Saturday 2 March 2019

What Spies Need

Reading spy fiction (I needn't list the authors again) gives us some idea of what spies need, particularly in war-time:

misdirection (if the enemy looks for you, make him look in the wrong place);

plausible cover (the ability to walk and talk unsuspected in the enemy capital);

a technical department providing forged documents and useful gadgets;

communications;

escape route;

combat skills (not all real-life spies have these but our favorite fictional secret agents do);

motivation;

intuition;

luck (Audentes fortuna iuvat).

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree with this list. And it applies, of course, to German agents working in the US, France, or the UK!

I think the bit of Latin you quoted means "Fortune favors the audacious"? There is truth in that, I think. Sometimes the best thing to do is to be BOLD.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
That statement is based on a lot of experience. If there is luck to be had, it is the brave who go out and get it.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree. And Horst von Duckler (I know an umlaut should be used!) was a very brave and able man. Not just Luz O'Malley.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Horst is able; so is Colonel Nicolai. Note though that the Germans had a record throughout the 20th century of being terrible at intelligence and covert operations. Their codes were broken in both world wars and they never even suspected. Every German spy in Britain was captured or turned within a month in 1914. The Red Orchestra infiltrated them in WWII. And I could go on.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Please don't!

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And I don't understand why so many of the Germans were so bad at intelligence work. As regards codes, *** I *** would have CHANGED my codes regularly, at unpredictable times. That alone should have made life tough for my enemies!

The Germans should have read Sun-tzu's classic THE ART OF WAR and his chapters about spies. Those chapters would have really helped them!

I'm glad Horst was far smarter about intelligence than many of his countrymen.

Sean