Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

SPANISH EMBASSY• 503

War II,Soldatensender Calaiswas actually broadcasting black pro-

paganda from England, transmitting popular programs skillfully pre-

pared by the Political Warfare Executive atWoburn Abbeyand

designed to undermine the enemy’s morale.

SOSUS.The acronym for Sound Surveillance Under the Sea, SOSUS
was a passive acoustic network of underwater listening equipment in-
tended to monitor the passage of Soviet submarines at selected
choke-points such asGibraltarand the Faeroes–Iceland gap. Devel-
oped under the code namecaesarin 1954, the individual seabed
arrays were the size of double-decker buses connected by hundreds
of miles of secure cable. Britain’s role in the American-funded and
-operated project was to provide sites for the land terminals, and
these included Bermuda, Gibraltar, Brawdy in Wales, and the test
area off Andros in the Bahamas. Closed down at the end of the Cold
War, SOSUS terminals have been either abandoned or donated to
oceanographic research for the study of underwater mammals.

SOVIET TRADE DELEGATION.Originally located atChesham
House, the Soviet Trade Delegation acted as the Soviet Union’s dip-
lomatic mission to London until the Bolshevik government was
granted official recognition. During the Cold War, the Soviet Trade
Delegation was based in a large office in Hampstead, North London,
overlooking the Heath. It employed more than 600 staff and was a
target for surveillance operations conducted byMI5and theSecret
Intelligence Service. According toBreak-Inby a former military po-
liceman andSpecial Branchinformant, Bill Graham, his double-
glazing firm had been used as a front to install clandestine recording
equipment when he was contracted to refurbish the building in 1979.

SPANISH EMBASSY.Throughout World War II the Spanish embassy
in London was a center of German espionage, masterminded by the
press attache ́, Angel Alcazar de Velasco. He was allowed to leave the
country, but his replacement,Luis Calvo, was detained atCamp 020
until the end of hostilities.MI5maintained a close interest in the
building and monitored its activities throughtriplexand various
double agents, among themsweet williamandpeppermint, both
Britons who worked in the embassy, and G. W. andsnow, who re-