The Disappearance Of Lionel “Buster” Crabb

Originally posted by Cobaltic1978
A very interesting mystery. Obviously there is something of national importance in this story, else the papers would have been released after 30 years, not 100 years.

It's almost like the Government looked at it back in 1986 and didn't know what to do with it.

....Extend it for another 30 years? Err.... no, better make it 70 years. Then it'll definitely be someone else's problem.

reply to post by region331


Facinating tale, though I guess we must wait until 2057 when the British declassify it. On another note, this is why I joined ATS - for true mysteries like this. Thanks!

reply to post by region331


Facinating tale, though I guess we must wait until 2057 when the British declassify it. On another note, this is why I joined ATS - for true mysteries like this. Thanks!

reply to post by region331


Facinating tale, though I guess we must wait until 2057 when the British declassify it. On another note, this is why I joined ATS - for true mysteries like this. Thanks!

reply to post by region331


Facinating tale, though I guess we must wait until 2057 when the British declassify it. On another note, this is why I joined ATS - for true mysteries like this. Thanks!

reply to post by region331


Facinating tale, though I guess we must wait until 2057 when the British declassify it. On another note, this is why I joined ATS - for true mysteries like this. Thanks!

Originally posted by region331

Lock and key for 100 years though?

:-D
"Realpolitik" could be a good reason to do anything to the contemporary perception of past events, either by censorship - or by correction of record.

I guess you are well aware that a "bonus" of 70 years of secrecy has several implications to it, some of them were part of your great presentation. ;-)
It gives plenty of time to "adapt" or simply lose any parts of the documentation that may shed a bad light on the state(s) in question, in this case most likely Britain and (by trace of record) potentially the US.

Any further questioning of the actual events is down to individual weighing of the "facts", diffuse as they appear to be.
So, I do not wage a guess on why/if the guy expired as a headless piece of fish-food, or what might have become of him in a possible second life as soviet citizen. All this would be speculation, especially without a thorough research of statements, sources and documentations - I do not want to dive into.

Your work is impressive as a functioning introduction to a case that gains interest because of the notable background of the person, and the way he vanished from record.

reply to post by region331


it's just a possible scenario derived from the swag method.

scientific-wild-arse-guess.

f(uk).

reply to post by fakedirt


Damn I was hoping for some stories surrounding your sleepy Cornish fishing village. 'Strange goings on' by the military. That the locals know better than to talk about. Oh well.


After a big more looking it seems that the body wasn't in great shape. So probably no need for frozen bodies after all.

Here is Jim Knights description, which he recalled in 2010. He was a member of an R.A.F. Marine Craft Unit stationed at Portsmouth and claims to have been one of three men that recovered the body for the authorities.

I'll let Jim tell his story;


"...................Cmdr. Crabbs body .... was not found 'floating around' in Chichester Harbour. It was in fact, brought to the surface by 2 net-fishermen, from Prinstead or Southbourne, West Sussex. They made some sort of SOS signal that was seen by the lads in the Air traffic control tower at RAF Thorney Island. ATC in turn notified us at the Marine Craft Section in the mid morning.

Myself and two other members of 1107 MCU detachment were duty weekend crew. We had an old World War Two 40 ft assault landing craft which was used for inshore and harbour rescue, and in this craft we made our way to Pilsey Island which was only about a mile up channel towards the Solent.

We found the fishermen with their net tangled-up, with what eventually turned out to be Cmdr Crabb’s body. Untangling the net, we hitched the body onto the lowered front ramp and got it on board..... the head and hands were missing, and in the cavity where the head had been, were hundreds of small crabs, and other such creatures. The odour was abominable.

On returning to the MCS (Marine craft Section) we were able to run almost up to West Thorney road, due it being still high tide. Waiting for us on the bitumen, were a mob of RAF Officers, 4 men in long black overcoats, RAF Ambulance, local Police and many unknown onlookers.The body, still clad in a frogman’s suit, was removed to Chichester Hospital for examination and identification. Later, we members of the Marine Section discussed the incident. None of us could see how the body was identified. With the advent of DNA, perhaps it could now be proven one way or the other, if the body was that of Cmdr Crabb.

