Double Cross in Cairo by Nigel West

matters at the top of their voices’.
    A review undertaken of the period 1 August 1942 to 16 February 1943 studied the work of the ‘A’ Force committee which was really what CHEESE actually was, concluded that it had ‘passed over successfully no less than six major items. These, we believe, engendered six major headaches!’ Despite these items, most secret sources inform us that CHEESE is still quoted as ‘reliable’ and ‘authentic’. In addition, CHEESE maintains a steady stream of low-level information, of which a high proportion is true. The following analysis shows the volume of wireless traffic in which the Abwehr was involved:

    Â Month
Messages Sent
Messages Received
Nights ‘On the Air’
 1942
 August
21
6
21
 September
15
7
21
 October
20
10
25
 November
13
7
26
 December
13
6
27
 
 
 
 
 1943
 January
2
7
28
 February (to date)
3
2
13
  TOTAL
87
45
161
    Levi was flown back to Palestine, and sailed on the SS
Talodi
from Haifa to Mersin on 19 April 1941. In Istanbul he was interviewed at the German consulate-general by an Abwehr officer identified only as ‘the Admiral’ and Kurt Zähringer, when he revealed only very vague details of Nicossof, and then submitted a report on the event to the local SIS station. According to MI5, ‘the Admiral’ was probably Kontor Admiral Buerkner, a senior personality responsible for liaison with the Abwehr’s offices in Axis cities such as Rome and Budapest.
    Levi was deliberately opaque about the non-existent Nicossof but suggested that he was in his mid-thirties and before the war had worked as a half-commission agent on the Alexandria Cotton Exchange. Later some of these details would be repeated when the Abwehr arranged in July for funds to be delivered to him by an intermediary named Fummo at his Cairo apartment at 20 Sharia Galal.
    Levi’s encounter with Zähringer was an opportunity to pass on some misleading information and to explain that Nicossof would begin transmissions on 25 May and continue twice a week. He accounted for his original £500 by saying that after he had paid £200 for the transmitter, incurred various incidental expenses, hadmade a payment to George Khouri and given the remainder, £150, to Nicossof.
    On his visit to Turkey Levi had been accompanied by his girlfriend, Azeglia Socci, a cabaret artiste, who was to act as his motive for returning to Italy where supposedly he intended to get his wife Lina out of the country. This was the narrative that he told the Germans had been enough to persuade the British authorities to grant him the necessary travel documents. In reality, Levi’s courage in going back to Italy placed him in extraordinary jeopardy, but also served to convince the Abwehr of his continued loyalty.
    On 4 June 1941 Levi left Istanbul for Italy, travelling to Burgas, Sofia, Belgrade, Vienna and finally Munich where he reported to Major Hans Travaglio on 14 June at the Marien Teresienstrasse. His safe arrival was conveyed to Colonel Otto Helfferich, the Abwehr chief in Rome at his office in the Italian Ministry of War in the Via XX Settembre. Levi then went to Naples where he was met on 17 June by Major Clemens Rossetti who revealed that adverse reports had been received from Belgrade regarding Levi’s relationship with British intelligence, and explained that the issue would be pursued the following week in Venice where they would be met on the Lido by Helfferich.
    According to his SIME dossier, Helfferich was aged ‘about fifty. Height 5ft 10in. Very well dressed. Autocratic Prussian personality, military bearing, a strict disciplinarian. Dark brown hair, greying slightly. Weather-beaten face. Clean-shaven. Thin nose. Thin mouth. Sharp pointed chin. Apaprently very strongly Nazi. Speaks German, Italian and French.’
    Rossetti was identified by SIS as a German intelligence officer, fluent in Italian, who