ALEXANDER FOOTE.
Alexander Allan Foote, alias JIM, alias ALFRED (?), alias Major Granatov, alias Alexander Feodorovitch Lapidus, alias Alexander Alexandrovitch Dymov, alias John South, alias Albert Müller.
Was from 1938 to 1940 an agent of a R.I.S. sabotage group intended to operate against Germany under leadership of Ursula Hamburger. During 1941 to 1943 he lived in Switzerland, operating WT transmitters until his arrest, as a member of Alexander Radó's organisation. In addition to enciphering, deciphering receiving and transmitting traffic with Moscow, Foote instructed other recruits in WT and from the summer of 1941 utilised his social contacts in order to obtain Swiss currency for the network against repayment of Dollar sums in the USA and South America.
Probably on Springhall's recommendation interviewed by Fred Copeman and offered a "secret and dangerous" job abroad. Interviewed twice by Brigitte Lewis, now Long, in her flat, 4 Lawn Road, Hampstead in September 1938.
Visited "SONIA" (Ursula Hamburger) in Geneva; given money and instructions to live in Munich, learning German and contacting employees of the BMW factory and studying WT and photography.
Arrived in Munich on 11-11-1938. Probably sent Brigitte Lewis his address by secret writing concealed in a book.
Reported to SONIA in Geneva In February and May 1939. On second visit given elementary sabotage instructions.
Recalled to Geneva by SONIA on the eve of war in August 1939. Lived in Montreux with Leon Beurton, visiting SONIA for WT instructions.
Instructed to cultivate the Rumanian Colony in Switzerland in preparation for the intended transfer of SONIA and her agents to Budapest. Italy's entry into the war caused the abandonment of this plan.
Foote moved to Geneva and started instructing Edward Hamel in WT on 01-08-1940.
SONIA handed her agents over to Radó and left for the UK. Foote moved to Lausanne in December 1940.
In March 1941 Foote commenced transmissions to Moscow from Lausanne.
During a sudden interruption in transmission from Moscow Foote telegraphed Brigitte Lewis asking her to discover why Moscow was silent.
Trained Margaretha Bolli as a WT operator in the Spring of 1942.
Instructed Elsa Martin in WT by the end of 1942.
Sent Jan Bohny to St. Gallen to collect a transmitter from Simpson, somewhere in 1942.
Contacted May Gessner-Bührer to collect a WT set which had been in her possession and probably belonged to Poliakova's organisation; this had, however, been destroyed by Humbert-Droz.
Visited by a Gestapo agent in April 1943 who was impersonating a courier from France (? Aenis-Haenslin, Robinson's courier, arrested in Paris a few weeks earlier).
During the Spring and Summer of 1943 he acted as cut-out for Radó to the Martins. In about June, delivered a WT set to Elsa Martin, who refused to use it.
Trained Henrietta Bourgeois in WT in June 1943.
Was arrested at transmitter by the Swiss police on 19-11-1943. Held in prison until 08-09-1944 when he was released on bail of 2000 Francs.
Nicole arranged meetings between Foote and Pünter and between Foote and Dübendorfer, who introduced Foote to Rössler in Zürich. Out of touch with Moscow and with no financial resources Foote decided to contact the Soviet authorities in Paris.
He reached Paris on 07-11-1944, having crossed the frontier at Annemassec. Contacted Lt.Col. Novikov, head of the Soviet Military Mission in Paris.
Left Paris by air for Moscow on 06-01-1945; found Radó and Trepper (Unknown to Foote) were fellow travellers. In Cairo, where the plane landed for the night, Foote told Radó of recent developments in Switzerland: Radó left him in an attempt at flight.
Arrived in Moscow on 16-01-1945 and was taken to the R.U. headquarters, where he was interviewed by Poliakova and other officials. After months of interrogation and detention he was taken to a Datcha in Shodnia, near Moscow for training in WT and microphotography. In the summer of 1946 he mat have been handed over to another branch of the R.U. or possibly to the M.G.B.
He was taken in March 1947 by plane to Berlin, where he was to live for some months as a German, Albert Müller, in order to absorb background, preparatory to the mission which he would then undertake in the Argentine.
