Is there a detailed list of all Abwehr operations?

[stg44]

I happened to be reading some history on the Abwehr during my lunch break recently and something that caught my eye in the book caused me to do some research online. Anyway I came across the Wikipedia article for the Abwehr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abwehr) and in it, it listed an operation against a U.S. Naval facility in Evansville, IN. This city isn't far from where I grew up and was interested in finding out more information about this operation but I've not had any luck finding websites that have this.

Does anyone know of a book or website that might help?

[phylo_roadking]

Take a look at David Kahn's Hitler's Spies.

[valhalla1943]

The book *Invitation to Valhalla* details the Abwehr mission in Evansville.

[tonyp]

I know this is an old thread but I read a good book recently on the topic and have skimmed another. The second book which I have only skimmed is listed at the very bottom.

Hitler's Espionage Machine by Christer Jörgensen
There are brief bios of important figures from Admiral Canaris down as well as anecdotes about the early days of the Abwehr, how the departments were initially divided and tasked under Lahousen, von Betivegni, Oster, et cetera.

The book covers the "espionage machine," so it is not focused primarily on the Abwehr, but it shows their existence in context with the other agencies and personalities grappling for power. There is extensive discussion of their operations, although it requires reading most of the chapters. Here's most of what I found in terms of Abwehr involvement in the book (bulleted, not quoted). I tried to include names and code-names so that if anyone wants to research specific people or operations, they can do so.

I can't vouch for the accuracy (most of these are footnoted with sources in the book, however), but it's a start I suppose!

• Poland, Scandinavia, France, Holland:
  • Canaris' role (and disgust with) the Glewitz radio station takeover preceding 1 September and warnings about the SS-Einsatzkommando's operations in Poland
  • Maj. Berthold Benecke - head of KO Norwegen (Abwehr station in then-neutral Norway) with names and some dates of his agents (Tor Glad aka JEFF, Maj. Erich Pruck, etc.) as well as the Norwegian SiPo/OvPo (Surveillance Police) surveillance/response to their activities
  • Maj. Walter de LaPorte (aka LA ROCHE), who was handler for Vidkun Quisling and Dr. Hermann Aall
  • Admiral Steffens (Stockholm station chief), Hermann Kempf (Oslo KO who essentially saved radio communications after the sinking of the Blücher), Karl Muller (aka FIDELIO), Otto Beutler, Emmerich Neumayer (sent to Sweden and then to Narvik to report on Gen. Dietl's progress)
  • Marina Goubinina: a ballerina and double agent (Abwehr & OGPU then NKVD); infiltrated Allied HQ in Bjervik and directed a Stuka attack that almost killed Gen. Otto Ruge and French Gen. Béthouart
  • Richard Gerken: sent to Holland to get Dutch army uniforms for an operation; his partners were arrested and Dutch police knew of his mission, but the Germans still used the tactic successfully in May 1940
  • Abwehr agent FROGÉ worked in French Army Commissariat Ofc and provided assessment that French reserves were poorly trained/equipped and French arms manufacturers were slow in both production and delivery.
  • Not Abwehr related, but discusses Walter Schellenberg (SD) kidnapping from Venlo, Holland of Maj. Richard Stevens & Capt. Sigismund Best (SIS) in November 1939
  
  Operation Lena (intelligence gathering pre-Sea Lion) and Abwehr activity in England and Holland:
  • Hamburg Ast under Capt. Herbert Wichmann
  • Vera Chalburg (believed to be a Russian Jew from Kiev)
  • Hilmar Dierks (Abwehr marine intelligence, her lover?)
  • Gartenfeld Squadron (Luftwaffe squadron to parachute Abwehr agents into England)
  • Actual command was in the "incapable hands" of Nikolaus Ritter
  • Ritter wanted to make "The Green House" in Mayfair, London, the counter to Heydrich's SD brothel "Salon Kitty." MI5 employed its owners as double agents
  • Capture of Werner Walti, Karl Druegge, and Vera Chalburg
  • Karl Richter - parachuted into England in 1941
  • Agents JEFF and MUTT (Tor Glad & John Moe) - After both were captured and interrogated at Camp 020 by Colonel Robin Stephens, MUTT/Moe because a useful double for MI5 transmitting disinformation to the Abwehr
  • MI5 agent ZIGZAG (Eddie Chapman) and his controller Maj. Jasper Maskelyne
  • Dusko Popov (aka TRICYCLE) a double agent who misled the Abwehr for years
  • Wulf Schmidt (Agent 3725) & Gösta Caroli - both captured, Schmidt became MI5 double agent TATE; invented a non-existant minefield off Britain that closed the area to U-boat activity
  • Paul Fidrmuc aka OSTRO - served both the Abwehr and Spanish intelligence
  • Hermann Giskes (Paris Ast/Abwehr III) - sabotaged SOE operations "Holland" and "Roundup" - penetrated SOE, Prosper network, and the Belgian resistance
  • M.A.G. Ridderhof (aka Agent F2087 aka GEORGE) - helped inflitrate SOE networks in Holland
  
