Operation Foot | The British MI5 takedown of the Soviet KGB in Britain - 1971
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- Operation Foot - took place in the UK against the Soviet KGB during 1971 at the height of The Cold War, and remains to this day the greatest counter espionage operation in history.
The result of Operation Foot was, after the work of 100s of MI5 intelligence officers, that 105 Soviet Diplomats were expelled from the UK, and 100s of Soviet citizens' work visa revoked and deported. Several people both British and foreign were awarded long prison sentences for spying.
The operation marked a major turning point in Cold War counter-espionage operations in Britain; and made Britain a hard espionage target for Soviet intelligence for the remainder of the Cold War.
In this MI5 and KGB Documentary, we examine how after a decade of British political weakness during the 1960s had allowed Soviet KGB espionage to infiltrate many elements of the British Military, Government and Political establishment.
The election of a hawkish Prime Minister - Sir Edward Heath, in June 1970 saw a sea change in British Government attitudes to Soviet espionage activities within the UK.
The British were pressured by their allies The United States of America to get their 'house in order' as the US was reluctant to share to Top Secret Intelligence under the Five Eyes agreement for fear it would be leaked to the Soviets.
So the British Secret Services (MI5) were unleashed with a brief to eradicate all KBG spies within the British Isles with 12 months by all means necessary, and MI5 Intelligence Officers set about infiltrating the Soviet Embassy and Soviet Trade Delegation in London.
The Operation Foot story includes a 'playboy' KGB Officer, Oleg Lyalin who was sleeping with his boss' wife; who when confronted by MI5 became a double agent and ultimately a Soviet defector; but who then brought the whole operation crashing down after a drunken incident in London.
A henpecked Royal Navy Officer David Bingham, a submarine sonar expert, bullied into spying for the Soviets by his spendthrift and domineering wife Maureen.
And a high level British Spy, Geoffrey Prime, based in GCHQ the British Government's Signals Intelligence (SIG-INT) agency. Prime harboured a much, much darker secrets than being a spy, that would cause his ultimate downfall and see him jailed for 38 years.
The story finishes with an update on the lives of all the 'players' of Op Foot today; after the collapse of The Soviet Union and how a young KGB Officer who joined the KGB during the Op Foot era - Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - is now the high profile President of the Russian Federation.
The events of the obscure Op Foot were the inspiration for two classic spy novels: 'Tinker, Tailor Solder Spy' by John Le Carre. And 'The Fourth Protocol' by Frederick Forsyth, both made into Hollywood Movies in recent years.
CHAPTERS:
00:12 The Political Background
09:29 The KGB in the UK 1960 - 197-0
17:24 The KGB Playboy
20:31 David Bingham - The Henpecked Royal Navy Officer
25:56 Oleg Lyalin goes for a quiet drink
29:33 Operation Foot - The Take down
34:40 Geoffrey Prime - The Spy who got away
39:46 Epilogue / Update on personalities
#coldwar #sovietunion #spy #topsecret #putin #russia #MI5
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Reminded me of our time serving in Cyprus in the late 80's with the out of bounds Aeroflot hotel between Larnaca and Dhekelia and the strict warning that all Aeroflot stewardesses were KGB. Interesting video.
The Palm Beach Hotel.
You missed those Russian beauties.
@@a.p.3004 They went like barn doors in a high wind.
Nah , they weren’t all KGB or GRU or whatever. Although by the mere fact that they were allowed on overseas trips meant the girls game from exceptionally well connected families at least from the номенклату́ра.
@@cyclesgoff9768
The British double-agent, George Blake, was helped to escape prison and travel into Europe by a British criminal.
Once in Russia, the daughter of a KGB officer lived with the escaped prisoner while he lived there.
@@TeddyBear-ii4yc
As long as the lady KGB agent was sexy, that's a big step up for Blake , coming from a British jail or prison.
