Operation Felix was the codename for a proposed
German seizure of
Gibraltar during
World War II, subject to the co-operation of Spanish
caudillo Francisco Franco. It never went ahead, chiefly because of Franco's reluctance to enter the war. Hitler was unaware that his own envoy, Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris, head of the
Abwehr (intelligence service), was running a secret resistance movement and liaising closely with Franco by specifying particular terms that Hitler was certain to refuse. This ensured that the negotiations would fail.