9-Nov-39: Germans Claim British Behind Hitler Assassination Attempt; South Africans Uncover German Espionage; Finns Refuse Soviet Military Base Demand; British MI6 Agents Kidnapped by Germans at Venlo
Today is 9-Nov-1939, the 40th day of World War II; there are 2,123 days left in the conflict.
German press and radio reports claim that the British were behind the planting of a bomb in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller which was aimed at assassinating Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler.
The South Africans claim that a German plot to sabotage vital war industries in the cities of Pretoria and Johannesberg has been uncovered and prevented.
With border/territory revisions still under negotiation, as well as a Soviet demand that the Finns allow a Red Army base on Finnish soil, the government of Finland in Helsinki issues a statement reaffirming its position: Finland “cannot grant to a foreign military power military bases on her territory and within the confines of her frontiers.”
After a series of intelligence successes, the British suffer their first serious setback of the war. In what will come to be known as the “Venlo Incident,” two British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officers, Major Richard Stevens and Captain S. Payne Best, are kidnapped by the German Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). The kidnapping is ostensibly ordered by Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler in retaliation for the Bürgerbräukeller assassination attempt.
The two MI6 officers attempt to contact members of the German resistance; they have been meeting at Venlo, Holland, five miles from the German border, with man using the pseudonym “Major Schaemmle.” The man claims to represent a group of German Army officers who are plotting a coup d’etat against the National Socialist government. In reality, “Major Schaemmle is a Gestapo officer named Walther Schellenberg. Their meeting today is scheduled to be at a cafe situated just a few yards from the border at Venlo. But on their arrival via car, Stevens and Best are hit by machine gun bullets and overpowered by Gestapo agents and taken into Germany.
The damage from the incident is immediate and severe; one of the two officers is carrying a list of British agents. From the list, the subsequent interrogations and their own loose talk, the two MI6 officers enable the Germans to arrest a number of British undercover agents throughout German-occupied territory. Stevens and Best will remain prisoners of the Germans until the final collapse in April 1945.
4-Nov-39: Remarkable German Report Reveals Top Secrets to British in Oslo; MI6 Chief Dies; US “Cash and Carry” Arms Sales Goes Into Effect
Today is 4-Nov-1939, the 35th day of World War II; there are 2,128 days left in the conflict.
In one of the most remarkable incidents of the war, British Naval Attaché to Norway Captain Hector Boyes receives an anonymous letter purporting to offer a secret report on current and future German weapon systems and technological developments from a “German scientist who wishes [Boyes] well.” In order for Boyes to receive the report, he was asked to change the introduction to the German language broadcast of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service from its usual opening to the words, “Hullo, hier ist London.”
The changed broadcast is aired and Captain Boyes receives a package one week later containing the report and a vacuum tube which is actually a sensor for a proximity fuze for artillery ordnance. The report will remain top secret during the war and will become famous after its declassification in 1947. It will become known as the “Oslo Report,” one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence.
German anti-National Socialist physics professor and Siemens corporation communications researcher Herr Dr. Hans Ferdinand Mayer is the author of the report; it is written on 1 and 2-Nov while visiting Oslo for business. Several current and future German weapons systems are described in the report, which Dr. Mayer mail anonymously in two separate letters to Captain Boyes at the British Embassy in Oslo. Boyes passes the letters to British Intelligence (MI6) in London for further analysis and authentication. The report will prove itself to be an invaluable resource for British counter-measure development, particularly in the areas of navigational and targeting radar, which will in turn contribute to British victory in the Battle of Britain.
At the same time, MI6 suffers a loss as its chief, Rear-Admiral Hugh Sinclair, passes away as a result of cancer. Sinclair is succeeded by the MI6 deputy, Colonel Stewart Menzies.
In the United States, the alterations to the Neutrality Act, also known as “Cash and Carry” go into effect. The revision allows arms to be sold to warring nations on a “cash and carry” (i.e., no credit) basis, hence the nickname. It also confirms a ban on American ships and civilians being in clearly defined war zones. Cash and Carry stipulates that arms must be ordered from private companies, paid for up front and transported to the war zone in the in ships provided by the purchaser.
Practically speaking, the naval superiority of the British Royal Navy ensures that the Allies will be the only belligerents to benefit from Cash and Carry, which is what is intended by President Franklin Roosevelt and the US Senate. Within days the British and the French governments create purchasing missions in Washington, DC, and start buying arms.