Among those on the beach that day was Group Capt. Boxer, Station Commander of RAF Thorney Island. The 4 men in black overcoats must have been MI6 or such. I have checked the RAF records at RAF Hendon, and they told me that all the records for ALC 1948 had been destroyed. It is a pity that no one has ever given credit for the recovery of the Frogman’s body to the RAF Marine Craft Section.

In every report I have read on this incident, there is no mention of our (Marine Craft) involvement in this clandestine affair, much of which is still under wraps. We ourselves, following the dispersal of the official's, were reminded of the 'Official Secrets Act' and told to keep our mouths shut. On my enquiry to the RAF Museums Historical Section for details of the Daily running record (RAF Form 1524) for ALC 1948, for the date of 9/7/57, I was informed the records for many Marine Craft had been destroyed or lost. Was that not convenient.

I have contacted some of my ex crew mates some of which have passed on. Only one remembers the incident, but [he] was not involved. I have been trying to get information of this for a number of years now. Just to prove that I did not dream the whole thing.

Another coincidence is, that just a few day prior to Crabbs disappearance, myself and a few apprentice mates (Shipwright's in Portsmouth Dockyard) went to have a look at the Russian ships, unaware that I would be involved with Cmdr. Crabbe's espionage attempt again in 14 months, but this time as a National serviceman on RAF Marine Craft .........."


Heres the link www.submerged.co.uk...

reply to post by region331



lol, i'm more than a stones throw from any sleepy cornish town!

the extension of time on the gag sure makes this an interesting
topic that has surfaced for the third time in my life. somewhere
in the mix there must be a mexican stand-off with the players
collectively possessing more skeletons than a city graveyard.

thanks for the further info region331 it is appreciated.

regards fakedirt.

i agree

Thank you for taking the time to make the post. That was a really great read. One thing that I find creepy is the headless and handless corpse that somebody desperately wanted to identify as Crabb. Where do MI5 (?) get a body? Do they just knock off some tramp, pop him in a frog suit and slice off appendages?

I hope Crabb wasn't rotting away in some Russian jail. It would have been a sad end unbefitting a war hero.

Originally posted by DerUtho

I guess you are well aware that a "bonus" of 70 years of secrecy has several implications to it ..... It gives plenty of time to "adapt" or simply lose any parts of the documentation that may shed a bad light on the state(s) in question, in this case most likely Britain and (by trace of record) potentially the US.

Originally posted by fakedirt
the extension of time on the gag sure makes this an interesting
topic that has surfaced for the third time in my life. somewhere
in the mix there must be a mexican stand-off with the players
collectively possessing more skeletons than a city graveyard.

I think that there's enough evidence already floating around which may explain the 100 year secrecy. I think the story itself ends in 1979. With another death.

I'll write it all up and post it. I'll try to keep it brief as I can.

Originally posted by region331
I'll write it all up and post it. I'll try to keep it brief as I can.

I´d be glad to read more on this case. `Always liked this type of stories about "troubled operatives". :-D

I’m afraid that there’s a bit of background to read through first. My apologies if most of you are already familiar with it. I have used the recognisable KGB (for continuity) as the name for the Soviet Intelligence Service and Secret Police, even though during the periods discussed, they had various name changes. Likewise the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) is referred to as it modern nomenclature MI6.

I’m aware of risking veering off into wild speculation as a conclusion but I hope you can stick with the argument. There’s a lot of information in the public domain regarding all the events and characters discussed. The problem is trying to differentiate between what’s opinion and what’s hearsay, incorrect, misinformation, plain lies or just wild fantasy. Also I don’t want to make a story fit for the sake of it but I’ll be upfront about the fact that my point of view is fairly subjective. In all honesty, I think that you could weave any story you wanted to with the conflicting information that’s available to cherry pick from. Never the less, I’ll provide all my links at the end if you wish to contradict anything but please do try and bear with it. I think the read will be rewarding.


100 Years Secrecy
On the surface, the story seems to be the strange disappearance of Buster Crabb. However, I think the actual story of interest is the 100-year sealing of information surrounding the Crabb Affair. It’s more likely that, although Crabb’s disappearance was strange, the incidents and back room discussions that remain secret must still be sensitive, due to other people that were involved. Or to put it another way, in 1986 it was calculated that another 70 years should be enough time to make sure those ‘involved’ by association, would not be around to be embarrassed.


