WWII Espionage

[AmateisGal]

WASHINGTON D.C. – Created practically overnight, in the depths of World War II, men and women from all parts of American society created the most dynamic and unique organization in United States history: the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Special Operations Forces, and the U.S. intelligence community.

Today, nearly 70 years later, the OSS Society has embarked on its latest mission, though not nearly so clandestine as those of its youth: to tell the great, largely unknown story of the OSS and its lasting effect on U.S. national security through the creation of a National OSS Museum of American Intelligence & Special Operations™.

On Oct. 15, the OSS Society unveiled plans for this new museum, designed by Fentress Architects, which will tell the story of the men and women who served in the OSS between June 13, 1942, and Oct. 1, 1945. The landmark building and its three-quarter acre of exhibits will jointly remind the world of their efforts, achievements and sacrifice. The architectural design expresses the spirit of resistance, and eventual triumph against the forces of oppression and terror, in stone, glass and steel.

http://www.militarytrader.com/milita...ational-museum

Oh. My. Gosh. Dream job right there! If only it wasn't in D.C....

[Story]

Tangentially related, a WWII serial killer mystery

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nazi-occupied Paris was a terrible place to be in the waning days of World War Two, with Jews, Resistance fighters and ordinary citizens all hoping to escape. Disappearances became so common they often weren't followed up.

And one man used the lawlessness for his own terrible purposes, killing perhaps as many as 150 people.

Yet it wasn't until thick black smoke seeped into buildings in a fashionable part of the city that firefighters and police were called to an elegant townhouse where they found body parts scattered around -- setting off a manhunt that led them, eventually, to Marcel Petiot.

http://www.wtkr.com/news/offbeat/sns...,5124388.story

[Story]

A secret plot by ex-Nazis, the Vatican, Spain, and even some in the United States to form a post-World War II military force to challenge Communist Russia's feared expansion into West Germany is going on the auction block next week.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/was...i-vatican-army

OTTO SKORZENY'S "PLAN SKORZENY" - COLLABORATING WITH FRANCO, THE VATICAN AND EX-NAZI GENERALS TO BUILD A SECRET ARMY IN SPAIN
On Sep. 7, 1950 Otto Skorzeny, bearing a passport under the alias of "Hans Frey", met with ex-Wehrmacht Gen. Hans Speidel to discuss a matter of great importance to Skorzeny and many of his fellow ex-Nazis. On the very same day, he obtained a temporary visa to travel to Spain and on Sep. 16, 1950, Skorzeny entered Spain under an alias to begin a collaboration with Spain's top military leaders, ex-SS generals and officers, and even the highest levels of the Vatican to plan the formation of a secret army of ex-Nazis and Spanish military in Spain and North Africa, prepared at any time to counter a Russian attack from East Germany. This grouping of documents, directly from Skorzeny's estate, documents his efforts to form such an "army in exile", perhaps with even more sinister intent. Its contents have remained hidden for over sixty years, totally unknown to journalists and historians alike.

http://auctions.alexautographs.com/a...refno=+++71353

[Story]

Peter Tindley, who has died aged 94, spent much of his career in south-east Asia; during the Second World War he made an epic journey from Thailand to safety in China, and later worked for MI6.

After flying to India, Tindley was commissioned into 6th Field Regiment RA. He served in Baluchistan until 1943, when he was recruited by Inter Services Liaison Department (ISLD), the cover name used in south-east Asia by MI6.
Despite evidence of Japan’s imperial ambitions, the service had neglected its networks in the region during the interwar years. Much of the work of intelligence gathering there after 1940 was accordingly done by SOE, which had far better contacts with resistance groups and prominent local figures. As a result, relations between the two agencies were not cordial.
Most of ISLD’s attempts to insert agents focused on Burma, but Tindley was one of the few case officers working further afield. His first mission was to drop off two spies by submarine on to the island of Phuket. This was a hazardous business, and often a search by the Japanese security police would be sparked by the discovery of a dinghy on a beach. Tindley was then posted to southern China, one of MI6’s few strongholds in Asia, where he ran agents into Thailand and down the Indo-China coastline to spot and report on enemy shipping movements.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...r-Tindley.html

[Story]

Legendary Soviet spy Gevork Vartanian, who helped foil a Nazi plot to kill Allied leaders in Tehran during World War II, has died in Moscow aged 87.

Operating in Tehran during World War II, he tracked German commandos who had arrived to attack a summit attended by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.

