The Crabb Affair: The Missing Frogman

In 1956, the Cold War was in its first phase - the USSR had successfully tested a series of nuclear weapons, the berlin blockade of 1948-49 sowed distrust and hostility on both sides, and the death of Stalin only three earlier had caused confusion and chaos in diplomatic relations between the West and the USSR. In this atmosphere, a World War 2 Royal Navy veteran and professional scuba diver employed by MI6, Lionel Crabb, disappeared off the coast of England, leaving behind more questions than answers and a riveting cold war mystery to this day.

Lionel “Buster” Crabb, born in 1909 London, started serving at sea at a young age, holding several positions with the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy Reserve in the years prior to World War 2. With the outbreak of war, he transitioned to active duty in the Royal Navy, originally disarming Axis mines removed by British divers, or “frogmen.” After some time in this role, he learned to dive and joined a team of underwater mine clearers in Gibraltar. These divers were focused on counteracting mines, manned torpedoes, and diver attacks by the Italians. In 1942, two Italian frogmen were killed by the British and their Italian made equipment was taken and then used by Crabb (this will feature later). Later in the war, he served in Italy where he worked to remove mines in various Italian ports, and investigated the mysterious death of a Polish general whose aircraft crashed into the water. In the years following the war, he served in Palestine where he removed mines from several harbors, eventually leaving the navy in 1947, becoming a civilian wreck diver. In his capacity as a wreck diver, he dove on various sites including a Spanish galleon from the famous 1588 Armada before returning to the Navy to dive on Royal Navy submarine wrecks to search for any signs of life, finding none in both cases and in 1955 was retired from the navy due to his age and health. Crabb had been a lifelong smoker and heavy drinker and by this time, both habits began to affect his health. He was recruited by MI6 to conduct secret dives focusing on examining and investigating Soviet ships after his retirement.

In 1956, the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze arrived in Britain carrying Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. This ship intrigued the British who wanted to know more about the design and capabilities of the Soviet Navy’s vessels. MI6 deployed Crabb on 19 April to dive in Portsmouth Harbour and investigate the propeller of Ordzhonikidze, and this is the last anyone ever saw of Lionel Crabb. The British immediately covered up the vanishing of Crabb, releasing a statement that Crabb had gone missing and presumed dead after testing some new diving equipment. The Soviets cried foul, stating that their sailors reported seeing a diver by the cruiser on 19 April. The British sent a message to the Soviets elaborating that his testing of this equipment in Portsmouth Harbour was unauthorized, sticking to their public story. This cover up and scandal became known as the “Crabb Affair.” Prime Minister Anthony Eden was outraged at MI6, as he never authorized the mission on British domestic soil, which is usually reserved for MI5.

A body missing its head and hands, was recovered in June 1957. The body has never been positively identified as its decomposition (along with missing hands and head) due to the amount of time spent in the water, makes it difficult to ID even for those close to Crabb. The corpse, reported to be the same height as Crabb, and supposedly wearing an Italian Pirelli diving suit along with Royal Navy fins, was examined by Crabb’s wartime friend and later diving partner, along with his ex-wife, and girlfriend. All three failed to positively identify the corpse as Crabb. There are numerous theories we will explore on what happened to Crabb using declassified materials and statements from various Soviet sources.

The first theory is that Crabb’s smoking and drinking habits made him unfit for the mission and he died from either health issues exacerbated by the diving, or that he had catastrophic equipment failure, resulting in death by oxygen starvation or carbon dioxide poisoning. It is reported that Crabb died on his second dive near the ship, as he had to surface from his first dive due to equipment problems, lending some credence to this theory. This view is held by several diving experts and Crabb’s MI6 handler, Nicholas Elliot (side note: Elliot is famously tied to Kim Philby of the Cambridge Five).

The next explanation for Crabb’s disappearance we will explore is a combination of multiple theories involving the Soviets. There are various explanations given by former Soviet personnel that attempt to explain the vanishing of Crabb, the first of which states that he died under interrogation after capture. According to a former British double agent that spied for the Soviets, Crabb was captured by underwater sentries stationed to prevent the British from getting close to the cruiser, knocking Crabb unconscious after an underwater physical altercation. He was dragged onboard to receive medical treatment where he passed out again, eventually recovering enough to be interrogated. During this interrogation, he passed out a third time and died. The Soviets feared the diplomatic repercussions so they released his body in the water in way that it would be loose once the Soviet cruiser began to leave the harbour but it became tangled underwater, preventing its recovery until the next year. A former Soviet diver put forward another theory in 2007, stating that Crabb had been intercepted underwater by him and his oxygen line was cut in an altercation, leading to his death. A third Soviet theory put forward in the 90’s by a former Naval Intelligence Officer, states that Crabb was seen from the cruiser and shot by Soviet snipers.

Our last theory (and most far-fetched) is that Crabb survived his mission and either defected to the Soviets or was captured and “brainwashed.” This theory has several aspects to it, such as Crabb living under an assumed Russian name to train the Soviet’s frogmen, that he was held as a prisoner for years in a Soviet gulag before being brainwashed to train divers, or that he defected voluntarily and lived out his days in Russia.

Here at Seeking History, we believe that the most likely scenarios explaining Crabb’s vanishing is equipment or health failure during the dive. The former Soviets have a history of making claims regarding Cold War actions that don’t always line up with the historical evidence. While Lionel Crabb’s unfortunate disappearance in the early years of the Cold War is still a mystery and little closure to this case can be found, it’s a fascinating tale of Cold War espionage nonetheless. Documents related to the Crabb Affair will not released by the UK until 2056.