Wank the Abwehr (German Intel)

Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2005-0152%2C_Geheimer_Funkmeldedienst_des_OKW.jpg


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?
 
Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2005-0152%2C_Geheimer_Funkmeldedienst_des_OKW.jpg


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 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.
 
Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2005-0152%2C_Geheimer_Funkmeldedienst_des_OKW.jpg


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 effect is that they dont Fall for traps and they Can make some of their own. Norway could be bloody for the RN and Bismarck would probably escape as examples.
 

Deleted member 1487

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.
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:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Orchestra_(espionage)
Even the Lucy Ring was broken up during the war:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_spy_ring
It could have been broken earlier, but none of that was the Abwehr responsibility. Their counterintel functions were largely taken over by the RSHA.

The way to wank the Abwehr comes down to two factors: don't have their encryption systems broken, say through not adopting the Enigma machine like the rest of the Wehrmacht. That largely shut downs the biggest part of British counterintel success.
Second is have Wilhelm Siebold not be recruited and turn double agent for the US. Then the Abwehr intel ring in the US can pretty much operate undetected for a long time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris#United_States
With that ring intact then Operation Pastorius might actually have a shot of working.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pastorius
Assuming that does then the US is in a bad way in 1942-43 and perhaps beyond, but then Germany will likely be punished worse for the damage that Abwehr terrorism inflicts.
 

Deleted member 1487

Right. It almost seems Nazism is at a permanent disadvantage when it comes to recruitment of sources.
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:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elyesa_Bazna
 
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?
 

Deleted member 1487

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?
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.

B) No, everyone knew the Germans were losing, no one was willing to work for them at that point.

C) The Abwehr had the anti-partisan Brandenburger commando groups, so they did their part there. It is really outside their purview to do more than they did IOTL. Counterintel/COIN is not the Abwehr's turf. They'd have to infiltrate SOE/OSS to make that happen and that is not possible. The partisan problem is pretty much a policy issue that military intelligence is not going to help. The Gestapo did the counter-partisan/SOE/OSS work in occupied Europe, the military did that closer to the front line or in areas that impacted their occupation forces.
 
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