Abwehr Heads and agents in Madrid

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harry1
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Location: France

Abwehr Heads and agents in Madrid

#1

Post by harry1 » 04 Jan 2019, 01:23

I am researching on British deception in North Africa and I would like to know more on the names of the Abwehr heads and agents in Madrid (who of course belonged to Fremde Heer West )around October 1941 during the infamous Dudley Clarke arrest in Madrid - dressed up as a woman! He was opening up new channels for deception, but with whom?

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/th ... rke.47743/

I have a few names like Karl-Erich KÜHLENTHAL, Gabriel ALTENKEMPER, Senor FINAT (Chief of the Spanish Police), Arno KLEYENSTUEBER...

Thank you.

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Steve
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Re: Abwehr Heads and agents in Madrid

#2

Post by Steve » 05 Jan 2019, 02:26

Hi, British Intelligence in the Second World War Volume 5 has quite a lot about Force A and “Lieut Col Dudley Clarke the officer who created and ran “A” Force, the deception organisation first for the Middle East and ultimately for the entire Mediterranean theatre”. Not surprisingly I could find nothing about his cross dressing activities. There is a lot of information on the Abwehr.

According to British Intelligence in the Second World War Volume 4 “Until about the middle of 1941 intelligence about the organisation and the activities of the Axis in Spain and Portugal was sketchy” but “By the spring of 1942 the SIS and MI5 had acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Abwehr’s order of battle”. Volume 4 goes into what the Abwehr was up to in Spain and Portugal and for example tells us that “the HQ in Madrid had some 20 officers supervising out-stations”. Unfortunately in a quick trawl through the book I could not find any German officers names. There are some agent’s names such as Gibraltarian Jose Estrella Key who was arrested in February 1942 and executed in England. The names of various Spanish and Portuguese officials who collaborated with the Abwehr are also given for example a Portuguese named Raposo who organised a courier service between Portugal and its colonies.

Sorry can’t be of more help.


harry1
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Location: France

Re: Abwehr Heads and agents in Madrid

#3

Post by harry1 » 05 Jan 2019, 14:03

Thank you Steve for your reply. Yes finding Abwehr names is not easy. I think the book you are talking about is the one by Michael Howard on the history of British Intelligence which I have yet to read. There are some names in Thaddeus Holt's lengthy book The Deceivers but not enough on Madrid.

I found this declassified document which is a list from the CIA relating to the interrogation of members of the Abwehr after the war. 'Spanish personnalities' start from page 96.

https://www.numbers-stations.com/cia/Wa ... GsqXgT.pdf

sybil
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Re: Abwehr Heads and agents in Madrid

#4

Post by sybil » 01 Oct 2021, 14:07

This might come late, but what exact information do you need about Gabriel Altenkemper (and, if I may ask), what are you using it in?
Regards!

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