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The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL ) or Anfa Conference was held in Casablanca , French Morocco , from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II . The main discussions were between US President Franklin Roosevelt (with his military staff) and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (with his staff). Stalin could not attend. Key decisions included a commitment to demand Axis powers' unconditional surrender; plans for an invasion of Sicily and Italy before the main invasion of France; an intensified strategic bombing campaign against Germany; and approval of a US Navy plan to advance on Japan through the central Pacific and the Philippines. The last item authorized the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, which shortened the war. Of all the decisions made, the most important was the Allied invasion of Sicily , which Churchill pushed for in part to divert American attention from opening a second front in France in 1943, a move that he feared would result in very high Allied casualties and not be possible until 1944.

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134-659: Also attending were the sovereign of Morocco, Sultan Muhammad V , and representing the Free French forces , Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud , but they played minor roles and were not part of the military planning. Joseph Stalin , General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, declined to attend, citing the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad as requiring his presence in Moscow. Roosevelt and Churchill issued

268-629: A Panzer officer as well). The unit included geologists, cartographers, and mineralogists, who were sent into North Africa to study desert topography and assess the terrain for military use, but by November 1942—following the Axis retreat from El Alamein — Sonderkommando Dora along with the Brandenburgers operating in the area, were withdrawn from the Sahara altogether. An Iranian national recruited in Hamburg by

402-570: A German radio station by 'Polish' forces ; one act which Hitler used to justify his assault on Poland. Under Canaris, the Abwehr expanded and proved to be efficient during the early years of the war. Its most notable success was Operation Nordpol , which was an operation against the Dutch underground network, which at the time was supported by the Special Operations Executive . Concomitant to

536-2227: A banal surgery on the nasal septum carried out by a surgeon from Vaud . His death was announced on national radio by his son, crown prince Moulay Hassan, who succeeded him as King Hassan II . Mohammed V's nisbah is Mohammed bin Yusef bin Hassan bin Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman bin Hisham bin Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Ismail bin Sharif bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Youssef bin Ali bin Al Hassan bin Muhammad bin Al Hassan bin Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abi Al Qasim bin Muhammad bin Al-Hassan bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Arafa bin Al-Hassan bin Abi Bakr bin Ali bin Al-Hasan bin Ahmed bin Ismail bin Al-Qasim bin Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya bin Abdullah al-Kamil bin Hassan al-Muthanna bin Hasan bin Ali bin Abi Talib bin Abd al-Muttalib bin Hashim . The Mohammed V International Airport , Stade Mohammed V and Mohammed V Square in Casablanca ,

670-566: A clerical staff. When Gempp became a general, he was promoted out of the job as chief, to be followed by Major Günther Schwantes, whose term as the organization's leader was also brief. Many members of the Reichswehr (a significant portion of them Prussian) declined when asked to consider intelligence work, since for them, it was outside the realm of actual military service and the act of spying clashed with their Prussian military sensibilities of always showing themselves direct, loyal, and sincere. By

804-698: A fictitious sub-agent named 'Paul Nicosoff', helping to ensure the success of Operation Torch . Confirmation of this fact came when one of Hitler's most trusted military advisers, Chief of the OKW Operations Staff, General Alfred Jodl , later informed his Allied interrogators that the Allied landings in North Africa came as a total surprise to the German general staff. The need for upwards of 500 more agents to supplement intelligence operations in North Africa prompted

938-691: A great many more of the key positions in Germany than their number or talents entitled them to." Roosevelt presented the results of the conference to the American people in a radio address on February 12, 1943. During the return trip to the United States, President Roosevelt met with the President of Brazil , Getúlio Vargas , at the Potenji River Conference , where they discussed Brazil's participation in

1072-558: A historically central weakness in the German system, according to historian Klaus P. Fischer . On 8 September 1941, under the auspices of the Commissar Order ( Kommissarbefehl ), the OKW issued a decree concerning the ruthless ideological imperatives of the Nazi state against all semblance of Bolshevism, a provision that included executing Soviet commissars and prisoners of war. Admiral Canaris,

1206-669: A long time as head of protocol. Sidi Mohammed then continued his education in a public school in Rabat. Mohammed V was one of the sons of Sultan Yusef , who was enthroned by the French in September 1912 and his wife Yaqut. On 18 November 1927, a "young and timid" 17-year-old Muhammad bin Yusef was enthroned after the death of his father and the departure of Hubert Lyautey . He married Hanila bint Mamoun in 1925 and in 1928, he married Abla bint Tahar ,

1340-506: A member of a pro-German underground resistance with alleged access to the Soviet military leadership—this was a complete fabrication concocted by the GRU and NKVD, who used Demyanov as a double agent . During the autumn of 1942, Demyanov informed his German handlers that he was working as a communications officer at the Soviet headquarters in Moscow, which would give him access to important intelligence,

1474-630: A new member was included in the circle, a handsome young Swiss doctor named Paul Reckzeh . Reckzeh was an agent of the Gestapo (Secret State Police), to which he reported on the meeting, providing several incriminating documents. The members of the Solf Circle were all rounded up on 12 January 1944. Eventually, everyone involved in the Solf Circle—except Frau Solf and her daughter Lagi Gräfin von Ballestrem —was executed. One of those executed

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1608-584: A ruse that managed to fool the German intelligence commander on the Russian front at the time, Reinhard Gehlen of the Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) intelligence section. Demyanov manipulated the military operations around Stalingrad , convincing Gehlen that Army Group Center would be unable to move west of Moscow to aide General Friedrich Paulus and the Sixth Army , which was ultimately encircled by

1742-581: A second shot. Roosevelt would later describe this meeting between the French leaders as a "shotgun wedding". Elliott Roosevelt 's book, As He Saw It (1946) describes how Franklin Roosevelt wanted the French provisional government to be set up with Giraud and de Gaulle, who would be "equally responsible for its composition and welfare." (89) That is because Franklin Roosevelt saw de Gaulle as Churchill's puppet and thought that Giraud would be more compliant with US interests. Complications arose because most people in

1876-561: A shortwave radio transmitter located on Long Island, NY. Meetings between Sebold and "bona fide German spies" were even filmed by FBI technicians. Not every spy the Abwehr sent was captured or converted in this manner, but the Americans, and especially the British, proved mostly successful in countering the efforts of the German Abwehr officers and used them to their advantage. The Abwehr

