safely ensconced presumably in their Mayfair Clubs, manipulated the pawns in the latest phase of the 'Great Game'. However, and despite their machiavellian planning, their greatest triumph (for which they presumably gained the credit)was delivered to them by an anonimous, complex man whose very ordinariness was probably his greatest strength.
Well done 'Cymru'. First 'The Man Who Never Was' and now 'Snow'.
A cracking tale and a cracking read.

This book is well worth buying if your a fan of history, world war two or espionage. The book is well written, very interesting and a great read!!! The book is about a welsh double spy Arthur Owens, and how he helped mi5 gather intelligence. Arthur Owens is not widely known, but a key player in the alied victory over germany in the second world war. This book has all the information you need to understand the amazing story of Arthur Owens.