Into the Lion's Mouth: The True Story of Dusko Popov: World War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond

by Larry Loftis

  As the TRICYCLE-FREAK pot simmered over Jebsen’s heat, Dusko received more news.

  Ivo had been arrested.

  26

  NAKED AND SHAVED

  Ivo’s arrest occurred not long after Johnny’s kidnapping and was based, from what MI6 had heard, on Dr. Popov’s participation in the currency deals. The Gestapo, Ivo later told Dusko, showed up one day at Dr. Popov’s medical office and cashiered him to Glavnyaca prison without charges. During interrogation Ivo realized the Germans knew nothing of his underground activities, and questioned only about occupation marks he had purchased.

  From time to time Ivo was allowed care packages from friends. One morning, Dusko explained in his memoirs, Ivo received a parcel from a patient who was working with him in the underground. Among the goods was a box of cigarettes. Ivo emptied it and found a small paper, which had separated the sections. On it was the floor plan of the Gestapo headquarters where he had been questioned. When the prisoners were next taken in for interrogation, Ivo bolted for the exit. Three weeks later he met up with General Mihailovic’s resistance forces in the Serbian forests.

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  On August 2 SIS London received a “Most Immediate” telegram from an MI6 agent in Bari, Italy. The cable stated that a local SOE operative had received—perhaps intercepted—a radio signal from General Mihailovic. It requested that a message be forwarded to “I. Wilson” and stated that a Dr. Popov had escaped from the Gestapo and was with Mihailovic’s resistance fighters. He was traveling as Dr. Predrag Ivanovic, it said, and desired evacuation from Foggia, Italy. The general noted that Dr. Popov could be transported by American aviators who were currently with his men. The SOE agent added that the evacuation could take place over the next few days and if London so desired, to send instructions. Frank Foley cabled back that the Bari agent was to evacuate Ivo at once to the U.K.

  Dr. Ivo Popov, MI5 file. The scar above his left eye was courtesy of a German rifle butt.

  The National Archives of the UK

  Ian rushed to the Clock House. While Dusko’s heart was warmed by the news, he wrote, his nerves had been whittled raw by the stress of Johnny’s and Ivo’s imprisonments. Further, his planned trip to the U.S. for the king—after incessant questions and hurdles from the FBI and the SIS—had been scrapped. As a result, he had no present duties; he asked Ian for a break.

  Someplace to get away. Away from prisons and spies and D-Day and doodlebugs. A place where he could just “read and walk and forget about the war” for a few days. Wilson agreed to work on it. In the meantime, Ian had another pressing issue. For several weeks the FBI had been pestering MI5 and BSC for reports on Dusko, asking for details of what he had been doing. Since all roads eventually led to Johnny, however, Ian and Tar were wary to provide too much. And why did the FBI care? Dusko had not been in their employ for two years.

  That afternoon Wilson discovered the reason: The FBI had received a story—the source of which was allegedly the Poles—about various mysteries surrounding a playboy Yugoslav diplomat. The FBI, Ian found out, had received a recited summary of the PVDE report. Sensing no harm in the inquiry or the information, he prepared a full report of Popov’s last year and forwarded it through the American Embassy. While at it, he also found time to locate Dusko’s hideaway.

  The first week of August Dusko was off to Scotland. Tucked in a forsaken corner of the northeast Highlands, near the coastal town of Tain, was a small lodge known as Fisherman Inn. Only sea and sheep for miles around, Ian had said. It was quiet all right.

  On August 11 Dusko called John Marriott to tell him that he’d moved to Kinlochbervie, another small town but on the west coast. With a population of a couple hundred, Kinlochbervie’s main attraction was the fish depot. Nonetheless, Dusko could rest, walk the craggy shore, and clear his mind. Marriott mentioned that Ivo had made it to Italy, and Dusko left his number—201—in case MI5 received word that Ivo had reached England. Four days later, Dusko recalled, he was awakened in the middle of the night by banging on his door. It was a policeman, who said that Popov was to report to the War Office.

  Immediately.

  At a military airport near Epsom, Dusko was met by his old chauffeur, Jock Horsfall, who raced to Waterloo Station. There, standing with Ian, was Ivo. Although haggard from months in the woods, Dr. Popov was in good spirits. They checked into the Savoy, and after hearing details of Ivo’s escape, Dusko told him about Jebsen’s arrest. Did Ivo know of anyone who might be able to help? he asked.

