Destroying Hitler's R-Netz Volume IV

In February 1944, the Nazis began planning R-Netz, networks of trained espionage agents, wireless operators, saboteurs and assassins. Once the Allies invaded Western Europe, their missions were to stay behind in Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Greece; to collect military, economic and political intelligence to be brought back or transmitted by wireless to their German controllers; to acquire new identity cards, currency and ration books; to locate and sabotage military and industrial targets and assassinate key military and political leaders. Operation EASTER EGG involved the burial of over 1,000 dumps of explosives and sabotage equipment before the retreat of the German forces to Germany. Only a select few knew of their existence. When British, American and Canadian troops occupied Southern Italy, some of the stay-behind agents surrendered or were denounced and captured. As counter-intelligence officers threatened them with execution as enemy agents, ome revealed the location of the sabotage dumps and hidden wireless sets. Most provided details of the schools where they had been trained, their instructors, the syllabus, their missions and the names and descriptions of other students. As the Allies advanced northwards, more arrests were made which reduced the effectiveness of Hitler's R-Netz. But there were other reasons why the stay-behind agents failed to achieve their German masters' dreams. Bernard O'Connor's Destroying Hitler's R-Netz Volume IV tells for the first time the human stories of Nazi intelligence officers, their stay-behind agents in Italy and the Allied counter-intelligence officers who helped neutralise the potentially very serious threat to the Allies' occupation plans.