WWII Espionage

[reetpleat]

Never mind that the biggest thing to thwart it was that the team-leader turned and sought out the FBI almost as soon as he came ashore...

That man, in spite of his being a damn (believe me, I'm working very hard to keep my language polite here) black-bagger, was a hero in my book.

You are correct, however, few seem to know the rest of the story. The man who came forward had grown up in America, and at the start of the war, found himself as a young man in Germany unable to return. He had lived atypical american life, working in an auto plant and enjoying american teendom. he wanted nothing better than to return to his former life.

In Germany, he was recruited by the government, and went along with it, with the intention of returning to the US and turning himself in, expecting to be allowed to return to his former life. or so he claimed. And all indications point to this being true.

I believe he was not the only one in the same boat. One interesting give away is that upon arriving in the US, the first thing several of them did is go to macy's and spend a lot of the money they had. Which explains something I noticed upon seeing pics years ago. They are wearing rather flashy clothes including spectators.

Shortly after arriving, he went to the authorities and turned himself in. There may have been two or more. Not sure.

Contrary to his expectations, the FBI was so embarrassed at not having caught them themselves, they quickly silenced him, refusing to allow him to testify in court, which would have shown their failure to detect the sabatours. In stead, they took the credit.

This is why they were tried under a tribunal instead of in open court. it went all the way to the supreme court. he was never allowed to testify in his own defense. In later years, one of the judges of the supreme court said that had it not been in war time and everyone caught up in fear, he would not have decided to allow the closed tribunal and regretted it all his life.

This American Life did an episode on it. It was topical because it was a precedent used by the then administration to justify their own trials outside the normal judiciary system. A dubious precident, upon close examination.

So, now you know the rest of the story. Quite fascination. And I finally got an explantion as to why sabatours wear spectator shoes and flashy suits.

 

[Jedburgh OSS]

Before Operation Pastorius there was the Duquesne Spy Ring involving 33 instead of 8. The four who came ashore in Florida promptly went...shopping for new suits, watches, fine dining, and entertainment. A mission's gotta have its priorities.

That link Story posted for They Came to Blow Up America reminds me of another cheesy title, I Bombed Pearl Harbor. Wouldn't mind catching both of these on TCM.

Several years ago there was a novel called The Ninth Man in which an assassin came ashore, unbeknownst to the other eight, whose target was FDR. Not bad for a rainy day or beach reading.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Operation Grief...

I think that was mentioned briefly here...heres and expansion of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif

There was a Battle of the Bulge event a few years back..some Germans dressed as GIs it was pretty cool I'll dig up some pics.

 

[Story]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/europe/24blunt.html?hpw

CAMBRIDGE, England — After keeping it sealed in a steel container for 25 years, the British Library made public on Thursday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.”

The memoir offers few new insights into the details of Blunt’s spying, about which he said little in public before he died in 1983. Its main interest, according to historians, lies in Blunt’s account of his recruitment by another Soviet spy, Guy Burgess, when both were at Cambridge University in the 1930s, and in his exposition of his motives and feelings, including his disillusionment with Marxism and the Soviet Union after World War II.

 

[Story]

During World War II, as the number of British airmen held hostage behind enemy lines escalated, the country's secret service enlisted an unlikely partner in the ongoing war effort: The board game Monopoly.

It was the perfect accomplice.

Included in the items the German army allowed humanitarian groups to distribute in care packages to imprisoned soldiers, the game was too innocent to raise suspicion. But it was the ideal size for a top-secret escape kit that could help spring British POWs from German war camps.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/mo...maps-free-pows/story?id=8605905&partner=yahoo

 

[cookie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/europe/24blunt.html?hpw

CAMBRIDGE, England — After keeping it sealed in a steel container for 25 years, the British Library made public on Thursday a 30,000-word memoir in which Anthony Blunt, one of Britain’s most renowned 20th-century art historians, described spying for the Soviet Union, beginning in the mid-1930s, as “the biggest mistake of my life.”

The memoir offers few new insights into the details of Blunt’s spying, about which he said little in public before he died in 1983. Its main interest, according to historians, lies in Blunt’s account of his recruitment by another Soviet spy, Guy Burgess, when both were at Cambridge University in the 1930s, and in his exposition of his motives and feelings, including his disillusionment with Marxism and the Soviet Union after World War II.

Christopher Andrew, a Cambridge historian specializing in intelligence matters, said the memoir reflected Blunt’s unwillingness to acknowledge the evil he had served in spying for Stalin. “The thing that he could never come to terms with afterwards was that, actually, he had entered the service of one of the most wicked men in Europe’s history,” Dr. Andrew told the BBC. “He simply describes it as a ‘mistake.’ ”

This from Britains's finest! The intelligentsia pre War...how many extra bodies and human tragedies?

 

[cookie]

The German Stealth Bomber

To think they developed this and no one did anything about it for 30 years! I watched a doco on the History Channel last night on the German Stealth Bomber.

