"The spy system which was to make Rotterdam the biggest international spy centre in the world had begun." —James Dunn (MI5), 1914
After World War I broke out, the port city of Rotterdam in particular became a prolific breeding ground for secret agents and spies. The neutrality of the Netherlands, its geographical position in between the most powerful warring nations, and its proximity to the Western Front meant that British and German secret services both chose Holland as their main base for spying operations on each other. On neutral Dutch ground, newly established intelligence services learned the spy trade.Spynest tells the story of the secret agents involved, their Dutch hirelings, and the spies they recruited and sacrificed between August 1914 and November 1918.