2010-626: A unit to infiltrate Egypt through the desert to make contact with the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff, el Masri Pasha , but this effort repeatedly failed. Accompanying Ritter in Libya was the Hungarian desert explorer László Almásy with a mission to gather intelligence from British-held Egypt . After Ritter was injured and sent away, Almásy took over command and organized the 1942 Operation Salam , which succeeded in transporting two German agents across

2144-537: A vast array of significant information about the German intelligence services to Czech agents who in turn, forwarded the data to SIS London, whom they codenamed agent A-54. Thümmel provided data about "military capabilities, and intentions" as well as "detailed information on the organization and structure of the Abwehr and SD along with "the near-complete order of battle of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and German mobilization plans"; and, later "he gave advanced warnings of

2278-463: A veritable organ of resistance inside the heart of Nazi Germany are not an accurate reflection across the spectrum of its entire operations or its personnel. In a staff of some 13,000, perhaps 50 were fundamentally anti-Nazi. Before the invasion of Poland for instance, the Abwehr and SiPo jointly drew up a list of over 60,000 names, people who were to be the targets of Operation Tannenberg , an effort designed to systematically identify and liquidate

2412-539: A very public debacle in Operation Pastorius , which resulted in the executions of six Abwehr agents sent to the United States to sabotage the American aluminum industry . The Abwehr attempted use of coercion as a means to infiltrate the United States when they 'recruited' a naturalized American citizen visiting Germany, William G. Sebold , by Gestapo threats and blackmail, code-naming him TRAMP, and assigning him

2546-528: Is difficult to assess, but if its leadership tells a story, it is not one of conviction. For instance, during March 1942, when many Germans still had confidence in their Führer and their army, Canaris saw things differently and told General Friedrich Fromm that there was no way Germany could win the war. Canaris had made the United States a primary target even before it entered into the conflict. By 1942, German agents were operating from within all of America's top armaments manufacturers. The Abwehr also suffered

2680-481: Is evidence that German resistance forces, highly placed anti-Nazi government officials, were working with British intelligence, MI6 , to eliminate Hitler and negotiate a peace with the Allies. One such individual was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , head of German intelligence, the Abwehr . His persistent overtures for support from the United States were ignored by Roosevelt. Roosevelt, with advice from General George Marshall ,

2814-525: Is highly esteemed by Moroccan Jews who credit him for protecting their community from the Nazi and Vichy French government, and Mohammed V has been honored by Jewish organizations for his role in protecting his Jewish subjects during the Holocaust. Some historians maintain that Mohammed's anti-Nazi role has been exaggerated; historian Michel Abitol writes that while Mohammed V was compelled by Vichy officials to sign

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2948-603: Is named in his honour. In December 2007, The Jewish Daily Forward reported on a secret diplomatic initiative by the Moroccan government to have Mohammed V admitted to the Righteous Among the Nations . His first wife was Hanila bint Mamoun . They married in 1925. She was the mother of his first daughter Fatima Zohra . His second wife was his first cousin Abla bint Tahar . She was

3082-573: The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) with Hitler in direct command. The OKW formed part of the Führer 's personal "working staff" from June 1938 and the Abwehr became its intelligence agency under Vice-Admiral Wilhelm Canaris . The Abwehr had its headquarters at 76/78 Tirpitzufer (the present-day Reichpietschufer) in Berlin , adjacent to the offices of the OKW. The Abwehr was created in 1920 as part of

3216-592: The 'Alawi dynasty , he played an instrumental role in securing the independence of Morocco from the French and Spanish Protectorates. Mohammed was enthroned as sultan upon the death of his father Yusef bin Hassan in 1927. Early in his reign, his approval of the Berber Dahir drew widespread backlash and spurred an upsurge of Moroccan nationalism and opposition to continued French rule . Initially more amenable to colonial authorities, Mohammed grew increasingly supportive of

3350-410: The Abwehr and Canaris were closely monitored. The SS also accused Canaris of being defeatist in his intelligence assessments, especially on the Russian campaign, and the Abwehr was under investigation for treason related to the earlier attack on Belgrade. Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa , an NKVD Soviet agent named Alexander Demyanov penetrated the Abwehr in late 1941 by posing as

3484-552: The Abwehr before the war was converted into a double agent by British and Russian intelligence officers (working together in one of the few joint intelligence efforts of the war), who code-named him "Kiss". From late 1944 until the end of the war, Kiss, who was based out of the intelligence center in Baghdad, provided false information on Soviet and British troop movements in Iraq and Iran to the Abwehr ; as directed by his Allied controllers. On

3618-613: The Abwehr believed it to be, instead, it was "a creature of the NKGB ", through which information was regularly disseminated concerning Foreign Armies East and Foreign Air Forces East and troop movements. Careful message trafficking and deception operations by the Soviets allowed them to misdirect the Germans and aided in the strategic surprise they enjoyed against Army Group Center in June 1944. Even though

3752-509: The Abwehr had been infiltrated by anti-Nazi defectors and Allied agents, and the defection of Vemehren after the Solf Circle arrests all but confirmed it. It was also mistakenly believed in Berlin that the Vermehrens absconded with the secret codes of the Abwehr and turned them over to the British. That proved to be the last straw for Hitler. Despite the efforts of the Abwehr to shift the blame to

3886-498: The Abwehr had both an Ast and a KO while Ireland had neither. In friendly countries of interest, occupied countries, or in Germany, the intelligence service would normally organize "Abwehr sub-stations" ( "Abwehrleitstellen" or "Alsts" in German), or "Abwehr adjoining posts" ( "Abwehrnebenstellen" in German). The "Alsts" would fall under the jurisdiction of the geographically appropriate Ast , which in turn would be supervised by

4020-403: The Abwehr no longer existed at this point, the heritage operations connected to MAX gave the Soviet armies an advantage they would not have otherwise possessed and further proved the extent of damage attributable to the Abwehr's incompetence, as Moscow's disinformation repeatedly fooled the German high command. On 10 September 1943, the incident which eventually resulted in the dissolution of