The VENONA Project
The Venona Project was set-up in 1943 by Carter W. Clarke who at the time was Deputy Chief of the United States Army Military Intelligence. The project lasted for 40 years and remained unknown to the public, who weren’t to be made aware of it until 1987, when it was named in Wrights book ‘Spycatcher’. Of additional interest was the fact that it was also kept secret from Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. The Whitehouse during these terms was considered to be a Sieve. Incidentally the CIA was also not allowed involvement with the project until 1952, although the FBI was. That probably says more about the influence of J. Edgar Hoover than the CIA.

Clarke distrusted Joseph Stalin, and feared that the Soviet Union would sign a separate peace with the Third Reich, allowing Germany to focus its military forces against Great Britain and the United States. Code-breakers of the US Army's Signal Intelligence Service (commonly called Arlington Hall) analyzed encrypted high-level Soviet diplomatic intelligence messages which were intercepted in large volumes during and immediately after World War II by American, British, and Australian listening posts.

This message-traffic was encrypted by the Soviets using a one-time pad system. However, due to a serious blunder on the part of the Soviets, some of this traffic was vulnerable to decryption. Somebody who was working for the manufacturers of Soviet secret-communication materials had reused pages of some of the one-time pads in other pads, which were then used for other secret messages. This defeated the purpose of the one-time pad, which provides perfect security when each page is used exactly once and then disposed of. It is unclear as to why this mistake was made, or by whom.

On 20 December 1946, the first break into the code, revealed the existence of Soviet espionage in the Manhattan Project. Subsequent Venona messages revealed that Soviet spies were working in Washington. In the State Department, Treasury, Office of Strategic Services, and even the White House. Very slowly, using assorted techniques ranging from traffic analysis to defector information, more of the messages were decrypted.

All the duplicate one-time pad pages were produced in 1942, and almost all of them had been used by the end of 1945, with a few being used as late as 1948. After this, Soviet message traffic reverted to being completely unreadable. In addition to this, at some point in time the Soviets were “made aware” that the Verona Project had decrypted some of their traffic. Although they didn’t know which messages had been decrypted. How the Soviets were made aware of The Venona Project is not know.

continued .....

The Cambridge Five
The Soviets were looking to recruit high ranking or influential people from all western countries, particularly governments. In the UK, at least four such people were recruited at Cambridge University in the 1930s. Burgess, Maclean, Philby and Blunt. The fifth man is not known for sure, only speculated to be Cairncross. Between them all they were prominent in the Foreign Office, MI5, MI6, the Ministry of Defence and the BBC. It has been said that due to their prominence and influential posts that their controllers in Moscow probably knew more of Britain's secrets than most British government ministers. Certainly they passed thousands of secrets to the Soviets during their years as double agents.


Homer
By 1949, due to his seniority in MI6, Philby was informed of the Venona Project (I wonder exactly when the Soviets found out about the Venona Project?). The FBI also told him about an agent they’d named Homer. They’d managed to decrypt a message (via VENONA) that Homer had sent to Moscow in 1945. Philby was told that Homers message had originated from the British Embassy in Washington, then transmitted from New York. Philby didn’t know exactly who Homer was but deduced the sender's identity. He knew it must be Maclean.

After 2 years, by early 1951, U.S. intelligence had also concluded that Maclean must be the sender. Maclean was now working in London working at the Foreign Office. So Philby sent Burgess back to London to warn Maclean that he was now under surveillance and suspicion. Maclean reaction was to flee to the USSR, unfortunately for Philby, Burgess made the decision to go with Maclean.

Philby, who lived with Burgess in Washington, was now under a cloud of suspicion by association over the two missing diplomats. Philby returned to London, where he underwent MI5 interrogation aimed at ascertaining whether he had acted as a "third man" in Burgess and Maclean's spy ring. In July 1951, he resigned from MI6, preempting his dismissal. However, he continued to deny that he had acted as a Soviet agent and in1955 Philby was officially cleared by the then Foreign Secretary, Harold Macmillan. Macmillan told the House of Commons, "I have no reason to conclude that Mr. Philby has at any time betrayed the interests of his country, or to identify him with the so-called 'Third Man', if indeed there was one.”


