"Operation Atlas": Jericho, Palestine 1944

[Von Schadewald]

From a review of "Nazis in the Holy Land 1933-1948":

"On the eve of the German assault on Poland, August 31, 1939, German vice-consul Otto von Ernst Ecker ordered all Germans in Palestine of draft age to report to Germany. The same night, the Greek steamer Paris sailed from Haifa with 322 draftees and 88 family members on board. The men were subsequently trained in the Brandenburg Training Regiment for Special Tasks, a private army of Abwehr military intelligence. They took part in several joint German-Arab parachute actions in 1943 and 1944, in order to smuggle weapons into Palestine as well as to incite and recruit Arabs against Jews.

In Operation Atlas, one such five-man commando landed at Jericho on October 6, 1944 It consisted of three well armed Germans and two Arabs selected by former mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. Their commander was Col. Kurt Wieland, a Palestine-born German from Sarona. All five were caught and interned by the Mandatory Police."

Any details about Operation Atlas & what it hoped to achieve to late in the war?

How did the German agents reach Jericho?

[Bokkop]

The description of the MI5 material at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/docu ... ly2001.pdf suggests they were dropped by a B-17 that was part of KG100.

Some further detail in the contemperaneous newspaper clipping at http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/7650 ... ut04pb.jpg