  According to Popov’s memoirs, Ivo mentioned Frederick Hahn as a potential lead. A senior official in the Reichsbank, Hahn had been in charge of controlling national banks in occupied countries, and had participated in Jebsen’s currency deals. Hahn’s fiancée, Jacqueline Blanc, was in Paris and had met Ivo while he was coming through the escape line with Johnny. If Hahn wasn’t there, Ivo had said, Blanc might know of his whereabouts.

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  Dusko arrived in Paris at the end of August, days after the city’s liberation. With any luck, he recalled thinking, he might find Hahn hiding out in Blanc’s apartment as the Wehrmacht retreated.

  Jacqueline Blanc was in her mid-twenties and beautiful, Popov remembered, but her eyes were filled with haunting terror. Dusko introduced himself and said he was looking for a friend, Johann Jebsen, and that Ivo had mentioned Mr. Hahn as a potential lead. Blanc invited him in but said that Frederick was away on business in Germany, and that she hadn’t seen him for over a month. Dusko remembered offering her a cigarette, but she said she didn’t smoke.

  He glanced at the full ashtray.

  “Mademoiselle Blanc, let me be very frank with you. I am determined to save Jebsen by any means necessary. If you refuse to help, I shall have to take disagreeable steps. You are quite vulnerable, Mademoiselle Blanc. Please don’t force me to take action.”

  Jacqueline asked what he was talking about.

  “Yesterday I was walking on the Champs-Elysées and saw a revolting sight. Some girls were being marched through the street naked with their heads shaven and swastikas painted all over them. They had been associating with the Germans.”

  “You wouldn’t—”

  “To save a friend’s life, Mademoiselle Blanc, I’d go much further than that.”

  Suddenly, the bedroom door burst open and a tall German stormed into the room. He pointed a gun at Dusko.

  27

  ULLA

  Popov told Hahn to put the pistol away. He simply wanted names of people involved in Jebsen’s currency deals who might be able to help. After a bit of stalling, Hahn informed him that Johnny was being held in the Prinz- Albrecht-Strasse, and that several men had interrogated him, including an SS officer named Walter Salzer, Kaltenbrunner’s* assistant.

  Salzer was in his early forties, Dusko recalled Frederick saying, five-foot-ten or so, and would be easy to identify since he had a saber scar on his left cheek and his left hand had been so badly burned that he almost always wore gloves. As for who had the power to obtain Johnny’s release, Hahn gave the name of Dr. Schmidtt, Schellenberg’s aide-de-camp.

  That night Dusko drafted a letter to Schmidtt, stating that unless Jebsen was released safely to Lisbon or Switzerland, he was shutting down his net. Adding that he knew numerous officers were involved in Johnny’s deals, Dusko said he’d hate to see other heads fall. Schmidtt, who had likely participated, would get the point. Signing it as “Ivan,” Dusko sent it the following day through a courier.

  While Dusko chased the Hahn lead, Ian Wilson assisted from London. On September 10 he asked Frank Foley to have the Paris office interrogate two men who might have information on Johnny: Vladan Popov, Rue Maribeau, 19/v, Paris, and Mihail Glusevic, Rue Franqueville 15, Paris.

  Vladan, Dusko’s younger brother, was attending medical school in Paris,* Ian wrote, and Glusevic was a business agent of Johnny’s and had participated in the financial scheme. In addition
, Glusevic had been working with Jebsen and a group of financiers to fight the “German Economic State System.” Apparently organized and secret, they were using the password “SENI.” Ian also asked that the local agents let Vladan know they could carry back to Dusko and Ivo any personal letter.

  An SIS agent apparently found Vladan, but the circumstances surrounding it were odd. On September 26 Dusko received a letter at the Yugoslav Legation. Strangely, the envelope contained two letters—one from Vladan and the other from Branko Milinovic, a Yugoslav friend. Dusko showed them to Ian the following day and noted that the writing was not of either man, but that Vladan’s signature was in fact genuine. The letter read:

  Dear brother Dule,

  As Ivan told me to do, 15 days ago I sent you a message. But up to now I did not get a single answer from you; and I am very much worried.

