Austrian-born Communist sympathiser Hildegarde Broda recruited British atomic scientist Alan Nunn May allowing details of the Manhattan Project to fall into Soviet hands
to his handler GRANT, the Soviet military attaché Colonel Zabotin. Gouzenko’s approach to the Canadian authorities signalled the beginning of the end for Nunn May.
COURTESY TNATIONAL ARCHIVES
US detonate atomic bomb at Alamagordo, New Mexico
COURTESY TRUMAN LIBRARY
The files detail some of the careful planning that went into MI5’s handling of the case, while trying not to upset the Canadians, warn
KGB’s ATOMIC RECR W
Intelligence files reveal identity of Soviet ‘spy recru hile the name Alan Nunn May (right) is synonymous with atomic espionage - he passed intelligence on the Manhattan Project to the Soviets - it has always been a mystery who recruited the British scientist in the first place. This secret, along with many more, has finally been revealed after more than 50 years. The National Archives has released a plethora of MI5 and intelligence papers dealing with the spy - codenamed PRIMROSE.
The case is significant in that a furious United States imposed tough restrictions on its sharing of atomic technology and, in effect, forced Britain to develop its own bomb. Nunn May’s espionage activities for the Soviets were first drawn to the attention of the British authorities when Russian diplomat and KGB cipher expert Igor Gouzenko, identified him to the Canadian police as the Soviet agent ALEX. On 5 September 1945, Igor claimed he had evidence of British spies. Some of this information from Gouzenko resulted in Nunn May and Klaus Fuchs (another atomic spy) being interviewed by MI5. ALEX had been feeding information on the atomic project and stolen samples of processed uranium
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EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE
COURTESY TRUMAN LIBRARY
Igor Gouzenko - defected to the West and provided MI5 with details of Nunn May’s atomic espionage the Russians that Gouzenko was in Canadian hands, or let Nunn May or his London handler know that they were being investigated. The files also show the degree to which Kim Philby was aware of the developing case, as much of the Security Service communications with Canada flowed through him at the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). The papers reveal that Nunn May, jailed in 1946 for his treachery, was almost certainly recruited as a spy by his Austrian friend’s exwife - Hildegarde Broda. From April to November 1942, Nunn May worked with physicist and Soviet spy Engelbert Broda on the British ‘Tube Alloys’ atomic project at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. In 1943, he was sent overseas to the Tube Alloys
Uranium for ‘Little Boy’ atomic bomb (above) was enriched at the Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the Manhattan Project (below)
RUITER
iter’ after 50 years research team at chalk River near Montreal, Canada. In the latter part of 1945, Nunn May told his Soviet contacts that his time in Canada was coming to an end. They asked him for a final favour - a detailed account of the detonation of the first atomic bomb detonation at Alamagordo, New Mexico, on 16 June, which he subsequently provided. When Nunn May returned to the UK in September 1945, MI5 embarked upon a covert surveillance operation that involved monitoring Nunn May’s every move. His mail and telephone calls were also intercepted.
EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE
Before the security services could identify his contacts, he was arrested for espionage. And though his diaries provided useful notes, MI5 was unable to determine the identity of other spies connected to the ‘spy ring’. Nunn May was interrogated further, but still refused to
reveal his KGB handler and equally as important, how he was recruited. It was a secret he chose to take to his grave in 2003. At his trial, Nunn May said he did not betray the secrets for money, but to ensure the
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