4154-414: The Abwehr occurred. The incident came to be known as the " Frau Solf Tea Party ". Hanna Solf was the widow of Wilhelm Solf , a former Colonial Minister under Kaiser Wilhelm II and ex- ambassador to Japan . Frau Solf had long been involved in the anti-Nazi intellectual movement in Berlin. Members of her group were known as members of the "Solf Circle". At a tea party hosted by her on 10 September,

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4288-563: The Abwehr provided some semblance of economic utility for the Nazi regime. In March 1941, the Germans forced a captured SOE radio operator to transmit messages to Britain in a code that the Germans had obtained. Even though the operator gave indications that he was compromised, the receiver in Britain did not notice. Thus the Germans were able to penetrate the Dutch operation and maintained this state of affairs for two years, capturing agents, and sending false intelligence and sabotage reports until

4422-533: The Abwehr to get creative. Arab prisoners of war (POWs) languishing in French camps were offered a trip back to their homeland if they agreed to spy for the Germans in North Africa, as were Soviet POWs in the East. Other intelligence collection efforts included working closely with the Luftwaffe on aerial reconnaissance missions over North Africa. Previously, aerial reconnaissance was ordered by army intelligence officers of

4556-557: The Abwehr were considerable in terms of the chain of command. General Hans Oster of the Abwehr remained in regular contact with Dulles. Foreknowledge and penetration of the Abwehr was such that Dulles reported later in February 1944 that the Abwehr was going to be absorbed by the SD. The SS continually undermined the Abwehr by putting its officers under investigation, believing them to be involved in anti-Hitler plots. Heydrich ensured that

4690-709: The Abwehr . The greatest failure occurred as a result of deception operations conducted by the British. An Italian of Jewish ancestry was recruited in France sometime in 1940 by the Abwehr . Unknown to the Germans, this individual was an agent codenamed "Cheese" who was already working for the British SIS before the war began. In February 1941, the Abwehr sent Cheese to Egypt to report on any British military operations; instead of providing his German handlers with accurate information, he passed strategic deception materials and hundreds of MI5 doctored messages to Nazi intelligence by way of

4824-425: The Abwehr . The mastermind behind this operation was Juan Pujol García , a Spanish double agent who worked for the British and whose acting was considered so good they codenamed him " Garbo ". Garbo was highly successful in spreading disinformation to the Abwehr , primarily by creating a network of fictitious sub-agents and feeding them fabricated intelligence reports. These reports were carefully crafted to mislead

4958-441: The Berber Dahir of 16 May 1930. He was critical of early movements for reform in French colonial administration in Morocco before becoming a supporter of independence later on. His central position in the Proclamation of Independence of Morocco further boosted his image as a national symbol. On 9 and 10 April 1947, he delivered two momentous speeches respectively at the Mendoubia and Grand Mosque of Tangier , together known as

5092-476: The Foreign Office also had its own communications security branch, the Pers Z S . Matters came to a head in 1937 when Hitler decided to help Joseph Stalin in the latter's purge of the Soviet military . Hitler ordered that the German Army staff should be kept in the dark about Stalin's intentions, for fear that they would warn their Soviet counterparts due to their long-standing relations . Accordingly, special SS teams, accompanied by burglary experts from

5226-460: The German Army to help fight off a Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe . To Churchill and the other Allied leaders, the real obstacle to realising that mutual strategy with Germany was the leadership of Adolf Hitler . Allen Dulles , the chief of OSS intelligence in Bern , Switzerland , maintained that the Casablanca Declaration was "merely a piece of paper to be scrapped without further ado if Germany would sue for peace. Hitler had to go." There

5360-428: The German Ministry of Defence when the German government was allowed to form the Reichswehr , the military organization of the Weimar Republic . The first head of the Abwehr was Major Friedrich Gempp , a former deputy to Colonel Walter Nicolai , the head of German intelligence during World War I , who proved mostly ineffectual. At that time it was composed of only three officers and seven former officers, plus

5494-452: The Libyan Desert behind enemy lines to Egypt. In July 1942, Almásy and his agents were captured by British counterintelligence operatives. Other operations in North Africa were occurring concomitantly with those of Almásy and Ritter. During late January 1942 for instance, the OKW authorized the creation of a special unit, Sonderkommando Dora , which was placed under the command of Abwehr officer, Oberstleutnant Walter Eichler (formerly

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5628-411: The Ministry of Defence , calling it the Abwehr . The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defense against foreign espionage: an organizational role that later evolved considerably. Under General Kurt von Schleicher (prominent in running the Reichswehr from 1926 onwards) the individual military services' intelligence units were combined and, in 1929, centralized under Schleicher's Ministeramt within

5762-435: The Ministry of Defence , forming the foundation for the more commonly understood manifestation of the Abwehr . Each Abwehr station throughout Germany was based on the local army district ( Wehrkreis ); more offices opened in amenable neutral countries and (as the greater Reich expanded) in the occupied territories . On 4 February 1938, the Ministry of Defence—renamed the Ministry of War in 1935—was dissolved and became

5896-428: The Mohammed V Avenue , Mohammed V University and Mohammadia School of Engineering in Rabat, and the Mohammed V Mosque in Tangier are among numerous buildings, locales and institutions named after him. There's a mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat. There is an Avenue Mohammed V in nearly every Moroccan city and a major one in Tunis , Tunisia , and in Algiers , Algeria . The Mohammed V Palace in Conakry, Guinea ,

6030-448: The Moroccan Jewish community " during the Holocaust . However, "though a subject of debate, most scholars stress the benevolence of Mohammed V toward the Jews" during the Vichy era. Mohammed reportedly refused to sign off on efforts by Vichy officials to impose anti-Jewish legislation upon Morocco and deport the country's 250,000 Jews to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps in Europe. The sultan's stand

6164-411: The Pas de Calais , Garbo diverted German attention away from Normandy, where the actual landings took place, making Juan Pujol García's efforts in Operation Garbo instrumental in the overall Allied strategy and intelligence operations during World War II. Juan Pujol García was so trusted by both sides that he was awarded the MBE by the British and an Iron Cross by the Nazis. Images of the Abwehr as

6298-487: The SS . Army leaders also feared that the flights would endanger the secret plans for an attack on Poland. Adolf Hitler ordered the termination of the overflights in 1934 after he signed a nonaggression treaty with Poland since these reconnaissance missions might be discovered and jeopardize the treaty. Patzig was fired in January 1935 as a result, and sent to command the new pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee ; he later became Chief of Naval Personnel. His replacement

