The following is an incomplete list of notable spies during World War II.
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Peggy Taylor | Taylor was a French spy who shot and killed a German Gestapo colonel when she was 21. | [1]4 |
Gabrielle Bonheur (spy) | Gabrielle was a French nazi spy who reported information to French colony. Was later accused. |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Mathilde Carré | Carré was a double agent. | [2] |
Coco Chanel | Chanel was a Nazi spy, proven in declassified documents by historian Hal Vaughan in 2011. | [3] |
Harold Cole | Cole betrayed the French resistance. He was shot and killed by French police in 1946. | [4] |
Astrid Dövle Dollis Dahlgren | She was a Norwegian employed by the Germans. | [5] |
Fritz Duquesne | was a former Boer soldier and big-game hunter who had spied for Imperial Germany in WWI, and was the ringleader of the Duquesne Spy Ring in the US during WWII . | [6] |
Jessie Jordan | Scottish hairdesser actually arrested in 1937 and imprisoned until she could be deported | [7] |
Horst Kopkow | Kopkow was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of captured Allied agents. | [8] |
Elyesa Bazna | Code name Cicero; worked for the British ambassador in Ankara and photographed many top-secrets documents for Nazi Germany | |
Edward Kerling | Kerling was the leader of Operation Pastorius. Executed in 1942. | |
Herbert Hans Haupt | Haupt was a member of Operation Pastorius. Executed in 1942. | |
Richard Kauder | Kauder was the leader of the Max and Moritz Networks supplying rumours and convincing made-up reports on Soviet Union and Mediterranean region from Sofia |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Carmelo Borg Pisani | Carmelo Borg Pisani was a Maltese-born artist and Italian Fascist who, on being discovered during an espionage mission in Malta, was found guilty by a British war tribunal and executed for treason. | |
Rodolfo Siviero | Siviero was an Italian secret agent, art historian and intellectual, most notable for his important work in recovering artworks stolen from Italy during the Second World War as part of the ' Nazi plunder'. | |
Pino Lella | Lella claimed to have led Jews fleeing Italy through the Alps into Switzerland to freedom and later, as a Nazi, to have passed information to the Italian resistance.[ citation needed] Critics note that none of his claims have been corroborated, [9] either by those he claimed to rescue or by the Italian resistance [10] and that such claims might have been self-serving fabrications to avoid recriminations after World War II for enlisting as a Nazi. [11] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Dirk Klop | Klop was killed in the Venlo Incident. | [12] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Frederick Rutland | Was a former WWI British naval aviation officer who was paid by the Japanese to Spy on American military aviation developments in California and Hawaii before Pearl Harbor. | [13] [14] |
William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill | Was a Scottish Peer and British Royal Air Force Officer who passed military secrets to the Japanese before Pearl Harbor | [15] |
Velvalee Dickinson | Known as the Doll Woman, Dickinson used her New York City Doll shop as base of operations to spy on the US Navy and send stenographic messages to her Japanese handlers in South America. She was caught by the FBI in 1944 and was sentenced to ten years in prison. | [16] |
Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan | Heenan was a British Indian Army Captain who used radio equipment to transmit intelligence to Japanese forces during the Battle of Malay. His espionage discovered by his fellow officers and was summarily executed before the British defeat in the Battle of Singapore | [17] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Roman Czerniawski | Czerniawski was a D-Day spy. | [18] [19] |
Jan Kowalewski | Kowaleski helped Poland achieve victory in the Battle of Warsaw. | [20] |
Andrzej Kowerski (also called Andrew Kennedy) | Kowerski was a Lieutenant for Poland during the war. | |
Kazimierz Leski | Leski was a pilot during the war. He was captured and went to prison, and then he escaped. | [21] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Alexandru Nicolschi | He was a Soviet spy. | [22] |
Richard Sorge | Worked in Japan and Germany; Passed Information about Japan were crucial for the Soviet victory in Operation Barbarossa |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Karin Lannby | Lannby was a spy for Sweden. | [23] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Sverre Bergh | Bergh spied on missile facilities in Germany. He illegally moved German plans Wasserfall surface-to-air-missiles out of Germany. | [24] |
Blanche Charlet | Charlet worked with SOE, a British organization that went against the Axis powers. | [25] |
Roman Czerniawski | Czerniawski was a D-Day spy. | [18] [19] |
Madeleine Damerment | Damerment worked for SOE and was later shot. | [26] |
Claude Dansey | Dansey was assistant chief of the SIS. | [27] |