This is a masterpiece ! Probably the UK's greatest success since the double cross operation of WW2. The information and narrative here is exceptional ! Many thanks Andy !!!
Remarkable, compelling story. I served in the British Army for 12 years and was lucky enough to get posted to West Berlin at part of the Berlin Infantry Brigade, 1986-87. A strange quirk of the times was that you could take the U-Bahn from a station in the West and end up at Friedrichstraße just inside the Eastern sector near Checkpoint Charlie. I did it once. Fell asleep drunk on the U-Bahn. We could also enter legally in uniform (No.2 Dress) after considerable paperwork and as a planned regimental activity.
I was a West German student in West Berlin during the seventies.
Once a week we would stop at Friedrichstrasse station to by cheap duty free cigarettes and alcohol.
During 250 trips i got busted 6 or 7 times by West German customs.
Still, saved 1000's in duty.
Visiting East Berlin was no problem.
Any further and one was asking for big trouble.
In the 2010's you could still instantly tell when you went from West to east! It was like some cheap horror movies, jagged edge, cave like, dingy, chill in the air, kind of menacing, place.
To further add that the details you gave with this video were very much appreciated, especially for me who as then young man lived through those times in the UK. Thankyou again.
This is the kind of quality I miss about present day documentaries. Thank you for your great work! Kind regards from Potsdam.
I don't know how I stumbled across this gem of a documentary; but it fascinated me from beginning to end. Liked and subscribed!
Fantastic research and presentation Andy as always and actually answers a few minor questions I hadn't yet considered from one of my favourite Cold War era espionage films, The Fourth Protocol.
Growing up during the Cold War I appreciate quality documentaries like this. Excellent content sir.
Extremely interesting and well-done.
I am not from UK but a fan of LeCarrè and this story is really fascinating.
Thank you!
When I started an Avionic apprenticeship in the early 70s a lot of my instructors were ex Concorde. They were quite open about how they knew who the spies were and how the official policy was to ignore anything that was generally known but to feed them false information on more secret things.
There was a story going around that Russia was fed deliberately wrong technical info on the Concorde aircraft.
Its quite true, when the "Concordski" showed up at the Paris airshow British aircrew were specifically told Not to go on the plane for flights etc, and days later it crashed! @@bloggalot4718
I heard that same story. The information being passed on having very subtle design flaws, hence the TU 144's appalling safety record. Vaguely remember the first one crashing at the Paris Air Show of 1973.@@bloggalot4718
@@bloggalot4718 Which explains why the Soviet version of the Concorde the TU144 was a massive pile of shit.
It was green run XB-70A info anyway wasn't it? Didn't Churchill live past JFK's assassination, that's the cover-up that's still going on today. The gin swilling, cigar in the mouth, ultra-secret cousin of FDR took a lot of secrets to the grave I believe, especially his iron curtain deal with Stalin in 1944.
Another brilliant episode. You produce the best cold war documentaries available in my opinion. Thanks.
Thanks
Brilliant watch as always 👌🏻
Earned a new subscriber! Just getting started, but it looks like you’ve accumulated some amazing historic footage and imagery to support this story! Amazing work!
Awesome, thank you!
@@AndyMcloone Loved the flourish at the end!
This is TV quality content. My humble compliments to you.
Wow, thank you!
Absolutely spot on with this comment.
Bravo! An HBO special or something like that, that’s for sure.
Great video never knew about this. 👍
Agree
Thanks Andy, another superbly made and fascinating tale from the cold war, my favourite history era.
During the Cold War, there was a Soviet Tractor importer called UMO which was based in the Belarus SSR. They had an import office along Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, Hertfordshire and this was used as a base for agents of the KGB. and GRU posing as sales agents. because of the spying activity, the local police station had a Special Branch office until the end of the Cold War.
I need to know more about this!! I think I remember a rumour about this - the one opposite the tip? Are you from Letchworth pal?
