#4
Post
by Gundogger » 25 Feb 2014, 00:58
DAILY MAIL 24th FEBRUARY 1947
ANGLO- U S SWOOP ON NAZI GERMAN PLAN TO PLANT PLAGUE MEN IN BRITAIN, HUNDREDS ARRESTED.
From BRIAN CONNELL Daily mail Special Correspondent HAMBURG. Sunday.
BRITISH and U.S. Intelligence agents today rounded up hundreds of members of a secret Nazi ring led by former S.S. high-ups who had plotted to blackmail Britain by threatening to attack her great cities with plague and anthrax germs. The main object of the organisation was to restore Hitlerism in Germany. It’s leaders wanted to force Britain to adopt an anti-Russian policy and get up a Western bloc against the Soviet Union. They threatened that if their demands were refused they would send agents to Britain with " a devastating new weapon." The centre of the ring was in the British zone. But it’s agents had been spreading for months in the U.S., French, and Russian Zones. Ringleader Hans Georg Eismann (alias Colonel Knuth),a former officer Hitler’s Bacteriological Warfare Department. was already behind barbed wire when todays’ swoop on the smaller fry began. The arrests were carried out under the code name of “Operation Selection Board”. Before dawn today an army of Intelligence men went Into action under cover of a blizzard raging in both the British and US. zones. Troops sealed of the snow blanketed streets. Then the house:to house swoop began. Suspects were awakened, told to dress, then bundled of to prison camps in lorries. In a few hours every known Nazi was under Allied “protection”. The gang was watched for months. Then a trap was laid for Eismann and his right-hand man. Karl Rosenberg. who once worked with General von Schleicher, one of Hitler's 1934 purge victims The British authorities thought it time to act after the plotters had approached leading German politicians for support. They arranged for a distinguished bacteriologist known as "Professor Armstrong" to visit Germany and interview Rosenberg. After a long talk in which Rosenberg laid down the organisation’s demands - and threats—he was allowed to leave. British officers present at the talk glanced inquiringly at ‘Professor Armstrong” The “professor” grinned. “Pure fourth-form stuff”.- he said. "The man has been talking elementary bacteriology, but his methods of dissemination simply would not work” “Scientist: have known for years that a very small quantity of germs could kill millions of people if they could be Infected but it can't be done this way”. Arrangements were then made for Eismann to come from the Russian zone, where he had settled near Chemnitz. " for further negotiations." A conference was arranged with him and Rosenberg at British H.Q. The two men were met in Hamburg by British escorting officers.They were driven away in grand style, but their car, instead of going to H.Q, turned into the barbed-wire enclosure of an internment camp, where the passengers were arrested. Among the organisation's .” bosses” arrested today were: Dr. Rolf Wilkenning, former SS. Officer and leader of the Nazi “Fifth Column” in Holland and Belgium. Schimmalphing, former SS. and Hitler Youth leader Colonel Kling former head of the armed S.S in the Kassel and Hesse areas. S.S.Major-general Ellersich, who was arrested by the Americans at Fulda, South Germany. His wife was picked up by the British in Hamburg, Addressing pompously worded letters to.the British Government, Rosenberg and Eismann threatened to give their germ secrets to Russia unless the British were prepared to sign a treaty with Germany which would rebuild her power. Rosenberg said 60 men could wipe out almost the whole population of England and that only 12 would be needed to annihilate London. One hundred and twenty, agents could turn the US. into a desert be claimed. In an interview with the British authorities on December 29 1946 he said the main germs which would be used by his group would be anthrax bacilli in powder form and plague bacilli in liquid form. Assuming that London would be chosen as the target area, Rosenberg explained, the city would be divided Into eight sectors, each covered by one agent already immunised against the bacilli he intended to spread. Anthrax bacilli for instance sufficient to infect the whole London area could be taken to England In a small parcel. During the morning rush hour the agent, equipped with an umbrella., walking stick, or brief case in which a syringe was concealed, would make a round of underground stations, bus stops. and other crowded places. Later in the morning he would visit public buildings, post offices. hospitals. and police stations. His lunch-time target would be large restaurants. In the afternoon he would go to Cinemas and shops in the evening to theatres. hotels and dance halls. Rosenberg estimated that by these methods one agent could infect 12.000 people In a single day and the attack would be continued for five.days, this being the period of incubation during which no symptoms of disease would show themselves among those infected. Infected letters would be sent by post to M.P.s. senior Government officials. and high officers of the three Services, thus disorganising public life from the top. And these were the gang's main terms:
1,—A sovereign German government to be set up with which Britain would sign a treaty of friendship and alliance, including a bacteriological warfare agreement
2.—De-nazifcation to cease, except in the case of extreme Nazis.
3.—All German military personnel now held in internment or P.O.W. camps to be released.
4.—The “Western Democratic " way of life to be encouraged in Germany.
To these demands four economic terms were added - dismantling of German industry to cease, German coal industry to be returned to German hands; all plans for the socialisation of German key industries to be abandoned; German export trade to be encouraged. The group also demanded the setting up of a central Bacteriological Warfare Research Group in Germany, with extra territorial rights and added that little as Germans like the Russian way of life. they had already shown themselves capable of living under a totalitarian system.