Random Most Hardcore WWII Spy Stories You'll Ever Read (12 items)

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  (#3) Wilhelm Canaris Worked to Bring Down Nazi Germany from the Inside

  Imagine for a moment if, during wartime, it was suddenly discovered that the head of the CIA was actively working to undermine the American government and military. That is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. Wilhelm Canaris had been appointed the head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, in 1935. Initially a fervent supporter of Hitler, his attitude transformed after personally observing atrocities in Poland and receiving numerous reports of Nazi extermination squads operating throughout the Eastern front.

  Canaris began to assemble a group of like-minded opponents to Hitler in both the Abwehr and the military. He was involved in several plots to kill Hitler, although he was wily enough to be able to avoid direct responsibility. Canaris also undermined the Nazi government when sent to Spain in 1940 to compel Franco to join the Axis, instead hinting strongly that this would be a bad idea and Franco should remain neutral.

  Hitler abolished the Abwehr in February 1944.

  After the July 20th plot to kill Hitler failed, Canaris was quickly implicated by others who were tortured or by association with conspirators who had committed suicide. Canaris was then placed under severe detention and was repeatedly tortured, but he refused to admit guilt. Unfortunately, in early April of 1945, a copy of his diaries and notes was discovered in a locked safe in the Abwehr's former headquarters, which clearly spelled out his deliberate attempts to recruit others to oppose the regime. Personally infuriated, Hitler ordered his execution. Canaris and several other co-conspirators from the Abwehr were hanged on April 9, 1945, at Flossenburg concentration camp.   
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  (#10) Takeo Yoshikawa, the Key to Pearl Harbor, Died Without Recognition

  Takeo Yoshikawa was a Japanese naval intelligence officer who developed an expertise in the American Navy during the thirties and as a result was posted as an intelligence officer to the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu in March 1941 His intelligence concerning American fleet security, movements, and battleship locations became the primary source of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's preparations for the Pearl Harbor aerial attack.

  Aware of the imminent Japanese assault, Yoshikawa destroyed any incriminating evidence and his behavior was so stealthy that he evaded detection and was exchanged as a diplomat. Unfortunately, his service tarnished him in the eyes of the Japanese people and subsequently he became penniless and unemployable, supported by his wife, whom he claimed was the only person "who knows I am a man of history and alone shows great respect." He died in a nursing home in 1993.
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  (#11) British Spies Were the Victims of a Nazi Black Ops Attack

  In mid-September 1939, British intelligence in the Netherlands were receiving various covert contacts from various individuals claiming to be interested in a negotiated peace. Some of these were legitimate German military figures, alarmed by the declaration of war and disgruntled with Hitler and his government.  However, one of these individuals, a German émigré named Franz Fisher, was an operative for the German SD intelligence unit who had ingratiated himself with British intelligence.

  He eventually was able to coordinate meetings between two British agents, Sigismund Payne Best and Richard Stevens, and what they thought was a high-level back channel to potential military dissidents. In actuality they were meeting with the notorious SS counter-espionage Colonel Walter Schellenberg, a direct report to Himmler and Heydrich.  Initially, it is believed that the mission was a Nazi operation to identify disloyal Germans within their own government.  However, on November 8, an attempt to assassinate Hitler with a bomb planted by a carpenter named Georg Elser prompted Heinrich Himmler to exploit this situation.

  Meetings between the two factions had typically occurred in a cafe at Venlo, near the Dutch-German border. On November 9, Best and Stevens were scheduled to meet Schellenberg for another discussion; instead, a dozen armed SD forcibly abducted the two British agents and spirited them over the border. Hitler was convinced that Elser, a simple laborer, could not have pulled off his mission alone. The Germans also wished to stir up anti-British sentiment in Germany, which was already apprehensive after the initial success in Poland.

