The challenge is, with a post-1937 PoD, to get the Abwehr to be the premier intelligence agency in the world.
Based on your PoD, what effect does your uber-Abwehr have on the logistical and strategic operations of the Wehrmacht during WWII?
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The challenge is, with a post-1937 PoD, to get the Abwehr to be the premier intelligence agency in the world.
Based on your PoD, what effect does your uber-Abwehr have on the logistical and strategic operations of the Wehrmacht during WWII?
I Think its quite a late pod for that, but you could imagine Heydrich replacing canaris, and somehow this leading to expansion of the German efforts. Problem is that Nazi ideology is not very appealing abroad and it is late for recruitment. Maybe developing of the german Electric computers, getting them to learn that the British are reading their codes while they Can break the British codes. Finding their own moles and turning them into double agents. Its very hard to see it work at this late Time though.![]()
The challenge is, with a post-1937 PoD, to get the Abwehr to be the premier intelligence agency in the world.
Based on your PoD, what effect does your uber-Abwehr have on the logistical and strategic operations of the Wehrmacht during WWII?
Canaris, while incompetent and anti-Nazi was not a British spy based on the latest books on him. Unless there is an MI6 file that is declassified that shows otherwise, he was still loyal to his country and wasn't working for foreign agencies while still trying to remove Hitler. There is no evidence the Bormann was a Soviet spy. Red Orchestra was caught and dismantled:Canaris is cought as British spy and then forced to double double cross British. Somehow Red Capella is cough. Borman is cought as soviet spy. And they know about enigma laying some good strategic trap.
Problem is that Nazi ideology is not very appealing abroad
Not pre-war actually. German intelligence actually had a LOT of agents abroad, but could have done a lot more in Britain. Believe it or not the Nazis had a lot of sympathizers until things turned against them; until about 1942 they were able to recruit pretty well because they were viewed as the likely winners, but in 1941 things really started to turn against them. Much of their early successes were based on having good intel about their neighbors, but once they expanded beyond those neighbors their screw ups pre-war in terms of not investing in Britain hurt them badly, as 1940 was far too late to try and get started. Plus of course the Seibold mistake really began to unravel their successes so that by 1942 they were pretty much screwed in terms of external intel with a few exceptions like Cicero:Right. It almost seems Nazism is at a permanent disadvantage when it comes to recruitment of sources.
A) No, Churchill was not really that important in 1939 relatively, plus German intelligence had no ground game capable of touching him in 1939 in Britain. No one assassinates Stalin but his how bodyguards, Soviet counterintel was just too brutal to let anything through at that level. Assassinations in Britain/the USSR are not happening.Any chance a boosted Abwehr could've..
a) Carried out strategy-changing assassinations of key military and political figures between 39 - 43? (Not Stalin/Churchil - but maybe more plausible figures (Monty/Zukhov/Dowding) ?)
b) Mitigated poor tactical performances by the retreating Wehrmacht between '43 - '45?
c) Helped dismantle resource draining partisan groups in occupied territories?