Operation Zeppelin (espionage plan)

The operation could be traced to small mobile units (Aussenkommando) of interrogators that worked on the numerous Soviet POWs captured during the Operation Barbarossa. Some prisoners, particularly those that had lost loved ones to Soviet repressions or were not ethnic Russians, were willing to cooperate with the Germans. The idea for a wider operation that would go beyond collection of military intelligence originated from "below" and was brought to the attention of Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler. The operation crystallized in summer 1942 despite a March 1942 agreement that defined foreign espionage as an Abwehr function. Operation Zeppelin was supposed to address the lack of intelligence on the Soviet Union (''Abwehr's'' performance was considered abysmal) ==Recruits==

The Germans had little trouble finding recruits as starving and desperate prisoners saw Operation Zeppelin as a chance at survival. However, Germans faced trouble finding qualified recruits. They wanted to recruit educated anti-communists but found that Soviet repressions left only illiterate anti-communists. Their ideological training focused on exploiting hatred for "Judeo-Bolshevism". Prisoners of conflicting political beliefs, for example Ukrainian nationalists and Russian nationalists of the Russian Liberation Army, were kept separate. The recruits wore German uniforms and their living conditions were comparable to those of German soldiers. Before 1944, the education lasted from two or three weeks to three months. There was little consistency between the camps as focus was placed on quantity over quality. Due to aircraft shortage, there were significant delays in deployment. Idle agents drank alcohol, contracted venereal diseases, and rethought their allegiance. In numerous cases, Zeppelin agents would surrender to NKVD and cooperate in fighting the Germans. Soviet sources claim that they were able to turn more than 80, or nearly 13%, of captured radio agents. As a result, the Germans had to abandon the "quantity over quality" approach and become more selective. They chose those Russian prisoners that had committed an unforgivable offense, such as desertion or atrocity against Soviet civilians, that would prevent them from ever surrendering to the Soviet authorities. At the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945, Operation Zeppelin faced such difficulties in finding reliable Russian agents that it was decided to use Russian-speaking Volksdeutsche. From mid-1943, Operation Zeppelin also supported and maintained contact with pro-German groups that were left behind the Russian line by the advancing Red Army. For example, in summer 1944, Zeppelin made contact with troops of the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. near Bryansk. ==Structure==

Organization Operation Zeppelin was part of the Section C at the Amt VI (foreign intelligence) of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). Under the leadership of , the operation became an independent office of Section C in mid-1943. It was one of the manifestations of the continued rivalry between Sicherheitsdienst (SD, the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party) and Abwehr. Inside RSHA, Operation Zeppelin suffered from a rivalry between Amt IV (the Gestapo) and Amt VI. The relatively small staff at the headquarters in Wannsee were mostly academics from various Ostforschung (German for Research of the East) institutes. To support the operation, the Havel Institute (Havelinstitut) was established in Wannsee by an order of Himmler in September 1942. It was a radio center intended to handle the communications with the deployed agents as well as a training facility for radio operators. Auxiliary military units The Hauptkommandos had auxiliary military units where recruits served while waiting for their airdrop behind the Soviet lines. It was also a way for Germans to assess the reliability and readiness of the recruits. Hauptkommando South had two auxiliary companies: a 200-man unit of mainly Georgians and a 350-man unit from Central Asia. The largest of such auxiliary units was attached to Hauptkommando North. It was a battalion-size unit initially stationed near Pskov. A second such unit was created at the end of 1942 in near Chełm. The two units were merged in March 1943 to form the . They were moved near Hlybokaye in Belarus to engage in anti-partisan operations, including Operation Cottbus in May–June 1943. However, on 13 August 1943, Gil and his brigade with about 2,500 men killed some 90 German liaison officers and defected to the Soviet side (according to other sources, the defectors numbered only 400 men from the 1st Battalion of the brigade). At its peak, it housed some 2,000 agents and was evacuated to Teplá in late 1944. The main training camp of the Hauptkommando North was located in Pskov. Hauptkommando Center had camps in Jabłoń (subordinated to KL Lublin and destroyed in 1942) and Kolín (established towards the end of 1944). Other camps were separated by nationalities. For example, camp in Legionowo new Warsaw housed Turkic peoples that were later sent to the Turkestan Legion. Zeppelin had sections in the major camps as well. For example, it had two barracks inside the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1942 and was present in the Auschwitz concentration camp until early 1944. In Sonderlager "T", Russian scientists and technicians conducted research on technology, such as remote control, that could be incorporated into weapons and prepared mission plans that required technical expertise such as knowledge of Russian oil infrastructure. In Sonderlager "L", about 200 scientists compiled statistics, charts, and maps of Soviet Russia. They produced particularly valuable reports that were hidden in spring 1945 in hopes of offering them to the British or the Americans. It could be considered the most successful aspect of Operation Zeppelin. ==Missions==