6432-416: The Tangier Speech , appealing for the independence of Morocco without calling out specific colonial powers. In 1947, the rapid progress of the nationalist movement prompted Sidi Mohammed to demand independence for the first time during the Tangier speech , where he also called for the union of the Arabs and Morocco's membership of the Arab League which was founded in 1945, in which he praised, emphasized

6566-423: The Treaty of Fes was signed, turning Morocco into a French protectorate after a French invasion from the west and the east, resulting in an eventual capture of the capital, Fes. Sidi Mohammed began his education home schooled in Fes, inside the palace grounds of qasr al-amami (front palace). There he learned to read and write and received the first lessons of Quran . When his father established Rabat as

6700-427: The U.S. Army Chief of Staff , lobbied for a cross-Channel invasion of Europe. Churchill, with advice from the British Chiefs of Staff, led by General Sir Alan Brooke , the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS, the professional head of the British Army), felt the time was not opportune, and favored an Allied assault on the island of Sicily followed by an invasion of mainland Italy. The British argument centred on

6834-419: The War Cabinet four days earlier and they had not objected. US General George Marshall also said that he had been consulted; he had stated on 7 January that Allied morale would be "strengthened by the uncompromising demand, and Stalin's suspicions allayed". However some source material contradicts the official reported accord between Churchill and Roosevelt, claiming that Churchill did not fully subscribe to

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6968-404: The criminal police , broke into the secret files of the General Staff and the Abwehr and removed documents related to German-Soviet collaboration. To conceal the thefts, fires were started at the break-ins, which included Abwehr headquarters. Before the reorganization of the OKW in 1938, the Abwehr was merely a department within the Reichswehrministerium (Ministry of Armed Forces), and it

7102-405: The "unconditional surrender" of the Axis powers . Roosevelt had borrowed the term from US Army General Ulysses S. Grant (known as "Unconditional Surrender" Grant ), who had communicated that stance to the Confederate commander during the American Civil War. So Roosevelt stated at the concluding press conference on 24 January that the Allies were demanding "unconditional surrender" from the Germans,

7236-421: The 1920s, the slowly growing Abwehr was organised into three sections: The Reichsmarine intelligence staff merged with the Abwehr in 1928. While the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from engaging in any form of espionage or spying, during the Nazi era the Abwehr disregarded this prohibition, as they saw it as hypocritical. In the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi movement, the Ministry of Defence

7370-426: The Afghan border, the Abwehr sought to turn the Faqir of Ipi against British forces. They infiltrated the region using Manfred Oberdörffer , a physician, and Fred Hermann Brandt , an entomologist under the guise of a medical mission to research leprosy. The mission was a failure, with Oberdörffer being killed and Hermann was taken prisoner. Just how committed typical members of the Abwehr were to German victory

7504-442: The Army Group HQ (part of the structure to which the Abwehr was assigned). Major Witilo von Griesheim  [ de ] was sent to Italian Libya in early 1941 to set up AST Tripoli (code name WIDO). He soon set up a network of agents and wireless stations gathering information in Libya and in the surrounding French territories. In mid-July 1941, Admiral Canaris ordered Luftwaffe Major Nikolaus Ritter of Abwehr I to form

7638-456: The British Empire further increased his anti-colonialism , leading him to further discuss and impress upon Churchill the need for an international trusteeship system that would advance colonies like Gambia towards independence. During the Conference, Roosevelt met privately with Churchill and Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco, who was accompanied by his 14-year-old son, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (the future Hassan II). Roosevelt also spoke with

7772-482: The British caught on. In Bodyguard of Lies Anthony Brown suggests that the British were well aware that the radios were compromised and used this method to feed false information to the Germans regarding the site of the D-Day landings. Hitler sent Canaris as a special envoy to Madrid during the early summer of 1940 to convince Spain to join in the coming fight against the Allies, for which Gibraltar could have strategic military value. The repeat visit, in December 1940,

7906-408: The British talk of an impending German attack was nothing more than disinformation . During January 1942, partisan fighters at the port city of Eupatoria in Crimea assisted a Red Army landing there and revolted against the German occupying forces. Reinforcements were sent in under General Erich von Manstein and the port city was retaken. Reprisals against the partisans were carried out under

8040-496: The British, convinced that Hitler would push Europe to war. Before the actual invasion of Poland occurred, the Abwehr went so far as to send a special emissary, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin , to London in order to warn them. Subverting the Nazi government with warnings to the Allies was but one part of the picture, as this move did not stop or deter Canaris from obeying Hitler's orders to provide 150 Polish army uniforms and small arms to Himmler and Heydrich for their staged attack on

8174-444: The Central division in Berlin. For a while, the KOs were tolerated by the neutral countries and those who feared Germany too much to protest but as the Allied powers waged war against Germany, many of the KOs were simply expelled at the host countries request—due at least in part to pressure from the Allies. Before the war began, the Abwehr was fairly active and effective as it built a wide range of contacts; they developed links with

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8308-420: The First World War was primarily attributable to failures of military intelligence, and by his ambitions to control all political intelligence-gathering for Germany. Canaris, a master of backroom dealings, thought he knew how to deal with Heydrich and Himmler. Though he tried to maintain a cordial relationship with them, the antagonism between the Abwehr and the SS did not stop when Canaris took over. Not only

8442-415: The French Resistance considered de Gaulle the undisputed leader of the Resistance and so Giraud was progressively dispossessed of his political and military roles. Roosevelt eventually recognized de Gaulle as the head of the Free French in October 1944. The day before, Roosevelt became the first US president to visit Africa when he stayed at the city of Bathurst, Gambia . The poor situation of Gambians under

8576-413: The French government allowed Mohammed's return. In 1956, he successfully negotiated with France and Spain for Moroccan independence, and in the following year he assumed the title of king. Mohammed died in 1961 at the age of 51 and was succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Hassan II . Sidi Mohammed bin Yusef was born on 10 August 1909 in Fes , and was his father's third son. In March 1912,

8710-411: The French resident general at Rabat , Morocco , about postwar independence and Jewish immigrants in North Africa. Roosevelt proposed that: "[t]he number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc.) should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population.... [T]his plan would further eliminate

