Photograph of Gösta Caroli, parachuted as a German spy into Northamptonshire in 1940
On 6 September 1940 in Old Barn Close, Elms Farm, Denton, on the Castle Ashby Estate, farmhand Paddy Daly spotted a strange man with a briefcase lying in a ditch.
Daly informed the farmer, Cliff Beechner who was a member of the Home Guard. He escorted the man to the farmhouse and telephoned the police. Superintendent Norris and Inspector Frost attended the scene and the man was arrested and taken to Angel Lane Police Station in Northampton.
The suspicious character was Swedish National and Nazi sympathiser, Gösta Caroli. A spy! His mission was to radio transmissions to Hamburg about bomb damage to airfields in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Birmingham.
Caroli had parachuted in the previous night but was knocked unconscious on landing. Among his possessions were the radio transmitter, £200, maps, chocolate, cigarettes and a loaded pistol. Caroli was taken under armed guard the next day to Cannon Row Police Station, London for interrogation by MI5.
To evade the death sentence, Caroli became a double agent code name: SUMMER. He was enrolled in the MI5 (XX) Double Cross System, transmitting false information to Germany.
Number 85 of the objects selected for the A History of Northamptonshire in 100 Objects exhibition 2025.
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