  Operation Adler:
  • Organized by Stuttgart Ast under Abwehr Major Kluge
  • 8 Brandenburgers sent into Switzerland in June 1940; arrested
  
  Turkey:
  • Istanbul station chief: Rohde, later Paul Leverkühn (1941)
  • Franz von Papen (German ambassador to Turkey, former Chancellor): collaborated with Istanbul KO/Canaris
  • Canaris' failed envoy (Helmut von Moltke) to Istanbul to parley with the OSS
  
  Spain:
  • "Angel" Alcazar de Velasco, Abwehr agent in Spain who collaborated with Kaltenbrunner (SD) on Operation Willi, the attempt to lure the self-exiled Duke of Windsor into becoming a German ally
  • Abwehr chief based in Algeciras: Dr. Hans Höberlein
  • José Keay: one of the first Abwehr spies; contacts with the Spanish fascist Falange; arrested in March 1942
  • Luis Cordon-Cuenca: agent operating in/near Gibraltar; arrested 22 June 1943, hanged in January 1944
  • José Muñoz: set off explosive in Gibraltar port area shortly after Cordon-Cuenca's arrest
  
  Eastern Europe/Ukraine:
  • Canaris (a strongly anti-communist conservative) encouraged the Estonian exiles in Berlin to set up training camps outside Helsinki for Estonian volunteers from Finland's Winter War with Russia. The Finns/Germans equipped/trained these partisans for future operations in Soviet-occupied Estonia
  • During their rapid advance, the Germans captured Soviet field ciphers; the Abwehr and field intelligence (Ic) could read messages and create confusion; Abwehr even managed to convince the Soviets of a planned major parachute landing near Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
  • Both Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leaders (moderate Andrei Melnyk and radical Stephan Bandera) were in the pay of the Abwehr
  • The Abwehr set up training camps in 1938 for Bandera's Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) in 1938 outside Berlin and later sent them to sabotage school
  • Hitler ordered training to cease in September 1939, but because there was a large Ukrainian population in Manchuria, the Abwehr simply handed control over to their Japanese counterparts
  • The Nightengales: an Abwehr II unit led by Ukrainian Commandant Skonprynka and German Lt. Albrecht Herzner
  
  The Red Orchestra:
  • Funkabwehr Lt.Col. Hans Kopp discovered radio transmissions
  • Colonel Rohleder (head of Abwehr IIIF, counter-intelligence)
  • Capt. Harry Piepe's capture of Soviet agents that provided detail on Soviet attacks on the Caucasus and Stalingrad
  • After most Red Orchestra members were executed in mid-late 1942, Piepe and Gestapo's Karl Giering set up in the office of the Suréte looking for GRU Capt. Viktor Sukolov-Gurevich aka "Kent" (Petit Chef) and the GRU's chief for Western Europe aka "Jean Gilbert" (Grand Chef)
  
  Special Operations:
  • Capt. von Hipel convinced Canaris in the 1930s to set up an irregular warfare group commanded by Lt. Grabert; later known as the Brandenburgers - divided by languages spoken
  • Company I: Baltic & Russia
  • Company II: English, Portuguese, some African languages (Germans from the "old colonies")
  • Company III: Sudeten Germans who could speak Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian
  • Company IV: Poles, Belarussians, Russians, Ukrainians
  • During Case Yellow (German invasion of Holland, May 1940):
  Co. III to take Meuse bridge at Massyk; Company IV to take bridges across Juliana Canal at Berg, Uromon, Obicht, and Stein; Co. II to take railway bridge at Gennep
  • Captured Neiupoort-Ostend road bridge (Belgium); Corporal Janowsky received the Iron Cross for this mission
  • Abwehr Helsinki station Chief Cmdr. Alexander Cellarius provided surplus Soviet material from the Winter War; Brandenburgers captured bridges over the Dvina River to precede Operation Barbarossa
  • After August 1939, Abwehr agents protected the Romanian oilfield of Ploesti as "crews" on Danube oil barges
  
  Romania/Bulgaria/The Balkans:
  • Canaris collaborated with Col. Morozov, head of the Siguranza, to ensure SOE would not block the Danube
  • The Soviet Legation in Bucharest ("a huge espionage and subversion center") was shut down by the Siguranza and Abwehr IIIF immediately following the invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941)
  • Prior to German occupation of Bulgaria, Abwehr II sent the Brandenburgers to Sofia to prevent the British and/or the pro-communists from damaging the infrastructure
  • The Sofia KO became the Sofia Ast, a major source of intelligence; later expanded influence into Macedonia and Greek province of Thrace
  • Instead of backing the pro-royalist Serbs (Chetniks), the Germans supported the radical Croat Ustashe
  • The Abwehr contacted the Chetnik commander Gen. Drasha Michailovitch in May 1943; the OKW overruled the Abwehr-Chetnik proposals and arrested and deported many of Michailovitch's men
  