8844-402: The German Foreign Office and the Abwehr in an attempt to ameliorate the problem "by concluding an unprecedented arms-for-oil" deal, brokered to push back the "Anglo-French dominance in the Ploiești oilfield." Abwehr operatives also played on Romanian fears, making them more amenable to Hitler's offer to shield them from the Soviets—through which the Germans acquired cheap oil. In this regard,

8978-479: The German Table of Organisation and Equipment model of Abwehr headquarters, each Ast was usually subdivided into sections for Typically each Ast would be commanded by a senior army or naval officer and would be answerable to Abwehr HQ. in Berlin. Operations carried out by each Ast would be in tandem with the overall strategic plan formulated by Admiral Canaris. Canaris in turn would receive instructions on what intelligence gathering should take priority from

9112-442: The German annexation of the Sudetenland as well as the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland." After the assumption of absolute control over the OKW in February 1938, Hitler declared that he did not want men of intelligence under his command, but men of brutality, an observation which did not sit well with Canaris. Whether he was deeply troubled by Hitler's comment or not, Canaris and the Abwehr still busied themselves preparing

9246-408: The German forces, particularly the Luftwaffe, intimately informed during the invasion of Norway. Against both of these nations, the Abwehr mounted what one would call a successful intelligence operation of some scale and proved itself critical to the success of German military endeavors there. Fear over the drastically low levels of available petroleum at the beginning of 1940 prompted activity from

9380-477: The Germans about Allied intentions and strategies. Garbo's information was so convincing that he gained the confidence of the German high command, who considered him one of their most trustworthy sources. One of the most significant achievements of Operation Garbo was its role in the success of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, as it contributed to the confusion and misdirection of German forces. By providing false information about an impending Allied invasion via

9514-399: The Gestapo cooperated in an operation known as Englandspiel , through which the Nazis gained "complete control" over all Dutch SOE agents between March 1942 and December 1943, whom they used as part of a successful deception scheme. A major Abwehr failure occurred when the existence of a resistance group and spy ring, which operated out of Austria and had been working with the Allies,

9648-696: The Italians and the Japanese. In a February 12, 1943 radio address, Roosevelt explained what he meant by unconditional surrender: "we mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution upon their guilty, barbaric leaders". Behind the scenes, the United States and the United Kingdom were divided in the commitment to see the war through to Germany's capitulation and "unconditional surrender". But Churchill had agreed in advance about "unconditional surrender"; he had cabled

9782-542: The Moroccan cause an international audience at the UN with the support of the United States. On 20 August 1953 (the eve of Eid al-Adha ), the French colonial authorities forced Mohammed V, an important national symbol in the growing Moroccan independence movement, into exile in Corsica along with his family. His first cousin once removed, Mohammed Ben Aarafa , called the "French sultan,"

9916-400: The OKW or, increasingly after 1941, Hitler directly. In practice, each Ast was given considerable latitude in mission planning and execution—a facet of the organization that ultimately damaged its intelligence-gathering capability. Each local Ast could recruit potential agents for missions and the Abwehr also employed freelance recruiters to groom and vet potential agents. In most cases,

10050-515: The OSS, who hired Bedřich Laufer (OSS Code name: Iris), a double agent who had also been working for the SD. Several examples demonstrate that some Abwehr members were opposed to the Nazi regime. In January 1944 for example, American statesman Allen Dulles revealed his knowledge of a coalescing resistance against the Nazis, an assemblage of intellectuals from military and government circles; his main contact

10184-474: The Pacific and Burma to reinforce positions held by Chiang Kai-shek against the Japanese. The United States would provide assistance to the British in the Pacific by supplying escorts and landing craft. Charles de Gaulle had to be forced to attend, and he met a chilly reception from Roosevelt and Churchill. No French representatives were allowed to attend the military planning sessions. The conference called for

10318-461: The Polish elite. For several months before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Abwehr was key in deception operations set up to convince the British and the Soviets that Great Britain was under threat of imminent invasion, an undertaking which helped soften the eastern territories for Operation Barbarossa. Before the commencement of the attack on the Soviet Union , the Abwehr also spread rumors that

10452-512: The Red Army. Likewise, a group of White Russians under General Anton Turkoul  [ Wikidata ] sought asylum in Germany and offered to provide radio intelligence for the Germans and worked with the Abwehr in getting the necessary communication links established. One of the primary radio links was code-named MAX, supposedly located near the Kremlin. MAX was not the intelligence mechanism

10586-457: The Red Army. Throughout the conference, Roosevelt's attention was prominently focused on the Pacific War front and he faulted the British for what he felt was not a full commitment against Japanese entrenchment. The Italian strategy was agreed upon, a compromise between the two leaders, Roosevelt acceding to Churchill's approach for Europe. Churchill, in turn, pledged more troops and resources to

10720-480: The Soviet Union was going to take place. Late assessments from the Abwehr contributed to military overconfidence and their reporting mechanism said nothing of the massive mobilization capability of the Soviet Union, an oversight that arguably contributed to the German defeat since time-tables were so important for German success. Many of the maps produced for Operation Barbarossa by the Abwehr were woefully inaccurate and portrayed dirt tracks as main roads, hampering

10854-430: The Soviets, forged relations with other foreign agencies—except for Italy, whose cipher he distrusted. His successes did not stop the other branches of the military services from developing their intelligence staff. After the Nazis seized power, the Abwehr began sponsoring reconnaissance flights across the border with Poland , under the direction of Patzig, but this led to confrontations with Heinrich Himmler , head of

10988-753: The US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Prime Minister of the UK Winston Churchill . At this dinner, Roosevelt assured the sultan that "the post-war scene and the pre-war scene would ... sharply differ, especially as they related to the colonial question." The sultan's 14-year-old son and future king of Morocco, Hassan II, also attended and later stated that Roosevelt said, "Ten years from now your country will be independent." "There are competing accounts of exactly what Mohammed V did or did not do for

11122-587: The US, showcasing the monarchy's importance on the global stage. He used various techniques to project the royal authority, such as personally thanking the nationalist movement's former supporters in the name of the Moroccan people. Mohammed V also acted as patron to the International Meetings , conferences on contemporary issues and interfaith dialogue hosted at the Benedictine monastery of Toumliline that attracted scholars and intellectuals from all over

