145-569: Operation Himmler , also called Operation Konserve , consisted of a group of 1939 false flag undertakings planned by Nazi Germany to give the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany. The Germans then used propaganda reports of the events to justify their invasion of Poland , which started on 1 September 1939. Operation Himmler included the Germans staging false attacks on themselves—directed at innocent people, such as civilians and concentration camp prisoners. The operation arguably became
290-649: A Panzer officer as well). The unit included geologists, cartographers, and mineralogists, who were sent into North Africa to study desert topography and assess the terrain for military use, but by November 1942—following the Axis retreat from El Alamein — Sonderkommando Dora along with the Brandenburgers operating in the area, were withdrawn from the Sahara altogether. An Iranian national recruited in Hamburg by
435-482: A puppet government in the form of the nominally independent state of Manchukuo . The Gleiwitz incident in 1939 involved Reinhard Heydrich fabricating evidence of a Polish attack against Germany to mobilize German public opinion for war and to justify the war with Poland . Alfred Naujocks was a key organiser of the operation under orders from Heydrich. It led to the deaths of Nazi concentration camp victims who were dressed as German soldiers and then shot by
580-590: A German radio station by 'Polish' forces ; one act which Hitler used to justify his assault on Poland. Under Canaris, the Abwehr expanded and proved to be efficient during the early years of the war. Its most notable success was Operation Nordpol , which was an operation against the Dutch underground network, which at the time was supported by the Special Operations Executive . Concomitant to
725-401: A Scientology office. The Guardian's Office also had a plan for further operations to discredit Cooper known as Operation Freakout , but several Scientology operatives were arrested in a separate investigation and the plan was exposed. According to PolitiFact , some false flag conspiracy theories (such as claims that mass shootings are hoaxes) are themselves spread by astroturfing , which
870-490: A U.S. ship in the vicinity of Cuba, burning crops, sinking a boat filled with Cuban refugees, attacks by alleged Cuban infiltrators inside the United States, and harassment of U.S. aircraft and shipping and the destruction of aerial drones by aircraft disguised as Cuban MiGs. These actions would be blamed on Cuba, and would be a pretext for an invasion of Cuba and the overthrow of Fidel Castro 's communist government. It
1015-584: A combination of the false flag and " honey trap " techniques). According to ex-KGB defector Jack Barsky , "Many a right-wing radical had given information to the Soviets under a 'false flag', thinking they were working with a Western ally, such as Israel, when in fact their contact was a KGB operative." The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters in referring to covert operations of various governments and claimed cabals . According to Columbia Journalism Review , this usage mostly "migrated to
1160-715: A commission of jurists at the Hague drafted a set of rules concerning the Control of Wireless Telegraphy in Time of War and Air Warfare. They included: This draft was never adopted as a legally binding treaty, but the International Committee of the Red Cross states in its introduction on the draft: "To a great extent, [the draft rules] correspond to the customary rules and general principles underlying treaties on
1305-601: A cordial relationship with them, the antagonism between the Abwehr and the SS did not stop when Canaris took over. Not only was competition with Heydrich and Himmler's intelligence operations a hindrance but so too were the redundant attempts by multiple organizations to control communications intelligence (COMINT) for the Reich. For instance, Canaris's Abwehr controlled the Armed Forces Deciphering operation, while
1450-500: A false flag operation can fail in such a manner as to implicate the perpetrator rather than the intended victim. A notable example is an April 2022 FSB operation where would-be Ukrainian assassins of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov were filmed while being arrested. The footage published by the FSB was however found to implicate the FSB as having staged the arrest. Together with weapons, drugs, Ukrainian passports and Nazi memorabilia
1595-728: A false flag operation in Ukraine. In the days leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February , the Russian government intensified its disinformation campaign , with Russian state media promoting false flags on a nearly hourly basis purporting to show Ukrainian forces attacking Russia, in a bid to justify an invasion of Ukraine. Many of the disinformation videos were poor and amateur in quality, with mismatching metadata showing incorrect dates, and evidence from Bellingcat researchers, and other independent journalists, showed that
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#17327719538651740-721: A fictitious sub-agent named 'Paul Nicosoff', helping to ensure the success of Operation Torch . Confirmation of this fact came when one of Hitler's most trusted military advisers, Chief of the OKW Operations Staff, General Alfred Jodl , later informed his Allied interrogators that the Allied landings in North Africa came as a total surprise to the German general staff. The need for upwards of 500 more agents to supplement intelligence operations in North Africa prompted
1885-572: A historically central weakness in the German system, according to historian Klaus P. Fischer . On 8 September 1941, under the auspices of the Commissar Order ( Kommissarbefehl ), the OKW issued a decree concerning the ruthless ideological imperatives of the Nazi state against all semblance of Bolshevism, a provision that included executing Soviet commissars and prisoners of war. Admiral Canaris,
2030-566: A member of a pro-German underground resistance with alleged access to the Soviet military leadership—this was a complete fabrication concocted by the GRU and NKVD, who used Demyanov as a double agent . During the autumn of 1942, Demyanov informed his German handlers that he was working as a communications officer at the Soviet headquarters in Moscow, which would give him access to important intelligence,
2175-641: A new member was included in the circle, a handsome young Swiss doctor named Paul Reckzeh . Reckzeh was an agent of the Gestapo (Secret State Police), to which he reported on the meeting, providing several incriminating documents. The members of the Solf Circle were all rounded up on 12 January 1944. Eventually, everyone involved in the Solf Circle—except Frau Solf and her daughter Lagi Gräfin von Ballestrem —was executed. One of those executed
2320-415: A permanent term in the dictionary and circumnavigate the globe. For that reason, this term must be continuously underlined. The operation convinced very little international opinion about the German claims. 50°19′00″N 18°41′00″E / 50.3167°N 18.6833°E / 50.3167; 18.6833 False flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising
2465-548: A ruse that managed to fool the German intelligence commander on the Russian front at the time, Reinhard Gehlen of the Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) intelligence section. Demyanov manipulated the military operations around Stalingrad , convincing Gehlen that Army Group Center would be unable to move west of Moscow to aide General Friedrich Paulus and the Sixth Army , which was ultimately encircled by
2610-578: A shortwave radio transmitter located on Long Island, NY. Meetings between Sebold and "bona fide German spies" were even filmed by FBI technicians. Not every spy the Abwehr sent was captured or converted in this manner, but the Americans, and especially the British, proved mostly successful in countering the efforts of the German Abwehr officers and used them to their advantage. The Abwehr