Mass deployment Missions commenced in June 1942. Groups, four to five men including a radio operator, were parachuted deep behind the front line while others crossed the front line on the ground. Groups were given various tasks of espionage, diversion, sabotage, infiltration, dissemination of propaganda, instigation of resistance, etc. In a short time Germans assembled some 10,000 to 15,000 recruits in training camps and had 2,000 or 3,000 trainees ready for deployment. It is estimated than on any given day there were 500 to 800 Zeppelin agents working inside Soviet Russia between 1942 and 1944. However, according to other sources, Operation Zeppelin and Abwehr did not manage to airdrop more than 1,750 to 2,000 agents combined. However, the results were meager. Many groups were captured or wiped out soon after landing or agreed to cooperate with the Soviets. Amt VI had no way of verifying received information and thus it was highly susceptible to disinformation planted by Soviet security forces. Due to little success and dwindling resources, including shortages of aircraft fuel and radio units, Germans had to abandon the ideas of mass deployment of saboteurs and return to the primary goal of intelligence gathering by March 1943. Other agents sent reports on railway movements from Samara and Vladivostok. A lone agent was working at the staff of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, designer of the Operation Bagration. In October 1944, Operation Zeppelin still had 15 teams functioning behind the Soviet lines. , chief of the Georgian desk at Zeppelin in 1942–1943, approached the Germans with a plan to exploit the open border between Turkey and Soviet Russia near Batumi. In October 1942, a special camp was set up to train 200 people and 60 radio operators in Breslau. In early 1943, it was moved to Linsdorf. However, only three groups were dispatched to the Komi ASSR: 12 people on 2 June 1943, 40 people near Syktyvkar at the end of 1943, and 7 people in June 1944. All of these groups were quickly liquidated by the NKVD. Bessonov himself was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in June 1943. The plan was to drop agents in the Ural Mountains so that they would sabotage Soviet steel industry in Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk. The initial plans were modified to target the electrical grid. Operation Zeppelin provided the manpower and selected agents began training, however delays caused by lack of suitable long-range planes meant a loss of launch sites to the advancing Red Army (and increasing the distance planes needed to cover). Only a small group was sent to Vologda against alternate targets. The Operation Ulm transformed into Operation Eisenhammer, a plan for the Luftwaffe to bomb power plants near Moscow. Plot to assassinate Stalin An elaborate plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin in Moscow became the best known mission undertaken by Operation Zeppelin, though details of the events vary as Russian sources have altered the story several times. In May 1942, a Russian officer by name of Shilo and connections with the Russian high command (Stavka). The plan was to airlift Tavrin and his wife radio/operator Lidia Yakovlevna Shilova to an airfield in the Moscow region. From there, they would travel to Moscow to assassinate Stalin or other high-ranking Soviet officials possibly on 25 October, an anniversary of the October Revolution. On the night of 3–4 September 1944, an Arado Ar 232B transport plane took off from Riga. Flown by a crew from the secretive Luftwaffe Kampfgeschwader 200, it was hit by Soviet anti-aircraft fire and crash-landed near Smolensk. Russian counter-intelligence found out about the plans and waited for the plane at its intended landing site. and executed in August 1945. Tavrin and his wife, who the Russians hoped to use against the Germans, were executed in March and April 1952 respectively. ==Commanders==

Operation Zeppelin was commanded by: • Sturmbannführer Johannes Kleinert, spring 1942 to summer 1942 • Obersturmbannführer , summer 1942 to spring 1943 • Standartenführer , spring 1943 to summer 1943 • Sturmbannführer , summer 1943 to September 1944 • Standartenführer , September 1944 to November 1944 • Standartenführer Walter H. Rapp, November 1944 to April 1945 == Citations ==

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