On 03-07-1947 Foote presented himself to the British authorities in Berlin, a very sick man, who declared that he had become disillusioned and wished to abandon his career as a Soviet agent.
Addresses.
November 1938-August 1939: Elisabethstrasse 2, Munich.
August 1939- August 1940: Pension "Elisabeth", Montreux.
August 1940-December 1940: Flat in Pacific House, Geneva.
December 1940-November 1943 Chemin de Longeraie 2, Lausanne.
July 1948: 11 Cliften Gardens, Maida Vale, London W.9
Personal particulars.
Nationality: British.
Date of birth: 13-09-1905 in Kirkdale, Liverpool
Documents: British passport No. 162058, issued in London, October, 1938.
Description: Height 6' 0" broadshouldered, well-built, sandy hair, thinning and receding, cleanshaven, deep-set eyes, high forehead, full lower lip, large ears.
Badly dressed, uneducated, speaks English with North country accent. Speaks good German, some French and a very little Russian. Chain-smoker. Fond of women. Adventurous and restless.
Alexander Allan Foote (13 April 1905 - 1 August 1956) was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland during World War II. Foote was born in Liverpool, and raised mostly in Yorkshire by his Scottish born father and English mother.
Foote completed his education at sixteen and after working in different professions, joined the Royal Air Force in 1935. However, he deserted while serving at Gosport Barracks on 23 December 1936.
Following his desertion he sailed for Spain and served with the British Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War for two years.
Serving with the rank of Sergeant, Foote was appointed transport officer and batman to Fred Copeman.
He decided to continue his efforts against Fascism (and, perhaps, for Communism) and volunteered for clandestine work with Red Orchestra. He was put into contact with Ursula Kuczynski in Switzerland. He became a radio operator for the Soviet espionage operation run by Alexander Radó and was one of those who passed information to Moscow from the Lucy spy ring run by Rudolf Roessler. Foote was one of those arrested when the Swiss police shut down most of the operation and was detained for a time.
After the War, he spent some time in the Eastern Bloc and then returned to the West and published his book, A Handbook for Spies. He died in 1956.
Because of the implausible veracity of the intelligence (fast, plentiful, and accurate) and never explained source of the Lucy Ring's information, suspicion attaches to all those associated with it. Since Foote, as the Lucy Ring's radio operator, was a central cog in the chain of supply and therefore in a position to know much, his subsequent account has been thought to be rather dubious in places. This, and the fact that he seemingly managed to return to the West rather easily, has led some to suggest Foote was a British Secret Service double agent and one conduit (perhaps even the main one) of intelligence from Britain to Roessler and thence to Moscow.
According to various sources, Foote was indeed a MI6 (SIS) double agent unbeknownst to Radó. After the destruction of Radó's network and his escape from Switzerland, Radó met Foote in Paris and both were ordered to return to Moscow immediately. They took off aboard a Russian military aeroplane on 6 January 1945, taking a circuitous route (the war being still in progress) via Egypt. Their plane landed to refuel in Cairo, whereupon Radó defected. Continuing alone to Moscow, Foote was subjected to intensive interrogation in an attempt to determine his loyalty and the possibility of his being a penetration agent. Foote was confronted with an instance of disinformation sent from his transmitter in May 1942 and told "That message cost us 100 000 men at Kharkov and resulted in the Germans reaching Stalingrad." Foote said that he merely passed on what he received from Radó. Satisfied with Foote's explanation, the Soviets gave Foote a false identity under the alias of Major Granatov. Posing as a German, Albert Müller, he inserted himself into postwar Berlin to establish this alias with the aim of being sent by Moscow Centre to Argentina, to attempt to identify and infiltrate groups of escaped high-ranking Nazis.
Journalist, broadcaster and author Malcolm Muggeridge, himself a wartime MI6 officer, "got to know Foote after the war" when Foote paid Muggeridge "regular visits" at his flat near Regent's Park, London. Foote at this time was working as a clerk in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, work he found, according to Muggeridge, "very tedious". Muggeridge is firmly of the opinion that the information Foote sent "could only, in fact, have come from Bletchley".
