Catalogue description Dusko POPOV, codenamed TRICYCLE: alias Duchan, Dusan, Hans, SKOOT: Yugoslav/British....

Dusko POPOV, codenamed TRICYCLE: alias Duchan, Dusan, Hans, SKOOT: Yugoslav/British. TRICYCLE, a Yugoslav by birth, was recruited by the Abwehr in 1940. He reported this to the British Embassy in Belgrade and was duly recruited by SIS. He was run by MI5 in London and the Abwehr in Lisbon, which he visited seven times between 1941 and 1944. Communication, other than meetings, was by wireless, secret writing and microdots. He reported to both sides on military and political matters. His product included warnings of German rocketry development and attacks; information to deceive the Germans about the Normandy landings; and early intimations from German sources of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. He was posted to the USA in 1941 with a view to establishing an Abwehr network there. Facilitated by MI5, MI6 and the FBI, the project proved a failure. He was the key figure in a close-knit group of associated double agents, DREADNOUGHT [his brother], FREAK, METEOR, BALLOON and GELATINE, all of whom are referred to throughout these files, which also contain the Security Service's record of ARTIST [Johnny JEBSEN], an Abwehr officer of Danish origin, who was TRICYCLE's chief source of intelligence on German military and political matters and on the Abwehr itself. At the end of the war TRICYCLE acquired British nationality, was awarded the OBE and settled in France. In 1974 he published an account of his wartime experiences in a book: 'Spy, Counter-Spy'