Figure 1.-- |
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The major German spy achievement may have been before the War in encouraging Stalin's purge of the Red Amy. German intelligence during the War was nothing short of a disaster. The Soviets manage to surprise the Germans with a series of offensives beginning with offensive before Moscow. The Soviet offensive before Mosow was in fact the turning point of the War. The German failure to pick up on Soviet preprations was in part because of effective Soviet camafloge techniques. It also was both a failure of German intelligence and the mindset crated by Hitler in the Wehrmacht.
Information on almost all of the German offensives leaked out, although neith ther the Sovirts or the Allies took advantage of this. Of course the German intelligence operation was the fact that the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, was actively working against the NAZIS. The major surprise German operation of the War was the Ardennes offensive which Allied intelligence failed to pick up on (December 1944). While German intelligence was a general failure, the German were very sucessful in tracking down resistance cells trying to send information back to London or get down flyers back to England.
The major German spy achievement may have been before the War in encouraging Stalin's purge of the Red Amy.
The Abwehr was the Prussian Army's intelligence arm. It was created as war with Austria loomed (1866). Success in the Austro-Prussian War and the subsequent Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) resulted in expanding the organization. Wilhelm Stieber oversaw the Abwehr which collected vluable information on French defenses wand was seen as playing an important role in the Prussian/German victory. One outcome of the War was the unification of Germany around the Prussian state. Thus many Prussian insitutions became part of Imperial Germany. The Abwehr became the military intelligence organization of the new Imperial German military. The Abwehr collected valuable infirmation that proved useful when the Germany Army invaded Belgium. Walther Nicolai oversaw the modernization of the Abwehr to accomodate new technologies. The Abwehr ran inteligence and sabatoge operations in foreign countries, including the United States during the War. the Abwehr was forced to cease operation after World War I as part of terms of the Versailles Treaty (1919). The German military reactivated an ntelligence service (1921). The military inteligence operations included surveilance of political parties. And this included the NAZIs even after they became the governing party (1933). The NAZIs set up their own indeoendent intelligence service--Sicherheitsdienst (SD--Security Service). It was headed by SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. (A cashiered former naval officer.) Wilhelm Canaris was appointed to head the Abwehr, German military inteligence (1935). Thus he was the main German spy master during almost all of World war II. After being appointed to head the Abwehr, he negotiated with SD Director Heydrich over an agreed division of responsibilities. Both as World War II approsched trained and maintained their own intelligence forces. Canaris set about reorganizing the Abwehr into three separate branches: 1) espionage, 2) counter-espionage, and 3) sabotage. He appointed three respected Abwehr agents to head the three different branches. He insisted that they could not be NAZI Party members.
Each of the three principal German military services (Whermacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine) maintained their own intelligence staff to evaluate inteligence data and disseminate it to approproate commands. One staff officer in the Wehrmacht intelligence staff, Reinhard Gehlen. rose to considerable prominance. The data used by the service intelligemce units was obtained through both open soureces, photo reconisance, covert operations, and other sources. The service intelligence staffs did not, however, conduct secret intelligence activities. Here they worked with the Abwehr to provide the information they needed. Lisason staff briefed the Abwehr on what they needed. The Abwehr attempted to provide the information the services requested.
The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under Reinhard Heydrich became a rival inteligence agency to the Abwehr during the War. Organizationally, the SD was a branch of the Himmler's SS. The SD was founded as the security and intelligence service of the NAZI Party. The SD gradually grew in importance, especially in the hands of Reinhard Heydrich. Unlike the Abwehr, the operations of the SD were not limited to military intelligence. The SD came to be the ultimat intelligence organ of NAZI state and eventually at the end of the War, gained control over the Abwehr. With the outbreak of World War II, the Abwehr took on its final shape. The various German police agencies of the State (including the Gestapo) were combined to form the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Central Security Service of the Reich--RSHA.). Much of the RHSA had non-military functions. One section (Amt VI) was the SD. This unit began working in foreign intelligence, completely independent of the Abwwehr. There were a variety of non-military functions. It was the SD. for example, that would complile lists of anti-NAZIs to be arrested after the Wehrmacht occupied a country. This was done before the actual invasion. Individuals could be identified both through newspapers and NAZI sympthizers in the various countries. The SD began recruiting and placing agents abroad. The initial goal was political intelligence, but as the War continued and the SS grew in importance, the SD began to acquire economic and military intelligence. The SD by the end of the War had espionage networks in several countries. Two of the largest were Argentina and Spain.
Of course the German intelligence operation was the fact that the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, was actively working against the NAZIS. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was a World War I U-boat commander and war hero. He was appointed to head the Abwehr, German military inteligence (1935). He is one of the most mysterious figures of World War II. While a committed German patriot, he was horrified at SS attrocities in Poland that he personally witnessed. Other attrocities campe to his attention such as plans to kill importantPolishish officials and nobels as well as highly educated and cutures Poles to destroy the Polish inteligencia--the repository of national culture (Aktion AB). From that point he began to work to prevent a NAZI victory in the war. A great deal is known about his activities, but the full extent of his activities may never be known. He was extrodinarily effective, The NAZIs had no idea of his activities until the last months of the War. He was close to many top NAZIs like Goebbels who trusted him without reservation. Only after the Wehrmacht Bomb Plot (July 1944). Hitler had him hanged at Flossenburg Concentration Camp (April 9, 1945). Hitler had movies takrn so he could watch. The Americans liberated the Camp (April 23). German military intelligence during World War II was highly ineffective. It is unclear just what Role Admiral Canaris played in this.
