Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
August 15, 1943
On August 15, 1943, the U.S. Army’s Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) assisted British brokers in finding and arresting German spies in Iran. The seize of those spies inside the Persian Gulf area led the Iranian authorities to hitch the Allied Powers in World War II.
The Persian Gulf was invaded by British and Soviet forces throughout Operation COUNTENANCE in August 1941. Soon after, a number of of his CIC headquarters had been organized within the area, with personnel positioned in Tehran, Iran, and Basra, Iraq. Sometime in 1941, German spy Franz Meyer and a bunch of particular forces arrived in Iran. Meyer, referred to as “Max” after a personality in German folklore, was a legislation scholar earlier than becoming a member of a sign platoon in Potsdam and being recruited by the German Security Service (SD). Mayer’s mission in Iran was to assemble native allies and acquire assist for the German Afrika Korps invasion of the Persian Gulf. These operations had been thwarted in 1941 by the arrival of British and Soviet troops, who continued to occupy Iran whereas sending extra troopers to Iraq. Meyer’s crew went into hiding.
Intelligence brokers knew that German spy organizations had been working in Iran and Iraq. From February 1943 till November 1943, the CIC Iraqi-Iranian Group was the most important intelligence group within the Middle East. Agents from CIC headquarters and discipline places of work within the Persian Gulf carried out a wide range of counterintelligence missions, together with “loyalty checks and investigations of grievances, espionage, and sabotage.” They additionally helped comprise pro-Axis campaigns through the British occupation. Despite efforts to eradicate these spies, German saboteurs continued their propaganda marketing campaign, stirring up widespread anti-Semitic and anti-colonial attitudes among the many Iranian inhabitants.
Meyer’s group was nonetheless in hiding two years after Operation COUNTENANCE, transferring often to keep away from detection. In March 1943, Meyer’s diary was found in an deserted vault by British intelligence. These proved helpful in linking the actions of the “Franz Group” in Iran to varied espionage operations. Learning that Meyer was nonetheless in Iran, German authorities made a daring transfer in opposition to the “Big Three” (President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet President Joseph Stalin) through the Tehran Conference in November 1943. I began planning a technique. Officials ordered Meyer to assassinate these leaders.
Meyer’s crew was joined by six paratroopers from SD to help within the mission, code-named Operation Long Jump. However, shortly after touchdown in Iran, CIC realized of the particular forces’ actions and started monitoring them till they met with Mayer. On August 15, 1943, Franz Mayer was found making an attempt to burn essential paperwork. These paperwork included Mr. Meyer’s identification card. A map of Iranian railways and tunnels ordered to be destroyed by Adolf Hitler. and an extended listing of informants, collaborators, and different German brokers within the Persian Gulf. These paperwork had been found by British and American intelligence businesses and roughly 130 Iranian collaborators had been arrested.
Horace D. Hodge, an intelligence officer from Bay City, Michigan, was one of many CIC crew members who supported the operation and reportedly performed a key position in facilitating the particular forces’ seize earlier than handing over to British intelligence officers. It is being Mayer and his co-conspirators had been extensively interrogated by the British and supplied precious data, together with the involvement of senior German officers within the assassination plot. Meyer was interned, tried, and executed by the British shortly after his seize. Lt. Col. John T. McCafferty, who commanded the Persian Gulf Command’s CIC detachment, later testified that Meyer’s arrest prompted the Iranian authorities to hitch the Allies and declare battle on Germany.
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Photographed: August 14, 2023 Posted: August 14, 2023 10:57 Story ID: 451309 Location: United States Web Views: 406 Downloads: 1 Public Domain
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