Ebook295 pages4 hours
The Venlo Sting: MI6's Deadly Fiasco
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
"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.
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.
Author
Norman Ridley
Norman Ridley is an Open University Honours graduate and a writer on inter-war intelligence. He lives in the Channel Islands.
Read more from Norman Ridley
The Venlo Sting: MI6's Deadly Fiasco Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Role of Intelligence in the Battle of Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading Hitler's Mind: The Intelligence Failure that led to WW2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Air War in Spain: The Rise of the Luftwaffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Race for the Atomic Bomb: Scientists, Spies and Saboteurs – The Allies’ and Hitler’s Battle for the Ultimate Weapon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilitary Air Power in Europe Preparing for War: A Study of European Nations’ Air Forces Leading up to 1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler and Poland: How the Independence of one Country led the World to War in 1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Gold: The Nazi Loot and How it was Laundered and Lost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road to Barbarossa: Soviet-German Relations, 1917–1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Venlo Sting
Related ebooks
Code Wars: How 'Ultra' and 'Magic' Led to Allied Victory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFighting to Lose: How the German Secret Intelligence Service Helped the Allies Win the Second World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5GARBO: The Spy Who Saved D-Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGermany, The Next Republic? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of William L. Shirer's Berlin Diary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Countering Hitler's Spies: British Military Intelligence, 1940–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of John Lukacs's Five Days in London, May 1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London, 1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpies and Secret Service - The Story of Espionage, Its Main Systems and Chief Exponents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeating the Nazi Invader: Hitler’s Spies, Saboteurs and Secrets in Britain 1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeating the Nazi Invader: Hitler's Spies, Saboteurs and Secrets in Britain 1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spies Who Never Were: The True Story of the Nazi Spies Who Were Actually Allied Double Agents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of David A. Price's Geniuses at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpecial Forces - WWII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Mission to London 1912-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Agent's Pocket Manual: 1939-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Allied Intelligence Handbook to the German Army 1939–45 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Day Peace Broke Out: The VE-Day Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spy Net: The Greatest Intelligence Operations of the First World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second World War Explained Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nazi Spies and Collaborators in Britain, 1939–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrough Hitler's Back Door: SOE Operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria 1939–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's Wartime Conversations: His Personal Thoughts as Recorded by Martin Bormann Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duel: The Eighty-Day Struggle Between Churchill & Hitler Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Mission to London, 1912-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorthamptonshire at War, 1939–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife Under Nazi Occupation: The Struggle to Survive During World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Diplomatic Relations 1871-1945: The Wilhelmstrasse <Br>And the Formulation <Br>Of Foreign Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalingrad: The Battle that Shattered Hitler's Dream of World Domination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Venlo Sting
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Venlo Sting - Norman Ridley
_c book_preview_excerpt.html |MG_ӀII#M)Z8,M<#<3Isb;{fUKnϞWO*
}l_囯o[w5CmW}>uUw}q{[\*b[ZTooo}߸+wooYz_ETmLxC{p}UaS{Nxч!CqJ֏Cj(a'o[fCmvk;G'9p'w.v/B3q(⧃Gޥ(>/t>'||BǪX5M"qQNQJtz{L)B7uo!G_֥;:`+I&Su!$R((_GĢ9jO
uj"ITQʼ}To(l]Y~ypoř2ʳ8&>ϾIxS-lkh+70}^\ C)nhTƦƋ'Oz"|O~=idjsq7