21 May 2004 releases: German intelligence activities

On 21 May 2004, the Security Service released a number of files to The National Archives concerning German intelligence activities in the Second World War.

Horst Kopkow

File ref KV 2/1500-1501

Kopkow was a German Gestapo officer who investigated the Soviet Rote Kapelle and Rote Drei spy rings, and also the failed 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler. The contents of these weeded files follow from the Allies' post-war interrogation of Kopkow. The file shows how Kopkow co-operated willingly with his captors, and includes the first Security Service assessments of the reports.

File KV 2/1500 (1945) commences with the note of Kopkow's arrest in May. He fell into American hands, and the US interrogation report, and Kopkow's own statement, are on the file. The report contains diagrams of the seating plan of the meeting in the hut where the attempt on Hitler's life was made.

In his statement, Kopkow described the "Wolfsschanze" ("Wolf's Lair"), the "Führer Headquarters" at Rastenburg in East Prussia (now part of Poland) where Hitler's bunkers were situated. One bunker was for Hitler's personal accommodation. Another, about 50 metres away, was where he held his daily conferences, around a large rectangular table.

It was here, at a conference called to discuss the formation of new military units, that Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a senior officer in the German army who led the assassination plot, arrived at midday on 20 July 1944 carrying a bomb in a briefcase. The bomb exploded, and several people were killed, but Hitler escaped unharmed.

When Kopkow arrived on the scene hours later he found the conference room completely destroyed by the explosion. In the centre, where the table had been, there was a crater 1.5 metres deep. Kopkow and his team sifted the rubble and found virtually all the bomb's component parts. He found that the bomb had been detonated by a British-made time pencil, which raised the suspicion that the British were behind the assassination bid. However, Kopkow knew that many such devices captured from British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents were available in German military circles, pointing to the likely source.

In his own words, Kopkow said of the structure of the bunker:

"The room itself was a wooden structure, covered by concrete as a protection against incendiary bombs. It was only owing to the fact that the blast could escape easily, as a result of the wooden structure with its thin wood and cardboard-composition walls, that all those taking part at the conference, including the Fuehrer himself, were not killed. If the room had been completely constructed of concrete the blast effect of the mass of explosive used would have been sufficient to kill all the occupants."

There are further interrogation reports on file KV 2/1501 (1945-1946), giving details of the Germans' intelligence organisation. The Security Service passed questions for Kopkow through the Americans (mostly about the Rote Kapelle and Rote Drei) before Major Gwyer travelled to Germany to interrogate Kopkow himself. Gwyer's own reports and assessments are on the file.

"The English Patient" files: Mohsen Fadl and Johannes Eppler

File refs KV 2/1463, KV 2/1467-1468

Fadl was an Egyptian member of the "Pyramid Organisation" of German spies in Cairo, who had been recruited in October 1941 in Paris (at a café on the Bois de Boulogne) by the Hungarian aristocrat and model for The English Patient, Count László Almásy. The file contains a description of Almásy made by Fadl after his arrest in 1943.

Fadl was arrested after being identified by Sobhi Hanna, an Egyptian lawyer arrested for espionage in 1942. The Security Intelligence Middle East (SIME) interrogation report on Fadl, in which he provides information on his contacts including Almásy, and gives details of his activities, is on file.

Johannes Eppler

File refs KV 2/1467-1468

Eppler was a German of Egyptian descent who was recruited by the Abwehr to be infiltrated to Egypt from where he was to send radio messages direct to Rommel's headquarters giving information about British troop and naval movements.

The infiltration was carried out by Count Almásy by a hazardous drive across the desert from Tobruk; after completing the task, Almásy simply turned his lorries around and made the return journey.

The entirely unconnected capture of the wireless operator in Rommel's HQ who was meant to receive his transmissions by a New Zealand desert patrol meant that Eppler's messages were never received, as no replacement was ever made to complete the link. Eppler was arrested in July 1942. These files contain the greatest detail in this release of Almásy.

File KV 2/1467 begins with Eppler's arrest, and includes detailed interrogation reports and several accounts of his desert journey with Almásy. Interestingly, Eppler's transmitting code name is given here by some sources as Moritz, while that of another companion German agent was to have transmitted as Max. There does not seem to be any connection however with the Max and Moritz reports sent to the Dienstelle Klatt. Further details are included on file KV 2/1468, which covers 1943-1946 and closes the case. The file includes a photograph of the Austrian Victor Hauer, who led the British authorities in Egypt to Eppler.

German espionage in north Africa

File ref KV 3/74

This file of reports based on ISOS intercepts was compiled by the Radio Intelligence Section, and includes material not released by GCHQ (ISOS is the name given to reports issued from Bletchley Park derived from intercepted German agent radio messages). Count Almásy's desert journeys can be traced in part through these reports.

The file, covering 1941-1952, includes various reports derived from radio intelligence on subjects such as developments in French and Spanish Africa, plans of enemy communication networks and suspected German stay-behind groups in North Africa after the fall of Tunis. Almásy is identified as one of a number of German agents involved in desert transport activities.