The lives of secret agents and their deadly toys have been revealed as MI5's archives go public.
Once again real life proves to be stranger than fiction with many of the stories of the intelligence world as fantastical as that told James Bond novelist Ian Fleming.
While British secret agent James Bond was swanning it on screen gliding effortlessly past any trouble thrown his way the real agents were up against human torpedoes and had to wade through hundreds off false trails.
The papers at the National Archives detail an incredible story of brilliant impersonators, femme-fatale agents and exploding fountain pens in the secret war to defend Gibraltar.
British secret agents had their work cut out as the Germans, Spanish and Italians all strived to prise the British from their Mediterranean colony.
David Scherrled Britain's best hope, the Security Intelligence Department.
His personal history, declassified after 60 years,provides an illuminating view of the murky world of the secret services.
The most dangerous threat the British faced was Italy's secret weapon, the Tenth Flotilla MAS - frogmen who successfully hit 14 merchant vessels in three years.
The Italians had created special torpedoes that could be piloted by frogmen to their target, either from the beach of submarines.
'The normal method of approach was to travel on the surface until 80 to 100 yards from the target and then to submerge,' Scherr records.
'Under the hull of the ship the MAS men would then leave their detachable warheads [and incendiary devices] and then escape to the Spanish shore using the torpedo to carry them to safety.'
But thanks to the daring work of a female British double agent the frogmen were eventually stopped before they could cause serious damage.
Codenamed the Queen of Hearts, David Scherr describes their first encounter:
'This was a woman in her 30S whose dress, mannerisms speech and general appearance made her a rather seedy but not unattractive imitation of the seductive female spy of the thrillerette type,' he recalls.
'She sat down, crossed her legs (adjusting her skirt to reveal them to the best advantage), slowly lit a cigarette, inhaled, breathed out the smoke in a furtive fashion, looking down her long aquiline nose at the same time, and then smiled across at her interrogator: "I am the Queen of Hearts. Who are you?"'
A serendipitous tip from the Queen linked the frogmen to the Spanish authorities and a villa on the mainland. Their role in the war was about to be brutally curtailed.
One of their missions against the British Navy ended in disaster as naval gunners picked up and shot down part of the frogmen troop.
Andrew Zilouf
MI5 Uncovered: The Exploding Pen
An intriguing world is uncovered as MI5 releases age-old classsified information.
