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Article: Unveiling Venlo: the Nazis' violent abduction of two British spies in Holland in 1939 was a major embarrassment for Britain. But far more was at stake than red faces in Whitehall.(Report)
- Article from:
- World War II
- Article date:
- November 1, 2009
- Author:
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In 1935, a former British secret agent of World War I vintage, Capt. Sigismund Payne Best, was summoned back into service by his old comrade in military intelligence, Col. Claude Majoribanks Dansey. They had worked together from 1914 to 1918, running agents in and out of Germany from the neutral Netherlands. As their antiquated names suggest, the two men were drawn from the upper crust of British society, which traditionally provided the pipes-and-tweeds manpower of the United Kingdom's secret services.
Best, a tall, snobbish, spats-and-monocle-wearing figure who spoke flawless Dutch and German, had remained in Holland after the First World War. He had married a ...