"Venlo Incident"It happened in November 1939 and its impact was far-reaching. It not only laid the groundwork for Hitler's Japanese invasion of Europe, but also played an important turning point in the development of intelligence warfare in World War II.
Since then, restraint between Britain and Germany has disappeared, and the old days of espionage in cafes have passed, replaced by the use of force"Routine", the intelligence war has escalated as a result.
At the beginning of September 1939, two of the most important British intelligence agents on the continent, Major Henry Stevens and Captain Penn Best, received contact from a mysterious man.
The German, Franz Fisher, claimed to represent an anti-Hitler underground within the German army, and offered to meet with the British to introduce their members.
At that time, Major Stevens' public identity was a staff member of the British office in The Hague, the Netherlands, while Captain Best had lived in the Netherlands for a long time and opened a mainland ** import and export company on his own as a cover for intelligence activities.
Both were ** officers of MI5 of the British Intelligence Service, with Stevens in charge of German intelligence activities. It is alleged that there is a secret anti-Nazi organization called the "Black Band" within the German ** team, whose members include some veteran generals and officers, and their leader is General Beck, who was the chief of the German General Staff.
Convinced that Hitler's military adventures would bring disaster to Germany, the members of the "Black Band" had been plotting to overthrow the Nazi regime. Stevens knew that London was very concerned about this, so he hoped to establish contacts with those conspirators through Fisher, obtain valuable intelligence, and even assist them in overthrowing Hitler's regime.
However, Stevens was still very careful, because the new British intelligence chief, Sir Stuart Menheath, had taken special care of him, reminding him that the counterintelligence capabilities of Nazi Germany's intelligence services should not be underestimated, so as not to fall into the trap.
After a cautious attempt, Stevens began negotiations with the other side. However, he did not expect that he and his colleague Best had fallen into a trap carefully designed by German intelligence.
Franz Fischer was not an ordinary German, but a **, code name, for the Reich Security Service of the German SS"f479"。The so-called Captain Shermel with him was in fact the head of the Foreign Intelligence Section of the Intelligence Service of the Security Service and the head of the 1st SS commando, Ward Sramb.
This operation was personally planned by Reinhardt Heydrich, the head of the Security Bureau, in order to expose the links between the British and the anti-Nazi organization within the German army, in order to completely destroy this organization and disrupt all British intelligence networks on the European continent.
Stevens and Slamb met in Amsterdam to reach a consensus on overthrowing the Nazi regime and making peace with the West, and gaining the trust of the British. Slambu recommended Captain Hersman, an army doctor, to approach the British, who gave them a radio station and a cipher.
With Best's help, the Germans crossed the Dutch border, and On-4 sent the news that the general would fly to London on November 9. Mensith arranged to receive the plane and instructed Stevens not to go back to the border, to The Hague and Amsterdam if there were problems.
On November 8, Slambu prepares to meet with Stevens at the Bacchus Cafe. However, Himmler called Slamb at midnight, claiming that Hitler had taken place at the annual meeting of Nazi veterans at the Muni Dark Beer Hall, resulting in the death of several veteran party comrades and heavy losses.
Nauyox and Heydrich were outraged by the assassination, believing that British intelligence had planned and carried out the operation. Despite the lack of evidence to prove this, Germany's ** hyped it up and offered a $200,000 reward for finding clues to the assassin.
Hitler himself suddenly decided to take immediate retaliatory action. He had reservations about Slamb's mission, and had repeatedly hinted that such operations were too dangerous and should be canceled.
But now, he ordered the operation to be cancelled, and the two British agents were kidnapped by force and escorted to Berlin. Heydrich immediately carried out Hitler's decision and enlisted his able subordinate, Alfred Nauyox, the leader of the 1st SS commando group, and ordered him to lead a group of 20 carefully selected SS soldiers to the Netherlands to work with Slambu on this task.
Nauyox is an expert in carrying out such tasks, and he is responsible for most of the assassinations and kidnappings carried out by the Security Service. Immediately after receiving the order, he set off with heavily armed SS soldiers.
On the morning of 9 November, Slambu got up, discussed the plan of action with Naujoks, who had arrived in a hurry, and then the group set off from Düsseldorf by car.
At around 2 p.m., Slambu arrived at the Bacchus Café in the town of Venlo in the Netherlands at the appointed time. It's an ordinary border café with an awning decorated with striped patterns, and there is a small children's playground nearby, and everything seems to be calm.
However, in a secluded spot in nearby Germany, Nauyox and his SS soldiers were nervously awaiting Slamb's signal. At about 2:08 p.m., Best's blue Buick car slowly drove along the narrow street.
They may have noticed something unusual about the atmosphere, and someone was poking their heads around the bend and immediately stopped the car. There were a total of four people in the car: Best, Steve Vince, the driver, and Dutch intelligence officer Claupp.
After observing for a while, they felt that there was no movement, so they slowly drove the car to the corner and stopped in front of the café. It was then that Slambu saw that the time was ripe and signaled Nauyox to act.
The intelligence war entered a new phase: Best and Stevens were captured, and the British intelligence system faced collapse. A group of SS soldiers equipped with automatic ** drove a Mercedes Benz sedan, broke through the border defenses, stormed a café, and quickly grabbed two British** personnel.
They were quickly taken to Berlin and held in the basement of the Security Service. This operation showed the superiority of Germany in the intelligence war. Two key figures in the British intelligence service** put the entire system in crisis.
At the same time, Hitler took the opportunity to accuse the Netherlands of collusion with Great Britain. "Venlo Incident"The implications were far-reaching, changing the landscape of intelligence warfare on the continent.
Six months after the German invasion of Poland, the Germans began an offensive against the rest of Europe. ”