Goering was working on the A Bomb to be available by 1946 and delivered to NYC and Britain via this aircraft!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_aircraft http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2009/06/nazi-designed-stealth-bomber.html http://www.examiner.com/x-14730-SF-...graphic-Channel-to-air-Hilters-Stealth-Bomber http://www.uhnd.com/bb/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=2&msgid=121246

 

[Diamondback]

Bear in mind, people like Blunt subscribe to the "can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" philosophy, along with the fact that because they're Important People, they could rationalize sacrificing 75% of the population to save their 25%. Because "From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs," and as the self-proclaimed Intellectual Elite they "need" more than some lousy prole.

As I've said before when making similar observations, this is not a political rant, this is a former Psych student discussing the psychology of POWER and those who lust for it.

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, Jack Northrop was designing Flying Wings at the same time as the Hortens--the XB-35 and YB-49 were "stealth aircraft" for their time, too. Google 'em, along with the N9M demonstrator and the XP-79 fighter...

 

[cookie]

Bear in mind, people like Blunt subscribe to the "can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" philosophy, along with the fact that because they're Important People, they could rationalize sacrificing 75% of the population to save their 25%. Because "From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs," and as the self-proclaimed Intellectual Elite they "need" more than some lousy prole.

As I've said before when making similar observations, this is not a political rant, this is a former Psych student discussing the psychology of POWER and those who lust for it.

That is statement of fact not a politcal statement DB. The death of countless millions was caused by their actions and their aim was a Godless society where the elite would supervise the prols ....for the own good of course .

 

[Story]

Liberator pistol, iconic OSS weapon

More vintage, not mine - $600, with the firing pin hole undrilled and the manufacturer recommending that you NOT shoot it.
http://vintageordnance.com/

 

[DutchIndo]

The scary thing about the "Liberator" was it was in .45 ACP. not 9mm. Imagine the recoil and the palm size. I know it was for extreme emergency but still. Spare rounds in the butt and a wooden dowel "extractor" what a piece. Talk about "Saturday Night Special".

 

[up196]

The Liberator Pistol

As I understand it, the idea was to use it once, and then use whatever the guy you used it on was carrying.

 

[Story]

As I understand it, the idea was to use it once, and then use whatever the guy you used it on was carrying.

"Lethal Q-tip"

 

[Story]

Probably based on Lessons Learned from WWII.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20091128/882/twl-cia-s-magical-cold-war-spy-tips-reve.html

London, Nov 28 (ANI): If you have ever wanted to learn how to hide objects up your sleeve and communicate with colleagues by tying shoelaces in a special way, then you are in luck - for a Cold War-era CIA manual guiding agents in the arts of deception and stage-style trickery is headed for book shelves.

Written in 1953 by a well-known performer called John Mulholland, the Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception included tips for hiding small objects, handing off documents and spiking food and drinks with "knockout" drops.

/ Applicable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SutQhOXEY

 

[Story]

B-24 pilot shot down in Loire Valley, nearly takes out the Mona Lisa, joins Resistance and finally is given France's Legion of Honor.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/BA9F1BB67K.DTL

 

[Story]

Luger pistol linked to the Danish Resistance group "Lightflash".
http://www.nordisk-forum.dk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15027

 

[Story]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7025406.ece

MI6 obtained vital secrets from a spy operating at the very heart of Hitler’s high command during the most crucial years of the war, newly discovered intelligence documents have revealed.

The secret agent, code-named “Knopf”, furnished the intelligence service with information on Hitler’s plans in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front, the health of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and even the location of the “Wolf’s Lair” — the Führer’s headquarters in Eastern Prussia.

Historians have tended to play down the wartime role of MI6 — in comparison with the crucial importance of the messages decoded at Bletchley Park — but the discovery of Agent Knopf by the Cambridge historian Paul Winter shows that Britain obtained accurate and highly valuable intelligence from a network of agents in the upper ranks of the Third Reich.

 

[Story]

MI5 monitored Hitler Youth cyling tours 1937, say declassified files
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7053139.ece

MI5 never established whether this article actually appeared in the cycling journal or was merely anti-fascist propaganda, but it made notes about the cyclists in exhaustive detail. Metropolitan Police officers followed them in London, while bobbies in Denbighshire observed that the Hitler Youth swapped hats with local scout groups in Colwyn Bay.

The cycling itineraries of the Hitler Youth were collected and may seem suspicious. Highlights of their tours included such beauty spots as steelworks in Sheffield and gasworks in Glasgow. The file also includes information on the suspects’ visit to Spalding Rotary club, above, where they enjoyed a “sausage and mashed potato supper”.

 

[Story]

Because of the loyalty she commanded among the Nagas, in August 1942 the head of V Force asked Ursula (Graham Bower) to form her local Nagas into a band of scouts to comb the jungle for the Japanese.

She became the only female guerilla commander in the history of the British Army, leading 150 Nagas armed only with ancient muzzle-loading guns across some 800 square miles of mountainous jungle.

Her story is one of the most extraordinary of World War II. But like that of so many of the brave veterans of the war in the east, her heroism has faded from the pages of history.

Now a new book by renowned BBC correspondent Fergal Keane reveals her incredible tale and tells of the campaign in which she paid a crucial role: the Japanese offensive into India, and the savage battle of Kohima on which the fate of two empires turned.

Ursula's appointment was supposed to be only temporary. She was a civilian with no military training, and a woman at that. As soon as a suitable officer could be found, she would be relieved of the post.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...auty-saved-Empire-Japanese.html#ixzz0oPiLNRQ9