Nigel West - HITLER’S NEST OF VIPERS

HITLERS NEST

OF VIPERS

THE RISE OF THE ABWEHR

NIGEL WEST

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

FRONTLINE BOOKS

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

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Copyright Nigel West, 2022

The right of Nigel West to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-39908-637-0

ePUB ISBN: 978 1 39908 638 7

MOBI ISBN: 978 1 39908 638 7

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The Abwehr files deserved more than the attention they got from historians and imaginative writers.

Gerold Guensberg, Studies in Intelligence Vol. 21 No. 3 (1977)

The Abwehr is the German equivalent of our own Secret Service. It is a military organisation under the direct control of the German High Command. An Abwehrstelle is a station of the Abwehr.

Major Anthony Blunt to the Prime Minister, MI5 briefing on HARLEQUIN, April 1943

Deception of the enemy is a weapon which is too little employed in the German conduct of war. Our enemies, especially the British, occupy themselves with it and with more success.

General Alfred Jodl, Chief of OKW Operations Staff, 5 March 1945.

The author acknowledges his debt of gratitude to those who have assisted his research, among them the late Bill Williams, Roger Hesketh, David Strangeways, Noel Wild, Juan Pujol (GARBO), Roman Garby-Czerniawski (BRUTUS), Harry Williamson (TATE), Frano de Bona (FREAK), Ib Riis (COBWEB), Dusan Popov (TRICYCLE), Ivo Popov (DREADNOUGHT), Eugn Sostaric (METEOR), John Moe (MUTT), Tor Glad (EFF), Elvira de la Fuentes (BRONX), Lisel Grtner, Hugh Astor, Len Burt, Christopher and Pam Harmer, Cyril Mills, John Maude, Gerald Glover, Peter Ramsbotham, Tommy and Joan Robertson, Enriquetta Harris, Sarah Bishop, Joanna Phipps, Peter Hope, Jim Skardon, Eric Goodacre, John Gwyer, Dick White, Victor and Tess Rothschild, and Bill Magan. Russell Lee, Michael Ryde, Rupert Speir, Bill Luke, who shared their wartime MI5 experiences; and the late Sigismund Best, Philip Johns, Cecil Gledhill, Nicholas Elliott, Felix Cowgill, Peter Falk, Desmond Bristow, Rodney Dennys, Cecil Barclay, John Bygott, Eddie Boxshall, Euan Rabagliati, Charles Seymour, Andrew King, George Blake, Lionel Loewe, Walter Bell, Kenneth Benton, John Codrington, Lord Tennyson, George Young, Robin Cecil, John Cairncross, who all served in SIS. Also, from SOE, Ronnie Seth, Peter Kemp, Jack Beevor, Brian Stonehouse, Tony Brooks and Peter Wilkinson; Al Ulmer, Bill Hood, Peter Sichel and Hugh Montgomery from OSS, Ken Crosby, formerly of the FBI Special Intelligence Service; Cleve Cram from the CIA and John Taylor from NARA. Finally, Halina Szymanska, Martin and Kim Dearden, Bill Kenyon-Jones, Gunter Peis, Rob Hesketh, Erich Vermehren, David Mure, Jock Colville, and Bill Cavendish-Bentinck, David Kahn, Marco Popov, Roger Grosjean, Ladislas Farago, John Taylor, Jennifer Scherr, Sebastian Cody, Kim and Marton Dearden, Christian Linde, Frederick Solms-Baruth, Kathleen Ritter, Otto Weltzien, Charles Byford, Nicholas Reed, Jim Lee and Christopher Risso-Gill.

Many of the documents reproduced in this volume originate from official files and have been redacted during the declassification process. Where possible the redactions have been restored, but where this has not been possible the redaction is indicated thus: [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]