2755-487: A successful assassination was United States Marine Sergeant Herman H. Hanneken leading a patrol of his Haitian Gendarmerie disguised as enemy guerrillas in 1919. The patrol successfully passed several enemy checkpoints in order to assassinate the guerilla leader Charlemagne Péralte near Grande-Rivière-du-Nord . Hanneken was awarded the Medal of Honor and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant for his deed. During
2900-644: A unit to infiltrate Egypt through the desert to make contact with the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff, el Masri Pasha , but this effort repeatedly failed. Accompanying Ritter in Libya was the Hungarian desert explorer László Almásy with a mission to gather intelligence from British-held Egypt . After Ritter was injured and sent away, Almásy took over command and organized the 1942 Operation Salam , which succeeded in transporting two German agents across
3045-542: A vast array of significant information about the German intelligence services to Czech agents who in turn, forwarded the data to SIS London, whom they codenamed agent A-54. Thümmel provided data about "military capabilities, and intentions" as well as "detailed information on the organization and structure of the Abwehr and SD along with "the near-complete order of battle of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and German mobilization plans"; and, later "he gave advanced warnings of
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#17327719538653190-463: A veritable organ of resistance inside the heart of Nazi Germany are not an accurate reflection across the spectrum of its entire operations or its personnel. In a staff of some 13,000, perhaps 50 were fundamentally anti-Nazi. Before the invasion of Poland for instance, the Abwehr and SiPo jointly drew up a list of over 60,000 names, people who were to be the targets of Operation Tannenberg , an effort designed to systematically identify and liquidate
3335-553: A very public debacle in Operation Pastorius , which resulted in the executions of six Abwehr agents sent to the United States to sabotage the American aluminum industry . The Abwehr attempted use of coercion as a means to infiltrate the United States when they 'recruited' a naturalized American citizen visiting Germany, William G. Sebold , by Gestapo threats and blackmail, code-naming him TRAMP, and assigning him
3480-538: Is an attempt to create false impression of popularity in a belief. Abwehr The Abwehr ( German for resistance or defence , though the word usually means counterintelligence in a military context; pronounced [ˈapveːɐ̯] ) was the German military-intelligence service for the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht from 1920 to 1944. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited
3625-609: Is certainly forbidden to make use of them during a combat. Before opening fire upon the enemy, they must be discarded." In 1788, the head tailor at the Royal Swedish Opera received an order to sew a number of Russian military uniforms. These were then used by Swedes to stage an attack on Puumala , a Swedish outpost on the Russo-Swedish border, on 27 June 1788. This caused an outrage in Stockholm and impressed
3770-528: Is difficult to assess, but if its leadership tells a story, it is not one of conviction. For instance, during March 1942, when many Germans still had confidence in their Führer and their army, Canaris saw things differently and told General Friedrich Fromm that there was no way Germany could win the war. Canaris had made the United States a primary target even before it entered into the conflict. By 1942, German agents were operating from within all of America's top armaments manufacturers. The Abwehr also suffered
3915-416: Is usually applied for pseudo-teams. (See the above section Laws of war ). Some false flag operations have been described by Lawrence E. Cline, a retired US Army intelligence officer, as pseudo-operations, or "the use of organized teams which are disguised as guerrilla groups for long- or short-term penetration of insurgent -controlled areas". "Pseudo-operations should be distinguished," notes Cline, "from
4060-565: The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) from 1931, had a negative attitude towards the Abwehr —shaped in part by his belief that Germany's defeat in the First World War was primarily attributable to failures of military intelligence, and by his ambitions to control all political intelligence-gathering for Germany. Canaris, a master of backroom dealings, thought he knew how to deal with Heydrich and Himmler. Though he tried to maintain
4205-741: The greater Reich expanded) in the occupied territories . On 4 February 1938, the Ministry of Defence—renamed the Ministry of War in 1935—was dissolved and became the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) with Hitler in direct command. The OKW formed part of the Führer 's personal "working staff" from June 1938 and the Abwehr became its intelligence agency under Vice-Admiral Wilhelm Canaris . The Abwehr had its headquarters at 76/78 Tirpitzufer (the present-day Reichpietschufer) in Berlin , adjacent to
4350-410: The Abwehr and Canaris were closely monitored. The SS also accused Canaris of being defeatist in his intelligence assessments, especially on the Russian campaign, and the Abwehr was under investigation for treason related to the earlier attack on Belgrade. Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa , an NKVD Soviet agent named Alexander Demyanov penetrated the Abwehr in late 1941 by posing as
4495-561: The Abwehr before the war was converted into a double agent by British and Russian intelligence officers (working together in one of the few joint intelligence efforts of the war), who code-named him "Kiss". From late 1944 until the end of the war, Kiss, who was based out of the intelligence center in Baghdad, provided false information on Soviet and British troop movements in Iraq and Iran to the Abwehr ; as directed by his Allied controllers. On
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4640-521: The Abwehr believed it to be, instead, it was "a creature of the NKGB ", through which information was regularly disseminated concerning Foreign Armies East and Foreign Air Forces East and troop movements. Careful message trafficking and deception operations by the Soviets allowed them to misdirect the Germans and aided in the strategic surprise they enjoyed against Army Group Center in June 1944. Even though
4785-519: The Abwehr had been infiltrated by anti-Nazi defectors and Allied agents, and the defection of Vemehren after the Solf Circle arrests all but confirmed it. It was also mistakenly believed in Berlin that the Vermehrens absconded with the secret codes of the Abwehr and turned them over to the British. That proved to be the last straw for Hitler. Despite the efforts of the Abwehr to shift the blame to
4930-557: The Abwehr had both an Ast and a KO while Ireland had neither. In friendly countries of interest, occupied countries, or in Germany, the intelligence service would normally organize "Abwehr sub-stations" ( "Abwehrleitstellen" or "Alsts" in German), or "Abwehr adjoining posts" ( "Abwehrnebenstellen" in German). The "Alsts" would fall under the jurisdiction of the geographically appropriate Ast , which in turn would be supervised by
5075-403: The Abwehr no longer existed at this point, the heritage operations connected to MAX gave the Soviet armies an advantage they would not have otherwise possessed and further proved the extent of damage attributable to the Abwehr's incompetence, as Moscow's disinformation repeatedly fooled the German high command. On 10 September 1943, the incident which eventually resulted in the dissolution of
5220-414: The Abwehr occurred. The incident came to be known as the " Frau Solf Tea Party ". Hanna Solf was the widow of Wilhelm Solf , a former Colonial Minister under Kaiser Wilhelm II and ex- ambassador to Japan . Frau Solf had long been involved in the anti-Nazi intellectual movement in Berlin. Members of her group were known as members of the "Solf Circle". At a tea party hosted by her on 10 September,
