The possibility that Germany may resume counter-espionage operations against Britain should inspire nostalgia rather than indignation. This, after all, is how the story began: just over a century ago Britain created a â??Secret Service Bureauâ? with the sole purpose of taking on Germany.
In July 1909, the Committee of Imperial Defence found that â??an extensive system of German espionage exists in this countryâ? and Britain should respond by creating its own â??organisation for keeping in touch with that espionage and for accurately determining its extentâ?.
From this decision emerged todayâ??s Security Service, or MI5, and the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, and later the codebreakers of Bletchley Park. For almost four decades, British intelligence did little else but wage a global struggle against their German adversaries â?? and, by and large, this was a battle which the British comprehensively won.
Every last German spy dropped into Britain during the Second World War was captured by MI5; many became double agents, induced to send a rich diet of misinformation back to their masters. The forerunners of GCHQ in Bletchley Park broke the Enigma code, ensuring that the Allies could read all of Germanyâ??s most sensitive military communications.
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