404 • OSHCHENKO, VIKTOR
wroteSecret Assignment, an account of his relationship with the de-
fector, and then, as Orlov’s literary executor, releasedOrlov’s Secret
Diary.OSHCHENKO, VIKTOR.Colonel Viktor Oshchenko was aKGB
First Chief Directorate Line X science and technology officer in Paris
whodefectedto London in July 1992. He had previously served in
London between 1983 and 1989 and his value lay in his knowledge
ofMichael Smith, a spy he had run previously in England. Smith
was arrested in August 1992 and convicted of offenses against the
Official Secrets Act.
OSLO REPORT.The naval attache ́at the British embassy in Oslo in
November 1939 received a seven-page typewritten document pur-
porting to detail German scientific advances, written anonymously
and accompanied by an electronic valve. Known thereafter as the
Oslo Report, it proved to be an entirely accurate account of Nazi re-
search into the Junkers-88 twin-engine bomber; the construction of
an aircraft carrier, theFranken, at Kiel; the development of remote-
controlled glider bombs and a pilotless aircraft designated FZ; re-
search into rocket-propelled artillery shells; the establishment of a
Luftwaffe research facility at Rechlin, north of Berlin; tactics used in
Poland to overcome bunkers; the use of antiaircraft radar on the Ger-
man coast; and the introduction of new, guided torpedoes fitted with
magnetic fuses. Upon examination, the electronic valve turned out to
be a new fuse for use in free-fall bombs that armed the weapon only
after it had been released from the aircraft, thereby allowing bombers
to land safely with bombs onboard.
The Oslo Report was studied in London with some skepticism but
the information it contained was recognized as genuine by theSecret
Intelligence Service’s newly appointed scientific adviser, Dr.R. V.
Jones, and was described byHarry Hinsleyas ‘‘one of the most re-
markable intelligence reports of the war.’’ Despite much speculation,
the identity of the author was not disclosed until 1989 when Jones
revealed him to be ProfessorHans Mayer.
OVERSEAS CONTROL.The unofficial wartime name, introduced in
September 1941, for the expanding organization ofMI5representa-