5365-568: The Abwehr provided some semblance of economic utility for the Nazi regime. In March 1941, the Germans forced a captured SOE radio operator to transmit messages to Britain in a code that the Germans had obtained. Even though the operator gave indications that he was compromised, the receiver in Britain did not notice. Thus the Germans were able to penetrate the Dutch operation and maintained this state of affairs for two years, capturing agents, and sending false intelligence and sabotage reports until
5510-595: The Abwehr to get creative. Arab prisoners of war (POWs) languishing in French camps were offered a trip back to their homeland if they agreed to spy for the Germans in North Africa, as were Soviet POWs in the East. Other intelligence collection efforts included working closely with the Luftwaffe on aerial reconnaissance missions over North Africa. Previously, aerial reconnaissance was ordered by army intelligence officers of
5655-565: The Abwehr were considerable in terms of the chain of command. General Hans Oster of the Abwehr remained in regular contact with Dulles. Foreknowledge and penetration of the Abwehr was such that Dulles reported later in February 1944 that the Abwehr was going to be absorbed by the SD. The SS continually undermined the Abwehr by putting its officers under investigation, believing them to be involved in anti-Hitler plots. Heydrich ensured that
5800-719: The Abwehr . The greatest failure occurred as a result of deception operations conducted by the British. An Italian of Jewish ancestry was recruited in France sometime in 1940 by the Abwehr . Unknown to the Germans, this individual was an agent codenamed "Cheese" who was already working for the British SIS before the war began. In February 1941, the Abwehr sent Cheese to Egypt to report on any British military operations; instead of providing his German handlers with accurate information, he passed strategic deception materials and hundreds of MI5 doctored messages to Nazi intelligence by way of
5945-425: The Abwehr . The mastermind behind this operation was Juan Pujol García , a Spanish double agent who worked for the British and whose acting was considered so good they codenamed him " Garbo ". Garbo was highly successful in spreading disinformation to the Abwehr , primarily by creating a network of fictitious sub-agents and feeding them fabricated intelligence reports. These reports were carefully crafted to mislead
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6090-756: The Algerian civil war , starting in the middle of 1994. Death squads composed of Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS) security forces disguised themselves as Islamist terrorists and committed false flag terror attacks. Such groups included the Organisation of Young Free Algerians (OJAL) or the Secret Organisation for the Safeguard of the Algerian Republic (OSSRA). According to Roger Faligot and Pascal Kropp (1999),
6235-710: The Dachau concentration camp ) and a local Polish- Silesian activist (arrested a day earlier) were left dead on the scene in Polish uniforms. In his 1 September speech to the Reichstag announcing war, Hitler cited the 21 border incidents as justification for Germany's "defensive" action against Poland: I can no longer find any willingness on the part of the Polish Government to conduct serious negotiations with us. These proposals for mediation have failed because in
6380-670: The Field Manual published by the War Department , United States Army , on 1 October 1940, under the entry Rules of Land Warfare states: "National flags, insignias and uniforms as a ruse – in practice it has been authorized to make use of these as a ruse. The foregoing rule (Article 23 of the Annex of the IV Hague Convention ), does not prohibit such use, but does prohibit their improper use. It
6525-612: The Gestapo to make it seem that they had been shot by Polish soldiers. This, along with other false flag operations in Operation Himmler , would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of World War II in Europe . The operation failed to convince international public opinion of the German claims, and both Britain and France – Poland's allies – declared war two days after Germany invaded Poland. On 26 November 1939,
6670-539: The IP address of paid staffers for that candidate's opponent. On 19 February 2011, Indiana Deputy Prosecutor Carlos Lam sent a private email to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker suggesting that he run a "'false flag' operation" to counter the protests against Walker's proposed restrictions on public employees' collective bargaining rights: If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to
6815-514: The Libyan Desert behind enemy lines to Egypt. In July 1942, Almásy and his agents were captured by British counterintelligence operatives. Other operations in North Africa were occurring concomitantly with those of Almásy and Ritter. During late January 1942 for instance, the OKW authorized the creation of a special unit, Sonderkommando Dora , which was placed under the command of Abwehr officer, Oberstleutnant Walter Eichler (formerly
6960-648: The Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s, captured Mau Mau members who switched sides and specially trained British troops initiated the pseudo-gang concept to successfully counter Mau Mau. In 1960, Frank Kitson , who was later involved in the Northern Irish conflict and is now a retired British general, published Gangs and Counter-gangs , an account of his experiences with the technique in Kenya . Information included how to counter gangs and measures of deception, including
7105-624: The Pas de Calais , Garbo diverted German attention away from Normandy, where the actual landings took place, making Juan Pujol García's efforts in Operation Garbo instrumental in the overall Allied strategy and intelligence operations during World War II. Juan Pujol García was so trusted by both sides that he was awarded the MBE by the British and an Iron Cross by the Nazis. Images of the Abwehr as
7250-797: The Riksdag of the Estates , the Swedish national assembly, who until then had refused to agree to an offensive war against Russia. The Puumala incident allowed King Gustav III of Sweden, who lacked the constitutional authority to initiate unprovoked hostilities without the Estates' consent, to launch the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) . On July 13, 1870, Otto von Bismarck published the Ems Dispatch , an internal message from King Wilhelm I to Bismarck regarding certain demands made by
7395-467: The Soviet army shelled Mainila , a Russian village near the Finnish border. Soviet authorities blamed Finland for the attack and used the incident as a pretext to invade Finland, starting the Winter War , four days later. Operation Northwoods , a 1962 plot proposed but never executed by the U.S. Department of Defense for a war with Cuba , involved scenarios such as fabricating the hijacking or shooting down of passenger and military planes, sinking
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#17327719538657540-410: The Weimar Republic from establishing an intelligence organization of their own, they formed an espionage group in 1920 within the Ministry of Defence , calling it the Abwehr . The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defense against foreign espionage: an organizational role that later evolved considerably. Under General Kurt von Schleicher (prominent in running the Reichswehr from 1926 onwards)
7685-404: The criminal police , broke into the secret files of the General Staff and the Abwehr and removed documents related to German-Soviet collaboration. To conceal the thefts, fires were started at the break-ins, which included Abwehr headquarters. Before the reorganization of the OKW in 1938, the Abwehr was merely a department within the Reichswehrministerium (Ministry of Armed Forces), and it
7830-483: The 1953 coup in Iran", the true extent of the tactic has been difficult for historians to discern. In the summer of 1954, a group of Egyptian Jews recruited by Israeli army intelligence were caught with plans to bomb American, British, and Egyptian civil targets in Egypt. The bombs were timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The bombings were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood , Egyptian Communists , "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists", with