  Please help me to come to see you; otherwise I shall have to go to the Rhein. My financial situation is very very bad since two monthes [sic].

  News = last news from our family I got before two monthes [sic]—Ivan has escaped from the Gestapo in the forests.—A bomb fell on our Belguzol’s house. . . .

  Hope to see you the sooner possible. Much love from your brother,

  Vladan Popov

  The unknown courier, Wilson figured, had required Vladan and Branko to record their correspondence in English as a precondition to carrying it, and may have been the scrivener. In any case, the letter made Dusko “keener than ever” to see his younger brother and Yugoslav friends. Wilson suggested to Tar that he (Ian) and Popov travel at once to Paris; Dusko could visit Vladan and at the same time they could pursue leads on Johnny.

  Since the French border was strictly controlled, Robertson would have to appeal to Allied Supreme Headquarters for clearance. On the twenty-eighth, Tar made the request to a Lieutenant Colonel Speir, and two days later MI5 had their papers—formal approval by way of command and assignment from General Eisenhower himself.

  The first week of October Dusko and Ian traveled to Paris and tried to make progress on Johnny. The endeavor was fruitless. None of Jebsen’s Parisian contacts, including Johnny’s mistress, had an inkling of what had happened to him. The good news was that since the Germans had made no attempt to arrest or interrogate any of Jebsen’s associates (save Glusevic), it was apparent that Johnny had not disclosed that he, Dusko, or Ivo were British controlled. Glusevic, while taken in for interrogation in mid-August, had only been asked about Johnny’s financial affairs; neither the Popovs nor any linking friends were mentioned. Surprisingly, the Germans asked nothing of the Yugoslav escape route, even though Glusevic had cashiered escapees through Paris.

  By the end of the month Wilson had no further leads and no additional duties for Dusko. Given Johnny’s situation, MI5 couldn’t actively engage the Germans from the TRICYCLE net, and Popov was free, until further notice, to do as he pleased. On October 27 Ian gave Dusko the $10,000 that MI5 had been holding and told him to stay in touch.

  With an authorized leave of absence, Dusko accelerated efforts to help Johnny. His correspondence to Dr. Schmidtt, he later found out, had made an impact. Shortly after receiving it, Schmidtt had Jebsen transferred from Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse to Oranienburg; no picnic itself, but the concentration camp was far better than the Prinz prison. After that, Dusko was told, Schmidtt sent Captain Kammler to the Gestapo to negotiate Jebsen’s release. He also asked the captain to see Johnny and let him know what was happening.

  The Johann the captain witnessed was jolting. “Dressed in prison clothes,” Kammler said, Johnny “was starting to take on the look of the typical concentration-camp victim. His flesh and muscle had melted away, and his head looked enormous sitting on top of his wasted neck and shoulders. His hair had fallen out in patches.” But Johnny’s spirit was strong, Kammler reported, and his crystal eyes flashed when told that Popov was effecting his release.

  “Tell Dusko I knew he wouldn’t forget me,” Johnny had said.

  From Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank, Dusko later learned of Johnny’s unbreakable spirit. Schacht, who was imprisoned in the cell next to Jebsen’s at Prinz, described what he witnessed when Johnny returned to his cell after an interrogation. “His shirt was drenched with blood,” Schacht recalled, and as the guards were locking him in his cell, Johnny snapped with aristocratic authority, “I trust I shall be provided with a clean shirt.”

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  On November 11 Popov met with Wilson to discuss another problem: Yugoslavia. At best, Dusko said, their friends and neighbors in Belgrade and Dubrovnik saw him and Ivo as cowards who had fled in time of need; at worst, their countrymen believed they were German agents. Partisan records in Cairo, Dusko had found out, listed him as a Fascist and Nazi collaborator. Yet Dusko and Ivo were not worried about reprisals against them personally—they were out of the country—but against family members. On October 20 Belgrade had been liberated, and scores were being settled with collaborators and their families. Neither he nor Ivo had heard from their parents, Dusko told Ian, or from Ivo’s wife. Wilson agreed to speak to Foley, and said that London would ask local agents to look for them, and provide protection if possible.