11256-653: The Ukrainians opposed to the Soviet regime, conducted meetings with Indian nationalists working against British rule in India , and established an information-sharing agreement with the Japanese. There was even some significant penetration into the extent of the United States industrial capacity and economic potential, and data was collected by the Abwehr concerning American military capacity and contingency planning. Sometime in March 1937, senior Abwehr officer Paul Thümmel provided

11390-590: The agents were recruited civilians, not officers/soldiers from the military. The recruitment emphasis seems to have been very much on "quantity" not "quality". The poor quality of recruits often led to the failure of Abwehr missions. In neutral countries, the Abwehr frequently disguised its organization by attaching personnel to the German Embassy or to trade missions. Such postings were referred to as "War Organisations" ( "Kriegsorganisationen" or "KO's" in German). In neutral but friendly Spain for example,

11524-630: The announcement "to keep Soviet forces engaged with Germany on the Russian front, thus depleting German munitions and troops" and also "to prevent Stalin from negotiating a separate peace with the Nazi regime". That the war would be fought by the Allies until the total annihilation of enemy forces was not universally welcomed. Diplomatic insiders were critical that such a stance was too unequivocal and inflexible, would prevent any opportunity for political maneuvering and would be morally debilitating to French and German resistance groups. The British felt that arriving at some accommodation with Germany would allow

11658-728: The anti-Jewish dahirs, "he was more passive than Moncef Bay ( ruler of Tunisia during the Second World War) in that he did not take any side and did not engage in any public act that could be interpreted as a rejection of Vichy's policy." Sultan Mohammad was a central figure in the independence movement in Morocco, also known as the Revolution of the King and the People ( ثورة الملك والشعب ). This Moroccan Nationalist Movement grew from protests regarding

11792-481: The capital of the kingdom and of the administration, he transferred Sidi Mohammed there, with most of his brothers. There, he was home schooled with private teachers. In Rabat, teachers taught him Quran until he became hafiz . After which he began his academic learning. He studied Arabic and French , his father having appointed teachers to carry out this task. Mohammed Mammeri taught him French and gave him special attention. Sultan, he remained in his service for

11926-449: The close ties between Morocco and the rest of the Arab world . This rapprochement between the monarchy and the nationalist movement, whose projects differ, can be explained, according to historian Bernard Cubertafond, by the fact that "each side needs the other: the national movement sees the growing popularity of the king and his prudent but gradual emancipation from a protector who, in fact, left

12060-481: The country's ties with the rest of the Arab world . His relationship with the French became increasingly strained afterwards as colonial rule grew more repressive. In 1953, French authorities deposed Mohammed, exiled him to Corsica (later transferring him to Madagascar ) and installed his first cousin once removed Mohammed Ben Aarafa as sultan. The deposition sparked active opposition to the French protectorate and two years later, faced with rising violence in Morocco,

12194-461: The daughter of Mohammed Tahar bin Hassan , son of Hassan I of Morocco . She married Mohammed V in 1928 and died in Rabat on 1 March 1992. She gave birth to five children: the future King Hassan II , Aisha , Malika , Abdallah and Nuzha . His third wife was Bahia bint Antar , with whom he had a daughter Amina . Abwehr The Abwehr ( German for resistance or defence , though

12328-527: The direction of Major Hans-Wolf Riesen, an Abwehr officer on the Eleventh Army's staff, who oversaw the execution of 1200 civilians, the bulk of whom were Jews. Additional evidence over the duties assigned to operatives in theater is revealing. Out in the field, the army group commander of the G-2 was assisted the army group Abwehr officer ( Frontaufklaerungskommando III), with additional help coming available from

12462-595: The doctrine of "unconditional surrender". The New York Times correspondent Drew Middleton, who was in Casablanca at the conference, later revealed in his book, Retreat From Victory , that Churchill had been "startled by the [public] announcement [of unconditional surrender]. I tried to hide my surprise. But I was his [Roosevelt's] ardent lieutenant". According to historian Charles Bohlen , "Responsibility for this unconditional surrender doctrine rests almost exclusively with President Roosevelt". He guessed that Roosevelt made

12596-505: The flight to occupied Algiers , where the FLN leaders were arrested. In 1957, he took the title of King of Morocco , to symbolise the unity of the country despite the divisions between Arabs and Berbers . In terms of domestic policy, upon his return he allowed the first congress of the Istiqlal , which formed various governments under his reign. He authorized the creation of trade unions, but

12730-630: The head of the OKW Ausland/Abwehr , immediately expressed concern about the military and political ramifications of this order. Killing soldiers and even non-combatants in contravention of the Geneva Convention was not something the Abwehr leadership—namely Canaris—supported. The Abwehr was active in North Africa leading up to and during the Western Desert Campaign of 1941–42. North Africa, like other cases, proved disastrous for

12864-605: The ideological groundwork for the annexation of Austria which occurred in March 1938. A month later, Canaris and the Abwehr were set to work subverting the Czechs as part of Hitler's strategy to acquire the Sudetenland . Before the spring of 1938 came to an end, the conservative members of the German Foreign Office and many ranking officers in the military began sharing their fears over an impending international disaster and

12998-417: The latter gave birth to Hassan II in 1929. Finally he married Bahia bint Antar . At the time of Mohammed's enthronement, the French colonial authorities were "pushing for a more assertive 'native policy.'" On 16 May 1930, Sultan Muhammad V signed the Berber Dahir , which changed the legal system in parts of Morocco where Berber languages were primarily spoken ( Bled es-Siba ), while the legal system in

13132-496: The nationalist movement later on. During World War II he supported the Allies , participated in the 1943 Anfa Conference and took steps to protect Moroccan Jews from Vichy persecution. Mohammed became a central figure of the independence cause after the war. In 1947, he delivered a historic speech in Tangier , in which he made an open appeal for Moroccan independence and emphasized

13266-458: The need to pull German reserves down into Italy where, due to the relatively poor north–south lines of communication, they could not be easily extracted to defend against a later invasion of northwest Europe. Additionally, by delaying the cross-Channel landing, it would mean that any invasion would be against a German army further weakened by many more months' fighting on the Eastern Front against

