Monday 6 June 2016

Espionage, Superpowers and their Spies: Insider goes Undercover!

The Bridge of Spies, Glienicker Brücke

Battleground Berlin, from 1945 to 1989, countries with opposing ideologies honed their espionage skills in this geopolitical hub. From the turning of individual informants, to hoovering up information en mass, the two superpowers, and their satellites, vied to get the edge on the other – knowledge is power. From the mundacity of sifting through shed loads of correspondence, to daring missions behind enemy lines, no stone was left unturned in the struggle for world dominance.

Insider guides took some time to retrace the sites of these operations, and the fascinating stories behind them, in and around Berlin.


Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – post WWII, Berlin becomes the world's spy capital.


George Blake's residence on Platanenallee.


Charlottenburg Palace – site of the KGB defection of Alexai Myagkov in 1974.


ECHELON on Teufelsberg. British Military Hospital in the foreground, location of Hess's autopsy in 1987.

 
The Teams

British
MI (Military Intelligence) 6 / Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) a.ka. Box 500
BRIXMIS

French
Deuxieme Bureau (until 1982) & Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE)
FMLM et al.

Soviet
KGB (Commitee for State Security) and GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) et al.

U.S.
Strategic Services Unit (SSU) then (from 1947) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
C.I.C. (until 1961), A.S.A. (until 1977), then A.S.A., INSCOM, USMLM, FCA et al.

East Germany
Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (HVA) and Hauptabteilung II

West Germany
Organisation Gehlen and (from 1956) Bundesnachrichtendienst
Bundesverfassungsschutz



'London House', British Military Sector HQ and counter intelligence hub.


A spy




Mission House, BRIXMIS liaison location in Potsdam.


KGB Forbidden City, Potsdam, 3rd Directorate military counter intelligence


First CIA HQ location in Dahlem


Allied Museum Dahlem


Hastings TG503 bomber used in the Berlin airlift


Former Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science. Site of the the first nuclear fission by Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner.
Site of Allied Control Council walkout 1948.


Him again!


Site of the La Belle Disco bombing 1986.


Looking for Operation Stopwatch Gold.


Found it!


Karlshorst, site of German unconditional surrender in May 8th, 1945.


HQ of the KGB/GRU/SMAD, residence of Marshal Zukov.


KGB prison '45-'63.
 
The Players
Lavrenty Beria – Petrov
Robert Bialek – Bruno Wallman
George Blake – Diamond
Anthony Blunt – Tony/Johnson
 Alexei Myaglkov – n/a
Guy Burgess – Mädchen/Hicks
John Cairncross – Liszt Jeffrey
Carnney/Jens Karney – Kid/Uwe
Nigel Dunkley – Hotspur
Allen Dulles – Mr. Bull
Musbath Eter – n/a
James Hall III – Paul
William 'Wild Bill' King Harvey – n/a
Gennadi Titov – n/a
Donald Maclean – Homer
Adjutant Chef Philippe Mariotti – n/a
Erich Mielke – Fritz Leissner (1936-39)
Major Arthur (Nick) Nicholson – n/a
Harold (Kim) Philby – Sony/Stanley
Geoffrey Prime – Rowlands
Alexander Schalk Golodkowski – Schneewittchen
Manfred Severin – Hagen/Canna Clay
Wolfgang Vogel – Eva
Huseyin Yildirim – Blitz
Marcus (Mischa) Wolf – Michael Storm (1945-49)
Günter Guillaume – Hansen
Rainer Rupp – Mosel/Topaz
Anne Christine Bowen – Turqoise
Gabriele Gast - Leinfelder

George Blake
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11472573/Revealed-Grim-fate-of-the-MI6-agents-betrayed-by-George-Blake.html 
Mission House and Glienicker Bridge http://www.brixmis.co.uk/early-years.html 
KGB Potsdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_Prison,_Potsdam
Allied Museum http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/home.html
Dahlem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlem_%28Berlin%29
La Belle Disco Bombing  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Berlin_discotheque_bombing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/5/newsid_4357000/4357255.stm
Operation Stopwatch Gold http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/berlin_tunnel.asp
Karlshorst http://www.museum-karlshorst.de/en.html
Marshal Zukow http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/1900s/p/zhukov.htm