The British SIS began the War with a massive failure--the Velmo incident. Velmo wa a Dutch town where the SIS much of the operation took place. The Netherlands was a neutral country. Abwehr agents posed as disident officers planning to depose Hitler. SIS agents met several times with the Awehr agents posing as conspirators. A German operation to abduct the SIS team had to be cancelled when Dutch police shoed up in Velno. Later when the Dutch police were not present, the Germans succeeded in abducting two SIS agents.
The best intelligence information on Germany came from Germans who were horrified at the NAZI regime and what it was during in Germany's name. One of the most valuable source of information was the so-called Oslo report which provided British MI-6b extremely valuable information on German scientific wapons research.
Reinhard Gehlen rose to the rank of Generalmajor in the Wehrmacht. He was extensively involved in Operation Barbarossa and because of his talents and expertise was promoted to be the senior intelligence officer with the German General Staff on the Russian front. He tus headed the German intelligence gathering on the Eastern Front. Given the monumental intelligence failures leading to Soviet victories, it is difficult to understand how Gehlen maintained his position. Gehlen was promoted to the rank of Major General and was ordered to collect unformation on the Soviet Union and its battlefield tactics as Head of "Foreign Forces—East" (Fremde Heere Ost) (DEcember 1944). By this time the War was lost for Germany and its militart forces rapidly being destroyed. The information heccollected, however, was to make him very valuable to the Allies. With the Allies crossing the Rhine and the Soviets moving toward Berlin, Gehlen and his cloest associates realized the War was lost. They microfilmed the the data collected bu the Fremde Heere Ost and packed them in watertight drums. They then buried the drums in several locations in the Austrian Alps (March 1945). The United States Army after the War recruited Gehlen to set up a spy ring against the Soviet Union. He organized the Gehlen Organisation Gehlen to resist Communism in Eastern Europe. He ran the West German Federal Intelligence Bureau (intelligence apparatus) until 1968. He is seen as one of the legendary Cold War spymasters.
The Soviets manage to surprise the Germans with a series of offensives beginning with offensive before Moscow. The Soviet offensive before Mosow was in fact the turning point of the War. The German failure to pick up on Soviet preprations was in part because of effective Soviet camafloge techniques. It also was both a failure of German intelligence and the mindset crated by Hitler in the Wehrmacht.
Information on almost all of the German offensives leaked out, although neither they the Soviets or the Allies took advantage of this. One that the Siviets did take advantage if was Kursk (1943). The major surprise German operation of the War was the Ardennes offensive which Allied intelligence failed to pick up on (December 1944).
While German intelligence was a general failure, the German were very sucessful in operarions against the escalating resistance. There was in many countries a general acceptance of the German occupiers. This began to change as the war shifted against the Germans and the nature of the NAZIs becme increasingly apparent. For many the turning point was the German conscription of civilians for war work in the Reich. Churchill early in the War greatly expanded the SIS's SOE. The initial plan was to set occupied Europe ablaze. This did not prove possible because of the urbanized environment and the fierce German reaction. The emphasis gradually shifted to intelligence gathering. The Germans were very effective in locating and arresting resistance cells. Even so the resistance managed to send a great deal of valuable information back to London. Another major effort was to prevent downed Allied flyers getting back to England.
Hitler correctly judged that after his appointment as Chancellor, that the Reichwehr was the only force in Germany that could prevent him from seizing absolute power. The Whermacht was also in 1944 the only force capable of taking control of Germany from the NAZIs. Some Wehrmacht officers were apauled with what was being done in the East in the name of the German people. The SS abd other security forces were preptrating terrible attrocities, but Wehrmacht officers were also involved. Others Whrmact officers were bothered about the Wehrmacht's conduct. Only the impending defeat of Germany, however, brought about an attempt to remove Hitler and the NAZIs (July 1944). An idealistic young Catholic aristocrat, Colonel Claus von Staufenberg, placed a bomb in the Wolf's Lair. After Hitler was dead, the Hpme Army would seize control of Berlin and then Germany. The idea was to then negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies. That by 1944 was unrealistic. In the end, the failure to kill Hitler and the extensive NAZi penetration of the Wehrmact led to the coup's failure. The bulk of the Wehrmacht remained loyal to Hitler and the NAZIs. The real loser was the German people. Most of the German civilian casualties took place after the failed coup. To form the Honor Court trying the conspirators, Hitler appointed Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt--a Prussian aristocrat who despised Hitler personally.
SS General Walter Schellenberg was brought into the SD by Reinhard Heydrich working in counter-intelligence operations. He became an aide to Himmler and a deputy director of the Main Reich Security Office (RSHA). He was involved in some of the more notable German intelligence operations such as the Venlo Incident. One of his assignments was to draw up a list of 2,300 prominent Britons opposed to the NAZIs to be arrested after the planned German invasion. He was appointed to head the SD after British agents shot Heydrich in Czechoslovakia. the head of the SD and acquired control over some of the Abwehr when it was transferred to the RSHA, essentially removed from OKW and incorporated within the SS (Spring 1944). After the July most of the rest of the Abwehr which had been made RSHA unit MilArt (July 1944). after the arrest of Admiral Canaris during the final months of the War, Schellenberg was thus Hitler's intelligence chief. [Doerries] He accompanied Heinrich Himmler while at the same time attempted to save his own life. He convinced Himmler to try to negotiate with the Allies. Schellenberg was part of the NAZI leadership, although despite being a ranking SS oficer, never was directly implicated in killing operations. He negotiated the freeing of 20,000 concentration camp inmates and transfer to Sweden custody through Count Bernadotte (1945). He was finally arrested by the British in Denmark (June 1945). At the NurembergTrials Schellenberg was a witness against the NAZIs. At the Ministries Trial he was given a 6-year sentence (1949). He wrote his memoirs (The Labyrinth) while incarcerated. He died in Italy (1952).
Doerries, Reinhard R. Hitler's Intelligence Chief: Walter Schellenberg (2008).
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