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While the South Africans were initially none the wiser, the United States ] had its suspicions about there being a spy in southern Africa.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} Gerhard's cover was finally blown by Soviet double agent ] (given the codename "Farewell" by France's ] intelligence service{{sfn|Weiss|2008}}){{sfn|Reynolds|2009}}{{sfn|Trahair|2004|p=319}} Gerhardt was arrested at his hotel in ] in January 1983 a ] by the ] while he was taking a degree in mathematics at a ].{{sfn|Trenear-Harvey|2009|p=71}} Gerhardt gave up his Soviet handler, ] (codename "Bob"{{sfn|Pilyatskin|2005}}), who was arrested by Swiss authorities in ] while attempting to meet with Ruth Gerhardt.{{sfn|Meyer|2009}} While the South Africans were initially none the wiser, the United States ] had its suspicions about there being a spy in southern Africa.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} Gerhard's cover was finally blown by Soviet double agent ] (given the codename "Farewell" by France's ] intelligence service{{sfn|Weiss|2008}}){{sfn|Reynolds|2009}}{{sfn|Trahair|2004|p=319}} Gerhardt was arrested at his hotel in ] in January 1983 a ] by the ] while he was taking a degree in mathematics at a ].{{sfn|Trenear-Harvey|2009|p=71}} Gerhardt gave up his Soviet handler, ] (codename "Bob"{{sfn|Pilyatskin|2005}}), who was arrested by Swiss authorities in ] while attempting to meet with Ruth Gerhardt.{{sfn|Meyer|2009}}


Dieter Gerhardt was deported to South Africa and tried '']'' in the Cape Town Supreme Court, with the potential prospect of a death sentence being handed down for ].{{sfn|Hill-Norton|1983|p=5}} However Judge George Munnik sentenced him to life imprisonment in December 1983, while his wife received a 10-year sentence for acting as a courier.{{sfn|Audrey|1999|p=487}} In his trial, Gerhardt stated that the repulsion he felt towards his father's right-wing political beliefs drove him to fight ] in serving the USSR.{{sfn|Meyer|2009}}{{sfn|Polakow-Suransky|2010|p=80}} According to another source, he said in his defence that he had spied for a country he refused to name, but which was not hostile to South Africa.{{sfn|Claassen|1992}} His first wife described him as a "traditional apartheid-accepting South African".{{sfn|Cook|1999}}. He had told her that he wanted to revenge against the South African government for ] his father, a ] sympathizer, during World War II.{{sfn|Trahair|2004|p=90}} Dieter Gerhardt was deported to South Africa and tried '']'' in the Cape Town Supreme Court, with the potential prospect of a death sentence being handed down for ].{{sfn|Hill-Norton|1983|p=5}} However Judge George Munnik sentenced him to life imprisonment in December 1983, while his wife received a 10-year sentence for acting as a courier.{{sfn|Audrey|1999|p=487}} In his trial, Gerhardt stated that the repulsion he felt towards his father's right-wing political beliefs drove him to fight ] in serving the USSR.{{sfn|Meyer|2009}}{{sfn|Polakow-Suransky|2010|p=80}} According to another source, he said in his defence that he had spied for a country he refused to name, but which was not hostile to South Africa. His wife claimed she thought he was in fact a double agent working forSouth Africa {{sfn|Claassen|1992}} His first wife described him as a "traditional apartheid-accepting South African".{{sfn|Cook|1999}}. He had told her that he wanted to revenge against the South African government for ] his father, a ] sympathizer, during World War II.{{sfn|Trahair|2004|p=90}}


