Roald Dahl - British Spy

In 1939 when England declared war on Germany, Roald Dahl enlisted as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. During his first mission bombing the Ruhr area of Germany in 1940, Dahl crash landed and was rescued by a British patrol. He continued to participate in bombing expeditions until it became clear to his superiors that the injuries he sustained from the crash were making it unsafe for him to fly. Since he was still an educated and experienced pilot, Dahl was assigned to the British Embassy in Washington DC as an assistant air attaché once he recovered in early 1942.

Part of Dahl's mission was to build US support towards the war effort because at this time, even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on Japan and Germany, many politicians in the US were still hesitant about sending aid and fighting in Europe. In order to undermine the interventionist sentiments, a covert organization called the British Security Coordination (BSC) was created with Canadian William Stephenson at its head. The job of this organization was to promote British interests, build support for the war and to put an end to any pro-Nazi propaganda, and Stephenson overstepped legal and ethical bounds to accomplish this goal.

Handsome and charming, Dahl was invited to many high society parties and was in a prime position to overhear information and gain confidences that were of interest to the BSC. The more he bored with his work at the British Embassy, the more tidbits of information he sent to Stephenson, and eventually Dahl became solely employed as a spy at the BSC. Due to being a guest in high demand at parties where great amounts of information could be gained, Dahl became a member of the most elite group of informants at the BSC known as the "Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's group of spies. Among these informants was Ian Fleming, who became a good friend of Dahl and would later go on to use his experiences to write James Bond.

Dahl's life as a spy was far from typical. His missions were mostly attending parties where he would converse with the American high society and gain what information he could. He used his skills as a ladies man to convince heiresses and politicians alike to part with closely guarded secrets, and he had affairs with many important women including Millicent Rogers, heiress to the Standard Oil fortune and Clare Boothe Luce, an influential congress woman who would become a foreign affairs advisor to Nixon and Ford. He would also take trips to Hyde Park to converse with President Roosevelt, keeping his cover as an assistant air attaché for the British Embassy.

Dahl was able to uncover many secrets through his charm at cocktail parties and his bedside manner that was passed directly to Churchill. As early as 1944, he had uncovered early discussion of a US moon landing and rumors that Roosevelt was having an affair with a Norwegian crown princess. His time as a spy ended abruptly when he began experiencing intense back pain and underwent many procedures to cure it which kept him in and out of the hospital for many months. By the time he was healthy again, the allies had won the war, Germany was divided into occupation zones and Roosevelt had passed away.  Tired of secrets and espionage, Dahl returned to England in 1946 to pursue his writing career and went on to write childhood classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and many more.

Sources:
http://now.howstuffworks.com/2016/09/12/roald-dahl-was-british-wwii-spy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2655185/Roald-Dahls-seductive-work-as-a-British-spy.html