My Adventures as a Spy

Robert Baden-Powell

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780486320458
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Written during the first years of World War I by a British military hero, this charming volume introduces the essentials of spycraft. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts and storyteller extraordinaire, developed his spying skills in South Africa and conducted some of his most inspired work in the Balkans, where he worked undercover as a butterfly hunter. In brief, breezy chapters, he explains how to adopt disguises, hide messages, create diversions, escape capture, and perform other thrilling maneuvers.
"A good spy no matter which country he serves is of necessity a brave and valuable fellow," Baden-Powell declares. His attitude toward espionage as a sport, in which the players appreciate and honor each other, brings the emotional exhilaration of a well-played game to these tales of danger and adventure. This book will captivate anyone with an interest in spying and the history of espionage.

The Value of Being Stupid

FORTUNATELY for us, we are as a nation considered by the others to be abnormally stupid, therefore easily to be spied upon. But it is not always safe to judge entirely by appearances.

Our Ambassador at Constantinople some years ago had the appearance of a cheery, bluff, British farmer, with nothing below the surface in his character, and he was therefore looked upon as fair game by all his intriguing rivals in Eastern politics. It was only after repeated failures of their different missions they found that in every case they were out-intrigued by this innocent-looking gentleman, who below the surface was as cunning as a fox and as clever a diplomat as could be found in all the service.

And so it has been with us British. Foreign spies stationed in our country saw no difficulty in completely hoodwinking so stupid a people; they never supposed that the majority of them have all been known to our Secret Service Department, and carefully watched, unknown to themselves.

Few of them ever landed in this country without undergoing the scrutiny of an unobtrusive little old gentleman with tall hat and umbrella, but the wag of whose finger sent a detective on the heels of the visitor until his actual business and location were assured and found to be satisfactory.

For years the correspondence of these gentry has been regularly opened, noted, and sent on. They were not as a rule worth arresting, the information sent was not of any urgent importance, and so long as they went on thinking that they were unnoticed, their superiors in their own country made no effort to send more astute men in their place. Thus we knew what the enemy were looking for, and we knew what information they had received, and this as a rule was not of much account.

On August 4th, the day before the declaration of war, the twenty leading spies were formally arrested and over 200 of their minor agents were also taken in hand, and thus their organisation failed them at the moment when it was wanted most. Steps were also taken to prevent any substitutes being appointed in their places. Private wireless stations were dismantled, and by means of traps those were discovered which had not been voluntarily reported and registered.

It used to amuse some of us to watch the foreign spies at work on our ground. One especially interested me, who set himself up ostensibly as a coal merchant, but never dealt in a single ounce of coal. His daily reconnaissance of the country, his noting of the roads, and his other movements entailed in preparing his reports, were all watched and recorded. His letters were opened in the post, sealed up, and sent on. His friends were observed and shadowed on arriving—as they did—at Hull instead of in London. And all the time he was plodding along, wasting his time, quite innocent of the fact that he was being watched, and was incidentally giving us a fine amount of information.

Another came only for a few hours, and was away again before we could collar him; but, knowing his moves, and what photographs he had taken, I was able to write to him, and tell him that had I known beforehand that he wished to photograph these places, I could have supplied him with some ready made, as the forts which they recorded were now obsolete.

On the other hand, the exceedingly stupid Englishmen who wandered about foreign countries sketching cathedrals, or catching butterflies, or fishing for trout, were merely laughed at as harmless lunatics. These have even invited officials to look at their sketch-books, which, had they had any suspicion or any eyes in their heads, would have revealed plans and armaments of their own fortresses interpolated among the veins of the botanist’s drawings of leaves or on the butterflies’ wings of the entomologist. Some examples of secret sketches of fortresses which have been used with success are shown on the following pages.

This sketch of a butterfly contains the outline of a fortress, and marks both the position and power of the guns. The marks on the wings between the lines mean nothing, but those on the lines show the nature and size of the guns, according to the keys below.

The marks on the wings reveal the shape of the fortress shown here and the size of the guns.

FORTRESS GUNS.

FIELD GUNS.

MACHINE GUNS.

The position of each gun is at the place inside the outline of the fort on the butterfly where the line marked with the spot ends. The head of the butterfly points towards the north.

A smart piece of spy-work. Veins on an ivy leaf show the outline of the fort as seen looking west (Point of the leaf indicates north.)

Shows “dead ground,” where there is shelter from fire.

Shows where big guns are mounted if a vein points to them.

Shows machine guns.

Here is another of the methods by which I concealed the plans of the forts I made.

First of all, I would sketch the plan as shown in the picture above giving the strength and positions of the various guns as shown below:

A. Kaponiers with machine guns.

B. 15 cm. gun cupola.

C. 12 cm. guns cupolas.

D. Q.-F. disappearing guns.

E. Howitzer cupolas.

F. Searchlight.

Having done this, I would consider the best method of concealing my plans. In this case I decided to transform the sketch into that of a stained glass window, and if you will carefully examine the picture above you will see how successfully this has been done. Certain of the decorations signify the sizes and positions of the guns. These signs are given below, together with their meaning.

1. 15 cm. gun.

2....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword to the Dover Edition
• Introduction to the Dover Edition
• My Adventures as a Spy
• The Different Degrees of Spies
• Strategical Agents
• Tactical Agents
• Residential Spies
• Officer Agents
• Commercial Spying
• Germany’s Invasion Plans
• Field Spies
• Catching a Spy
• Conveying Information
• Secret Signals and Warnings
• Spies in War Time
• The Pluck of a Spy
• Traitorous Spying
• The German Spy Organisation
• The Value of Being Stupid
• Concealing a Fort in a Moth’s Head
• Butterfly Hunting in Dalmatia
• How Spies Disguise Themselves
• The Sport of Spying
• The Value of Hide-and-Seek
• Spying on Mountain Troops
• Posing as an Artist
• Fooling a German Sentry
• A Spy is Suspicious
• Hoodwinking a Turkish Sentry
• Tea and a Turk
• Sore Feet
• Austrian Officers
• An Interesting Task
• Encounter with the Police
• Success with the Balloon
• How to Enter a Fort
• How We Got the Secret Light
• How the Big River Was Swum
• Caught at Last
• The Escape
• Conclusion