Gerhardt was one of the imprisoned spies who was mooted for inclusion in a 1989 East-West prisoner exchange amongst a number of countries,{{sfn|The Pittsburgh Press|1989|p=7}} but he remained in prison until August 1992.{{sfn|Trenear-Harvey|2009|p=71}}{{sfn|Claassen|1992}} He was released following his application for release and an appeal by Russian premier ] to South African President ] when the latter visited Moscow after the ] two years before the historic first ] elections in South Africa.{{sfn|Claassen|1992}}{{sfn|AK2444}}{{efn|There is some evidence to suggest that other people like ] also intervened on his behalf at various points in time.{{sfn|Suzman|2009}}}} Gerhardt emigrated to ], ], following in the footsteps of his Swiss wife Ruth Gerhardt, who was released in 1990.{{sfn|Orlando Sentinel|1990}} Gerhardt was subsequently also granted amnesty in 1999 by the ].{{sfn|Truth and Reconciliation Commission—1999}}{{sfn|Dispatch online|1999}} Gerhardt was one of the imprisoned spies who was mooted for inclusion in a 1989 East-West prisoner exchange amongst a number of countries,{{sfn|The Pittsburgh Press|1989|p=7}} but he remained in prison until August 1992.{{sfn|Trenear-Harvey|2009|p=71}}{{sfn|Claassen|1992}} He was released following his application for release and an appeal by Russian premier ] to South African President ] when the latter visited Moscow after the ] two years before the historic first ] elections in South Africa.{{sfn|Claassen|1992}}{{sfn|AK2444}}{{efn|There is some evidence to suggest that other people like ] also intervened on his behalf at various points in time.{{sfn|Suzman|2009}}}} Gerhardt emigrated to ], ], following in the footsteps of his Swiss wife Ruth Gerhardt, who was released in 1990.{{sfn|Orlando Sentinel|1990}} Gerhardt was subsequently also granted amnesty in 1999 by the ].{{sfn|Truth and Reconciliation Commission—1999}}{{sfn|Dispatch online|1999}}

Revision as of 16:05, 20 January 2012

Dieter Gerhardt
BornDieter Felix Gerhardt
1935
Berlin, Germany
NationalitySouth African, later Swiss
Alma materSouth African Naval Academy
Occupationformer Commodore in the South African Navy
Spouse(s)Janet Coggin (divorced)
Ruth Johr (codename "Lena")
Espionage activity
AllegianceSoviet Union Soviet Union
Service branchGRU
Service years1962-1983
CodenameFelix

Dieter Felix Gerhardt (born 1935) was a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York in 1982 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a Soviet spy in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.

Military career

Gerhardt joined the South African Navy, and graduated from the Naval Academy in Simon's Town in 1956. He started his spying career early, offering his services to the South African Communist Party who referred him to the Soviet embassy in London while still a junior naval officer. He was recruited into the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence branch. In 1962, and he attended a Royal Navy mine school in Portsmouth and completed the parachute training course at RAF Abingdon. After his training in Britain, he was seconded to the Royal Navy. He was reportedly paid 800,000 Swiss Francs by the GRU for his spying activities; his contact in the GRU said that money was not the motive for Gerhardt.

As part of his service in the Royal Navy, he trained at HMS Collingwood and served on the HMS Tenby (F65), and passed classified information about the weapon systems there to the Soviets. Among the systems he compromised through these activities were the Seacat and Sea Sparrow missiles. British journalist and security services specialist Chapman Pincher maintained that, while in London in the late 1960s, he was able to interview Royal Navy Polaris submarine crews for potential candidates that the Soviets could approach. It was also during this time that he met his first wife, British-born Janet Coggin whom he married in 1958.

Coggin says she became aware of her husband's Cold War spying activities eight years later in 1966, but chose not to turn him in, fearing that he would be executed, leaving her children fatherless. She says Gerhardt eventually gave her an ultimatum to become a spy too, which she declined, forcing the couple's separation. She divorced him in 1966 and moved to Ireland with her children, living in constant fear of the Soviet security services. She subsequently published a book in 1999 about her experiences called 'The Spy's Wife'.

In 1973 Gerhardt married his second wife, Ruth Johr, a Swiss citizen who author Chapman Pincher claims was already a spy for the German Democratic Republic. According to Gerhardt, he recruited her shortly after they were married.

Gerhardt rose through the ranks of the naval establishment to commander of the strategically important Simonstown naval dockyard. In this position, he had access to all the South African Naval intelligence reports from the Silvermine listening post near Cape Town, as well as technical details of weapons systems. From 1972-1978, he was appointed as a senior staff officer to the Chief of the SADF in Pretoria. In this position he was able to access South African Army and Air Force's secrets and plans regarding the South African Border War. He claims direct involvement in aspects of Israeli and South Africa's military cooperation, using this position in 1975 to pass Israeli secrets to the Soviets, including details of the purchase of Jericho missiles from Israel.

During the 1982 Falklands War, Gerhardt was allegedly able to use his position to supply the Soviets with detailed information about the locations of Royal Navy ships in the south Atlantic that the South African Navy intercepted at Silvermine. He reportedly revealed to the Soviets most of the Western naval surveillance techniques for the South Atlantic.

