World Espionage And Famous Spy Revealed: Special Spy: "Aerial Acrobat" Canas

"Trapeze acrobat" Kanaris

Born in 1877 in a bourgeois family on the outskirts of Dortmund in northern Germany, Canaris was recruited into the navy after graduating as a teenager. In 1905, at the age of 18, Canaris was admitted to the Kiel Naval Academy with honors. Through systematic naval knowledge, he was assigned to serve on the light cruiser "Dresden" as soon as he graduated, and began his military career.

After graduating from the Kiel Naval Academy, Canaris served as a standard-bearer and intelligence officer aboard the light cruiser Dresden. At this time, the First World War broke out. Canaris first revealed his talent as a spy during the Battle of the Frank Islands: on December 8, 1914, the British Navy pursued german ships all the way, eventually sinking all German ships. The Dresden was not spared in this battle, and all the crew drifted at sea and eventually drifted to the Chilean island of Kirikina. Stranded on an isolated island, Canaris embarked on an escape adventure: he managed to escape to the Chilean mainland, where he crossed the Andes on horseback after a long journey of several hundred kilometers and into Argentina. In Buenos Aires, he disguised himself as an English-Chilean, assumed the pseudonym Red Rosas, obtained a passport, and returned to Germany on a ship from the neutral Netherlands. The escape lasted nearly two months, and after returning to Berlin, Canaris's escape caught the attention of German naval intelligence. Kanalis's abilities were recognized by his superiors, and he began to be reused.

Madrid's first test

In December 1915, he was sent to Madrid by the German spy agency, where he began his first espionage. At the beginning of Canaris's espionage career, a confrontation with an opponent became an interesting bridge: he had just arrived in Madrid with the young British captain Lord Stuart Menzies (later the head of british intelligence), and was almost plotted by the other side in a game of wits between the two sides.

Canaris fell seriously ill shortly after arriving in Madrid and could not continue his work. Considering that Kanaris needed to return to Germany for treatment and had to keep the whole process of secrecy on the way back home, the German Navy's intelligence station in Madrid sent a request to headquarters to send a submarine to receive Kanaris' secret telegram back home. However, the British Navy unexpectedly intercepted the secret telegram and analyzed its contents, and immediately ordered two submarines operating off the coast of Germany to prepare for an interception. At the same time, Menzies was instructed to monitor Kanalis's whereabouts in order to obtain the exact time and place of his embarkation. Not tired of deception, Canaris did not board the boat directly after dressing up, but took a fishing boat out of the harbor and then met with the German submarine.

This time, Canaris had the upper hand, and he was also well received upon his successful return home and was awarded the Iron Cross of the First Class. His good performance during this period made him one of the german General Zechte who tried his best to retain about 4,000 wartime outstanding officers in the gap of the Treaty of Versailles, providing a "seed" for Germany's revitalizing armament.

In 1923, Canaris met Goering, the central figure of the future Third Reich, during the Beer Hall Riots in Munich. He then tied his fate to the Nazi Party in World War I and threw himself into the right-wing movement. Through Goering's connections, Canaris became acquainted with Hitler and offered him material on the political orientation, character and economic situation of all the officers of the German army. These materials later played an important role, and Hitler took firm control of the German officer class.

Build an intelligence empire

In October 1934, the German naval commander Reider recommended Canaris to Hitler, and with his previous military achievements and genius spy potential, Hitler entrusted the entire Intelligence Work of Germany to him, and he began his career as a Nazi spy king.

During the more than a decade that he was in charge of the Intelligence Bureau, the intelligence front played an important role in the war. Canaris established his own kingdom of military intelligence after Hitler came to power and handed it over to his cronies. Hitler was so pleased with his loyalty and merit that in 1935 he was appointed Director of Military Intelligence. When he took office, Canaris was personally received by Hitler, and in the face of the new director, Hitler said hopefully: "I want to build an institution, which should be like the British Intelligence Service to unite a group of people and work with enthusiasm." Hitler not only gave Kanaris a strong support in spirit, but also in terms of funds. In addition, Kanaris was given great power in order to build a vast empire of military intelligence in a short period of time.

Forming a military intelligence empire was not an easy task, and in this grand project, Canaris showed astonishing boldness and great organizational ability: in just two years, the intelligence bureau expanded from a small organization of 150 people in the Patchign era to a large organization of 1,000 people, and the size of the wartime was as high as 15,000 people. In 1940, Canaris was awarded the rank of admiral in the early stages of the war, a prestigious honor during the short 12 years of the Third Reich. This honor is a testament to Kanaris' high position in the Navy and the magnitude of the achievements of the Military Intelligence Service.

Thanks to Kanaris' efforts, German military intelligence activities were not limited to Europe, but also to North and South America and the Middle East. In the establishment of intelligence networks, in addition to the complete and detailed underground networks in Europe, huge spy networks and counter-espionage networks have been established around the world. Because Canaris's first espionage was carried out in Spain, the German intelligence service's spy network in Spain was also the most successful.

Kanaris also made creative moves in recruiting. Advertising loans in foreign newspapers was the main recruitment route in pre-war Germany, and Canaris used this method to recruit many high-level talents, including university professors, lawyers and former German military officers; Under his management, the management power in the intelligence agencies was further issued, and the hierarchy and efficiency of the espionage agencies were also improved. In terms of institutional setup, Kanaris divided the German Military Intelligence Agency into five branches, namely the Secret Intelligence Department responsible for military and enemy economic intelligence searches, the second division that carried out commando activities and sabotage, subversion, and psychological warfare activities, the three departments engaged in counter-espionage work, and the five divisions such as the Central Office and the Foreign Affairs Office. In addition to the division of departments by specialty, each division also has a field station responsible for the prescribed area. Recruitment of personnel from these agencies is handled by the heads of agencies themselves and a special operations team is established. These groups are known in intelligence circles as family bands, and the conductor of each band is a veteran interlocutor whose functions are primarily to engage in counter-espionage activities, receive whistleblowers (including whistleblowers within the system), infiltrate enemy intelligence groups, and keep an eye out for foreigners who may be plotted against.