  Dusko also said that King Peter had asked him to visit Belgrade on a special mission. He didn’t have details, but wanted to know if British Intelligence had any objection. Wilson said no. Popov’s assumption was that the king sought his counsel about upcoming decisions Peter would have to make regarding Tito, Communism, and bridging the divide with the Partisans. While Popov was anti-Communist, he had not committed himself politically and favored compromise with Tito, a view which aligned with the king’s.

  Ten days later Dusko notified Ian of mission specifics. King Peter had told Dusko that he would fly him to Belgrade as special emissary, but that the need for certain approvals had caused delay. Dusko and Ian filled in the blanks: There was inherent danger in Popov arriving in Belgrade as a Royalist or Yugoslav officer. It was more than possible that a Russian or a Communist might “seek to do him harm.” The “approvals,” it appeared, was authorization to have Dusko arrive in Belgrade in a British uniform. The king had discussed this with Churchill, Peter told Popov, and the prime minister had had no objection if the king could arrange it with the Air Ministry.

  Dusko also asked Ian to consider reengaging the Germans. Word could be sent to them that Popov was moving to Paris, and since the SD had numerous agents in Switzerland, Dusko could arrange a trip for personal contact. If the liaison between the king and the Communists was handled properly, he said, he could obtain necessary approvals from the new Yugoslav government. Wilson discussed the idea internally, but the conclusion was that reopening the dialogue might cause the Germans to reexamine the TRICYCLE net, exposing all.

  The following day Ian met again with Dusko and told him that the notion of reconnecting with the Germans was off, but that the Paris trip could move forward. Due to the circumstances, however, Popov would have to do something out of character—lay low. Ian warned Dusko not to draw attention to himself in Paris—“by excessive expenditure or otherwise.”

  As Wilson had promised, he also worked on finding and protecting Dusko’s parents and Ivo’s family. Ian notified MI6 of Ivo’s wife’s name, Dragica, and the corresponding details. Their house had been destroyed by American bombs, he explained, the whereabouts of Ivo’s wife and child unknown. Ian suggested that SIS might inquire with Dragica’s father, George Vasic, who was a priest at St. Sava, a large church in Belgrade. The location and status of Dusko and Ivo’s parents, he added, was also unknown.

  The SIS work was dicey. If word got out that the British were trying to locate and protect certain Yugoslavs, rumors would spread that those protected were Allied agents. If the name of any Popov surfaced, the TRICYCLE net would be exposed and Johnny would be shot. And others. Heinrich Himmler had made clear in an order on September 10 that “every deserter . . . will find his just punishment. F
urthermore, his ignominious behavior will entail the most severe consequences for his family. . . . They will be summarily shot.”

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  At the end of November, Dusko wrote in his memoirs, he received a strange letter from Switzerland. Someone named “Ulla” had written him, as if a friend, saying that Johnny would be visiting her in Zurich a week or two before Christmas. Jebsen would be staying at the Hotel Baur au Lac, the letter stated, and would love to see him.

  Popov could only wonder: Who was Ulla?

  Unknown to him at the time, only one Ulla had surfaced in MI5, MI6, or BSC reports. On December 17, 1941, British censors in Bermuda had intercepted a secret German letter from Mexico to Sweden. Ostensibly from Agencia Commercial e Informadora International, the correspondence was addressed to an Ulla H. Moberg of 21 Styrmannsgaten, Stockholm. In invisible ink, the message to Ulla stated that since Germany had declared war on the U.S. and had broken diplomatic relations with Mexico, secret messages bound for Sweden, Portugal, and Chile would henceforth be sent via microdots.

  Jumping at any lead, Dusko booked the trip. He flew to Paris and took up residence with his friend Branko. On December 14 he sent a letter to Wilson and provided the telephone number and address—95, Rue Taitbout—in case Ian needed to get in touch. He did not mention his planned trip to Switzerland, but told Ian that he’d let him know if any news arrived regarding the mission for the king. Closing with “Give my love to everybody in the office,” he was off to Zurich.

  He checked in at the Zum Storchen and went by the Hotel Baur au Lac to see if Jebsen had arrived. He had not, the clerk said, and for the next several days Dusko stopped by the Baur au Lac twice a day. No sign of Johnny.