7975-402: The 2018 mid-term elections were part of a false flag effort to discredit Republicans and supporters of then-President Donald Trump. Cesar Sayoc, motivated by his belief that Democrats were “evil”, was later convicted of mailing the devices to Trump's critics. On the internet, a concern troll is a false flag pseudonym created by a user whose actual point of view is opposed to the one that
8120-426: The Afghan border, the Abwehr sought to turn the Faqir of Ipi against British forces. They infiltrated the region using Manfred Oberdörffer , a physician, and Fred Hermann Brandt , an entomologist under the guise of a medical mission to research leprosy. The mission was a failure, with Oberdörffer being killed and Hermann was taken prisoner. Just how committed typical members of the Abwehr were to German victory
8265-442: The Army Group HQ (part of the structure to which the Abwehr was assigned). Major Witilo von Griesheim [ de ] was sent to Italian Libya in early 1941 to set up AST Tripoli (code name WIDO). He soon set up a network of agents and wireless stations gathering information in Libya and in the surrounding French territories. In mid-July 1941, Admiral Canaris ordered Luftwaffe Major Nikolaus Ritter of Abwehr I to form
8410-482: The British caught on. In Bodyguard of Lies Anthony Brown suggests that the British were well aware that the radios were compromised and used this method to feed false information to the Germans regarding the site of the D-Day landings. Hitler sent Canaris as a special envoy to Madrid during the early summer of 1940 to convince Spain to join in the coming fight against the Allies, for which Gibraltar could have strategic military value. The repeat visit, in December 1940,
8555-408: The British talk of an impending German attack was nothing more than disinformation . During January 1942, partisan fighters at the port city of Eupatoria in Crimea assisted a Red Army landing there and revolted against the German occupying forces. Reinforcements were sent in under General Erich von Manstein and the port city was retaken. Reprisals against the partisans were carried out under
8700-496: The British, convinced that Hitler would push Europe to war. Before the actual invasion of Poland occurred, the Abwehr went so far as to send a special emissary, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin , to London in order to warn them. Subverting the Nazi government with warnings to the Allies was but one part of the picture, as this move did not stop or deter Canaris from obeying Hitler's orders to provide 150 Polish army uniforms and small arms to Himmler and Heydrich for their staged attack on
8845-444: The Central division in Berlin. For a while, the KOs were tolerated by the neutral countries and those who feared Germany too much to protest but as the Allied powers waged war against Germany, many of the KOs were simply expelled at the host countries request—due at least in part to pressure from the Allies. Before the war began, the Abwehr was fairly active and effective as it built a wide range of contacts; they developed links with
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#17327719538658990-436: The Confederation would win and unify the German states . In September 1931, Seishirō Itagaki and other Japanese mid- to junior-grade officers, without the knowledge of the Tokyo government, fabricated a pretext for invading Manchuria by blowing up a section of railway. Though the explosion was too weak to disrupt operations on the rail line, the Japanese nevertheless used the Mukden incident to seize Manchuria and create
9135-430: The French ambassador. In the version purposefully released to the public, Bismarck instead made it sound like the King had gravely disrespected the ambassador – a ploy to trick Emperor Napoleon III into declaring war on the North German Confederation , with the end goal of unifying the northern and southern German states. This ploy would be successful, as Napoleon III would declare war six days later; and six months later,
9280-402: The German Foreign Office and the Abwehr in an attempt to ameliorate the problem "by concluding an unprecedented arms-for-oil" deal, brokered to push back the "Anglo-French dominance in the Ploiești oilfield." Abwehr operatives also played on Romanian fears, making them more amenable to Hitler's offer to shield them from the Soviets—through which the Germans acquired cheap oil. In this regard,
9425-479: The German Table of Organisation and Equipment model of Abwehr headquarters, each Ast was usually subdivided into sections for Typically each Ast would be commanded by a senior army or naval officer and would be answerable to Abwehr HQ. in Berlin. Operations carried out by each Ast would be in tandem with the overall strategic plan formulated by Admiral Canaris. Canaris in turn would receive instructions on what intelligence gathering should take priority from
9570-442: The German annexation of the Sudetenland as well as the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland." After the assumption of absolute control over the OKW in February 1938, Hitler declared that he did not want men of intelligence under his command, but men of brutality, an observation which did not sit well with Canaris. Whether he was deeply troubled by Hitler's comment or not, Canaris and the Abwehr still busied themselves preparing
9715-413: The German auxiliary cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar , which had been altered to look like Carmania . (Contrary to some accounts, the Carmania had not been altered to resemble the Cap Trafalgar .) Another notable example was the World War II German commerce raider Kormoran , which surprised and sank the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941 while disguised as a Dutch merchant ship, causing
9860-416: The German forces during the invasion of Poland, which led to some reprisals that were highly exaggerated by the German propaganda. One of the most notable cases of such a scenario was reportedly carried out during Bydgoszcz Bloody Sunday . An instruction issued by the Ministry of Propaganda stated that the press must show news on the barbarism of Poles in Bromberg. The expression "bloody sunday" must enter as
10005-408: The German forces, particularly the Luftwaffe, intimately informed during the invasion of Norway. Against both of these nations, the Abwehr mounted what one would call a successful intelligence operation of some scale and proved itself critical to the success of German military endeavors there. Fear over the drastically low levels of available petroleum at the beginning of 1940 prompted activity from
10150-477: The Germans about Allied intentions and strategies. Garbo's information was so convincing that he gained the confidence of the German high command, who considered him one of their most trustworthy sources. One of the most significant achievements of Operation Garbo was its role in the success of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, as it contributed to the confusion and misdirection of German forces. By providing false information about an impending Allied invasion via
10295-399: The Gestapo cooperated in an operation known as Englandspiel , through which the Nazis gained "complete control" over all Dutch SOE agents between March 1942 and December 1943, whom they used as part of a successful deception scheme. A major Abwehr failure occurred when the existence of a resistance group and spy ring, which operated out of Austria and had been working with the Allies,
10440-538: The Nazi era the Abwehr disregarded this prohibition, as they saw it as hypocritical. In the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi movement, the Ministry of Defence was reorganized; surprisingly, on 7 June 1932, a naval officer, Captain Conrad Patzig [ de ] , was named chief of the Abwehr , even though it was staffed largely by army officers. Proving himself quite a capable chief, Patzig swiftly assured
10585-706: The OJAL was reminiscent of "the Organization of the French Algerian Resistance (ORAF), a group of counter-terrorists created in December 1956 by the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (Territorial Surveillance Directorate, or DST) whose mission was to carry out terrorist attacks with the aim of quashing any hopes of political compromise". In espionage , the term "false flag" describes
