The Venlo Sting
The Venlo Sting

Author: Norman Ridley

Publisher: Casemate

Published: 2022-12-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1636242081

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"I would recommend the book to intelligence practitioners, scholars, and other persons interested in World War II intelligence history." —Michael Nady, American Intelligence Journal On 9 November 1939, two unsuspecting British agents of the Special Intelligence Services walked into a trap set by German Spymaster Reinhard Heydrich. Believing that they were meeting a dissident German general for talks about helping German military opposition to bring down Hitler and end the war, they were instead taken captive in the Dutch village of Venlo and whisked away to Germany for interrogation by the Gestapo. The incident was a huge embarrassment for the Dutch government and provided the Germans with significant intelligence about SIS operations throughout Europe. The incident itself was an intelligence catastrophe but it also acts as a prism through which a number of other important narrative strands pass. Fundamental to the subterfuge perpetrated at Venlo were unsubstantiated but insistent rumours of high-ranking German generals plotting to overthrow the Nazi regime from within. After the humiliation suffered when Hitler tore up the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was anxious to see just how much truth there was in these stories; keen to rehabilitate his reputation through one last effort to find a peaceful rapprochement with Germany. When Franz Fischer, a small-time petty crook and agent provocateur, persuaded British SIS operatives in the Netherlands that he could act as a go-between for the British government with disaffected German generals, the German Security chief Reinhard Heydrich stepped in and quietly took control of the operation. Heydrich’s boss, head of the Gestapo Heinrich Himmler, was anxious to explore the possibility of peace negotiations with Britain and saw an opportunity to exploit the situation for his personal benefit. On the day before a crucial meeting of conspirators and British agents on the Dutch-German border, a bomb exploded in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich in the exact spot where Hitler had stood to deliver a speech only minutes earlier. The perpetrator was quickly arrested, and Hitler demanded that Himmler find evidence to show that the two events were intimately connected—the British agents were snatched hours later. While the world was coming to terms with the fearsome power of German military might the British intelligence capability in northern Europe was consigned to the dustbin in the sleepy Dutch town of Venlo. This first full account of the Venlo incident explores the wider context of this German intelligence coup, and its consequences.

Lifting the Fog
Lifting the Fog

Author: Bob de Graaff

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-06-06

Total Pages: 677

ISBN-13: 1538176246

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Lifting the Fog: The Secret History of the Dutch Defense Intelligence and Security Service (1912-2022) is unique as a general body of knowledge about the history of the Dutch intelligence and security services since 1913. The chapters alternate between a general historical overview and a number of case studies spread out over the more-than-a-century long history that taken together give a good insight into the main functions of a middle-size military intelligence service as The Netherlands has known. The MIVD is giving the author access to the archives of the MIVD and its predecessors, which normally are closed to outsiders.

Populist Hearsay of 1939-45
Populist Hearsay of 1939-45

Author: Andrew Sangster

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1527549917

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World War II produced many histories which differ according to when and by whom they were written. Many historians tend to write in order to justify their home nation. In the recent Brexit debate it was claimed many times that “we won the war” and “we do not need Europe”; politicians were as guilty of this as everyone else. Britain survived rather than won the war single-handedly and managed only because of the Allies. In France, at the L’Hôtel National des Invalides, in a museum dedicated to World War II, the photographs and notes tended to imply that Germany was defeated by the French with some American assistance. All countries have their bias and special points of view regarding their shared history of World War II, always somewhat nationally self-centred. This book confronts these nationalistic populist views, and, in places, challenges accepted versions of traditional national histories.