  Egypt:
  • Count Ladislas von Almaszy and Karl Heinz Krämer (Abwehr agents) met with Egypt's military opposition in November 1940. Their contacts were Anwar al-Sadat and Gamal Abdul Nasser (both later presidents of Egypt). Their superior, Gen. Masri Pasha, provided the Abwehr with copies of British defenses; the general was later found out, fired, and arrested
  • Abwehr enlisted Almaszy to bring agents Johannes Eppler-Gafer (aka BUDDY) Peter Monkaster (aka SANDY) through the desert to Cairo to assist Rommel - fascinating journey through the desert
  • One of Germany's main contacts in the region was the murderous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hadji Mohammed Amin el Husseini, who hoped to pursue a jihad against the British authorities; he was later cut out of the Abwehr's plans
  • Operation Condor: discovered Montgomery's plans for El Alamein but could not transmit in time; Anwar al-Sadat arrested by SIS, along with BUDDY and SANDY
  • Ursula Bayomi - spied on British oil installations and betrayed by her lover, who turned out to work for SIS
  • Waltraut Örtel
  • Charles Bedaux: proposed to Lahousen (Abwehr II) plan to blow up Abadan oil fields; approved by sabotage expert Karl Strojil but never carried out
  
  South America:
  • Heinz August Luning (aka Enrique Lumi): reported on ship traffic from Havana harbor; letters intercepted in Bermuda by the British, arrested by the FBI and executed in November 1942
  • Richard Dorres: active in Cuba between 1941-late 1942; escaped after Luning's execution
  • Maj. Georg Nikolaus (aka MAX) and Col. Baron Karl von Schleebrügge (aka MORRIS) operated out of Mexico City for the Abwehr via the local offices of A.E.G. company. Ran agents codenamed FRED, JAMES, and HARRY. MORRIS expelled from Mexico in April 1941.
  • Capt. Hermann Bohny (German Naval Attaché) ran agents in Brazil, including an agent ALFREDO
  German businessman Alfred Kempter and Herbert Müller set up the Rapid Information Ltd. (front company) in Rio; their KÖNIG network provided intel on shipping and convoys from Brazil to help U-boats
  • Albrecht Engels recruited the German harbormaster in Rio, Herbert von Heyer and a similar agent in Recife to report on Allied ships and aircraft refueling
  • By March 1942, all Abwehr agents except Kempter and Engels were arrested and tortured, most by the Brazilian Secret Police
  • Deputy chief of the Prague Ast, Paul Thümmel (aka FRANTA) was a highly-placed Czech spy in the Abwehr; Heydrich used this information to try to bring the Abwehr under his control

My next read is going to be:
Hitler's Spies and Saboteurs: Based on the German Secret Service Diary of General Lahousen by Charles Wighton and Günter Peis.

Any other books on the Abwehr and their agents and operations that anyone here can recommend? Preferably in English/translated to English because my German is somewhere between spotty and non-existent.

[mvorontsov]

Hi,
There was a long and detailed list of Abwehr operations published in the Russian edition of this Julius Mader's book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8626746/Mader ... -Sagen-Aus
I guess that the German or English editions should have that appendix as well.

[Andy H]

Hi

This maybe of interest concerning Operation Lena and the proposed invasion of the UK:-

German intelligence officials opposed to Hitler's plans chose agents with poor English for Operation Lena, book suggests.
Of the 12 spies who landed in Britain as part of Operation Lena in September 1940, most were arrested without having come closing to fulfilling their mission, and "because of their own stupidity", as British official records put it. Why Germany sent such inept agents on one of the most important missions of the second world war has remained an enduring mystery.

A book published in Germany this summer comes up with a new explanation. In Operation Sealion: Resistance inside the Secret Service, the historian Monika Siedentopf argues that the botched spying mission was not the result of German incompetence, but a deliberate act of sabotage by a cadre of intelligence officials opposed to Hitler's plans.

Siedentopf first became interested in the story of Operation Sealion – the German plan to invade Britain – while researching a book on the role of female spies during the war. For many other missions, German spies had been meticulously well-prepared, she noticed, so why not in 1940?

Her research led her to a circle of people around Herbert Wichmann, the officer in charge of the Hamburg intelligence unit, one of Nazi Germany's biggest secret service posts.

Wichmann had close ties not only to Wilhelm Canaris, the spy chief once dubbed the "Hamlet of conservative resistance" by Hugh Trevor-Roper, but also to the Stauffenberg group which planned to assassinate Hitler in July 1944.

At the end of the war, Wichmann was given a key role in rebuilding Hamburg's shipping industry, upon express orders of the British. MI5 described him and his circle as "good Germans, but bad Nazis".

After six years of research in the National Archives and using Wichmann's own writing, Siedentopf deduced that the spy chief had deliberately sent agents on Operation Lena who had neither particularly good knowledge of the country nor the language.

More here at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/a ... ge-germany

Regards

Andy H

[pax1980]

Does anyone have know how to find any pictures of the Brandenburgers for an news article?

I am looking for pictures of the Brandenburgers that we can buy out and reprint in a article about them, and if anyone could help me out, or point me in the right direction I would be very happy.