The Evolution of the Mythical British Fifth Column, 1939-46

Abstract

The recent declassification of sanitized files relating to national security during the Second World War has provided important material relating to the influence of the security service (MI5), its relationship to other departments of state, and on political surveillance in Britain. The Second World War and the fifth column' scare of spring 1940 led to the enhancement of its role after internal reorganization, following the near collapse of MI5 during the crisis; the supposed existence of the fifth column became a means by which MI5 came to justify its existence, growth, and importance. However, internment of aliens and fascists, and the proscription of the British Union of Fascists in July 1940 destroyed the non-existent threat of a Nazi-manipulated British fifth column. Political surveillance of other groups who opposed the war, most notably Jehovah's Witnesses and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), provided the new justification for vigilance. Even after the CPGB adopted super-patriotism after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, MI5's simplistic interpretation of its revolutionary defeatism' remained unaltered. The deterioration in relations between the victorious allies and the coming of the Cold War enabled MI5 to justify its importance and to avoid the severity of the cuts that had threatened its existence after the First World War. The myth of the fifth column was an important factor which raised the profile of the Security Service in peace, as well as in war.