Missing diver found headless after MI6 spying mission during Soviet leader's UK visit

dailystar.co.uk:

James Bond film Thunderball.At the time British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden refused to reveal the details surrounding the disappearance of the naval diver during a goodwill visit by the Soviet leadership.Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was on board the ship for meetings with Sir Anthony Eden.But an international spying scandal blew up less than a week later when the Soviets protested to the British government about a frogman spotted near the Soviet ship Ordzhonikidze and its escorting destroyers during their visit.The diver who was brutally killed was identified as Commander Lionel "Buster" Crabb who was believed to have been on a secret spying mission for which permission hadn't been granted.Crabb, a Royal Navy Volunteer Reservist, had been awarded the George Medal for removing limpet mines from British warships during the Second World War and an OBE for mine clearance at Livorno in Italy.A colourful character who enjoyed a drink he was known to be short of money, and had told friends he was going to be paid 60 guineas "to take a dekko at the Russian bottoms".When he was officially reported missing by the Admiralty on April 29, 1956, it was claimed he had been testing secret underwater equipment a few miles down the coast from Portsmouth.The official statement said he had died following a test dive at Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth, on the Hampshire coast but it later was revealed that he was on spying mission for MI6 - unbeknown to the prime minister.

The statement by the Admiralty was an attempt to cover up the mission but when the Soviets claimed to have seen a frogman close to their Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze Sir Anthony Eden was forced to speak out.