Anthony Blunt
Blunt was a third cousin of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who for those that don’t know is the late mother of Queen Elizabeth II. He would tell friends that he was actually the illegitimate child of King George V (Queen Elizabeth II grandfather), by his mother, Hilda Blunt.

Blunt achieved the rank of major in the Army and was recruited by MI5 in 1940. Unfortunately the Soviets had already recruited him six years previously in 1934.

Blunts public career was in the History of Art, and in 1945, he was given the esteemed position of Surveyor of the King's (George VI) Pictures, and later the Queen’s Pictures (Elizabeth II, in 1952), which is one of the largest private collections in the world. He held the position for 27 years, was knighted as a KCVO in 1956 for his work in the role, and his contribution was vital in the expansion and cataloguing of the Queen’s Gallery, which opened in 1962.

A question remains open is did MI5 know about his spying and did they colluded to cover-it-up?

According to Guy Liddell’s (deputy director general of MI5 from 1945 to 1953) private diaries, which were released to the public last year, the Queen Mother expressed her doubts about Blunt directly to MI5. Saying that she thought he was a communist. According to MI5 papers released in 2002, Moura Budberg, known as the Russian Mata Hari and suspected of being a double agent, reported in 1950 that Blunt was a member of the Communist Party, but she was also ignored. In 1948, demobilised army officer Philip Hay, attended an interview at Buckingham Palace for the post of Private Secretary to the Dowager Duchess of Kent. After passing Blunt in a corridor, Sir Alan Lascelles, the King's private secretary, told Hay: "That's our Russian spy." In fact his KGB control had also become suspicious at the sheer amount of material he was passing over and suspected him of actually being a triple agent! MI5 staged a major operation - codenamed Post Report - in the early 1950s, designed to assess the number of communist sympathisers who might act as a Fifth Column in the event of a Soviet attack. And there’s good reason to believe that Blunt was among those suspected of unfriendly intent.


continued ........

Were any of these suspicions passed up the line to senior officers in MI5? Blunt was a favoured royal courtier. He was friendly with the late Queen Mother and had even been known to accompany her on official occasions. It’s hard to believe that the suspicions were not passed up the line but as far as we know, nothing was done. Blunt seems to have been ignored for another decade or more. The evidence seems to suggest that Blunt was receiving protection from up on high. It took until 1963 for MI5 to address the fact that Blunt was a spy. When confronted, Blunt confessed to MI5 on 23 April 1964, he gave up a number of other including Cairncross (the 5th Cambridge Spy). Queen Elizabeth II was ‘informed’ shortly thereafter. However the public, were not to find out until 1979 when the then new Prime Minister and non-establishment outsider, Margaret Thatcher decided to expose him.

We know that the Soviet infiltration of MI5 didn't end when Blunt left the service after the war. Could it be that he left behind another traitor, never discovered, who became senior enough and powerful enough to ensure that the truth remained hidden?


The Battenbergs
Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg was a German prince related to the British Royal Family. After a career in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy lasting more than forty years, in 1912 he was appointed First Sea Lord, the professional head of the British naval service. Louis had a son, also called Louis but known as Dickie. Dickie Mountbatten (referred to from now as Dickie or just Mountbatten) was the uncle of Philip, Queens Elizabeth II husband. He was the favourite of the Queen and a mentor to Prince Charles the current Prince of Wales. In fact Prince Charles and Mountbatten referred to each other as ‘honorary Grandfather’ and ‘ honorary grandson’.

With World War I looming, Louis Alexander took steps to ready the British fleet for combat, but his background as a German prince, when anti-German sentiment was running high, caused complications. He changed his name (Battenberg to Mountbatten) and relinquished his German titles. It wasn’t enough; Prince Louis of Battenberg was publicly humiliated by King George V and First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, when they removed from his position as First Sea Lord. Dickie Mountbatten never forgot his fathers and families humiliation.

Mountbatten was ambitious and was determined to repeat his fathers rise to the top of the navy. Which he did. He became First Sea Lord from 1954-1959. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 15th July 1965, making him the longest serving professional head of the British Armed Forces to date. Just to reiterate, he became the head of the entire Armed Forces. It doesn’t get any higher then this position.

