The Power of Everyday Tradecraft
The world of the field agent/spy is not what is made out to be in many fiction novels. Exploding pens and transmitters in the heel of a shoe are real but unlikely to be found in the posession of a 1940s spy especially one who has been infiltrated into a 'subversive' organisation. While those certainly exist in the world of intelligence, they represent just one facet of a broader, and apparently more mundane, reality, but they oprated in a no less dangerous environment where discovery could easily lead to death or an unexplained disappearance.
The truth is, much of the world's most critical espionage during the 1940s didn't rely so mch on minitaiture cameras or 'futuristic gadgets', but on something far more innocent and accessible, I've borowed the phrase 'everyday tradecraft'.
What is "Tradecraft," Really?
It all boils down to this, tradecraft is simply a collection of specialized skills and techniques used in clandestine operations. It’s about how spies and their handlers do their work, secretly, safely, and effectively. But for many, especially during the tumultuous 1940s, "tradecraft" meant using ordinary everyday items in extraordinary ways.
For agents operating in their own communities, infiltrating suspected "subversive" groups, or gathering human intelligence (HUMINT) on the home front, their very survival depended on being invisible, the grey men and grey women that operated below the radar.. Their equipment wasn't custom-made; it was what they already carried in their pockets, wore on their feet, found in the kitchen or found on a bookshelf.
Significantly, without everyday tradecraft, you would have to question just how effective espionage and counter-intelligence could ever be.Tradecraft at this level is the foundational layer, a silent language with inconspicuous signals, and invisible 'handshakes' that allows information to flow from field agent to thir handlers.
How Spies Used "Everyday" Items
Put yourself in the place of a field agent in the 1940s, you're a civilian, recruited by military intelligence or some other agency during or just after WW2.. Your task is to observe and report. You can't carry anything suspicious. Your life depends on your ability to 'blend in'. So, what do you do? You turn what is apparently a mundane item into specialised clandestine instrument.
1. The Secrets in Your Stationery: Hiding Messages in Plain Sight:
This is where human ingenuity truly shines. How do you get sensitive information from point A to point B without anyone knowing it's even a message?
Book Codes: Perhaps the most famous example. Instead of a complex cipher machine, agents would agree on a specific book – say, a well-known poetry collection or even a common dictionary. A message would then be encoded as a series of numbers: Page number, line number, word number. The handler would have an identical copy. A note full of numbers could be innocent enough – lottery picks, betting figures, or just jottings. But combined with the book, it became a complete message.
Innocent Letter: This is the classic 'plausible deniability'. An agent might send a seemingly innocent letter to a relative (their handler) complaining about their job or discussing hobbies. But within that mundane chatter, pre-arranged phrases held secret meanings. "The garden needs weeding" might mean "The meeting is cancelled, "I.m in hospital" could be a desperate plea, signaling "I'm being followed, i think I will be arrested." These are actual code words used by the Rote Drei spy ring in WW2
Simple Ciphers on Tiny Notes: For critical, short pieces of information – a name, an address, a time – agents would use simple "pen and paper" ciphers. These weren't unbreakable, but they made a small scrap of paper unintelligible to the casual observer. The message itself might be written on a piece of onion skin or cigarette papers so thin it could be rolled into a minuscule 'pellet' shape..
2. The Invisible Pockets: Concealing and Carrying Information
Once information was captured (perhaps as a tiny, tightly rolled note), it needed to be moved. You couldn't just walk around with it. This is where personal items became ingenious hiding places.
Clothing: A few unpicked stitches on the back lining of a tie or a jacket collar could create a temporary pocket. A small, almost imperceptible slit in the heel or sole of a shoe could hold a folded note. Even a simple, unlined coat might have a concealed pocket sewn into an inside seam. Unless you were subjected to a detailed, forensic search, these were effectively invisible.
Personal Items: A shaving brush with a hollow handle, a fountain pen with a tiny space in its barrel, or even a simple cigarette could all hide a rolled-up message. These were items everyone carried, making them perfect cover.
3. Silent Signals: Meeting, Passing, and Dropping Off
The hardest part of clandestine work is often the transfer of information. How do you give something to someone without being seen together?
Visible Chalk Signals: The classic. A simple chalk mark – a cross, a circle, a line – on a specific lamppost, mailbox, or wall. If you were to walk past it, it means nothing to you but everything to the handler, signaling, "The dead drop is loaded," or "I need to meet." or even 'Don't go near' It's a fleeting mark that blends into an urban landscape. Although true to say the Soviets preferred off the main road and wodded areas for heir dead drop locations
Dead Drops: A dead drop is pre-arranged, public location where an item could be left and picked up later, ensuring the agents never had to interact directly. This could be a loose brick in a garden wall, or as in in one case, the hollowed out leg of a railway station bench, or even inside a specific library book. It's about finding a place that's easy to access but hard to observe.
Brush Pass: A high-risk, close-quarters handoff. Two agents walk towards each other in a crowded area. As they "brush" past, one subtly passes or slips a newspaper or another common item (containing the message) to the other. It looks like an accidental bump, a momentary interaction lost in the bustle of a busy street.
The beauty of everyday tradecraft lies in its banality. It capitalizes on human behavior, on what we don't notice, and on the fact that most people aren't looking for extraordinary things in ordinary places. It’s a testament to the fact that the most powerful tools in intelligence are often not high technology, but human ingenuity, careful planning, and a deep understanding of human psychology.
So, the next time you see a chalk mark on a wall, or notice someone adjusting their tie, or fastening their shoelace remember that sometimes, the most innocent things can hold the deepest secrets.
The upcoming book will have a chapter devoted to Tradecraft, with some extraordinary examples, including some that directly reference the Somerton Man case.
On another blog they’ve pinned down Prosper for being involved in a huge car stealing racket, 4000 cars stolen in a year which is a lot. You haven’t said a word about that why’s that?
ReplyDeleteI’ll keep this short. In Queensland alone in 1948 there were 125,000 cars registered, the number of cars stolen isn’t readily available on the web but to get an idea, in 2021 there were 2.9 million passenger vehicles registered in Queensland and just over 15000 cars reported stolen or around .5% of all cars in the state. Next statistically, between 80% and 85% of cars stolen are recovered within 2 weeks undamaged, so of your 4000 stolen cars you would actually have around 800 that weren’t recovered. Of those 800 cars some will have been pushed into a dam or a lake never to be seen again, a lot more would have found there way to a ‘chop shop’ where they would be disassembled and sold as parts and a few, not many, and mostly from the high end of the market, would have been stolen to order. Those cars within hours of being stolen have been resprayed and ‘re-birthed’ and the next day they would be on their way to their new owners,. As an estimate, I’d suggest maybe 15 cars a week or 750 out of your 4000. These are very quick numbers and I think you’ll find they’re in the ball park, but check them out. The question you have to ask is this, where did they get their number of 4000 stolen cars from? Hope this helps..
ReplyDeleteWhat a hoot, they’d used a newspaper article as their proof, headline grabbing.
ReplyDeleteJojo, It’s sad that this sort of thing occurs, to publish narratives that lack sufficient research does not help the impression that people have of the Somerton Man case. It lowers tha standards. What matters is the truth and not ‘headline’ grabbing as you put it. I don’t normally publish this kind of material but this case is an exception. I will be removing this discussion later today.
ReplyDelete