MI6 planned campaign for after Nazi invasion

MI6 established a secret network of “stay behind” agents to spy on the Germans in the event of a successful Nazi invasion, it was disclosed yesterday.

According to the official history of the Secret Intelligence Service by professor Keith Jeffery, 24 “head agents” were recruited across Britain as the country prepared for the threatened German onslaught in 1940.

They were chosen from the ranks of ordinary people who, “by the nature of their occupation could remain in enemy-controlled territory and continue their normal occupations without arousing undue suspicion”.

They included “doctors, dentists, chemists, bakers and small shopkeepers” who could “move around in the course of their professional duties or receive many visits from other people”.

Each agent was supplied with a wireless set with which they were supposed to transmit information back to MI6 headquarters which would probably have been relocated to Canada.

The intelligence network was supplemented by a band of 80 saboteurs who were supplied with “secret dumps of equipment and devices” to mount attacks on the occupying Germans.