Fourteen years later, on August 27th 1979, Mountbatten was assassinated in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Eire. He took his small 30-foot boat ‘Shadow V’ out of the Harbour to go lobster pot fishing with his family on board. When the boat was just a few hundred yards from the shore, a 23Kg bomb was detonated. Mountbatten then aged 79, his grandson aged 14, a local crewmember aged 15 and the 83-year-old Dowager Lady Brabourne, died. Mountbatten’s wife and second grandson survived. The Provisional IRA issued a press release. The press release is discussed further below.


Homosexuality
It was no coincidence that Burgess, Maclean, Philby and Blunt were all homosexual. Cairncross was a suspected homosexual. Remember it was technically a crime during this period but more importantly a public ‘outing’ would have being disastrous. One of the KGB's recruitment tools was to target anyone with homosexual tendencies and use it as coercion or to use another word, blackmail. It couldn’t, on its own, persuade someone to betray his or her country but it could be used to tip the balance for an indecisive Communist sympathiser. Once the individual was ‘on-board’ it could also be used as a stick to keep them obedient.


continued .......

Crabb, Blunt and Mountbatten
One thing we do know is that Blunt and Mountbatten knew each other, they were both members of the royal family, but where does Crabb fit into all this? Up to this point there’s no been no mention of him. We know he was a Navy Diver and an underwater bomb disposal expert. Seemingly he was a working class ‘grunt’ born in Streatham, far removed from the social circles of the Cambridge Five and certainly a world apart from the likes of Blunt and Mountbatten. Or so you’d think.

Crabb lost his father very early in life, he died fighting in World War I and as a result he was taken under the wing of his cousins family, Frank and Kitty Jarvis. Frank was financially very comfortable, founding the Conway Stewart Pen Company but died of Typhoid in 1932, from eating a batch of bad Oysters. After which, his widow, Kitty Jarvis moved to London.

A little later, during World War II, Kitty ended up as Anthony Blunt’s personal assistant in Military Intelligence at the War Office! It turns out Ian Fleming was a frequent visitor to the War Office and whilst some of Crabbs exploits were inspiration for James Bond, it turns out that Kitty was the inspiration for Miss Moneypenny! Something else that Fleming borrowed for his the James Bond novels was that he used to watch Kitty’s office colleagues attempt to throw their bowler hats onto the tall wooden hat stand in the corner of the room. Apparently Kitty had worked in the Cipher Division at Military Intelligence for a few years prior to being Blunts personal assistant. Blunt was a regular visitor to Kitty’s parties at her flat. It’s hard to believe that Crabb did not mingle with the Cambridge set before he joined the Merchant Navy.

Back to Crabb…..

In 1936 Crabb went to China. There he ended up fighting against the growing Chinese Communists. He happened to meet an Englishman called Morris Abraham “Two-Guns” Cohen. He got the name from carrying and firing 2 guns simultaneously during ‘skirmishes’. Crabb and Cohen immediately bonded and Cohen hired him to work as a gunrunner, spy and messenger.

Cohen was a pickpocket, conman, hustler, womaniser, gambler and bare-knuckled boxer who had been thrown out of Britain and sent to the Canadian Colonies. In Canada he earned the respect of the Chinese community, working as a bodyguard and local fixer or go-between. When the Canadian authorities came to arrest him the Chinese community helped him escape to the Far East.

Here Cohen’s accomplishments were made known to an emerging young Chinese leader called Chiang Kai-Shek. Who ultimately united the entire country and became its leader only to eventually lose it to the Communists. Cohen started by working as Kai-Sheks bodyguard but eventually was to become a national hero even personally rescuing Kai-Shek from the communists on one occasion when he’d gotten captured.

As the leader of China, Chiang Kai-Shek was supported by MI6 in his fight against the Communists and the Japanese. It was here through Cohen that Crabb probably first came into contact with MI6. Crabb continued to work with Cohen and Kai-Shek until he decided to return to Britain in 1938. Crabb sensed the coming war in Europe and wanted to be part of it. Kitty recalled that the reason he went to the Far East in the first place was to find trouble.