In March 1947, following the defection of a Soviet agent who had been involved with British Intelligence, Foote's allegiance to the British may have been confirmed. Foote himself defected from his Russian control in Berlin, escaping to the British sector.
Source: Wikipedia.
Was from 1938 to 1940 an agent of a R.I.S. sabotage group intended to operate against Germany under leadership of Ursula Hamburger. During 1941 to 1943 he lived in Switzerland, operating WT transmitters until his arrest, as a member of Alexander Radó's organisation. In addition to enciphering, deciphering receiving and transmitting traffic with Moscow, Foote instructed other recruits in WT and from the summer of 1941 utilised his social contacts in order to obtain Swiss currency for the network against repayment of Dollar sums in the USA and South America.
Probably on Springhall's recommendation interviewed by Fred Copeman and offered a "secret and dangerous" job abroad. Interviewed twice by Brigitte Lewis, now Long, in her flat, 4 Lawn Road, Hampstead in September 1938.
Visited "SONIA" (Ursula Hamburger) in Geneva; given money and instructions to live in Munich, learning German and contacting employees of the BMW factory and studying WT and photography.
Arrived in Munich on 11-11-1938. Probably sent Brigitte Lewis his address by secret writing concealed in a book.
Reported to SONIA in Geneva In February and May 1939. On second visit given elementary sabotage instructions.
Recalled to Geneva by SONIA on the eve of war in August 1939. Lived in Montreux with Leon Beurton, visiting SONIA for WT instructions.
Instructed to cultivate the Rumanian Colony in Switzerland in preparation for the intended transfer of SONIA and her agents to Budapest. Italy's entry into the war caused the abandonment of this plan.
Foote moved to Geneva and started instructing Edward Hamel in WT on 01-08-1940.
SONIA handed her agents over to Radó and left for the UK. Foote moved to Lausanne in December 1940.
In March 1941 Foote commenced transmissions to Moscow from Lausanne.
During a sudden interruption in transmission from Moscow Foote telegraphed Brigitte Lewis asking her to discover why Moscow was silent.
Trained Margaretha Bolli as a WT operator in the Spring of 1942.
Instructed Elsa Martin in WT by the end of 1942.
Sent Jan Bohny to St. Gallen to collect a transmitter from Simpson, somewhere in 1942.
Contacted May Gessner-Bührer to collect a WT set which had been in her possession and probably belonged to Poliakova's organisation; this had, however, been destroyed by Humbert-Droz.
Visited by a Gestapo agent in April 1943 who was impersonating a courier from France (? Aenis-Haenslin, Robinson's courier, arrested in Paris a few weeks earlier).
During the Spring and Summer of 1943 he acted as cut-out for Radó to the Martins. In about June, delivered a WT set to Elsa Martin, who refused to use it.
Trained Henrietta Bourgeois in WT in June 1943.
Was arrested at transmitter by the Swiss police on 19-11-1943. Held in prison until 08-09-1944 when he was released on bail of 2000 Francs.
Nicole arranged meetings between Foote and Pünter and between Foote and Dübendorfer, who introduced Foote to Rössler in Zürich. Out of touch with Moscow and with no financial resources Foote decided to contact the Soviet authorities in Paris.
He reached Paris on 07-11-1944, having crossed the frontier at Annemassec. Contacted Lt.Col. Novikov, head of the Soviet Military Mission in Paris.
Left Paris by air for Moscow on 06-01-1945; found Radó and Trepper (Unknown to Foote) were fellow travellers. In Cairo, where the plane landed for the night, Foote told Radó of recent developments in Switzerland: Radó left him in an attempt at flight.
Arrived in Moscow on 16-01-1945 and was taken to the R.U. headquarters, where he was interviewed by Poliakova and other officials. After months of interrogation and detention he was taken to a Datcha in Shodnia, near Moscow for training in WT and microphotography. In the summer of 1946 he mat have been handed over to another branch of the R.U. or possibly to the M.G.B.
He was taken in March 1947 by plane to Berlin, where he was to live for some months as a German, Albert Müller, in order to absorb background, preparatory to the mission which he would then undertake in the Argentine.
On 03-07-1947 Foote presented himself to the British authorities in Berlin, a very sick man, who declared that he had become disillusioned and wished to abandon his career as a Soviet agent.
