Alexander Allan Foote (13 April 1905 – 1 August 1956) was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Foote was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and raised mostly in Yorkshire by his Scottish-born father and English mother.

Life

Foote completed his education at sixteen and, after working in different professions, joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

in 1935. However, he deserted while serving at Gosport Barracks on 23 December 1936. Following his desertion he sailed for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and served with the

British Battalion The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Shapurji Saklatvala, Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th (from November 1937 the 57th) battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during t ...

of the

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

for two years. Serving with the rank of

Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

, Foote was appointed transport officer and batman to

Fred Copeman Frederick Bayes Copeman OBE (1907–1983) was an English volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, commanding the British Battalion. He is also notable for contributing to London's air raid defences during the Second ...

. 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 Ursula Kuczynski (15 May 1907 – 7 July 2000), also known as Ruth Werner, Ursula Beurton and Ursula Hamburger, was a German Communist activist who spied for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s, most famously as the handler of nuclear sc ...

in Switzerland. He became a radio operator for the Soviet espionage operation run by

Alexander Radó Alexander Radó (also ''Alexander Radolfi'', ''Sándor Kálmán Reich'', ''Alexander Rado''; born Sándor Radó, ; 5 November 1899 – 20 August 1981) was a Hungarian cartographer who later became a Soviet Union, Soviet military Intelligence (i ...

and was one of those who passed information to Moscow from the

Lucy spy ring The Lucy spy ring () was an anti-Nazi World War II espionage operation headquartered in Switzerland and run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee. Its story was only published in 1966, and very little is clear about the ring, Roessler, or the effo ...

run by

Rudolf Roessler Rudolf Roessler (German: ''Rößler''; 22 November 1897 – 11 December 1958) was a Protestant Germany, German and a dedicated German resistance to Nazism, anti-Nazi. During the interwar period, Roessler was a lively cultural journalist, with a ...

. 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.

Espionage

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 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

(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 Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

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 the Moscow Centre to Argentina, to attempt to identify and infiltrate groups of escaped high-ranking Nazis. Journalist, broadcaster and author

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was a conservative British journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, i ...

, himself a wartime MI6 officer, "got to know Foote after the war" (pp 207–08) when Foote paid Muggeridge "regular visits" at his flat near

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

, 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.Operation Lucy : most secret spy ring of the Second World War /

Anthony Read Anthony Read (21 April 1935 – 21 November 2015) was an English television producer, screenwriter, script editor and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, which included a period as a script ...

and David Fisher. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1981. 1st ed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foote, Alexander Red Orchestra (espionage) British spies for the Soviet Union 1905 births 1957 deaths

Life

Espionage

See also

References