In 1938 he returned to London where he somehow ended up staying at the The Cavendish Hotel. The Cavendish hotel was a very respectable hotel frequented by the influential characters. He contacted his friend Maitland Pendock, who got him a job working in an Art Gallery. The Art Gallery happened to have belonged to Anthony Blunt! It was also at the Cavendish that Crabb was eventually introduced to Burgess and Maclean.

We know the rest of the story regarding his naval years but at some point and for some unbeknownst reason, Mountbatten took an interest in Crabb. So he had Crabb moved from Gibraltar to Italy. Here Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia and head of Combined Operation Command went spear fishing and diving with Crabb. Crabb had met Mountbatten in Gibraltar and they seemed to get on very well according to Crabb’s friend Gordon Gutteridge.

Mountbatten’s interest in Crabb may have come via his royal relative Blunt and Kitty at the War Office. Who knows? It seems sudden that Crabb should have, not just friends in high places but the Highest Place!

continued .......

At this point Crabb appears to have been working explicitly for Mountbatten as part of a newly created special branch of the Admiralty. Crabbs personal reports were seen directly by Mountbatten. It is accepted that, due to their unique relationship, Crabb was constantly working on secret missions for Mountbatten. Their working relationship remained confidential for decades only a few of Crabb’s friends were aware of it but not of the details or missions. Crabb really worked for Mountbatten and it was Mountbatten who asked Crabb to undertake the mission on the Russian ship The Ordzhonikidze in April 1956.


Operation Claret
We spoke already on the possibility that Crabb wasn’t the only operation going on The Ordzhonikidze in April 1956. The second was conducted and based out of the HMS Vernon and was supposedly given the name ‘Operation Claret’.

Aled Mawgan in his book “Tinker, Tailor's Secret Spy - A Cold War Clown at the Circus?” offers this;

“Blunt was initially offered immunity from prosecution, and a promise of anonymity by British Intelligence provided he gave full details of his involvements with the KGB. In exchange, he was allowed to continue with his privileged lifestyle but apparently, Lord Mountbatten intervened. He was determined to investigate Blunt’s role, and to expose him for decades of traitorous activities, possibly even involving the loss of Crabb.

Close colleagues of Crabb, who were also associated with Lord Mountbatten, suggest Blunt broke the ‘Family’ rules and needed to be publicly exposed. Within other important material on both sides of the Atlantic, there is now a growing belief amongst supporters of Crabb, that Blunt may well have been responsible – perhaps inadvertently for Crabb’s death or murder in April 1956.

It was an irony that Blunt was uniquely affiliated with and trusted by Crabb’s family. Confidential information about ‘Operation Claret,’ was definitely leaked to Soviet sources, who were also made aware of a second Naval Intelligence Dive – whilst surprisingly at the time, it would seem, Lionel Crabb and The First Sea Lord, Louis Mountbatten were not!”

Exactly what Blunt has to do with the HMS Vernon NI dive or Crabbs death is unclear or why Mountbatten doesn’t know about it. One thing we can be sure of though. If Blunt was responsible for the death then I don’t see why in 1986, 3 years after Blunts death, why it was decided that the details of it needed to be locked away for another 70 years. So at the very least we know this can’t be the reason. We also know that Mountbatten didn’t get his way with exposing Blunt. Presumably the Queen outranked him or was there another reason?

With regard to other facts surrounding Operation Claret, if as supposed, one of the four HMS Vernon divers had disappeared; we certainly have one missing sailor to account for. However, we have two Russian sailors who both claim killing Crabb, one in an underwater knife fight and one by snipers bullet.

Perhaps they killed 2 different sailors, obviously only one of which could have being Crabb? So now we have two dead bodies. Two divers go missing but only one body turns up. The Navy can only claim one of them since they’ve only admitted to one missing diver, which is Crabb. Whether it’s the body of Crabb or not is irrelevant. I think we can see why they order Sydney Knowles (Crabb’s diving buddy) to identify the corpse as belonging to Crabb.

Something else that supports that the body found was not Crabb but the missing HMS Vernon Royal Navy Diver from Operation Claret is concerned with the flippers found on the body. Sydney Knowles had lent Crabb his lightweight Italian flippers beacause Crabb had damaged his own in 1954 at Tobermory. Apparently Crabb hated the heavy British Naval type flippers.