I remember that place. I remember that we, we as in a Det A Team, 39th Special Forces, US Army we put a bug one time in ambulance that they used. I think it was an ambulance. Dont know why the ambulance was there. It was a long time ago. We worked out of Berlin but did some ops in the UK. Always had some Brit specs ops guys with us ofcourse. I promise
I was stationed at Henlow during the '80's, and every year we had our annual Ground Defense Training. Besides learning our NBC drills, how to safely fire the SLR, the 2 days training always started with a 'security threat brief'. Letchworth, Luton and Bedford were always "mentioned" (the latter two in connection to certain groups from Northern Ireland).
Been hooked on all your Cold War videos! I was born just before the fall of the Soviet Union so I find all of this fascinating. You got yourself another subscriber
This was fantastic!!! Thoroughly interesting. Its a subject that has intrigued me for most of my life. Very professionally presented and produced.👌
Bravo Zulu (Well Done).
This take down, as it related to the US Navy, was mentioned in the Intel Advanced course. I did a little work with GCHQ late in my career. I always thought our cousins at GCHQ were a very professional bunch.
Thank you Andy for another great video. I love the care and attention you bring to these moments in history. Always a treat to watch your work.
Excellent production and topic, Andy! Just finished reading "Spycatcher" for the 3rd time in 20 years so the material is quite familiar, but super interesting to see it the way you present it!
Have seen all of your video's, keep up the good work!
'Spycatcher ' was one of my references when researching this story!
@@AndyMclooneAndy, I hope to see your take on this. Peter Wright at the time had his suspicions about Roger Hollis but later on one of the other ones confessed (can't remember who.) But was this officer coerced/sacrificed to hide the embarrassment that the actual head of MI-5 Hollis was the real mole?....
Another great commentary Andy on an extraordinary epoch of spying and espionage. I learned so much! Thank you!
I've been waiting for this since you said you were dropping a longer video. The wait was worth it. Your content is epic, and you have a great narration voice. Thank you Andy.
Excellent work Andy. Consistently high quality documentary content, well done
As long as I can remember, and I'm 71, politicians have been saying that the good times are over and we'll have to tighten our belts. The thing is I can't remember any good times.
And the Great Game continues. Good job. Thanks for your through and informative presentation.
So, you can become a Probation Officer in The UK even after being convicted of espionage and serving 21 years in prison? I did not know that! This was so good! I've seen several programs like these on BBC and this puts them to shame. I would much rather have photos of the actual people with an intelligent presenter telling me the who & what. I despise all the actor portrayals, they are always so bad! Anyway, great job mate! Cheers!
Great video, and a lot of hard work behind it. Thank you.
A well compiled and produced video Andy. In 1971, I served on that Royal Navy Polaris submarine shown at 9:49. 😉
Thank you for this excellent piece of work.
Fantastic, a thorough and captivating tale told at the right pace and with appropriate music and pics. A lot of hard work which puts this at the premiership of TH-cam documentaries
Many thanks!
You are very genuinely a filmmaker. We’re all lucky to have your content free for our viewing on TH-cam. Great work.
Very informative history documentary, thank you for posting.
You live, you learn. This fella was new to me. And this channel, I thank thee. Just love espionage history.
Thank you mate! Great doc. Put a lot of hard work and it was appreciated 💪👍
"Yeah, I'm talking about you, Joe Biden!" LOL 😂 👍 Jokularities aside, this is one of the BEST Documentaries EVER made! And you deserve extra points for not cra***g on Senator McCarthy! I'm really impressed by he detailed and compact form you have managed to produce here, Andy Mcloone. And the pictures and illustrations are simply amazing. Well done! Well done, indeed! 👍
I fear that Russia is the least of the major problems we are facing today. Communist China seems to outperform the KGB by an order of magnitude.
At about 7:10, the KGB was NEVER disbanded! Boris Yeltsin only changed its name! The First Chief Directorate became the SVR and the Second Chief Directorate became the FSB. Nothing in its personnel and tasks was changed.