Beating the Nazi Invader
Beating the Nazi Invader

Author: Neil R Storey

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 1526772957

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“A compelling examination of an aspect of World War II that always has a rapt audience: espionage . . . With a cast of colorful characters.” —Library Journal (starred review) Beating the Nazi Invader is a revealing and disturbing exploration of the darker history of Nazis, spies and “Fifth Columnist” saboteurs in Britain, and the extensive top-secret countermeasures taken before and during the real threat of invasion in 1940. The author’s research describes the Nazi Party organization in Britain and reveals the existence of the Gestapo headquarters in central London. The reader gains vivid insights into Nazi agents and terrorist cells, the Special Branch and MI5 teams who hunted them and investigated murders believed to have been committed by Third Reich agents on British soil. Accessing a host of recently declassified files the book explores the highly classified measures taken for the protection of the Royal Family, national treasures and gold reserves. The British government made extensive plans for the continuation of government in the event of invasion including the creation of all-powerful Regional Commissioners, “Black Lists” of suspected collaborators and a British resistance organization. We also learn of the Nazis’ own occupation measures for suborning the population and the infamous Sonderfahndungsliste G.B, the Nazi “Special Wanted List.” The result is a fascinating insight into the measures and actions taken to ensure that Great Britain did not succumb to the gravest threat of enemy invasion and occupation for centuries. “Provides fresh and incisive answers to some intriguing 80-year-old mysteries about wartime espionage.” —Britain at War “A truly engrossing work.” —History of War Magazine

Nazi Spies & Collaborators in Britain, 1939–1945
Nazi Spies & Collaborators in Britain, 1939–1945

Author: Neil R. Storey

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2023-05-04

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 139908433X

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"...reveals the climate of fear along with the identities and case studies of suspected collaborators in key invasion areas." —ARGunners.com The true extent of Nazi secret agent activity in Britain during the Second World War has received little attention. In large part this is due to the highly classified nature of the subject. This fascinating book uses recently released documents to explore how German agents penetrated our borders and explains methods of agent recruitment. Some spies were arrested and handed over the MI5 for interrogation. Several were turned and became ‘double-cross’ agents, while others were tried and executed or incarcerated in Camp 020 and other facilities. There were also those who came and left undetected and were only revealed after Nazi records were seized. The story, however, does not end there. While British authorities urged the public to beware of spies and posters warned ‘careless talk costs lives,’ the actual existence of Nazi collaborators in Britain was played down. Author Neil R Storey’s discovery of MI5’s and Regional Security Panels’ ‘Black Lists’ of those considered to be ‘likely to assist the enemy’ in the event of invasion reveals the climate of fear along with the identities and case studies of suspected Nazi collaborators in key invasion areas. This book is a gripping exposé of the very real threat posed by Nazi undercover operatives and collaborators in Britain during the Second World War.

Countdown to Valkyrie
Countdown to Valkyrie

Author: Nigel Jones

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1848325088

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Provides an account of the unsuccessful military conspiracy against Adolf Hitler carried out by the generals on his staff in the summer of 1944.

The Venlo Incident
The Venlo Incident

Author: Nigel Jones

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2009-10-30

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1473800404

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In November 1939, the Nazis used the so-called Venlo Incident as a pretext for invading the Netherlands. Following orders from Himmler, two British intelligence officers, Sigismund Payne Best and Richard Stevens, were captured from the Café Backus in the town of Venlo. Best had been trying to contact German officers plotting against Hitler. The Netherlands had been an ideal ground for operations, because of its proximity to Germany and the fact that Dutch Intelligence was badly funded. When Best met the three agents – including Walter Schellenberg – he was carrying with him a list of British agents who were working in Europe. hen he arrived at the café, which was just over the Dutch border, he realised he had walked into a trap. A Dutch intelligence officer who accompanied them, Dirk Klop, was fatally wounded. Best and Stevens were taken into Germany. After their Berlin interrogation and torture they were taken to the notorious Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Hitler used the incident – together with the Elser bomb plot – as an excuse for war with the Netherlands, claiming their involvement with Britain violated their neutrality. As Nigel Jones explains, the incident was crucial in making the British suspicious of dealings with anti-Hitler resistance.

The Hitler/Hess Deception
The Hitler/Hess Deception

Author: Martin A. Allen

Publisher: Collins

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

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This text aims to shed light on discoveries which claim to reveal the truth about Rudolph Hess' solo flight to Britain in May 1941 and explain the British government's 60-year-long silence as to what the Hess mission was all about.