1 March 2006 releases: German intelligence officers

Hugo Bleicher

File ref KV 2/2127

Bleicher, often operating under a pseudonym such as "Colonel Heinrich", was one of the most effective German agents operating in France against the Resistance (though he is noted after his capture on this file as saying he would rather have spent his time arresting criminals and black marketers). He was a member of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence organisation.

He was closely involved in the rounding up of several agent networks and was involved in the interrogations of numerous resisters. Among his most notable captures were the British agents Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom; he was also a key figure in the breakup of the Special Operations Executive's PROSPER network, which he successfully infiltrated.

Much of this file, covering 1943-1946, deals with the Service's attempts to establish the true identity of Heinrich, who was a key figure in the complicated case of Henri Déricourt, a Frenchman working for SOE who was in fact a double agent. It was not until early 1945 that Bleicher was confirmed as identical with Heinrich (the first to confirm it on this file was Hugh Astor in February that year, serial 23a). The file includes several testaments to Bleicher's professional attitude to his work, including from men whom he interrogated. One such is the lengthy testimony of Pierre de Vomecourt at serial 33b.

When Bleicher was finally arrested by the Dutch Resistance in June 1945, the Security Service took particular care to ensure that he was sent to Camp 020, the Service's wartime interrogation centre, rather than to France. His full Camp 020 interrogation report is not on this file.

He was later convicted by an Allied court and imprisoned, following which he published his wartime memoirs, Colonel Henri's story, in 1954.