10730-400: The OKW or, increasingly after 1941, Hitler directly. In practice, each Ast was given considerable latitude in mission planning and execution—a facet of the organization that ultimately damaged its intelligence-gathering capability. Each local Ast could recruit potential agents for missions and the Abwehr also employed freelance recruiters to groom and vet potential agents. In most cases,
10875-470: The OSS, who hired Bedřich Laufer (OSS Code name: Iris), a double agent who had also been working for the SD. Several examples demonstrate that some Abwehr members were opposed to the Nazi regime. In January 1944 for example, American statesman Allen Dulles revealed his knowledge of a coalescing resistance against the Nazis, an assemblage of intellectuals from military and government circles; his main contact
11020-473: The Polish elite. For several months before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Abwehr was key in deception operations set up to convince the British and the Soviets that Great Britain was under threat of imminent invasion, an undertaking which helped soften the eastern territories for Operation Barbarossa. Before the commencement of the attack on the Soviet Union , the Abwehr also spread rumors that
11165-522: The Red Army. Likewise, a group of White Russians under General Anton Turkoul [ Wikidata ] sought asylum in Germany and offered to provide radio intelligence for the Germans and worked with the Abwehr in getting the necessary communication links established. One of the primary radio links was code-named MAX, supposedly located near the Kremlin. MAX was not the intelligence mechanism
11310-480: The Soviet Union was going to take place. Late assessments from the Abwehr contributed to military overconfidence and their reporting mechanism said nothing of the massive mobilization capability of the Soviet Union, an oversight that arguably contributed to the German defeat since time-tables were so important for German success. Many of the maps produced for Operation Barbarossa by the Abwehr were woefully inaccurate and portrayed dirt tracks as main roads, hampering
11455-723: The Ukrainians opposed to the Soviet regime, conducted meetings with Indian nationalists working against British rule in India , and established an information-sharing agreement with the Japanese. There was even some significant penetration into the extent of the United States industrial capacity and economic potential, and data was collected by the Abwehr concerning American military capacity and contingency planning. Sometime in March 1937, senior Abwehr officer Paul Thümmel provided
11600-525: The actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrepresentation of someone's allegiance. The term was originally used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity. The tactic was initially used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them. It later
11745-597: The agents were recruited civilians, not officers/soldiers from the military. The recruitment emphasis seems to have been very much on "quantity" not "quality". The poor quality of recruits often led to the failure of Abwehr missions. In neutral countries, the Abwehr frequently disguised its organization by attaching personnel to the German Embassy or to trade missions. Such postings were referred to as "War Organisations" ( "Kriegsorganisationen" or "KO's" in German). In neutral but friendly Spain for example,
11890-412: The aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to refrain from evacuating its troops occupying Egypt's Suez Canal zone, a move that would embolden Egyptian President Nasser against Israel. However, the plot was exposed before launch and Egyptian authorities were able to tail an operative to his target, arrest him and later search his apartment where
12035-583: The appearance of enemies when none exist, or create the illusion of organized and directed persecution. This can be used to gain attention and sympathy from outsiders, in particular the media, or to convince others within the group that their beliefs are under attack and in need of protection. In retaliation for writing The Scandal of Scientology , some members of the Church of Scientology stole stationery from author Paulette Cooper 's home and then used that stationery to forge bomb threats and have them mailed to
12180-466: The border with Poland , under the direction of Patzig, but this led to confrontations with Heinrich Himmler , head of the SS . Army leaders also feared that the flights would endanger the secret plans for an attack on Poland. Adolf Hitler ordered the termination of the overflights in 1934 after he signed a nonaggression treaty with Poland since these reconnaissance missions might be discovered and jeopardize
12325-549: The camp, registered as a refugee camp by the United Nations (UN). Even according to Reid-Daly, most of those killed were unarmed guerrillas standing in formation for a parade. The camp hospital was also set ablaze by the rounds fired by the Scouts, killing all patients. According to David Martin and Phyllis Johnson, who visited the camp shortly before the raid, it was only a refugee camp that did not host any guerrillas. It
12470-472: The candidate's knowledge. The Canuck letter is an example of one candidate's creating a false document and attributing it as coming from another candidate in order to discredit that candidate. In 2006, individuals practicing false flag behavior were discovered and "outed" in New Hampshire and New Jersey after blog comments claiming to be from supporters of a political candidate were traced to
12615-515: The claimed attacks, explosions, and evacuations in Donbas were staged by Russia. On 4 April 1953, the CIA was ordered to undermine the government of Iran over a four-month period, as a precursor to overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh . One tactic used to undermine Mosaddegh was to carry out false flag attacks "on mosques and key public figures", to be blamed on Iranian communists loyal to
12760-537: The direction of Major Hans-Wolf Riesen, an Abwehr officer on the Eleventh Army's staff, who oversaw the execution of 1200 civilians, the bulk of whom were Jews. Additional evidence over the duties assigned to operatives in theater is revealing. Out in the field, the army group commander of the G-2 was assisted the army group Abwehr officer ( Frontaufklaerungskommando III), with additional help coming available from
12905-536: The entire plan, including the names of other agents and explosive materials, was held. Unknown to Israel Prime Minister Moshe Sharet , the exposé caused a scandal in Israel, with Israeli officials blaming one another for the operation and the Israeli defense minister, Pinhas Lavon , resigning under pressure. Later, two investigative committees found that Lavon was unaware of the operation. Due to its deceptive nature
13050-479: The false flag is lowered and the true flag raised before engaging in battle. Auxiliary cruisers operated in such a fashion in both World Wars, as did Q-ships , while merchant vessels were encouraged to use false flags for protection. Such masquerades promoted confusion not just of the enemy but of historical accounts. In 1914 the Battle of Trindade was fought between the British auxiliary cruiser RMS Carmania and
13195-661: The first act of the Second World War in Europe . Prior to the 1939 invasion, German newspapers and politicians like Adolf Hitler carried out a national and international propaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of organizing or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland. The plan, named after its originator, Heinrich Himmler , was supervised by Reinhard Heydrich and managed by Heinrich Müller . The goal of this false flag project
13340-592: The first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory. Since 5:45 a. m., we have been returning the fire... I will continue this struggle, no matter against whom, until the safety of the Reich and its rights are secured By mid-1939, thousands of Polish Volksdeutsche had been secretly prepared for sabotage and guerrilla warfare by the Breslau (Wrocław) office of the Abwehr . Their activities were meant to provoke anti-German reprisals that could be claimed as provocations. The German agents indeed co-operated with
