The deadliest counterintelligence operation of WW2 | True Life Spy Stories

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On the night of 14 October 1940, Dutch police in the province of Friesland were tipped off to a group of men setting out in a small boat on Lake Tjeukemeer. When they returned to shore, they were detained for questioning.

The five men said that they were a group of ornithologists studying the migration patterns of local birds. At that time of the night, the story made no sense. The men were arrested and promptly handed over to the Gestapo.

Among their number was Lodewijk ‘Lodo’ van Hamel, a seasoned officer in the Royal Dutch Navy. He was also an operative of the Special Operations Executive sent to assess the living conditions of Dutch civilians under Nazi occupation and to establish a communications link for the Dutch Resistance with London.

His briefcase containing a radio transmitter and coded messages was soon recovered. The men had been waiting for pickup by an RAF seaplane which was unable to land that night due to a low lying fog.

The events that night laid the groundwork for the future counterintelligence operation against the SOE, codenamed Operation North Pole. This was also more chillingly known as Englandspiel, or the England game.

This was one of the most successful counterintelligence operations of the Second World War, for the Germans at least. For the Allies, it represents one of the most negligent failures of the war for British intelligence. Over a period of 18 months, the SOE parachuted dozens of highly-trained and committed operatives into the waiting arms of the Abwehr, and to their doom. The worst part of it - the whole thing could have been avoided had the warning signs been heeded.

This video pays homage to the brave men who perished at the hands of the Nazis during what remains to this day one of the most deadly intelligence failures in modern history.

Further reading:

📕 Operation North Pole: Unravelling the Truth Behind the Execution of 50 SOE Agents in the Second World War, Stephen Wynn - https://amzn.to/42WwrGL
📕 London Calling North Pole: The True Revelations of a German Spy, Hermann Giskes - https://amzn.to/4hE79S8
🌐 https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/....

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