Hitler's Spy Against Churchill: The Spy Who Died Out in the Cold

by Jan-Willem van den Braak

Overview

From the summer of 1940 until May 1941, nearly twenty German Abwehr agents were dropped by boat or parachute into England during what was known as Operation Lena, all in preparation for Hitler's planned invasion of England. The invasion itself would never happen and in fact, after the war, one of the Abwehr commanders declared that the operation was doomed to failure.

There is no doubt that the operation did indeed become a fiasco, with almost all of the officers being arrested within a very brief period of time. Some of the men were executed, while others became double agents and spied for Britain against Germany. Only one man managed to stay at large for five months before eventually committing suicide: Jan Willem Ter Braak. Amazingly, his background and objectives had always remained unclear, and none of the other Lena spies had ever even heard of him. Even after the opening of the secret service files in England and the Netherlands over 50 years later, Jan Willem Ter Braak remained a 'mystery man', as the military historian Ladislas Farago famously described him.

In this book, the author – his near-namesake – examines the short and tragic life of Jan Willem Ter Braak for the first time. Using in-depth research, he investigates the possibility that Ter Braak was sent to kill the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and discovers why his fate has remained largely unknown for so long.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526768773
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	06/21/2022
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x (d)

About the Author

Born in Tilburg (The Netherlands) in 1952, Jan-Willem van den Braak studied law and philosophy. He was a lobbyist and member of the Board of Directors for the central employers’ organisation VNO-NCW in The Hague for 36 years until 2013, and has published several books concerning labor relations. He translated ‘The Myth of Enlightenment: Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation’ by the German mystic Karl Renz (Samsara 2020) and has always been interested in tales of espionage.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the English Translation xi

Prologue: About the Origins of this Book xiii

My fascination with espionage xiii

The primary source of this book xiv

The start of the research xv

About fiction and non-fiction xviii

MI5/MI6, Abwehr and RSHA (1940-41); Dutch Secret Service (1945-49) xix

Part I The Life of Engelbertus Fukken (1914-40)

Childhood and Adolescence (1914-31)

1 Family tracks 2

2 The birth of Engelbertus Fukken (28 August 1914): nomen est omen 5

3 Two spies (1914-15) 8

4 A happy family (1915-20) 12

5 Paradise lost (1920-31) 14

Displaced (1931-40)

6 Nautical College and membership of the National Socialist Movement (NSB) (1931-35) 18

7 Societal humiliation: from salesman and journalist to prisoner and unemployed (1935-39) 23

8 From the 'phoney war' to Churchill as Prime Minister (September 1939-June 1940): 'We shall fight in the fields and in the streets …' 28

9 Noordwijk: first months under occupation (May-June 1940) 33

Part II The Life of Jan Willem Ter Braak (1940-41)

Spy for Hitler (1940)

10 Operation Sea Lion 41

11 Operation Lena (I) (July 1940) 43

12 The birth of Jan Willem ter Braak (I) (first half of July 1940): the Mirow-Tappenbeck-Fukken connection 48

13 The birth of Jan Willem ter Braak (II) (second half of July-1 August 1940): the mystery unfolds … 56

14 Operation Lena (II) (August-September 1940) 61

15 Operation Lena (III) (October-November 1940) 76

16 Where was Dieter Tappenbeck between August and November 1940? 78

17 Where was Ter Braak between August and November 1940? (I): Ter Braak as an SS man 80

The Slow Jump into Death (1940-41)

18 First days in England (31 October/1-4 November 1940): where did Ter Braak stay? 92

19 Guest house stay in Cambridge (I) (4 November-31 December 1940) 97

20 Guest house stay in Cambridge (II) (1 January-29 March 1941) 105

21 Last days (29-30/31 March 1941): the spy who died out in the cold 113

22 The discovery of the remains and the funeral (1-8 April 1941) 118

Aftermath (1941-45)

23 MI5's investigation regarding Ter Braak (1941-42) 122

24 Operation Lena (IV) (April-May 1941): the end 127

25 The death of Dieter Tappenbeck (December 1941): a reconstruction 132

26 Noordwijk: departed without a trace (1941-45) 134

27 The official statement from the British authorities regarding the fate of Ter Braak (1945) 138

Part III How Ter Braak's True Identity was Discovered But Still Remained Obscure (1946-99)

How Ter Braak's True Identity Was Discovered (1946-47)

28 Unsuccessful attempts 142

29 The final attempt 145

Mystique around Jan Willem Ter Braak (1947-99)

30 Documentation on Operation Lena (I): 'mystery man Ter Braak' 148

31 Ter Braak as an accomplice to a murder in the Midlands 153

32 Ter Braak as book merchant, author, scientist and extortioner 157

33 Was Ter Braak expected to murder Churchill? (I): 'Himmler's Ace Spy planned to kill Churchill' 160

34 Was Ter Braak followed and murdered by MI5 (I)? 165

35 Ter Braak as a Russian spy (I) 167

Mystique around Bertus Fukken (1947-99)

36 Neeltje van Roon's enquiries 170

37 The silence and the rumours 174

38 The life and death of Neeltje van Vliet-van Roon (1956-95) 181

Part IV The Spy Who Came Back from Obscurity (1999-2021)

39 Documentation on Operation Lena and Ter Braak (II): the files open 184

40 Were the Lena agents deliberately sacrificed in a 'Deutschlandspiel'? 186

41 Where did Ter Braak's pistol go? 194

42 Adolf Hitler and Jan Willem ter Braak 196

43 Did Ter Braak use his radio transmitter? 199

44 Ter Braak as a Russian spy (II) 202

45 Was Ter Braak followed and murdered by MI5? (II) 203

46 Where was Ter Braak between August and November 1940? (II): Ter Braak in Berlin? 206

47 Was Ter Braak expected to murder Churchill? (II) 210

a Seriously facing the question 210

b Were there any attacks on Churchill? 212

c Walter Schellenberg and Erwin Lahousen 213

d Was Ter Braak expected to murder Churchill? 216

e The missions of Jakobs and Richter revisited 226

48 The Mary medallion and the enduring mystery 228

49 Ter Braak as a romantic personality 230

50 The death of Winston Churchill 233

51 Walking with destiny 238

Epilogue: Back to When 239

Noordwijk aan Zee, where it all began 239

Rijnsburg: the grave of Neeltje van Roon 241

Meeting Jan Willem Ter Braak's son 242

Cambridge and Great Shelford: 'The spy that time forgot' 244

Epitaph for a spy 246

Appendices 248

A Family trees 248

B Survey of LENA-spies (August 1940-May 1941) 251

C Addresses of Engelbertus Fukken aka Jan Willem ter Braak (1914-1941) 253

Afterword 255

Antony Percy, Epitaph for a fall guy

Bibliography 261

Notes 270

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

"As a detailed account of a hitherto unresolved wartime espionage mystery, Hitler’s Spy against Churchill is a textbook of family research."

International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence

"Van den Braak gives a detailed account of Fukken’s unsettled and often problematic early life...clarifies some details of the Ter Braak case..."

Studies in Intelligence