13485-452: The footage also prominently showed three expansion packs for the Sims 3 video game. Investigative journalist Eliot Higgins interpreted this to mean that the arrest was in fact staged, with its organizers misunderstanding an instruction "to get 3 SIMs ". Further lending credence to the arrest being staged was footage of a note with a Russian phrase, which in fact read signature unclear . This
13630-496: The government. The CIA operation was code-named TPAJAX . The tactic of a "directed campaign of bombings by Iranians posing as members of the Communist party" involved the bombing of "at least one" well known Muslim's house by CIA agents posing as Communists. The CIA determined that the tactic of false flag attacks added to the "positive outcome" of TPAJAX . However, as "the C.I.A. burned nearly all of its files on its role in
13775-471: The greatest loss of life on an Australian warship. While Kormoran was fatally damaged in the engagement and its crew captured, the outcome represented a considerable psychological victory for the Germans. The British used a Kriegsmarine ensign in the St Nazaire Raid and captured a German code book. The old destroyer Campbeltown , which the British planned to sacrifice in the operation,
13920-656: The head of the OKW Ausland/Abwehr , immediately expressed concern about the military and political ramifications of this order. Killing soldiers and even non-combatants in contravention of the Geneva Convention was not something the Abwehr leadership—namely Canaris—supported. The Abwehr was active in North Africa leading up to and during the Western Desert Campaign of 1941–42. North Africa, like other cases, proved disastrous for
14065-521: The highest rank initially available for black soldiers being colour sergeant . They succeeded in turning approximately 800 insurgents who were then paid by Special Branch, ultimately reaching the number of 1,500 members. Engaging mainly in long-range reconnaissance and surveillance missions, they increasingly turned to offensive actions, including the attempted assassination of Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army leader Joshua Nkomo in Zambia . This mission
14210-624: The ideological groundwork for the annexation of Austria which occurred in March 1938. A month later, Canaris and the Abwehr were set to work subverting the Czechs as part of Hitler's strategy to acquire the Sudetenland . Before the spring of 1938 came to an end, the conservative members of the German Foreign Office and many ranking officers in the military began sharing their fears over an impending international disaster and
14355-454: The individual military services' intelligence units were combined and, in 1929, centralized under Schleicher's Ministeramt within the Ministry of Defence , forming the foundation for the more commonly understood manifestation of the Abwehr . Each Abwehr station throughout Germany was based on the local army district ( Wehrkreis ); more offices opened in amenable neutral countries and (as
14500-543: The informal name of the operation, Operation Konserve . There were several separate operations, including staged attacks on the following: On the night of 31 August a small group of German operatives, dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Alfred Naujocks , seized the Gleiwitz radio station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish (sources vary on the content of the message). Several prisoners (most likely from
14645-587: The law of war on land and at sea", and as such these two non-controversial articles were already part of customary law. In land warfare, the use of a false flag is similar to that of naval warfare: the trial of Otto Skorzeny , who planned and commanded Operation Greif , by a U.S. military tribunal at the Dachau Trials included a finding that Skorzeny was not guilty of a crime by ordering his men into action in American uniforms. He had relayed to his men
14790-445: The meanwhile there, first of all, came as an answer to the sudden Polish general mobilization, followed by more Polish atrocities. These were again repeated last night. Recently in one night, there were as many as twenty-one frontier incidents: last night there were fourteen, of which three were quite serious. I have, therefore, resolved to speak to Poland in the same language that Poland for months past has used toward us... This night for
14935-513: The military of his intentions and worked to earn their respect; he established good connections with the Lithuanian clandestine service against the Soviets, forged relations with other foreign agencies—except for Italy, whose cipher he distrusted. His successes did not stop the other branches of the military services from developing their intelligence staff. After the Nazis seized power, the Abwehr began sponsoring reconnaissance flights across
15080-400: The more common legal term is a " frameup ", "stitch up", or "setup". In land warfare, such operations are generally deemed acceptable under certain circumstances, such as to deceive enemies , provided the deception is not perfidious and that all such deceptions are discarded before opening fire upon the enemy. Similarly, in naval warfare such a deception is considered permissible, provided
15225-426: The more common police or intelligence infiltration of guerrilla or criminal organizations. In the latter case, infiltration is normally done by individuals. Pseudo teams, on the other hand, are formed as needed from organized units, usually military or paramilitary . The use of pseudo teams has been a hallmark of a number of foreign counterinsurgency campaigns." Similar false flag tactics were also employed during
15370-860: The navy maintained its listening service, known as the B-Dienst . Further complicating COMINT matters, the Foreign Office also had its own communications security branch, the Pers Z S . Matters came to a head in 1937 when Hitler decided to help Joseph Stalin in the latter's purge of the Soviet military . Hitler ordered that the German Army staff should be kept in the dark about Stalin's intentions, for fear that they would warn their Soviet counterparts due to their long-standing relations . Accordingly, special SS teams, accompanied by burglary experts from
15515-399: The non-German population was concerned. The net of agents produced a clear picture of the morale and attitude of the population within the sector of the army group and reported on all activities of the enemy intelligence service, on resistance movements and other illegal groups, and guerrilla conditions. According to Bauer, the Abwehr was more interested in perpetuating its interests than it
15660-559: The offices of the OKW. The Abwehr was created in 1920 as part of the German Ministry of Defence when the German government was allowed to form the Reichswehr , the military organization of the Weimar Republic . The first head of the Abwehr was Major Friedrich Gempp , a former deputy to Colonel Walter Nicolai , the head of German intelligence during World War I , who proved mostly ineffectual. At that time it
15805-502: The operational sections of the Abwehr . Abwehr I was commanded by Colonel Hans Pieckenbrock, Abwehr II was commanded by Colonel Erwin von Lahousen and Abwehr III was commanded by Colonel Egbert Bentivegni. These three officers formed the core of the Abwehr. Under the structure outlined above, the Abwehr placed a local station in each military district in Germany, ( "Wehrkreis" ), called ' Abwehrstelle' or ' Ast' . Following
15950-501: The pace of logistical operations. The German Army's failure to reach its objectives in short order proved pivotal; once winter came, improperly outfitted German forces suffered when supplies did not reach them. Overestimating their capabilities and trusting their assessments too much, as well as underestimating their enemies (especially the Soviets and the Americans), atop long-standing traditions of unconditional obedience , comprised