  Nazi newspapers eventually proclaimed the connection between Elser and the British government. Plans for a show trial of the three conspirators were contemplated but never happened for many reasons, one being that any connection between the British and Elser was patently ridiculous. Elser was executed at Dachau in April of 1945; Stevens and Best were imprisoned in several concentration camps but managed to survive the war.  
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  (#2) Krystyna Skarbek AKA Christine Granville AKA Miss Poland Was a Spy and a Beauty Queen

  Krystyna Skarbek was born in Poland in 1908. In 1930, she was a runner up in Miss Poland contest and was already involved in her second marriage when Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

  The couple emigrated to London where Krystyna went to work for British intelligence.

  Skarbek was able to establish a courier system from Poland to Hungary. Fluent in French, she was parachuted into France in 1944, with her new nom de guerre, "Christine Granville."

  She engaged in various intelligence operations, the most famous an incident in Digne, France, where she tricked the Gestapo into believing her cover story and convinced them to release two other captured agents, despite the fact that her picture was on wanted posters all over the German headquarters.

  Despite being awarded the George Medal, the OBE, and the Croix de Guerre, Skarbek was cut loose by the British government after the war, could not return to Communist Poland, and fell upon hard times. Employed as a stewardess for a cruise ship, she was living in a hotel in 1952 when she was stabbed to death by a rejected suitor, Dennis Muldowney. Muldowney was ultimately hanged and Krystyna was buried in London.  
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  (#8) Moe Berg Was a Major League Spy Who Almost Assassinated Werner Heisenberg

  Morris "Moe" Berg was an accomplished athlete and graduate of Princeton University who played and coached professional baseball from 1923 to 1941. Because Berg was quite intelligent and multilingual, he made two trips to Japan, accompanying other players on an exhibition game tour of the country. On one of these trips in 1934, Berg brought a movie camera and filmed the city of Tokyo and its harbor from a hospital rooftop, footage that would eventually become strategically valuable.

  Berg was an average player, but he did obtain a law degree and eventually passed the bar exam. When war broke out, Berg got involved in various counter-intelligence efforts and even provided his film footage to the Army unit that planned Doolittle's Tokyo Raid of 1942.  He was eventually parachuted into enemy territory in Yugoslavia, interacting with Yugoslav partisans.

  Berg was also charged with determining German progress toward the construction of atomic weapons, focusing especially on knowledge concerning German physicist Werner Heisenberg.  In a mission to Zurich, Berg was to kill Heisenberg, who was delivering a lecture, if Berg determined that a German device was imminent. Berg concluded correctly that that was not the case and Heisenberg escaped violence.

  After the war, Berg was awarded the Medal of Freedom, which he refused, the first incident of his increasingly odd behavior.  He refused requests to return to baseball, law firms, or even teaching.  As a Jew, he requested that the CIA send him to Israel - they refused but, in 1951, they did retain him to gather intelligence in Europe. He did little work and the CIA cut him loose when his $10,000 contract expired. For the next twenty years he lived with friends and relatives, intimating that he was working on top secret missions but essentially doing nothing. He died at age 70 in 1972; his sister accepted his Medal of Freedom posthumously. His baseball card is on display at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. 
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  (#6) Children's Author Roald Dahl and James Bond Creator Ian Fleming Met as British Spies

  Roald Dahl enjoyed a high-profile career as a writer, screenwriter, and critic best known today for his children's books. However, less well known is that Dahl also was involved in British military and intelligence efforts during World War II. He saw action as a fighter pilot in Libya and Greece, suffering a fractured skull and other injuries after crashing in the North African desert. After officially downing at least five Axis aircraft over Greece, persistent blackout headaches forced his reassignment to Britain.

  He was eventually sent to Washington as an assistant air attaché at the British embassy. Dahl was bored by the administrative details of his job, but became involved with C. S. Forester in composing what was essentially propaganda encouraging American enthusiasm for the war in Europe. Dahl also became the eyes and ears for prominent members of the British government, including Churchill, gathering intelligence usually involving the outlook and attitudes of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  Dahl worked with another British intelligence officer, James Bond creator Ian Fleming.  After the war, he would begin his illustrious literary career, writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964 and subsequently the screenplay for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.  

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