When Knowles last saw Crabb in the ‘Captain’s Cabin’ he asked him when he was going to return his flippers. He replied “I can’t at the moment. I shall require them but I will let you have a pair when I go to Italy on business re-the book (Crabb’s Autobiography) and visit the Italian frogmen’s headquarters. The flippers on the headless body, were British Naval issue type. Knowles’ Italian flippers were never found amongst Crabb’s belongings and it is evident that he would not wear British flippers if he had Italian ones.

continued .......

The Sixth Man
Just to recap British spies Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess were numbers one and two. Kim Philby was the third man. Sir Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, was fourth, and John Cairncross was probably the fifth.

The question nagging espionage buffs for decades is this: Was there a sixth major British spy for the Soviet KGB, and if so, whom? The Prime Minister Harold Wilson was suspected and still is by some but what if the Sixth Man was Lord Mountbatten himself?

Mountbatten had an open marriage as well as a sexual preference for men. He had a passion for young guardsmen and ran rampant through the Queen’s barracks. He was also said to have had an affair with Tom Driberg, the Labour Party MP/KGB member. The KGB could have used just this to recruit Dickie just as they’d it to recruit others. Compound this with the fact that Lord Mountbatten still held resentment against the British Establishment that went way back to his adolescence, when the British Government publically disgraced his family and father. In Mountbatten’s eyes the establishment were also responsible for dethroning his cousin Edward VIII.

I think in itself those suggestions sound tenuous. More likely if Mountbatten had been passing information on, he would have been doing it from, in his mind, a lofty position. He would have seen himself to be above it all, untouchable, probably above the law too. He was known to be a ‘meddler’ and I think it’s quite likely he considered himself to able to be playing spy-games as well. He wasn’t just a high-ranking royal, he also had his foot in the military world too and apparently he was a fairly good diplomat. So he may have made the mistake of getting involved with the best intentions. Or the truth could be somewhere between the two.

The suggestion is that when Anthony Blunt confessed to MI5 interrogators in 1964, he gave up Mountbatten. Perhaps the man who’d being protecting him all this time? Defying protocol, the Queen was informed personally by the Director-General of MI5 to keep the government of the day—especially its KGB suspect prime minister, Harold Wilson—out of the loop. This was an extraordinary arrangement, and out of it was hatched an even more extraordinary deal: Louis Mountbatten would remain free, unaware that he had been compromised; the Queen would assist MI5 supplying cousin Dickie with disinformation for Soviet consumption.

One faction of Britain’s security service was livid. They wanted to see Lord Mountbatten punished for his betrayal. However, the arrest, trial and imprisonment of one of Britain’s most prominent royals was out of the question because of the irreparable harm it would do Britain’s monarchy. This faction, more powerful a decade-and-a-half later, finally had their chance.


Mountbattens Assassination
The plan was brilliant in its simplicity: Sit back and watch Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorists blow –up Mountbatten. They had earlier learned through their informant inside the IRA’s War Council of the plan to assassinate Lord Mountbatten while he visited his family estate in Ireland. All they had to do was nothing.

Kevin Henry, the detective who was Lord Louis Mountbatten's armed bodyguard when he was assassinated in 1979 said security for the senior British Royal was "farcical" and that he was a "sitting duck.” He also pointed out that that the security at the time did not include any specific protection of the boat, Shadow V, on which the IRA planted the bomb, nor of Classiebawn Castle, where the Royal party were staying.” Whenever he left Classiebawn Castle, the entire castle and grounds was left unattended. There would have been nothing to stop the IRA taking over the castle.” Also, it was nonsensical to leave his boat unguarded in a dimly lit Harbour. It was a sitting duck, and eventually the IRA got to him. It would not have been too difficult in the circumstances.” Looking back now, it seems farcical. But even at the time, I remember being wary of it.”

What value was his death to the IRA? In terms of international sympathy for the Irish liberation movement, the assassination was damaging. To the world, Mountbatten was just seen as a harmless 79-year-old man. It seems to me that the possibility that the assassination was engendered from outside the IRA should at least be considered.

continued ......