16095-484: The partition of Spain. SD operatives also established a station at the central post office in Madrid to police mail going through Spain and even attempted to assassinate one of Franco's pro-Allied generals, which strengthened Franco's intransigence against Hitler and the Nazi regime. Operation Garbo, also known as "Garbo" or "Agent Garbo", was a crucial British intelligence operation during World War II aimed at deceiving
16240-547: The period known as the Phoney War , the Abwehr collected information on Denmark and Norway. Shipping in and out of Danish and Norwegian ports was placed under observation and over 150,000 tons of shipping was destroyed as a result. Agents in Norway and Denmark successfully penetrated their military thoroughly enough to determine the disposition and strength of land forces in both countries and deep-cover Abwehr operatives kept
16385-733: The recruiting of agents by operatives posing as representatives of a cause the prospective agents are sympathetic to, or even the agents' own government. For example, during the Cold War , several female West German civil servants were tricked into stealing classified documents by agents of the East German Stasi intelligence service pretending to be members of West German peace advocacy groups (the Stasi agents were also described as " Romeos ", indicating that they also used their sex appeal to manipulate their targets, making this operation
16530-437: The right", however because some historical false flag incidents occurred, historians should not fully cede the usage of the term to conspiracy theorists. Perlman says "The real danger is if we use the nonattributive 'false flags' as shorthand for conspiracy theories, without explaining what they are and who is promoting them." At the same time, Perlman writes that "people yelling that any attack attributed to someone on 'their side'
16675-491: The risks of exposure rapidly increase with time and intelligence gathering eventually leads to violent confrontation. Pseudo-operations may be directed by military or police forces, or both. Police forces are usually best suited to intelligence tasks; however, military provide the structure needed to back up such pseudo-ops with military response forces. According to US military expert Lawrence Cline (2005), "the teams typically have been controlled by police services, but this largely
16820-442: The secret field police. Abwehr officers in this capacity were tasked with overseeing personnel in counterintelligence, the safeguarding of classified information, and preventive security. The Frontaufklaerungskommando III received instructions concerning the Abwehr from OKH/General z.b.V./Gruppe Abwehr , and "informed army group G-2 of all Abwehr matters in a monthly report or special reports." Security within army headquarters
16965-651: The shifting diplomatic situation resulted in delay until 31 August and 1 September. The operations were carried out by agents of the SS and the SD . The German troops, dressed in Polish uniforms, would storm various border buildings, scare the locals with inaccurate shots, carry out acts of vandalism, retreat and leave behind dead bodies in Polish uniforms. The bodies were really prisoners from concentration camps who were dressed in Polish uniforms, killed by lethal injection , shot for appearances and left behind. They were described in plans as Konserve : canned goods, which also led to
17110-617: The task of "serving as radio and microfilm channel for Major Nikolaus Ritter , head of the Abwehr Hamburg post's air intelligence section". Unfortunately for the Germans, who used Sebold successfully for a short period, he was discovered, and became a counterspy, and his communications to Germany were screened by the FBI . For more than a year and a half, the FBI was able to transmit misleading information via Sebold to German intelligence from
17255-456: The threat of another catastrophic European war based on Hitler's actions. A conspiratorial group formed around General Erwin von Witzleben and Admiral Canaris as a result. Throughout the process, Canaris and subordinates such as Helmuth Groscurth worked to prevent war to the extent feasible. Meanwhile, Canaris participated in the plots among the military leadership for a coup against Hitler and attempted to open up covert communication lines with
17400-529: The treaty. Patzig was fired in January 1935 as a result, and sent to command the new pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee ; he later became Chief of Naval Personnel. His replacement was another Reichsmarine captain, Wilhelm Canaris . Before he took over the Abwehr on 1 January 1935, the soon-to-be Admiral Canaris was warned by Patzig of attempts by Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich to take over all German intelligence organizations. Heydrich, who headed
17545-551: The troll claims to hold. The concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view and attempts to sway the group's actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals , but with professed "concerns". The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt within the group often by appealing to outrage culture . This is a particular case of sockpuppeting and safe-baiting . Proponents of political or religious ideologies will sometimes use false flag tactics. This can be done to discredit or implicate rival groups, create
17690-452: The true extent of the group's success, particularly in providing information for Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra , both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord . Some 20 members of the group—including its key figures, Franz Joseph Messner [ de ] (codenamed CASSIA by the OSS) and the priest Heinrich Maier —were eventually executed due to the intelligence failures of
17835-532: The unions' cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions ... Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support the media may be creating in favor of the unions. The press had acquired a court order to access all of Walker's emails and Lam's email was exposed. At first, Lam vehemently denied it, but eventually admitted it and resigned. Some conservative commentators suggested that pipe bombs that were sent to prominent Democrats prior to
17980-840: The use of defectors, which brought the issue a wider audience. Another example of combined police and military oversight of pseudo-operations include the Selous Scouts in the former country Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ), governed by white minority rule until 1980. The Selous Scouts were formed at the beginning of Operation Hurricane , in November 1973, by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Ronald Reid-Daly . As with all Special Forces in Rhodesia, by 1977 they were controlled by COMOPS (Commander, Combined Operations) Commander Lieutenant General Peter Walls . The Selous Scouts were originally composed of 120 members, with all officers being white and
18125-418: The warning of German legal experts: if they fought in American uniforms, they would be breaking the laws of war ; however, they probably were not doing so simply by wearing the American uniforms. During the trial, a number of arguments were advanced to substantiate this position and the German and U.S. military seem to have been in agreement. In the transcript of the trial, it is mentioned that Paragraph 43 of
18270-616: Was Abwehr officer Hans Bernd Gisevius , who was stationed in Zurich as the German Vice Consul. Dulles communicated with the Abwehr concerning their intrigue against Hitler and even attempted discussions about a separate peace, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have none of it, preferring instead a policy of unconditional surrender for the Nazi government. Machinations against the National Socialists by
18415-629: Was Otto Kiep , an official in the Foreign Office, who had friends in the Abwehr , among whom were Erich Vermehren and his wife, the former Countess Elizabeth von Plettenberg , who were stationed as agents in Istanbul . Both were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo in connection with the Kiep case. Fearing for their lives, they contacted the British and defected. Hitler had long suspected that
