Iron Cross

"No. 9735, your interrogation time has come." The guard's roaring voice echoed in the dark dungeon of the Gestapo headquarters. The iron door of the dark room opened in response, and all the prisoners stood up alertly as if facing a formidable enemy. Only a man wearing an iron-gray suit with slightly gray hair turned a deaf ear to the voice and continued to pace leisurely in the cramped cell. He is Prisoner No. 9735, former Director of Imperial Military Intelligence and Admiral William Canaris.

"You don't have to stare at me like this, and you don't have to look innocent. Canaris, it was the head of state's personal order to arrest you. We have found enough evidence." Sitting upright in the specially arranged interrogation room, Three people were sitting. In the middle was Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Austrian fellow of the Führer and the new director of the Reich Central Security Service. On the right was *** Schellenberg, and on the left was Heinrich M. Le.

Hoffmann's reorganization of the intelligence agencies was described as vigorous and vigorous. As soon as the strategy meeting was over, Himmler's concurrent director of the Reich Security Service was removed, and the internal organization also underwent great changes. The Reich Security Service (domestic functions) headed by Otto Ohlendorf and the Criminal Police Service headed by Artur Neby were separated from the system of the Reich Security Service and merged with the original ordinary police system, led by Him. Rai concurrently serves as the Imperial Police Chief and is responsible for domestic security and internal supervision. The Military Intelligence Bureau, which was originally independent and controlled by Canaris, as well as the headquarters, general staff, and intelligence agencies within each service were integrated into the Imperial Security Bureau. The current Reich Security Service has been completely transformed into a professional organization for intelligence collection, information analysis, espionage infiltration and domestic counter-espionage. It mainly includes General Schellenberg's National Security Department (foreign functions and spy dispatch), Navy The personnel and functions of Derich Müller's Gestapo (domestic counterintelligence), as well as the Intelligence and Analysis Service headed by Gehlen, and the Military Intelligence Service were separated and absorbed after being screened according to reclassification criteria. Now, Kaltenbrunner, who is in charge of the Reich Security Service and also serves as the deputy national leader of the SS, has greatly increased his power. He is directly responsible for and reports to the head of state. He is vaguely expected to replace the assassinated Heydrich as the second-ranking figure in the SS. Trend, Schulenberg, Mueller and Galen are called the troika of the General Security Administration, with a clear division of labor and mutual coordination.

In theory, the Reich Security Service is now a subordinate agency of the High Command, and Keitel is their direct leader. But everyone knows that the control of the intelligence system has now been transferred to the head of state. The head of state not only controls the structural reorganization and functional adjustment of the intelligence system, but also personally reviews the relevant intelligence content. Countless pieces of information that have been summarized, conflicted with each other, or have not been screened for authenticity are sent to Hoffmann's files like water. Every day, they are sorted and bound by the Secretariat and submitted to the head of state's adjutant for review and then to Hoffmann for review. Mann was a major facilitator in this process. Everyone thought that the head of state would soon be overwhelmed by this trivial information that had no specific value and could not be practically proven. But on the contrary, the head of state not only read all the information carefully, but also made comments on what he considered important or of great importance. The suspect intelligence was specially annotated, and the final report on Canaris was Galen's masterpiece based on Hoffman's latest instructions.

Canaris sighed softly in his heart. As a veteran spy, staying calm has long been a part of his life. But even so, he was still shocked by the suddenness of this operation-almost in the strategic meeting, treason was uncovered. In the next few minutes of the group meeting, Hoffmann personally ordered the SS to arrest this well-hidden mole in the name of convening a meeting. He had been imprisoned for a few days, and what kept him confused was how did the other party discover his flaw? Judging from the current interrogation situation, it may be difficult to escape unscathed.

"General evidence is useless to you, because all intelligence agencies are infiltrated by your people, and you can always accuse yourself of suspicion, but..." Heinrich Mueller shook his hand information, with a confident expression on his face, "You can't kill Reinhard Heydrich directly. No decent German will carry out the order to assassinate the SS Deputy National Commander. You must rely on the British - exactly He said that it was you who handed the information to the British and allowed the British to control the Czech underground organization to kill Heydrich."

Canaris remained calm: "This is the most baseless speculation I have ever heard."