13400-399: The non-German population was concerned. The net of agents produced a clear picture of the morale and attitude of the population within the sector of the army group and reported on all activities of the enemy intelligence service, on resistance movements and other illegal groups, and guerrilla conditions. According to Bauer, the Abwehr was more interested in perpetuating its interests than it

13534-432: The official recognition of a joint leadership of the Free French forces by de Gaulle and Henri Giraud . There was notable tension between the two men, who limited their interactions to formalities like pledging their mutual support. Roosevelt encouraged them to shake hands for the photographers eager for a photo opportunity, but the ritual handshake was with reluctance and done so quickly that they reportedly had to pose for

13668-498: The operational sections of the Abwehr . Abwehr I was commanded by Colonel Hans Pieckenbrock, Abwehr II was commanded by Colonel Erwin von Lahousen and Abwehr III was commanded by Colonel Egbert Bentivegni. These three officers formed the core of the Abwehr. Under the structure outlined above, the Abwehr placed a local station in each military district in Germany, ( "Wehrkreis" ), called ' Abwehrstelle' or ' Ast' . Following

13802-496: The pace of logistical operations. The German Army's failure to reach its objectives in short order proved pivotal; once winter came, improperly outfitted German forces suffered when supplies did not reach them. Overestimating their capabilities and trusting their assessments too much, as well as underestimating their enemies (especially the Soviets and the Americans), atop long-standing traditions of unconditional obedience , comprised

13936-480: The partition of Spain. SD operatives also established a station at the central post office in Madrid to police mail going through Spain and even attempted to assassinate one of Franco's pro-Allied generals, which strengthened Franco's intransigence against Hitler and the Nazi regime. Operation Garbo, also known as "Garbo" or "Agent Garbo", was a crucial British intelligence operation during World War II aimed at deceiving

14070-537: The period known as the Phoney War , the Abwehr collected information on Denmark and Norway. Shipping in and out of Danish and Norwegian ports was placed under observation and over 150,000 tons of shipping was destroyed as a result. Agents in Norway and Denmark successfully penetrated their military thoroughly enough to determine the disposition and strength of land forces in both countries and deep-cover Abwehr operatives kept

14204-526: The public Casablanca Declaration , which the promulgation of the policy of “ unconditional surrender .” That doctrine came to represent the unified voice of Allied will and the determination that the Axis powers would be fought to their ultimate defeat The conference produced a unified statement of purpose, the Casablanca Declaration. It announced to the world that the Allies would accept nothing less than

14338-590: The rest of the country ( Bled al-Makhzen ) remained the way it had been before the French invasion . Although the sultan was under no duress, he was only 20 years old. This dhahir "electrified the nation"; it was sharply criticized by Moroccan nationalists and catalyzed the Moroccan Nationalist Movement . Sultan Muhammad V participated in the Anfa Conference hosted in Casablanca during World War II. On 22 January 1943, he met privately with

14472-442: The secret field police. Abwehr officers in this capacity were tasked with overseeing personnel in counterintelligence, the safeguarding of classified information, and preventive security. The Frontaufklaerungskommando III received instructions concerning the Abwehr from OKH/General z.b.V./Gruppe Abwehr , and "informed army group G-2 of all Abwehr matters in a monthly report or special reports." Security within army headquarters

14606-589: The sign of the end of the colonial era. The situation became so tense that in 1955, the Moroccan nationalists, who enjoyed support in Libya , Algeria (with the FLN ) and Egypt forced the French government to negotiate and recall the sultan. In February 1956 he successfully negotiated with France and Spain for the independence of Morocco. Mohammed supported the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in

14740-646: The specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany, namely, that while they represented a small part of the population, over 50 percent of the lawyers, doctors, schoolteachers, college professors, etc., in Germany were Jews." This disposition of the Jewish population harkened back to a mindset communicated in earlier years to Roosevelt by the American ambassador to Germany, William Dodd (1933–37). Dodd had appraised Germany's repression of Jews, and writing to Roosevelt, he said: "The Jews had held

14874-509: The struggle for Algerian Independence and offered to facilitate the participation of FLN leaders in a conference with Habib Bourguiba in Tunis. On October 22, 1956, French forces hijacked a Moroccan airplane carrying leaders of the FLN during the ongoing Algerian War . The plane, which was carrying Ahmed Ben Bella , Hocine Aït Ahmed , and Mohamed Boudiaf , was destined to leave from Palma de Mallorca for Tunis , but French forces redirected

15008-561: The sultan to disavow the Istiqlal and distance himself from nationalist claims. The break with France was consummated in 1951 and Sidi Mohammed concluded with the nationalists the pact of Tangier to fight for independence. The appointment of a new Resident General, General Augustin Guillaume, accentuated the dissension between Mohammed and France. Further demonstrations turn into riots in Morocco in 1952, notably in Casablanca, while Sidi Mohammed gives

15142-604: The task of "serving as radio and microfilm channel for Major Nikolaus Ritter , head of the Abwehr Hamburg post's air intelligence section". Unfortunately for the Germans, who used Sebold successfully for a short period, he was discovered, and became a counterspy, and his communications to Germany were screened by the FBI . For more than a year and a half, the FBI was able to transmit misleading information via Sebold to German intelligence from

15276-456: The threat of another catastrophic European war based on Hitler's actions. A conspiratorial group formed around General Erwin von Witzleben and Admiral Canaris as a result. Throughout the process, Canaris and subordinates such as Helmuth Groscurth worked to prevent war to the extent feasible. Meanwhile, Canaris participated in the plots among the military leadership for a coup against Hitler and attempted to open up covert communication lines with

15410-468: The treaty of 1912 to come to direct administration; the king cannot, except to discredit himself, cut himself off from a nationalist movement bringing together the living forces of his country and the elite of his youth, and he needs this power of protest to impose changes on France”. From then on, relations became strained with the French authorities, in particular with the new Resident General, General Alphonse Juin, who applied severe measures and pressured

15544-449: The true extent of the group's success, particularly in providing information for Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra , both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord . Some 20 members of the group—including its key figures, Franz Joseph Messner  [ de ] (codenamed CASSIA by the OSS) and the priest Heinrich Maier —were eventually executed due to the intelligence failures of

15678-428: The unrest and the strikes lead him to take full power in the last years of his reign. His state visit to the United States later that year "strengthened his position as the kingdom's sole legitimate representative". This way he managed to replace the members of the nationalist movement on the global stage and turned his trip into a great publicity success. This visit marked a strategic effort to align Morocco closely with