18560-567: Was a failure; Franco, for various political and military reasons, was not ready to join the German war effort. Canaris reported that Franco would not commit Spanish forces until England collapsed. Initial estimates of the Soviet Red Army 's will and capability were low, a line of thinking shared by the Nazi hierarchy. A great deal has been made by historians over this fact, but some of the German General Staff's optimism
18705-619: Was again interpreted as a misunderstood instruction, this time taken too literally. The FSB subsequently published a version of the footage with the Sims games blurred out. Pseudo-operations are those in which forces of one power disguise themselves as enemy forces. For example, a state power may disguise teams of operatives as insurgents and, with the aid of defectors, infiltrate insurgent areas. The aim of such pseudo-operations may be to gather short or long-term intelligence or to engage in active operations, in particular assassinations of important enemies. However, they usually involve both, as
18850-623: Was another area of responsibility so detachments of the secret field police were placed at his disposal and he cooperated with particular departments of the SD, the SS, and the police to be well versed in all fields of counterintelligence and kept tabs on guards, checking their reliability against available personnel records. According to the United States War Dept. General Staff, The Abwehr officer maintained close liaison with Frontaufklaerungskommando III to be well informed about counterintelligence conditions, especially as far as
18995-668: Was authorised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , but then rejected by President John F. Kennedy . The surprise discovery of the documents relating to Operation Northwoods was a result of the comprehensive search for records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by the Assassination Records Review Board in the mid-1990s. Information about Operation Northwoods was later publicized by James Bamford . In January and February 2022, Western government agencies predicted that Russia would use
19140-399: Was committed by 'the other side' drown out the voices of reason." Political campaigning has a long history of this tactic in various forms, including in person, print media and electronically in recent years. This can involve when supporters of one candidate pose as supporters of another, or act as " straw men " for their preferred candidate to debate against. This can happen with or without
19285-457: Was composed of only three officers and seven former officers, plus a clerical staff. When Gempp became a general, he was promoted out of the job as chief, to be followed by Major Günther Schwantes, whose term as the organization's leader was also brief. Many members of the Reichswehr (a significant portion of them Prussian) declined when asked to consider intelligence work, since for them, it
19430-604: Was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag before commencing an attack. The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression or foreign military aggression. Similarly deceptive activities carried out during peacetime by individuals or nongovernmental organizations have been called false flag operations, but
19575-547: Was due to the weaknesses in the respective military intelligence systems." The State Political Directorate (OGPU) of the Soviet Union set up such an operation from 1921 to 1926. During Operation Trust , they used loose networks of White Army supporters and extended them, creating the pseudo-"Monarchist Union of Central Russia" (MUCR) in order to help the OGPU identify real monarchists and anti-Bolsheviks. An example of
19720-692: Was finally aborted by the Selous Scouts, and attempted again, unsuccessfully, by the Rhodesian Special Air Service . Some offensive operations attracted international condemnation, in particular the Selous Scouts' raid on a Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) camp at Nyadzonya Pungwe, Mozambique in August 1976. ZANLA was then led by Josiah Tongogara . Using Rhodesian trucks and armored cars disguised as Mozambique military vehicles, 84 scouts killed 1,284 people in
19865-488: Was impaired by agents who aided the Allies in whatever covert means were necessary. Canaris personally gave false information that discouraged Hitler from invading Switzerland ( Operation Tannenbaum ). He also persuaded Francisco Franco not to allow German forces to pass through Spain to invade Gibraltar ( Operation Felix ), but it may have been just as much the imposition of the SD. The SD was allegedly spreading rumors about
20010-402: Was in saving Jews. While there are accounts of the Abwehr assisting Jews to safety via clandestinely arranged emigration, there are also cases of Abwehr operatives enriching themselves in the process through bribes and other monetary payoffs. Not only that, the Abwehr had its share of dedicated Nazis. For example, it is now known that Abwehr agent Hermann Giskes and Joseph Schreieder of
20155-502: Was not until after Canaris was appointed chief that its numbers increased and it gained some independence. Experiencing an explosion in personnel of sorts, the Abwehr went from fewer than 150 employees to nearly one thousand between 1935 and 1937. Canaris reorganized the agency in 1938, subdividing the Abwehr into three main sections: Abwehr liaisons were also established with the army, navy, and Luftwaffe High Commands, and these liaisons would pass on specific intelligence requests to
20300-490: Was outside the realm of actual military service and the act of spying clashed with their Prussian military sensibilities of always showing themselves direct, loyal, and sincere. By the 1920s, the slowly growing Abwehr was organised into three sections: The Reichsmarine intelligence staff merged with the Abwehr in 1928. While the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from engaging in any form of espionage or spying, during
20445-437: Was provided with cosmetic modifications that involved cutting the ship's funnels and chamfering the edges to resemble a German Type 23 torpedo boat . By this ruse the British were able to get within two miles (3 km) of the harbour before the defences responded, where the explosive-rigged Campbeltown and commandos successfully disabled or destroyed the key dock structures of the port. Between December 1922 and February 1923,
20590-610: Was staged for UN approval. According to a 1978 study by the Directorate of Military Intelligence, 68% of all insurgent deaths inside Rhodesia could be attributed to the Selous Scouts, who were disbanded in 1980. If the action is a police action, then these tactics would fall within the laws of the state initiating the pseudo, but if such actions are taken in a civil war or during a belligerent military occupation then those who participate in such actions would not be privileged belligerents . The principle of plausible deniability
20735-444: Was the result of estimates provided by the Abwehr , whose assessments left the German General Staff believing that the Red Army only possessed 90 infantry divisions, 23 cavalry divisions, and a mere 28 mechanized brigades. By the time the reappraisal of the Red Army by German military intelligence occurred in mid-June 1941 (which was about 25 percent higher than previously reported), it was a foregone conclusion that Hitler's invasion of
20880-552: Was to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, which could be used to justify the German invasion of Poland . Hitler also might have hoped to confuse Poland's allies, the United Kingdom and France , into delaying or stopping their declaration of war on Germany. The operations were mostly carried out on 31 August. The operation, as well as the main German offensive, was originally scheduled for 26 August;
21025-533: Was uncovered by the Gestapo ; a failing for which the Abwehr was embarrassed. This resistance group provided the OSS with plans and information on Peenemünde , the V-1 , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.), and supplied information on the existence of major concentration camps like Auschwitz . Despite the Gestapo 's use of torture, they were unable to uncover
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