Cargo of Lies: The True Story of a Nazi Double Agent in Canada

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

Paranoia on the home front during World War II stemmed partly from the
fear of enemy infiltration. Reports of German submarines off the
Atlantic coast and in the St. Lawrence were taken more seriously
following the sinking of Allied ships close to shore. Some accounts even
referred to Nazi agents landing from submarines. But were any of these
rumors true?

While wartime censorship prevented contemporary press reporting, some
allusions to spies and spying eluded the censor’s grasp. Many official
sources are still unavailable (despite the Freedom of Information Act),
but journalist-turned-historian Dean Beeby has nevertheless managed to
compile a very plausible account of two German agents who entered Canada
for the purpose of espionage.

The book focuses on Werner Janowski, who came ashore on November 9,
1942, near New Carlisle, Quebec. Transported from Europe by U–518,
Janowski was supplied with Canadian currency and a radio transmitter (he
was familiar with Canada, having lived here in the early 1930s). He was
detected and arrested within 24 hours of arrival. Using a variety of
sources, Beeby patches together the story of this Nazi agent, who was
apparently used by the Canadian authorities to supply false information
to Germany in what was code-named “Operation Watchdog.” Whether this
“double agent” tipped off his Nazi handlers is still a matter of
speculation, but Beeby certainly alleges official bungling. His book
also recounts the story of Nazi agent Alfred Langbein, who spent more
than two years living quietly in Montreal and Ottawa before turning
himself in to Naval Intelligence, apparently without attempting to
perform his espionage duties.

Beeby is highly critical of RCMP leadership in the spy game, claiming
that it was badly outmatched by both the German Abwehr and the British
MI5. With its journalistic prose, Cargo of Lies reads more like a spy
novel than like a historical work, which should please readers of
popular history. As a historian, Beeby does not make bold assertions or
jump to quick conclusions; instead, he uses a reasoned narrative to
explore this hitherto little-examined area in Canadian history.