And Putin was head of the FSB…
The KGB kept the archives of the Okhrana, the Czarist secret service, in among their own. Thus, the Czarist Okhrana never really disbanded, it just merged with the Bolshevik Cheka (which changed its identity to NKVD, NKGB, then KGB) and carried on together.
Very nicely researched and clearly explained with background summarising to set the scene and with elevant images and video. Usually when I watch a documentary I pause to research the extra detail or general understanding, often with the 'where are they now' question. This is the first time I felt that everything and more that I would want to know was included already. Well done for that.
Thank you very much!
@@AndyMcloone Was this the inspiration behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s settings?
Very well done, Sir! I especially appreciate the postscript. Thank you for sharing this story. 🇬🇧
What a fascinating story - thanks for telling it, Andy 👍
More of this please, absolutely fascinating, particularly like the "what happened to" at the end always fascinated on the current status of those historical players.
Outstanding documentary, with many not commonly known revelations. Well done!
Thanks for this fantastic documentary. Will definitely be sharing this.
Awesome, thank you!
It is noticeable that Wilson said he thought that he would scrap the UK Nuke deterrent. Yet this was initiated by Attlee. In fact Wilson not only continued the UK Polaris system through the late 1960s but when he returned to office in 1974 he initiated the development of the improvement of it under the CHEVALINE programme which gave it multiple warheads. Under thatcher this was continued and when Blair entered office in 1997 he gave the go ahead to the trident replacement.
Have been a big fan of Le Carre & Deighton for decades. Great video and thanks for posting.
Among Aeroflot employees, 100% were KGB and GRU operatives.
Except the pilots and navigators - they were active duty military bomber pilots and navigators.
Thanks for another great video Andy. Had to watch it for a second time! The amount of care and detail that goes into your videos is greatly appreciated. Cant wait for the next one...ill be waiting eagerly from down here in New Zealand. Godspeed.
Very good account. By the way, Sir Alec Douglas Home's name: Home is pronounced 'Hume.'
Great video. I had never heard of Operation Foot. Nice to know Britain did have some successes during the Cold War.
Excellent video. Well done Andy. I really really enjoyed this. 10/10
Absolutely brilliantly video, Andy! More of the same, please…
Very well narrated, excellent production.
Fantastic Documentary. Much appreciated. Made my day watching this. Thanks !
Very well put together as good as if not better than what TV would make of this story.
I remember this story but never knew the details so this video was a real eyeopener!
Great work again! Love your Cold War stuff! Thanks very much.
Very interesting. I remember the Bingham case being all over the news as a youngster but it meant nothing to a young boy more interested in football.
I now live around 2km from Putin's former KGB HQ in Dresden. An attractive villa located just around the corner from the former Stasi HQ & remand centre, it now functions as a clinic for alternative medicine. During the 1989 uprising, crowds gathered outside the KGB HQ threatening to overrun it. As the story is recalled, Putin bricked it and attempted to call in the tanks. A senior officer refused his request stating he could "only authorise it with permission from Moscow, and Moscow is silent"....
Fascinating history. Thank you for making this video available.
A brilliant piece put together, very interesting, there's plenty more stories like this involving our services protecting us...more please my friend.🙏👍
Great video Andy - well researched and presented, times have changed and we are once again wary of the Bear from the East. Cheers and stay safe
Thoroughly well-researched as usual.
This is a top video, thanks for making this. 👍
Smashing, thank you for this very good video AND your time and effort putting it together.