15812-750: The war effort and defined the agreements that led to the creation of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force . The conference took place aboard the USS Humboldt in the Potenji River harbor in Natal , on January 28 and 29, 1943. Mohammed V of Morocco Mohammed al-Khamis bin Yusef bin Hassan al-Alawi , better known simply Mohammed V (10 August 1909 – 26 February 1961), was the last Sultan of Morocco from 1927 to 1953 and from 1955 to 1957, and first King of Morocco from 1957 to 1961. A member of

15946-562: The word usually means counterintelligence in a military context; pronounced [ˈapveːɐ̯] ) was the German military-intelligence service for the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht from 1920 to 1944. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited the Weimar Republic from establishing an intelligence organization of their own, they formed an espionage group in 1920 within

16080-486: The world. During his reign, the Moroccan Liberation Army waged war against Spain and France, and successfully captured most of Ifni as well as Cape Juby and parts of Spanish Sahara . With the treaty of Angra de Cintra , Morocco annexed Cape Juby and the surroundings of Ifni , while the rest of the remaining colony was ceded by Spain in 1969. On 26 February 1961, Mohammed died from complications of

16214-595: Was Abwehr officer Hans Bernd Gisevius , who was stationed in Zurich as the German Vice Consul. Dulles communicated with the Abwehr concerning their intrigue against Hitler and even attempted discussions about a separate peace, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have none of it, preferring instead a policy of unconditional surrender for the Nazi government. Machinations against the National Socialists by

16348-608: Was Otto Kiep , an official in the Foreign Office, who had friends in the Abwehr , among whom were Erich Vermehren and his wife, the former Countess Elizabeth von Plettenberg , who were stationed as agents in Istanbul . Both were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo in connection with the Kiep case. Fearing for their lives, they contacted the British and defected. Hitler had long suspected that

16482-451: Was "based as much on the insult the Vichy diktats posed to his claim of sovereignty over all his subjects, including the Jews, as on his humanitarian instincts." Partial Nazi race measures were enacted in Morocco over Mohammed's objection, and Mohammed did sign, under the instructions of Vichy officials, two decrees that barred Jews from certain schools and positions. Nevertheless, Mohammed

16616-551: Was a failure; Franco, for various political and military reasons, was not ready to join the German war effort. Canaris reported that Franco would not commit Spanish forces until England collapsed. Initial estimates of the Soviet Red Army 's will and capability were low, a line of thinking shared by the Nazi hierarchy. A great deal has been made by historians over this fact, but some of the German General Staff's optimism

16750-484: Was another Reichsmarine captain, Wilhelm Canaris . Before he took over the Abwehr on 1 January 1935, the soon-to-be Admiral Canaris was warned by Patzig of attempts by Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich to take over all German intelligence organizations. Heydrich, who headed the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) from 1931, had a negative attitude towards the Abwehr —shaped in part by his belief that Germany's defeat in

16884-658: Was another area of responsibility so detachments of the secret field police were placed at his disposal and he cooperated with particular departments of the SD, the SS, and the police to be well versed in all fields of counterintelligence and kept tabs on guards, checking their reliability against available personnel records. According to the United States War Dept. General Staff, The Abwehr officer maintained close liaison with Frontaufklaerungskommando III to be well informed about counterintelligence conditions, especially as far as

17018-567: Was competition with Heydrich and Himmler's intelligence operations a hindrance but so too were the redundant attempts by multiple organizations to control communications intelligence (COMINT) for the Reich. For instance, Canaris's Abwehr controlled the Armed Forces Deciphering operation, while the navy maintained its listening service, known as the B-Dienst . Further complicating COMINT matters,

17152-435: Was impaired by agents who aided the Allies in whatever covert means were necessary. Canaris personally gave false information that discouraged Hitler from invading Switzerland ( Operation Tannenbaum ). He also persuaded Francisco Franco not to allow German forces to pass through Spain to invade Gibraltar ( Operation Felix ), but it may have been just as much the imposition of the SD. The SD was allegedly spreading rumors about

17286-402: Was in saving Jews. While there are accounts of the Abwehr assisting Jews to safety via clandestinely arranged emigration, there are also cases of Abwehr operatives enriching themselves in the process through bribes and other monetary payoffs. Not only that, the Abwehr had its share of dedicated Nazis. For example, it is now known that Abwehr agent Hermann Giskes and Joseph Schreieder of

17420-459: Was made a puppet monarch and placed on the throne. In response, Muhammad Zarqtuni bombed Casablanca's Central Market on Christmas Eve of that year. Mohammed and his family were then transferred to Madagascar in January 1954. Mohammed returned from exile on 16 November 1955, and was again recognized as Sultan after active opposition to the French protectorate. His triumphant return was for many

17554-502: Was not until after Canaris was appointed chief that its numbers increased and it gained some independence. Experiencing an explosion in personnel of sorts, the Abwehr went from fewer than 150 employees to nearly one thousand between 1935 and 1937. Canaris reorganized the agency in 1938, subdividing the Abwehr into three main sections: Abwehr liaisons were also established with the army, navy, and Luftwaffe High Commands, and these liaisons would pass on specific intelligence requests to

17688-512: Was reorganized; surprisingly, on 7 June 1932, a naval officer, Captain Conrad Patzig  [ de ] , was named chief of the Abwehr , even though it was staffed largely by army officers. Proving himself quite a capable chief, Patzig swiftly assured the military of his intentions and worked to earn their respect; he established good connections with the Lithuanian clandestine service against

17822-444: Was the result of estimates provided by the Abwehr , whose assessments left the German General Staff believing that the Red Army only possessed 90 infantry divisions, 23 cavalry divisions, and a mere 28 mechanized brigades. By the time the reappraisal of the Red Army by German military intelligence occurred in mid-June 1941 (which was about 25 percent higher than previously reported), it was a foregone conclusion that Hitler's invasion of

17956-527: Was uncovered by the Gestapo ; a failing for which the Abwehr was embarrassed. This resistance group provided the OSS with plans and information on Peenemünde , the V-1 , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.), and supplied information on the existence of major concentration camps like Auschwitz . Despite the Gestapo 's use of torture, they were unable to uncover

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