But later, Canaris was sentenced to death for opposing Hitler. This process has not been declassified until now, and this dramatic history is still hidden behind some controversial opinions. Whatever the views of later generations, Kanaris remained the most important key figure in Nazi Germany's intelligence apparatus during World War II.

As a spy leader who had made great contributions to the fascist leader Hitler, Kanaris's remarkable ability and extraordinary talent in espionage work had caused the Allied counter-espionage agencies to suffer. He was also highly regarded by the German intelligence agencies: the German intelligence agencies called him a "trapeze acrobat" and a scheming man, the former director of the CIA, Alan Dulles, called him "the bravest man in modern history", and the Italian military attaché in Berlin described him as "unscrupulous and intellectually superior".

Kanaris enjoyed the nazi title of "spy king", and his life's ups and downs were also related to the Nazis. During his nazi involvement, he was favored by Hitler and received great support; But in the end, also because of the Nazis, Hitler sent him to the guillotine and never made public his "crimes".

The exploits of the "Spy King"

In short, the near-genius espionage ability and chaotic historical environment have created the legendary Kanaris Nazi generation of spy kings. The king of spies in Nazi intelligence agencies made great contributions to Hitler in World War II, and showed courage and strategy in espionage activities, including many remarkable classic cases:

In the confrontation between the intelligence front and the British, Canaris made great achievements. He sent a capable general to The Hague, the center of british espionage agency M6's activities on the European continent, to first plot against a Dutchman serving British intelligence, after which German agents followed this clue to find other spies serving Britain. In this way, the British spy network in Germany was cracked in one fell swoop; In 1935, German agents captured a long-term agent at the Kiel Shipyard, a case that destroyed an important source of British naval secrets about Germany's latest navy, and the arrest of this agent also meant that the British spy network in the Netherlands was ended.

Before the outbreak of war in 1937, Canaris had secretly installed no less than 253 agents of various kinds in Britain, and some agents had even infiltrated the homes of senior British officials. Hitler had ordered the prohibition of German agents from carrying out intelligence activities in Britain in order to maintain friendly relations with Britain, a decision that led to a late start to German intelligence work with Britain. When World War II broke out in September 1939 and the format of German intelligence warfare against Britain finally changed, Kanaris issued a circular asking 300 spies around the world to focus on gathering intelligence from British secret services. An effective intelligence network, built at such a rapid pace and in such a short period of time, provided an important source of intelligence for the German Military Spy Service and other intelligence analysts to understand Britain's war capabilities, and by collating the results of the intelligence analysis, the German General Staff formulated many targeted wartime measures against Britain. Canaris's words explain this vast and meticulous intelligence network most precisely: "We have drawn detailed maps not only of the facilities along the British coast, but also of most of the airports, even the oil storage depots between London and the North Sea port of Hull." Not only that, but even the joint operation plan of the British Army and Air Force was acquired by Kanaris, which allowed Hitler to fully appreciate his espionage talents.

In the German Military Spy Service, there was also a special team of agents, the Brandenburg detachment. This one

The team is subordinate to the Second Division of the Military Spy Bureau, and Kanaris has a special team in which each of the members of the team can be proficient in at least one foreign language, such as Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, etc. Basically including most of the languages in the world at that time, and even the advantages of the cold Tibetan and Afghan languages make them easy to carry out espionage activities in other countries, not only that, they also know the customs and habits of the area of activity. Skilled use of these skills coupled with careful preparation, the Polish Campaign of 1939 and the Battle of Western Europe in 1940, and later on the Soviet Battlefield, this team made great achievements, and 3/4 of the troops with 00 people received the honor of the Iron Cross This team followed Kanaris until he stepped down and was replaced by the Oninborg force.

In the politics of intelligence, Kanaris had a deeply disgraceful operation: in order to create an incident, the SS secret police planned to have the death row prisoners in the concentration pretend to be the German radio station of the Polish Army pretending to attack the Polish border in Grevitz. When Heydrich asked Kanaris for 150 Polish Army uniforms, he was reluctant and handed them over to the former. This dispute eventually became the trigger for World War II, bringing about a global catastrophe.

Confusing ending

On 18 February 1944, Hitler reorganized the Nazi intelligence apparatus by ordering the abolition of the military establishment and merging it with the Central Security Service to form a new body called the Army Bureau, and Kanaris was transferred to the Staff of the Supreme Command as Head of The Bureau of Commerce and Economic Operations. Due to intense infighting between the Military Intelligence Agency and the SS and the revelation of the murder of Hitler by Kanaris's subordinate Hans, Kanaris was forced to step down, and after his ouster, he was implicated and imprisoned, and finally executed on April 9, 1945, in the Neuf rosenberg prison in bavaria, southern Germany. It is also currently considered the most likely crime for which he was sentenced to death.

Later, there was much speculation about him, and some believed that he was actually the actual organizer of the "Black Band" (the underground anti-Hitler organization in Germany). Some believe that he later became a friend of the Allied forces and did not perform well in his later work in the Military Intelligence Bureau, and his performance in the "Major Martin" incident is questionable. Historians believe that his life was divided into two phases, the early and the late, and these two phases seemed to be the transition from Faust to Hamlet. Kanaris's espionage talent was fully demonstrated when he joined the Nazis, but his later performance was not as dazzling. And this is the ups and downs, twists and turns and drama of the Nazi spy king's life.