UK in astrology plot against Hitler

Secret files released by the National Archives show how intelligence chiefs were hoodwinked into recruiting a bogus Hungarian nobleman to study the Nazi leader's horoscope in the hope of penetrating his military plans.

Despite warnings from the Security Service, MI5, that Louis de Wohl was a "charlatan", he managed to persuade senior figures in the intelligence world that he could replicate the forecasts of Hitler's own personal astrologer.

De Wohl claimed that as Hitler relied heavily on the predictions of the Swiss stargazer Karl Ernest Krafft, they could gain a unique insight into his thinking if they knew the astrological advice he was receiving.

The plan appealed to some leading figures, including the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral John Godfrey, who found Hitler's erratic strategic moves hard to fathom. The scheme was, however, fatally flawed as historians now say that Hitler took no notice at all of astrological forecasts.

Among the cast list of chancers, daredevils and conmen who passed through the ranks of wartime British intelligence, de Wohl was among the most exotic.

A minor author of astrological books, he arrived in Britain from Germany - where he went by the name of Ludwig von Wohl - in the mid-1930s and soon came to the attention of the authorities.

Despite rubbishing his claims to be the son of Hungarian nobility, MI5 hoped he could feed them information about his clients among the "great and the good".

The Special Operations Executive - the wartime sabotage organisation - had, however, more ambitious plans. It recruited de Wohl for its SO2 propaganda section, giving him the rank of captain and an Army uniform in which he loved to "strut" around London.

"He is an exceedingly vain man, with all the German's love of uniform and rank," MI5 noted contemptuously.