Snow by Madoc Roberts

Although it would be very much a last resort, Rantzau had insisted that if all else failed the Germans were going to engage in bacteriological warfare, and they would drop bombs charged with bacteria into the selected reservoirs.
    In preparation for his planned visit to Wales, Owens asked MI5 to intercept any letters arriving for him care of the Expanded Metal Company as these would contain the names and addresses of various agencies abroad which acted as ‘spy bases’. Owens was also concerned for the safety of his flat while he was away, the presence of the girl spotted hanging about earlier made him very nervous and he asked that during his absence his flat should be watched.
    Owens’ trip to Swansea went well and he fulfilled his chief objective, to meet and approve Gwilym Williams, MI5’s nominee for the proposed Welsh Nationalist agent who was codenamed G.W., and his friend W.W., both of whom Owens considered eminently suitable for the job. He also took the opportunity to have a drink at a pub in Pontardawe, not far from where he had been born, and he later reported being surprised to hear two people in the pub discussing the cost of living in Belgium, immediately jumping to the conclusion that one of them was a German spy trying to recruit the other who was a member of the Welsh Nationalist Party. On the following day the trio drove along the South Wales coast looking for places where a submarine might drop off arms and sabotage material and they all agreed that Oxwich Bay was the most suitable site. Content that the foundations had been laid for a sabotage organisation to wreak mayhem in the principality, the strange and uneasy partnership of S NOW and MI5 was ready to entrap Dr Rantzau.

Chapter II
The Welsh Network
    B Y O CTOBER 1939 the exchange of signals between Hamburg and the little flat in Kingston was well established, and Owens had even put Lily to work helping to decode the messages. She became so proficient that in some cases she had a better understanding of the system than either Owens or his MI5 wireless operator Maurice Burton. On one occasion she successfully worked out that the Germans had made a mistake and used the code for the second day of October when it was in fact the third.
    One morning there was a knock on the door of the flat and a tall, thin-faced man wearing a hat and glasses asked, in a slight American accent, ‘Are you in touch with the Doctor?’ Owens confirmed that he was, and the man demanded to know Owens’ telephone number. Owens explained that he had ordered a phone but was still waiting for the instrument to be installed, whereupon the man responded by saying that he would call back again, and that Owens could expect to be contacted in the streets or in a public house.
    This unexpected incident demonstrated to MI5 that the Abwehr had the resources to operate independently in London, and even maintain a watch on Owens. There was a suspicion about the identity of this mysterious agent, but although a discreet alert was circulated to trace him, he was never found. Undeterred, MI5 proceeded with the preparations for the next step, Owens’ mission to introduce the Welsh Nationalist and saboteur, Gwilym Williams, to Rantzau.
    Placing another agent close to Owens had the benefit, from MI5’s perspective , of providing an independent channel to report on his activities, far more reliable than surveillance and submissions made by those in whom he had confided. This role had been assigned to Gwilym Williams, codenamed G.W. by MI5, and shortly before their scheduled departure for the continent Williams travelled to London so that he and S NOW could spend some time together, and Owens could brief his companion on what to expect. Upon hisarrival, Williams was met by Owens in a chauffeur-driven Daimler and, with the glass partition closed, Owens explained that they would be meeting ‘the Doctor’ who, he said, was in charge of the German Secret Service. Williams had been instructed