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The Spy Who Led an Army to its Doom With Fake Newspapers and Letters

Khalid Elhassan December 5, 2021 37 min

The execution of captured American spy Nathan Hale. Painting and Frame

Baku oil fields in the early 1900s. Zurich Library

16. The Secret Agent Who Spied on the Russians for Both the British and Japanese

After the Boer War, Sidney Reilly’s spy masters sent him back to Tsarist Russia, from where he reported on Russia’s development of Baku’s oil fields. He also reported on the progress of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and dipped down to Persia to report on oil developments there. Next, he was sent to the Far East, under cover of an employee of a trading company in Russian-controlled Port Arthur, Manchuria. There, Reilly not only spied for the British but also got a side gig as a double agent and spied for the Japanese, who were keenly interested in Port Arthur’s defenses.

Early in 1904, shortly before the Russo-Japanese War erupted, Reilly reportedly stole the Port Arthur harbor defense plans for the Japanese. That helped the Japanese Navy to navigate through minefields that protected the harbor and launch a surprise attack on the night of February 8^th – 9^th, 1904, against the Russian Far East Fleet. Although Japan eventually won the war, that initial attack did not go exactly as planned. Still – things could have gone worse for the Japanese Navy if not for Reilly.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.