British Intelligence In Wwii

Gentlemen,
Do remember Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, a German officer of the old breed, who was the head of Abwehr and a notorious Anti-Nazi and who co-operated with British Intelligence as to the point of actually giving them Information regarding German Agents in England and other German Military Operations.
Dismissed from his position in February 1944 and excecuted by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration on the 9th of April 1945. May he never be forgotten.

 

Been reading this post and thought i would become James bond, Found this Dusko Popov, WWII double agent TRICYCLE (KV 2/845-866, see also double agent Ivan Popov, KV 2/867-870) . The above was taken from this site.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/may2002.pdf
Enjoy.

 

Perhaps the fact that the CIA had its foundations in co-operation with both SIS and SOE during WWII is neglected - the British passed expertise and training on to the OSS during WWII, as did many of the European Intelligence Services operating from UK while their countries were occupied - this probably reduced tensions on certain matters in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The Abwehr and SD were both good at counter-espionage in occupied Europe and many missions that would have been a success were betrayed by the Allied access to Ultra.

Many of the side-show operations in special / int operations during WWII have only recently been released and not much written to date - examples are South & Central American Operations, Ops in sub-Saharan Africa as well as in the Middle East.

I run a 'closed' forum on SOE anyone need an invite to join PM me with an email address an invite can be sent to.

Steven

 

The reason I posted the question here is that the Brits were the kings of intelligence and counterintelligence as far as I am concerned. .....but the Brits had this cleverness and cunning to them that's undeniable. It was almost like a sport to the Brits. .....


Well, I am no expert historian, but as far as british intelligence (or any "intelligence" of any nation) is concerned , they made absolutely horrendous blunders.

The England Spiel (oh yes, a 'game'..but at the expense of good dutch agents... at the basis a distrust between SOE and MI5,6 and overall no coordination) is notorious:
Englandspiel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
here a bit more on british incompetence before the war in Holland:
Bob de Graaff: The Venlo Incident

And how did Anthony Blunt get into british intelligence ?


If there are feats of brilliance at certain moments with certain agents, then that 's wonderful, but that should not blind you for the countless and deadly blunders by many others before and after.


So, please tone down the admiration.


Intelligence then, is not unlike today: thousands of civil servants doing their work and still incompetence is rife (CIA being the best , but still 9-11 ?).


((out of respect for the sacrificed dutch agents))

 

Gentlemen,
Do remember Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, a German officer of the old breed, who was the head of Abwehr and a notorious Anti-Nazi and who co-operated with British Intelligence as to the point of actually giving them Information regarding German Agents in England and other German Military Operations.
Dismissed from his position in February 1944 and excecuted by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration on the 9th of April 1945. May he never be forgotten.

There is a book about Canaris which my brother has
Admiraal Wilhelm Canaris - Heinz Höhne - €7.50 : Meerboeken!, Voor wie meer boeken zoekt.

admiral wilhelm canaris
heinz höhne
amsterdam boek 1978

in which it is said Wilhelm (pseudonym Raed Rosas) killed a priest (in Genua /Italy during ww1 period) who was called to his cel. Took his garment and fled.
How "good" of an agent are you to kill an innocent priest ?
(and that is pre-james bond times...).
<<though in the book it is speculative... but given a jailed spy in wartime ..how likely is he to be not executed ?..so the urgency to escape by any means was there>>



Again, realise there is no such thing as a perfectly good nazi, good agent, good President (JFK:frown: ) etc. Dig deep and long enough, and be amazed how people are not what they appear to be....:exactly:

 

And,there has never been any proof that he cooperated with the British:this is only an Indian tale .OTOH,there are a lot of proofs that he cooperated with the SIPO/SD
BTW:the efficiency of the Abwehr left a lot to be desired

 

Canaris and Oster never made contact with British Intelligence.

After the duping of British Intelligence at Venlo by intermediaries supposedly representing anti Hitler Wehrmacht generals,the British came to the conclusion that there was no organised opposition to Hitler.It transpired that the masquerade was managed by the SD under Schellenberg, at the time a subordinate of Himmler's as Deputy in the Amt V1 of the Reich Central Security Office.

Despite repeated attempts to contact the British through the offices of the Vatican,their intermediaries who were influential public figures, devoid of the taint of Nazism, were rebuffed on every occasion.

By the spring of 1944,the Abwehr had been marginised by the SD and after the arrest of Canaris following the July bomb plot the Abwehr was absorbed into the SD.

 

SIS maintained contact with the July '44 plotters for a number of years before the attempted coup. One of the main contacts was Dr Otto John, a lawyer working for Lufthansa and nominally working for the Abwehr. His Lufthansa post allowed him frequent trips to Spain where he made contact with SIS and the US State Department.

Following the failed bomb plot, John was brought to Britain. Post-war he was the first head of the West German domestic intelligence service until taking, or being forced to take, a brief sarong into East Berlin and Moscow. Later convicted of treason by West Germany.

However, various former SD and Abwehr staff found post-war employment in the new West German foreign intelligence service, formed by ex-SS intelligence officer named Gehlen. The man behind Englandspiel, Giskes, was also employed in Gehlen's organisation. Funny old world isn't it?!

 

A good read is "Most secret war" by RV Jones, all about the electronic war.

Some very good anecdotes. My favourite is where a British radar station (Malta?) reports to Jones that the Germans are successfully jamming it, and asks what to do. Jones thinks about it, then tells them to carry on transmitting as if nothing was wrong, on the basis that "the Germans will come to the conclusion that the jamming isn't working". As predicted, the Germans switched off their jammer. Shortly after the war, Jones met his German opposite number at a scientific conference. The German scientist said that the secret British anti-jamming technology had had them all baffled, and could Jones please explain it....

 

However, various former SD and Abwehr staff found post-war employment in the new West German foreign intelligence service, formed by ex-SS intelligence officer named Gehlen. The man behind Englandspiel, Giskes, was also employed in Gehlen's organisation. Funny old world isn't it?![/QUOTE]

Allen Dulles,head of the OSS in Switzerland had his own agenda looking forward to the postwar balance of power in Europe when the two Western Allies would be in competition to recruit those in German Intelligence at Germany's defeat.His contacts with "the Breakers" from January 1944, as he coded them wanted that bit much more....no different from the the SS types who thought they could capitulate to the Western Powers and be allowed to remain in conflict with the Russians...of course for the good of Europe as both factions insisted.

Dulles was walking on a tight rope and his activities were clandestine as far as British Intelligence was concerned.

As far as British Intelligence was concerned,Claude Dansey's approach prevailed in the circles of war policy making and Whitehall chose to ignore the hints and reports of anti Hitler intrigues that arose during the second half of 1943.

Running in parallel with this intrigue was Schellenberg's close contacts with Swiss iIntelligence and ultimately, through intermediaries,with Dulles.Wolf was the other SS personality who knew that Hitler's Germany would fall and set contact with Dulles although late in the game from the new year of 1945.

Often wondered why Schellenberg and Wolf got off so light in the postwar trials.perhaps because of their cooperation with Dulles. Schellenberg was said to have given Switzerland good service during the war...interesting facts emerge of him protecting German interests in Switzerland and rewarding Switzerland with the latest German fighters to keep them sweet.