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Today in history… curious tale of frogman and the Soviets

12:00am | & Lifestyle

News of one of the most bizarre episodes in the Cold War between Soviet Russia and Western Europe was unfolding on May 9th, 1956.

At the centre of the mystery was a former Royal Navy diver, Commander Lionel “Buster” Crabb, who had apparently gone missing almost three weeks earlier and was now presumed dead. At the time of his disappearance the Admiralty issued a brief statement claiming the frogman was reported missing during a “test dive” off the Hampshire coast.

But now more sinister stories were emerging, linking the missing diver with the visit to Portsmouth harbour of a Soviet cruiser and suggesting he had in fact been on an unsanctioned underwater spying mission. The cruiser, one of the newest ships in the Soviet fleet, had brought Soviet leaders Nikolai Khrushchev and Marshal Nikolai Bulganin on a goodwill visit to Britain, arriving at Portsmouth Harbour on April 18th.

Meanwhile Commander Crabb (pictured) had booked into a Portsmouth hotel with another man, who signed in as Matthew Smith. During World War Two, Crabb was awarded the George Medal and given an OBE for his work removing limpet mines from the bottom of allied ships. He was a highly skilled diver, but struggled financially after leaving the Navy, making a living with occasional commercial diving work.

He was last seen leaving the Portsmouth Hotel on April 19th, the day after the Soviet cruiser tied up in the harbour and a full 10 days before the Admiralty issued its vague statement. Alarm bells began to ring when reporters spoke to Crabb’s friends who said he told them he was “going down to take a dekko at the Russian bottoms”, for which he would earn 60 guineas.

Intrigue deepened on May 4th when the Soviet Government filed a formal protest with the British Foreign Office claiming a frogman had been sighted close to their ship while it was in Portsmouth Harbour. Rumours soon surfaced that Crabb was on a secret spying mission for MI6 –­ the UK’s foreign intelligence agency – carried out without the knowledge of the UK Government or even its homeland intelligence agency, MI5.

The rumours gained strength when no trace could be found of the mysterious ‘Matthew Smith’, who had removed all of Crabb’s possessions and his own from the Portsmouth hotel and even ripped the page out of the guest book on which they had signed in. It was claimed he was Crabb’s MI6 handler, who fled when the diver failed to return from his covert mission.

Speculation was rife over exactly what Crabb was doing. Some claimed he was planting a mine or tracking device on the ship, though he was more likely gathering intelligence on its construction below the waterline, particularly its propellers. Whatever the case, he remained missing.

It was all highly embarrassing for the UK government, which stubbornly refused to reveal details of the story. In a House of Commons statement, Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden would only say that: “It would not be in the public interest to disclose the circumstances in which Commander Crabb is presumed to have met his death.”

In what was taken as a veiled apology to the Soviets, he added: “I think it is necessary in the special circumstances of this case to make it clear that what was done was done without the authority or knowledge of Her Majesty's ministers. Appropriate disciplinary steps are being taken.”

Speculation continued for months about what happened to Commander Crabb, some saying he had been captured and taken back to the Soviet Union, others that he had fallen prey to ‘anti-diver’ technology on the Soviet ship, or that he had been shot by a Soviet sniper from the deck and his body dumped at sea.

It was just under 14 months after his disappearance, on June 9th, 1957, that two fishermen brought up their net to find a body dressed in the tattered remains of a diving suit. It was missing its head and hands – not unusual for a body in the sea for so long – making it very difficult to identify, but a later inquest heard that scars on the body suggested it was that of Commander Crabb.

Ten years later a human skull was found partly buried in the seabed close to where the body was brought up. It too was impossible to identify, but tests suggested it was the same age as the body. Exactly what Commander Crabb was up to, and what fate befell him, may never be known. Or at least not until Government papers concerning the affair are officially declassified in 2057.

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