"Very good. Just as the head of state expected, you will deny everything." Schellenberg took over. "Using the efforts of the past few days, we have investigated all the people and information you have come into contact with. You have The clues that may be exposed are well concealed, but there is nothing we can do about the information reported and archived by the intelligence agents and subordinate agencies of the Military Intelligence Bureau within their scope of authority. Do you want to hear the analysis report of Director Galen? "

Canaris did not respond, only listening to Schellenberg reading to himself: "The files show that before the Polish campaign, the accuracy rate of the intelligence reviewed and reported to the head of state by you was about 75%; from the Polish campaign to the French campaign, the accuracy rate was about 75%. Before the end, the accuracy rate was still around 70%, but starting from the Battle of Britain, the accuracy rate of the intelligence you reported quickly dropped to 40% - you can use the British spy agency's more advanced intelligence collection and counter-espionage capabilities to improve your situation. Defend yourself, but the fact is that you deliberately concealed correct or nearly correct information - whenever conflicting information was sent to you, you often reported the wrong information after review, while shelving the correct information and annotating it 'Nonsense'. After searching and comparing the original files, we can assume that some important and correct information has been destroyed by you, but it cannot explain the accuracy of the intelligence involving the United Kingdom and the United States. There is a high contrast between the accuracy rate of intelligence related to the Soviet Union, because 40% is only an average level. After excluding the intelligence on the Eastern Front, your accuracy rate is less than 30%... and those you deny and label as "nonsense." The accuracy of the intelligence content reached more than 70%. It can be seen that you carefully screened the wrong intelligence and submitted it to the supreme commander. Regardless of whether you contacted the British or not, you cannot escape these crimes. "

Canaris was secretly frightened, and this analysis report hit his weak point - as Schellenberg said, he did not have any formal intelligence or personnel contacts with the British and American intelligence agencies, but he was convinced that he had Menzies, the head of MI6, and the figure known as the Big "C" have been on good terms with each other for a long time. Many things can be understood without communication. Just like old friends who have not seen each other for many years, they can make each other feel the same without talking. To his own existence - because he has greatly neglected the use and collection of intelligence. The most typical example is that during the Battle of Britain, the reference opinion he issued for the Sea Lion Project was that 31 fully equipped divisions were deployed on the British Isles. In fact, the UK only had 6 exhausted and barely equipped divisions at this time. , the High Command and the Gestapo could not distinguish the secrets, and the British spies hidden in the Military Intelligence Bureau and the base camp could fully understand the contents.

"You can still deny Director Galen's analysis report, but there is one thing you can't escape." Kaltenbrunner said, "General Henri Giraud, former commander of the French Seventh Army and head of the underground resistance organization We were imprisoned in a secret prison, and we ordered the execution at the request of the Führer, but he escaped on the eve of the execution. You have always denied this order on the grounds that it was officially notified to Reinhard Heydrich, thinking that it was because of this. The latter was suddenly stabbed to death, which led to the prisoner's escape. But we reorganized the entire operation. This Frenchman could not speak a word of German, and he was also a one-armed disabled man. It was impossible to escape without anyone else to help him. No. It would be even more confusing if you pretended to be a British intelligence agency or some other organization, but the truth is that you didn't take over MI6 at all. Everything before Giraud escaped our control There are just the right omissions or hidden dangers in key links, and this is precisely because you ordered the relaxation of control..."

Kaltenbrunner talked eloquently in front of Canaris, and his words were full of banter. In fact, everyone including the Troika and others could not believe that Canaris was the biggest enemy hidden within the empire. The decision to arrest the admiral without obvious evidence was surprising and incomprehensible. What is even more unacceptable is that the subsequent investigation and analysis results showed that the head of state's assertion was completely correct. When all events exceeded the normal probability of error, After gathering together, the only explanation that can be given is that it was done on purpose.

Kaltenbrunner and the Troika were unanimously positive that Canaris had no contact with the British spy agency. This is why the Gestapo originally suspected Canaris but had no definite evidence - they could not find Canaris. The admiral's motive for treason was impeccable in terms of money, beauty, etc., and he did not have a deep hatred for the Führer like Beck, Brauchitsch and other frustrated senior officials. As a senior general of the Third Reich, Canaris had sufficient fame, status and power, and was truly the top elite of the empire. In other words, he had no motive for committing the crime at all.

The Führer's opinion stunned them: "Idiot, his purpose of becoming a traitor is not for himself, he is to fight the war - this despicable, arrogant wretch believes that the path executed by him is the only right direction."

"Since you all think you have my evidence, why are you still going to all the trouble to interrogate me?" Canaris retorted with a sarcastic tone, "According to your statement, I have no accomplices, and neither do you. Don’t expect me to admit responsibilities that I have never shouldered…”

"You're right. We already know everything you know. The purpose of interrogating you is not to draw any conclusions from your mouth, but to tell you something you don't know or pretend not to know." Kaltenbrunner He stood up and ordered coldly, "Take good care of him. Don't let him have the opportunity to commit suicide, let alone escape."

Canaris was dragged back to the solitary cell with heavy shackles. Schellenberg and Kaltenbrunner exchanged glances and asked Heinrich Muller: "What do you think?" Will the Führer's strategy succeed?"

"This is a big fish, and a fat bait. There are too many secrets hidden in him, and the British will not be able to bear the loneliness." Heinrich Muller shook his head and said coldly, "There will definitely be countless minions rushing over like moths to a flame, just like the story in the summer courtyard. We just need to prepare the lampshade and enjoy the corpses on the ground..."