Ostmann wrote:Hello all!
Little more official information about photo "00-02".
The soviet "high awarded" officer on this photo is former commander of a infantry platoon of Red Army lieutenant Tavrin (Schilo) Peter. In May, 1942 he has voluntary surrendered in a captivity and has come over to the german side (high awards on photo certainly not his! - it for masking).
He has agreed to co-operate with SD and has been directed in "Zeppelin-Nord" in Pleskau and Riga.
His major task - organization of attempt to Stalin.
The plan of attempt for Stalin was developed in 1943 personally by Gräfe Heinz SS-Staf. and with direct participation of Skorzeny Otto SS-Staf.
Two variants of attempt at Stalin were provided. The first - to shoot at its car the special device which Germans named "panzer-knacke". It was the short steel tube which was easy for hiding under a sleeve of an overcoat. The tube was attached by belts to a hand, and in a pocket the device of push-button inclusion disappeared. In a tube the 30-mm shell of cumulative action was located. It was capable to punch the 45-mm armor on distance in 300 metres. Was to raise a hand in a direction to the car enough and to press other hand the button in a pocket as the device silently worked.
As a spare variant it has been made powerful explosive magnetic mine of the big capacity with a remote detonator, built in a small portfolio. Tavrin appearances of people which will help it to get the invitation ticket on ceremonial meeting on 06.11.44 in Moscow have been given. There it should leave imperceptibly a portfolio and blow up it on a radio signal after itself will leave a session hall.
Tavrin Peter and its accomplice Shilova after a transfer in the USSR 05.09.44 (on Arado-332) have been quickly arrested by NKVD, and attempt plans have failed.
Andrey.
P.S. I dont know who is this SS-Ustuf...
Hi Andrey
Robert W. Stephan's Stalin's Secret war: Soviet Counterintelligence Efforts against the Nazis mentioned about Lieutenant Tavrin. Apparently he was a double agent working on behalf for NKVD. The photo 00-02 was also published in the same book. During the landing of Tavrin and Shilova, apparently they were betrayed (the KG 200 crew, some of the managed to made it back to German lines) but it seems that the author does not elaborate much on how Tavrin and Shilova managed to escape and made it to Moscow. They were captured by attentive guards who noticed their uniforms were dry and clean when it was rainning day and Tavrin wore his Order of the Red Banner in the wrong style in his uniform!
In fact, even when the Tavrin and Shilova was in training for Unternehmen Zeppelin, the plan was already betrayed to the NKVD.
Check out Biddiscombe's work "Unternehmen Zeppelin: Deployment of SS Saboteurs and Spies in the Soviet Union 1942-45" as well as Pavel Sudoplatov's Special Tasks
Panzermahn