380 • MORTON, SIR DESMOND
MORTON, SIR DESMOND.One of the most influential figures in
British Intelligence, Desmond Morton was aSecret Intelligence
Service(SIS) officer who headed theIndustrial Intelligence Centre
from 1930 until the outbreak of World War II, helped create theMin-
istry of Economic Warfare, and then was appointed personal assis-
tant to the prime minister with special responsibility for security and
intelligence. Educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy,
Woolwich, Morton fought with the Royal Field Artillery during
World War I and joined SIS in 1919. He was knighted in 1945 and
retired in 1953.
MOSCOW CENTER.Within the KGB, and its predecessor the
NKVD, the organization’s headquarters at 2 Dzerzhinsky Square has
always been known as ‘‘Moscow Center’’ or, more simply, ‘‘the Cen-
ter.’’ The term remained the same when the First Chief Directorate
moved to its new compound at Yasenevo.
MOSS, W. STANLEY.Born in Japan, Billy Moss lived in Latvia,
spoke Russian, and sailed to England from Stockholm in 1939 to join
the Coldstream Guards. When posted to the Western Desert, he vol-
unteered forSpecial Operations Executiveand was selected to par-
ticipate in an operation inCretewithPatrick Leigh Fermorto
abduct a senior German officer, GeneralKarl-Heinrich Kreipe.As
his friend Sir Ian Moncreiffe commented wryly, ‘‘It was natural that
he should have been chosen to go there for he spoke little Greek and
no German.’’ His version of events, as recounted in January 1950 in
Ill Met by Moonlight, was based on his wartime diaries but was
banned when he first tried to publish the book in 1945. The version
that was eventually published was some 60 pages shorter. Moss was
decorated with the Military Cross for what the Foreign Office de-
scribed as ‘‘a magnificent exploit.’’
MOYZISCH, LUDWIG.TheSicherheitsdienstrepresentative in An-
kara during World War II, Ludwig Moyzisch recruitedElyesa Bazna,
the British ambassador’s valet, as a source codenamedciceroand
ran him between October 1943 and March 1944. In 1950 he revealed
his role in his autobiography,Operation Cicero, although he did not
disclose the true identity of his spy. In April 1944 Moyzisch’s secre-