Rich Rostrom
2015-11-17 23:50:55 UTC
I saw part of the TV movie "Murder on the Home Front"
recently. (My mother watched it, and I came in to see
the last few minutes.) The movie is "inspired" by the
memoirs of Molly Lefebure, secretary to Home Home Office
pathologist Keith Simpson. (In the movie, they become
"Molly Cooper" and "Lennox Collins".)
It's the ending of the movie that offends me.
Spoilers follow....
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During the "Blitz", three young women have been strangled.
The police charge loner Wilfred Ziegler, but Collins and
Molly uncover the real killer, Polish refugee Roskanski.
This in spite of having been informed that Roskanski is
engaged in secret work and watched continually by
British intelligence - therefore could not be the killer.
At the end, after exposing Roskanski, they learn that
intelligence knew about Roskanski's crimes, worked to
cover them up, and won't allow him to be tried (and
hanged). (They did try to stop him, but he repeatedly
evaded house arrest.)
The reason for this astounding policy? Roskanski is one
of the Polish cryptanalysts who escaped in 1939, and his
code-breaking genius could help win the war. This is
during the Blitz, and the spooks speak of "winning the
war in the air" and IIRC of the threat of invasion if
the air war goes bad.
This whole passage is wrong in several major ways.
First, no Polish cryptanalysts came to Britain after the
1939 conquest of Poland. They went to _France_. After the
defeat of France, they fled to Algeria - but were then
brought back to unoccupied France, where they resumed work
against Enigma under the aegis of the _Vichy_ French spy
service. (Really.) This continued until after TORCH; they
then fled in various directions, and a few eventually got
to Britain in 1943.
Second, no Polish cryptanalysts ever worked on Enigma in
Britain. The Poles who came in 1943 had in several cases
been arrested and released by the Gestapo. The British
felt they could not be entirely trusted - they were put to
work against lesser German ciphers.
Third, anyone working on code-breaking would have been
sequestered at Bletchley Park, not left in some safe
house in London.
Fourth, by the time of the Blitz, the Allies had broken
the RED Enigma key, the one most heavily used by the
Luftwaffe, and were in fact reading it every day. So
there was no need for genius cryptanalysts to break it.
(Navy Enigma was much harder, and did require the genius
of Alan Turing.)
Fifth, by the time of the Blitz, British intelligence
knew that German plans for invasion had been shelved,
and that Germany was going to invade the USSR instead.
Oddly, I think this plot device could have worked, if
the killer had been a double-cross agent under the
XX Committee. Double-cross agents _were_ kept in safe
houses in London, and one of them could have been as
important as suggested. (Though I very much doubt that
one would have been allowed to get away with murder;
it was usually possible to replace the actual double-
cross agent with an XX Committee imitator. At least one
agent was "run" for several months after being hanged.)
recently. (My mother watched it, and I came in to see
the last few minutes.) The movie is "inspired" by the
memoirs of Molly Lefebure, secretary to Home Home Office
pathologist Keith Simpson. (In the movie, they become
"Molly Cooper" and "Lennox Collins".)
It's the ending of the movie that offends me.
Spoilers follow....
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
During the "Blitz", three young women have been strangled.
The police charge loner Wilfred Ziegler, but Collins and
Molly uncover the real killer, Polish refugee Roskanski.
This in spite of having been informed that Roskanski is
engaged in secret work and watched continually by
British intelligence - therefore could not be the killer.
At the end, after exposing Roskanski, they learn that
intelligence knew about Roskanski's crimes, worked to
cover them up, and won't allow him to be tried (and
hanged). (They did try to stop him, but he repeatedly
evaded house arrest.)
The reason for this astounding policy? Roskanski is one
of the Polish cryptanalysts who escaped in 1939, and his
code-breaking genius could help win the war. This is
during the Blitz, and the spooks speak of "winning the
war in the air" and IIRC of the threat of invasion if
the air war goes bad.
This whole passage is wrong in several major ways.
First, no Polish cryptanalysts came to Britain after the
1939 conquest of Poland. They went to _France_. After the
defeat of France, they fled to Algeria - but were then
brought back to unoccupied France, where they resumed work
against Enigma under the aegis of the _Vichy_ French spy
service. (Really.) This continued until after TORCH; they
then fled in various directions, and a few eventually got
to Britain in 1943.
Second, no Polish cryptanalysts ever worked on Enigma in
Britain. The Poles who came in 1943 had in several cases
been arrested and released by the Gestapo. The British
felt they could not be entirely trusted - they were put to
work against lesser German ciphers.
Third, anyone working on code-breaking would have been
sequestered at Bletchley Park, not left in some safe
house in London.
Fourth, by the time of the Blitz, the Allies had broken
the RED Enigma key, the one most heavily used by the
Luftwaffe, and were in fact reading it every day. So
there was no need for genius cryptanalysts to break it.
(Navy Enigma was much harder, and did require the genius
of Alan Turing.)
Fifth, by the time of the Blitz, British intelligence
knew that German plans for invasion had been shelved,
and that Germany was going to invade the USSR instead.
Oddly, I think this plot device could have worked, if
the killer had been a double-cross agent under the
XX Committee. Double-cross agents _were_ kept in safe
houses in London, and one of them could have been as
important as suggested. (Though I very much doubt that
one would have been allowed to get away with murder;
it was usually possible to replace the actual double-
cross agent with an XX Committee imitator. At least one
agent was "run" for several months after being hanged.)
--
The real Velvet Revolution - and the would-be hijacker.
http://originalvelvetrevolution.com
The real Velvet Revolution - and the would-be hijacker.
http://originalvelvetrevolution.com