Klatt - German agent

[steve248]

The "Klatt Affair" remains one of the still not fully explained German source of Russian military information. Richard Klatt alias Richard Kauder acquired Russian material by radio from a range of different source inside the USSR. The end product going to the Abwehr and RSHA VI.

Bletchley Park was intercepting and deciphering a good deal of this material transmitted to Klatt. Russian Intelligence was apparently warned by Philby and probably other Soviet agents in the UK that the "German had a widespread agent organization inside the USSR". Did their sources also share the view of the British Analysis Branch that the "widespread agent organization" was in fact a vast Soviet disinformation program to deceive the Germans?

An answer may be given in a new book on the subject, published in German and probably unlikely to be translated into English - see this amazon link:

http://www.amazon.de/Klatt-Hitlers-j%C3 ... 872&sr=1-1

With 1287 pages it looks a bargain - 49.90 Euros = about 35 English pounds = about 53 US dollars - plus p&p.

If you examine book cover illustration closely, the document behind the photo image is a typical document from Bletchley Park showing the "Most Secret" in red at the top of the document. The typescript showing how the decoded messages (in German mostly) are typical documents in use. Be interesting when my copy arrives to establish whether the author used material from UK National Archives where all this material can now be examined, or whether they are copies handed over by Philby to his Soviet handler from FSB archives..

[paspartoo]

Some additional information:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/rele ... _klatt.htm

http://chris-intel-corner.blogspot.gr/2 ... oviet.html

[firefox0085]

USA National Archives: "The Dienststelle Klatt"

"Two theories have developed as to the source of these reports. One, supported by these files, holds that the intelligence supplied to the Klatt network was disinformation run by the Soviets through penetration of White Russian circles which supplied information to the Klatt network. An alternative view, drawing on the value that the Germans placed on the sources and the cost in human terms to the Soviets of the information gathered by the Abwehr through the Klatt network, asserts that Kauder and his associates in the Klatt network concocted the intelligence for financial gain (see for example Nigel West et al, The Crown Jewels, Yale University Press 1999)."

http://tinyurl.com/o8ugqp4

I personally believe that this is of course USSR dis-information. They had to give some real info., that would cause even heavy losses, to give the Klatt Bureau great bona fides...

[firefox0085]

Sorry, that was the UK, not USA, Archives and they have already been posted.

My understanding is that the Luftwaffe gave the greatest credence to Kauder/Klatt's information.