A very informative and entertaining upload. I'd very much enjoy more of the same. Keep 'em coming
Again an outstanding video by Andy, exciting and very informative. I don't think it can be done better and if it had been on national TV it would have had great viewing figures. Looking forward to the next masterpiece from Andy's hand. The Europeans have always been incredibly naive and to paraphrase Winston Churchill's words "You can not reason with a tiger when your head is in his mouth." to "You can not reason with a bear", or as Stalin said they gave the Rolls Royce Nene jet mortor to the Soviets "how stupid can you be" that gift was responsible for the lives of many allied pilots. That nativity is also seen in Russia today, just look Angela Merkel and now Hungary and Slovakia are moving in the same direction
Russia of today isn't the same as the Soviet Union. The communism of the past is no more, however if you peel back the veneer, it is the West that has is stripping away free speech, controlling the narratives, locking people up without charge, taking children away using the family courts, cancelling people for thought crimes, debanking, having pretend democracies and so on.
There is an Orwellian system of dishonesty and garbage progressive anti family, anti white, anti Judeo Christian values etc. Slovakia and Hungary are right to want to be allies with Russia as they also have sensible and frankly, better values and culture now.
Do you rule out that Hungary and Slovakia have suddenly sobered up?
Thank you Mr Mcloone, the story was very well told and illustrated.
Excellent watch. Very nicely presented. Thank you.
Brilliantly researched, a fantastic watch, thanks!
Really enjoyed this and all of your other Cold War documentaries. Thank you Andy.
Great video. Really enjoyed watching it (second time now). As a matter of interest how long did it take to make it?
Quality bit of journalistic research. And very well edited and presented
Excellent content. This is very informative. Thank you.
Thanks. A cracking story well told. Fact is stranger than fiction.
The David Bingham case provided the plot for an episode of the TV series Warship (Funny, They All Say That) where a PO whose wife has run up debts is blackmailed into supplying details of a new submarine detection system to the Soviets.
Warship created by Lt Cdr Ian Mackintosh, an excellent series. It has been reposted on YT. If you haven't see it may I recommend The Sandbaggers, another Mackintosh series, brought to a close by his untimely death.
Very impressive research for this one Andy.
I was a young lad in thise & had no idea about any of these shanaigans.
A well presented video of a fascinating era in the UK.
Clothing is "hung", people are "hanged".
Great documentary, mate. Love the channel. Great work. Thank you. 👍🏻
As a fellow ex Cold War participant (Teenie Weenie Airways), I appreciate your excellent content. Always good.
Fantastic video and production. Very well made
Wauw. This was some good stuff mate!
Going to watch some more videos of yours.
Regards,
Thomas
Another top notch documentary Andy... Thank you
Many thanks!
Great content, a really fascinating watch. Keep up the impressive work 👍🏻👌🏻🇬🇧
Great presentation and story telling, simply awesome...
Superb Sir!!! You’ve gained another subscriber now! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Loved this documentary, beautifully narrated, powerful stuff.
Great video, beautifully narrated, thank you very much
Great documentary, well researched and narrated.
What's the music at the ending? It's very beautiful. Great video.
Briliant video Andy, as yours all are. I used to walk to school past the Russian Trade Delegation(15.44 in the video) on West Hill in Highgate from 1972 through to 1978. By then it was a bit of an 'open secret' what went on there.... Fascinating.
As simply an opinion, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by the BBC was a masterpiece. I watched a few clips of the Hollywood movie and chose not to bother with it. The "original" is simply brilliantly done. The acting was amazing.
Highly watchable high quality telling of a deeply interesting story. I was 14 at the time but of course only the tiniest details emerged then. May I congratulate you on your tight, thoughtful and well paced narration? Thank you.
Very interesting video again, thank you Andy
Thank you for that ! Absolutely gripping stuff 👍👍👍
thank you so much for the documentary.
Very well done documentary. Thank you
Fantastic, as always. Thanks you for producing these marvellous presentations
Totally fascinating and brilliantly researched.
Quality Cold War documentary, well paced and captivating.
Brilliant video - very informative and extremely well made!
Thank you
Excellent. I was enthralled from beginning to end. Can't wait for your next release. I have new found respect for Ted.
Fantastic content and detail. Thanks for posting Andy