Arrest and subsequent release

While the South Africans were initially none the wiser, the United States Central Intelligence Agency had its suspicions about there being a spy in southern Africa. Gerhard's cover was finally blown by Soviet double agent Vladimir Vetrov (given the codename "Farewell" by France's DST intelligence service) Gerhardt was arrested at his hotel in New York in January 1983 a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was taking a degree in mathematics at a New York University. Gerhardt gave up his Soviet handler, Vitaly Shlykov (codename "Bob"), who was arrested by Swiss authorities in Zurich while attempting to meet with Ruth Gerhardt.

Dieter Gerhardt was deported to South Africa and tried in camera in the Cape Town Supreme Court, with the potential prospect of a death sentence being handed down for high treason. However Judge George Munnik sentenced him to life imprisonment in December 1983, while his wife received a 10-year sentence for acting as a courier. In his trial, Gerhardt stated that the repulsion he felt towards his father's right-wing political beliefs drove him to fight apartheid in serving the USSR. According to another source, he said in his defence that he had spied for a country he refused to name, but which was not hostile to South Africa. His wife claimed she thought he was in fact a double agent working forSouth Africa His first wife described him as a "traditional apartheid-accepting South African".. He had told her that he wanted to revenge against the South African government for interning his father, a Nazi sympathizer, during World War II.

Gerhardt was one of the imprisoned spies who was mooted for inclusion in a 1989 East-West prisoner exchange amongst a number of countries, but he remained in prison until August 1992. He was released following his application for release and an appeal by Russian premier Boris Yeltsin to South African President FW de Klerk when the latter visited Moscow after the dissolution of the Soviet Union two years before the historic first democratic elections in South Africa. Gerhardt emigrated to Basel, Switzerland, following in the footsteps of his Swiss wife Ruth Gerhardt, who was released in 1990. Gerhardt was subsequently also granted amnesty in 1999 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Nuclear weapons controversy

He claimed that the United States and the Soviet Union met in 1978 to discuss South Africa's nuclear weapons programme, and that the Soviets proposed a pre-emptive strike on the Pelindaba plant.

In February 1994, he stated in the Johannesburg City Press that the Vela Incident was the result of a joint Israeli-South African nuclear test, code-named Operation Phoenix. He stated that he had no first hand knowledge of the alleged test, despite being commander of the Simonstown Naval Base at the time. He also specifically stated that no South African warships had been involved. Popular Mechanics contends that the mystery surrounding the incident may have been resolved if Gerhardt was a more credible source.

Further reading

See also

Notes

  1. Some sources say 1936; Gerhardt himself says 1935 on this article's talk page
  2. There is some evidence to suggest that other people like Helen Suzman also intervened on his behalf at various points in time.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Pilyatskin 2005.
  2. Trahair 2004, p. 89.
  3. ^ Trenear-Harvey 2009, p. 71.
  4. Rusbridger 2006, p. 127.
  5. ^ Meyer 2009. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMeyer2009 (help)
  6. West 2010, p. 120.
  7. Polakow-Suransky 2010, p. 84.
  8. ^ Cook 1999.
  9. ^ Coggin 1999.
  10. Pincher 1987.
  11. Pretorius 2011.
  12. Younghusband 1983, p. 3.
  13. Polakow-Suransky 2010, p. 88.
  14. McGreal 2010.
  15. Rusbridger 1991, p. 127.
  16. ^ Trahair 2004, p. 90.
  17. ^ Hill-Norton 1983, p. 5.
  18. Los Angeles Times 1987. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLos_Angeles_Times1987 (help)
  19. Weiss 2008.
  20. Reynolds 2009.
  21. Trahair 2004, p. 319.
  22. Audrey 1999, p. 487. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAudrey1999 (help)
  23. Polakow-Suransky 2010, p. 80.
  24. ^ Claassen 1992.
  25. The Pittsburgh Press 1989, p. 7. sfn error: no target: CITEREFThe_Pittsburgh_Press1989 (help)
  26. AK2444.
  27. Suzman 2009. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSuzman2009 (help)
  28. Orlando Sentinel 1990. sfn error: no target: CITEREFOrlando_Sentinel1990 (help)
  29. Truth and Reconciliation Commission—1999.
  30. Dispatch online 1999. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDispatch_online1999 (help)
  31. Albright 1994, p. 37.
  32. Albright 1997, p. 17. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAlbright1997 (help)
  33. Wilson 1997, p. 48.

References

External links

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