Addresses.
November 1938-August 1939: Elisabethstrasse 2, Munich.
August 1939- August 1940: Pension "Elisabeth", Montreux.
August 1940-December 1940: Flat in Pacific House, Geneva.
December 1940-November 1943 Chemin de Longeraie 2, Lausanne.
July 1948: 11 Cliften Gardens, Maida Vale, London W.9
Personal particulars.
Nationality: British.
Date of birth: 13-09-1905 in Kirkdale, Liverpool
Documents: British passport No. 162058, issued in London, October, 1938.
Description: Height 6' 0" broadshouldered, well-built, sandy hair, thinning and receding, cleanshaven, deep-set eyes, high forehead, full lower lip, large ears.
Badly dressed, uneducated, speaks English with North country accent. Speaks good German, some French and a very little Russian. Chain-smoker. Fond of women. Adventurous and restless.
Alexander Allan Foote (13 April 1905 - 1 August 1956) was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland during World War II. Foote was born in Liverpool, and raised mostly in Yorkshire by his Scottish born father and English mother.
Foote completed his education at sixteen and after working in different professions, joined the Royal Air Force in 1935. However, he deserted while serving at Gosport Barracks on 23 December 1936.
Following his desertion he sailed for Spain and served with the British Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War for two years.
Serving with the rank of Sergeant, Foote was appointed transport officer and batman to Fred Copeman.
He decided to continue his efforts against Fascism (and, perhaps, for Communism) and volunteered for clandestine work with Red Orchestra. He was put into contact with Ursula Kuczynski in Switzerland. He became a radio operator for the Soviet espionage operation run by Alexander Radó and was one of those who passed information to Moscow from the Lucy spy ring run by Rudolf Roessler. Foote was one of those arrested when the Swiss police shut down most of the operation and was detained for a time.
After the War, he spent some time in the Eastern Bloc and then returned to the West and published his book, A Handbook for Spies. He died in 1956.
Because of the implausible veracity of the intelligence (fast, plentiful, and accurate) and never explained source of the Lucy Ring's information, suspicion attaches to all those associated with it. Since Foote, as the Lucy Ring's radio operator, was a central cog in the chain of supply and therefore in a position to know much, his subsequent account has been thought to be rather dubious in places. This, and the fact that he seemingly managed to return to the West rather easily, has led some to suggest Foote was a British Secret Service double agent and one conduit (perhaps even the main one) of intelligence from Britain to Roessler and thence to Moscow.
According to various sources, Foote was indeed a MI6 (SIS) double agent unbeknownst to Radó. After the destruction of Radó's network and his escape from Switzerland, Radó met Foote in Paris and both were ordered to return to Moscow immediately. They took off aboard a Russian military aeroplane on 6 January 1945, taking a circuitous route (the war being still in progress) via Egypt. Their plane landed to refuel in Cairo, whereupon Radó defected. Continuing alone to Moscow, Foote was subjected to intensive interrogation in an attempt to determine his loyalty and the possibility of his being a penetration agent. Foote was confronted with an instance of disinformation sent from his transmitter in May 1942 and told "That message cost us 100 000 men at Kharkov and resulted in the Germans reaching Stalingrad." Foote said that he merely passed on what he received from Radó. Satisfied with Foote's explanation, the Soviets gave Foote a false identity under the alias of Major Granatov. Posing as a German, Albert Müller, he inserted himself into postwar Berlin to establish this alias with the aim of being sent by Moscow Centre to Argentina, to attempt to identify and infiltrate groups of escaped high-ranking Nazis.
Journalist, broadcaster and author Malcolm Muggeridge, himself a wartime MI6 officer, "got to know Foote after the war" when Foote paid Muggeridge "regular visits" at his flat near Regent's Park, London. Foote at this time was working as a clerk in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, work he found, according to Muggeridge, "very tedious". Muggeridge is firmly of the opinion that the information Foote sent "could only, in fact, have come from Bletchley".
In March 1947, following the defection of a Soviet agent who had been involved with British Intelligence, Foote's allegiance to the British may have been confirmed. Foote himself defected from his Russian control in Berlin, escaping to the British sector.
Source: Wikipedia.