Realizing they were being followed, the Germans called off the attack.

Audio at
http://www.theworld.org/2012/01/sovi...e-legend-dies/

Gevork Vartanian was a true patriot and a bright personality, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev stated when commemorating the legendary Soviet intelligence officer who died on January 11, aged 87.

Vartanian was responsible for a number of successful intelligence operations some of which still remain classified. Even the list of the countries where he worked remains top secret.

However, one of Vartanian’s operations is a living legend. He helped prevent a Nazi assassination plot on the leaders of the US, the UK and the USSR in Tehran in 1943. The 19-year old Vartanian’s opponent was Nazi number 1 spy Otto Skorzeny who was personally controlled by Hitler.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/11/63677165.html

Vartanian was born on 17 February 1924 in the south Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, into the family of an Iranian national of Armenian extraction. In 1930, the family moved to Tehran where the father, Andrei, served as a Soviet agent under a business cover.Following his father, Gevork became a Soviet agent in 1940 at the age of 16.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16515914

[roadierfl]

Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephenson

[Story]

Interesting and related - anyone read it yet?

A trusted member of Hitler's inner circle, Artur Axmann, the head of the Hitler Youth, witnessed the Führer commit suicide in Berlin—but he would not let the Reich die with its leader. Evading capture, and with access to remnants of the regime’s wealth, Axmann had enough followers to reestablish the Nazi party in the very heart of Allied-occupied Germany—and position himself to become dictator of the Fourth Reich.

U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps Officer Jack Hunter was the perfect undercover operative. Fluent in German, he posed as a black marketeer to root out Nazi sympathizers and saboteurs after the war, and along with other CIC agents uncovered the extent of Axmann’s conspiracy. It threatened to bring the Nazis back into power—and the task fell to Hunter and his team to stop it.

The Axmann Conspiracy is the previously untold true story of the Nazi threat that continued in the wake of World War II, the espionage that defeated it, and two fascinating men whose lives forever altered the course of history.

http://www.theaxmannconspiracy.com/

[roadierfl]

Interesting and related - anyone read it yet?



http://www.theaxmannconspiracy.com/

I have read it, and it's very fanciful. He wasn't really "uncovered" because he was already being hunted by the Allies but his likely death was reported by the Russians. He was "free" from June 1945 to December 1945, a little over 6 months. When he was arrested, he turned over on all his friends to get a deal from the Nuremberg trials. He got a little over 3 years for orchestrating the Hitlerjugend and his post-surrender Nazi activities. The official reason he got off so lightly, was because his actions were out of "personal conviction" as opposed to doing it because he got his jollies essentially. He was actually let go from the court because of the time it took to take him to trial (time served).

The book "Das kahn doh nicht das ende sein" goes into a lot of detail. The "Conspiracy" book seems to be an attempt at making money by seemingly fictionalizing great chunks of history surrounding the "money" and "power" he allegedly had, and the guy who caught him. He didn't have access to a "Nazi fortune", there was little left that wasn't frozen in international accounts or in Allied hands. When he was arrested, he lost nearly everything he had because he had fines to pay based on his activities. But after the war, he was a very very successful businessman. Everything except the classified reports was freely available after the war. There was no attempt at hiding anything at the time, and he made no attempt to hide his activities either. He was just using a false name and trying to reach out to known base-level Nazis that weren't of interest to the Nuremberg trial process. The discovery of who he was, was completely accidental. They were looking for Bohrmann and found Axmann through the Nazi underground when someone was posing as a Nazi with money for Bohrmann.

The book reads like someone trying to make a buck out of taking what's already known and spinning a story around it that it was a great conspiracy when in fact it wasn't.

[roadierfl]

Slightly OT but here's a conspiracy with factual evidence to back it up http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...in-Brazil.html

[TomS]

What more could you want - recon planes, Nazis, hidden gold and secret bunkers.

London, May 10 : RAF surveillance photos shot by Mosquito fighter-bombers over Germany during the Second World War are guiding historians to find the location of a bunker believed to contain a hoard of Nazi gold worth over 500 million pounds on today's markets.

After using photos and eyewitness reports from the time to pinpoint the spot, a dig is due to start next month in the Leinawald forest near Leipzig in the hope it will uncover the lost underground complex.

Rumours of the colossal subterranean installation have fuelled a treasure hunt mania in the forest over recent years.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/ww2-raf-aer...HRlc3QD;_ylv=3

Absolutely amazing. thanks for sharing!