Wilfred Dunderdale | Dunderdale was a commander during the war. | [28] |
Ian Fleming | Fleming was a Lieutenant Commander RNVR in the British NID and was a key member of the NID 17. | [29] |
Juan Pujol García (a.k.a. Garbo and Alaric) | A Spanish double agent loyal to Great Britain, García played a key role deceiving Nazi Germany during Operation Fortitude, delaying reinforcements from Nazi Germany to Normandy. | |
Tor Glad (a.k.a. Jeff) | [30] | |
Kurt Glauber | Glauber was a Jewish Austrian who escaped to Britain. He joined MI6. On his second mission, part of which involved gathering information on Nazi Nuclear developments, he was betrayed. Glauber was severely brutalized by the Nazis for being both a Jew and a British spy, refused to reveal any information. He was murdered in Mauthausen Concentration Camp. | [31] |
Graham Greene | Greene was involved in the SIS (also known as MI6). | [32] |
Virginia Hall | Hall was a spy for the SOE, American OSS and the CIA. Note that the OSS was a precursor to the CIA. | [33] |
Mary Katherine Herbert | Herbert worked as a translator at Air Ministry in London after working with the British Embassy. | |
Ron Jeffery | [34] | |
Noor Inayat Khan | Khan was a SOE agent and became the first female wireless operator to be sent into occupied France to aid the French Resistance during the war. | [35] |
Andrzej Kowerski (also called Andrew Kennedy) | Kowerski was a Lieutenant for Poland during the war. | |
Lionel Lee | Lee was a British Jew. He joined MI6. On his second mission,he was betrayed. and captured. Lee was murdered in the Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp. | [36] |
Patrick Leigh Fermor | Leigh Fermor was an SOE operative in Heraklion, Crete, who abducted the German General Heinrich Kreipe to Egypt. | [37] |
Stewart Menzies | [38] | |
Merlin Minshall | Minshall worked for Ian Fleming as a spy. | [39] |
John "Helge" Moe (a.k.a. Mutt) | [30] | |
Eileen Nearne | Nearne was a SOE for the United Kingdom. | [40] |
Jacqueline Nearne | [41] | |
Paddy O'Sullivan | O'Sullivan was a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. | |
John Pendlebury | Pendlebury worked for the British intelligence. | [42] |
Paddy Ridsdale | Ridsdale was Ian Fleming's secretary. | [43] |
Peter Smithers | Smithers helped Ian Fleming collect German spies in Britain. | [44] |
Violette Szabo | [45] | |
Halina Szymańska | Szymańska had a French identity card, which identified her as a Marie Clenat. She used this card to aid Britain. | [46] |
Col. Ted Tingling | Tinlin was a colonel for the British intelligence. | [47] |
Jona von Ustinov | Ustinov was a British spy. | [48] |
Valentine Patrick Terrell Vivian | [49] | |
Pearl Witherington | Witherington was known by many names. | [50] |
Forest Frederick Edward "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas | Yeo-Thomas was a SOE agent. | [51] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Juliette May Alexander | Alexander was an American spy who gathered intel from German troops occupying France. She remained in Clermont-Ferrand for nearly two years, and reported her findings back to the US military. | [52] |
Moe Berg | Morris Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. | [53] |
Julia Child | Child worked for the OSS on the development of shark repellents. This was to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. | [54] |
William J. Donovan | Donovan was the head of the OSS. | [55] |
Helias Doundoulakis | Doundoulakis was a spy in the Secret Intelligence Branch (SI) of the Office of Strategic Services, sent to Salonica Greece. [56] | |
Arthur Goldberg | Goldberg was a United Nations ambassador. | [57] |
Virginia Hall | Hall was a spy for the SOE, American OSS and the CIA. Note that the OSS was a precursor to the CIA. | [33] |
Sterling Hayden | Hayden was an agent for the OSS. | [58] |
Rene Joyeuse | Joyeuse was an agent/operative for the OSS, who after the war became a physician and researcher and Co-founder of the American Trauma Society. | [59] |
Sidney Mashbir | Mashbir headed the top secret intelligence gathering organization Allied Translator and Interpreter Section during WWII. In 1942, Colonel Mashbir working with Ellis M. Zacharias created the first draft for the implementing directives for the creation of the CIA. Commander Zacharias later became the Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence. | [60] |
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. | He worked for the OSS. | [61] |
Jim Thompson | Thompson served as an operative in the OSS. | [62] |
Stephanie Czech Rader | U.S. Army Capt. Stephanie Czech Rader was X-2. She moved around Poland, tracking troop movements and ferrying sensitive documents.. | [63] |
Ellis M. Zacharias | Zacharias became Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence | [64] [65] |
Nicholas Deak | Agent for the OSS | [66] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Ernest Cuneo | Cuneo was a liaison officer who revealed stories about the United States commanders. | [67] |
Person | Notes | Reference(s) |
---|---|---|
Jane Horney | Horney was a Swedish spy for the Soviet Union. |