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Oxlund’s intelligence had been accurate, Denmark’s King Christian decided to spare his forces from inevitable slaughter by ordering no resistance to the invasion. Even so, life would never be the same again for either man. Their stubborn and increasingly complicated struggle against the occupation was only just beginning.
    In the aftermath of the invasion Oxlund left the army to go into business, a move which made him the best possible courier for Sneum’s precious intelligence. As a genuine businessman, he had a perfect excuse to travel; and as a former military man he had the nerve to carry incriminating evidence without arousing suspicion. Tommy therefore compiled a preliminary report to go with his sketches of the Fanoe installation, put them into a dossier and gave it to Kaj, who took a ferry across the Oeresund to Sweden and posted a thick envelope to the British Legation in Stockholm. It contained the first news from Denmark of the early-warning technology that would soon be known as ‘radar.’
    In case the British required more detail, Tommy intended to pay them a visit in person before long. Through autumn and midwinter, however, increased patrols and thick ice frustrated his efforts to escape the Nazi occupation of Denmark by boat. His disappointment was shared by two friends who were equally desperate to reach Britain, Kjeld Pedersen and Christian Michael Rottboell. Taller and better looking, Pedersen had been Tommy’s best friend in the Danish Navy’s Fleet Air Arm before the occupation grounded both men. ‘We trusted each other completely,’ Sneum would later say. And by late 1940 they shared a new dream—to fly aerial combat missions for Britain’s Royal Air Force. Meanwhile, Rottboell, a confident young aristocrat, was an aircraft mechanic and staunch supporter of the resistance. He was determined to reach England so that he could fight the Nazis, and his family had noticed a change in his demeanour whenever they were together in their magnificent castle at Boerglum Cloisters. Suspecting his intentions and realizing there was little he could do to stop him, Rottboell’s father confronted Sneum when he visited one day. ‘Look, I know what you are getting my son into,’ he said. Before Tommy could answer, Mr Rottboell added, ‘Just promise to keep an eye on Christian Michael for me as best you can.’ Tommy looked the older man in the eye and said that he would. Now, though, it appeared that Rottboell’s father had no immediate reason to worry, because they seemed to be going nowhere.
    In early 1941, however, Tommy Sneum became obsessed with a novel plan which, if executed successfully, would allow him to write his name in history.

Chapter 3
     

HIMMLER AND THE LONGBOW
    T HE FOCAL POINT for Tommy’s new assault on the Nazis was no longer the daunting installation on Fanoe but a swanky hotel in the center of the Danish capital. And his ambitious—some would say crazy—assassination plot was linked to his enduring love for a woman who fascinated him like no other. Talking about the origins of his plan, he explained:
    I had an ex-girlfriend called Oda Pasborg, a beautiful blonde who had starred in a film called En Fuldendt Gentleman — The Complete Gentleman . Her father had given her a penthouse apartment on one of the approaches to the Hotel d’Angleterre, where all the top German officers used to stay. I was still close to Oda and I had keys for the apartment. It started me thinking.
    One day in 1940, I had been visiting Oda when I found myself down on the street just a few meters from a German staff car. Inside was an officer and I felt the urge to shoot him, but I wasn’t carrying a pistol, because I had been to see Oda and she didn’t like anything to do with the war. Afterwards I realized that I could, in theory at least, have killed the German officer from Oda’s apartment window, as he went past.
     
    But why aim only for a lowly army officer? Tommy began to dream of assassinating