Posted by Geraint Lewis on June 13, 2007 at 18:44:13 from 194.164.38.65 user Geraint_Lewis.
In Reply to: spying posted by peteb on June 13, 2007 at 14:18:38:
How about Einar Skinnarland?
In WW2 he was an engineer at the Norsk Hydro plant at Rjukan in Norway. Wanting to join the Norwegian forces in the UK, he left at the start of his Easter vacation, hijacked a coastal steamer with some friends and sailed to Aberdeen. The British realised he would be of more use to them back in Rjukan, so promptly flew him back and threw him out of the plane - with a parachute, but without any training. He reported back to work at the factory at the end of his holiday, without anyone there having a clue that he had spent most of it in Britain.
Subsequently the information he sent out helped with the planning and execution of a successful sabotage raid on the plant by Norwegian members of the Special Operations Executive. This - and subsequent efforts - helped to delay the production of Heavy Water, which the Germans were hoping to use to develop an atomic bomb. Arguably Einar and his colleagues prevented this and thus made a significant, perhaps crucial, impact on the outcome of the war.
No doubt there are many other cases of spies finding out something of benefit to somebody, just as there will be many cases in which other spies proved completely incompetant and useless.
Geraint