YT Documentary Script - WWII, Operation Zeppelin

Joseph Stalin was, at the time of World War Two, one of the most powerful men in the world. He was more than just a head of state. There existed around him a cult of personality and, for many, he was the central source of the Soviet Union’s power and will to fight. His death could mean and end to, or a great weakening of, the Soviet threat the Nazi Germany. The Nazi regime was aware of this, and Operation Zeppelin created.

In World War One, the German fight on the Eastern Front against the Russians was proving difficult. The front demanded large amounts of men and supplies, taking manpower away from the fight in the West, against Britain and France. To combat this, German intelligence funded revolutionary groups within Russia, hoping to cause internal unrest, and the collapse of the Russian army. The plan worked, and by March of 1917, Russia was in turmoil. Civilians protested In the streets, soldiers mutinied in their thousands, and by June of 1918, the Tsar had abdicated. Russia left the war, allowing Germany to focus its efforts on the Western Front.

Perhaps remembering the effectiveness of this tactic some 25 years prior, a similar campaign was undertaken in World War Two, in an effort to destabilise the Soviet state by way of sabotage, and to foment domestic tensions, especially amongst the ethnic minorities of the Soviet Union. Operation Zeppelin began in 1942, and continued until the end of the war. The operation planned to send anti-communist Soviet POWs back into Russia, to gather intelligence and cause trouble, as well as propagandising Soviets of Central Asian and Caucasus origins, in hopes they would rise up against the Soviet Union.

The German army did not just want opportunists, they wanted ideological zealots, staunch anti-communists, who wished to see an end to the Soviet system. There were, however, very few educated men. The literate and intellectual anti-communists had been purged, with the only ones remaining being illiterate and uneducated. There was however no shortage of willing participants amongst the Soviet Prisoners of War interned by the Nazi regime, whether they be true anti-communists or not. Soviet POWs were subject to extreme brutality and summary executions, with those not being killed outright often left to starve to death. These dire conditions meant many were happy to take any opportunity given to them, if it meant they might survive the war.

Those organising the operation hoped they could not only turn these men against Bolshevism, but also turn them in favour of National Socialism. Those who had lost loved ones to the Civil War, famine, the gulags, were seen as ideal volunteers, as their grief could be weaponised and turned against their former master. Certain ethnic and religious minorities were also highly valued, such as Muslim Tatars and Chechens, whose religion and way of life was threatened by the state-Atheism of the Soviet Union.

Even with their collaboration, many of these peoples were, by Nazi ideology, considered Untermensch, sub-human. They could not be convinced to fight for an ideology that considered them worthy only of extermination, and so the decision was made to focus on one of the oldest and strongest prejudices of all, especially in the lands of the former Russian Empire, antisemitism. They were indoctrinated into the hatred of supposed Judeo-Bolshevism, and International Jewry. Antisemitism was rife in the current and former lands held by Russia, and so this was perhaps the easiest and oldest enemy to set them upon.

The new recruits had anywhere from three weeks to three months of training, including both learning methods of sabotage and their re-education and indoctrination. For this time they were uniformed and treated as German soldiers, and fed soldiers rations, a blissful existence compared to their time in the POW camps. While the promise of warm clothes and hot food enticed many, those who failed the recruitment process were not returned to their POW camp, they were instead exterminated.

The first missions began in 1942. Recruits were sent in groups of four or five, with fake identity documents are large amounts of cash, and either parachuted deep behind enemy lines, or forced to cross over on foot. When they reached their destination, their main aim was to collect intelligence, which was then reported back to their German handlers via their radio operator. They were also tasked with sowing discontent amongst the locals, hoping to encourage civil disobedience and uprisings.

Most of the attempts were abject failures, either caused by incompetence on the part of the volunteers, or by lack of enthusiasm for their new cause. Many were captured within hours of landing, while many more intentionally gave themselves up to the NKVD or Red Army.

Following the mass desertions, the operation ceased to recruit just anyone, as even the most convincing POWs couldn’t convince their Nazi handlers that they would seriously undertake their missions, and not merely give up within the first day. In order to prevent any surrender or defection, it was decided to recruit those who had committed serious offences, such as desertion or the murder of Soviet civilians, so as to ensure that, if they were to surrender themselves to Soviet authorities, they would be executed, or thrown in the gulag. By the end of the operations lifespan, German agents were being sent alongside POW volunteers, to supervise them, and Russian Volksdeutsche – ethnic Germans with Russian nationality – were used in the operations.

The operation did have some success, even if only minor, such as in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic. This Autonomous Republic was home to Chechens, Ingush, Dagestanis, and other Muslim Soviets, many of whom feared their traditional lives and communities would, at the hands of the Bolsheviks, come to an end. Their uprising began in 1940, when they proclaimed the Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Chechnya-Ingushetia, and soon expanded to include around 5,000 people following the German invasion of Russia in 1941. Operation Zeppelin agents – most of whom were Ossetian, Ingush, or Chechen – were first airdropped in during 1942, with a total of 77 agents being sent.

On paper, the German-aided uprising, named Operation Schamil, was a major affair, with around 150,000 dead. In reality, The German success was very minor, and the effects of the uprising were negligible on the war effort. The vast majority of the dead were civilians, the victims of Soviet carpet-bombing, while 657 were guerrillas, and 165 were Red Army soldiers. The unrest was nothing more than an annoyance for the local Soviet forces, and a largely forgotten blip in the war.

Parallel to Operation Zeppelin was the GULAG Operation. Designed by former Red Army officers Colonel Meandrov and Commander Bessonov, who had defected to fight for the Nazi-aligned Russian Liberation Army, it aimed to open a new front in the war against Bolshevism, to allow a combined force of Nazis and Russian anti-communist rebels to sandwich the Red Army into submission.

The plan was to conduct an air invasion of Siberia, with German soldiers and Russian collaborators, such as the Russian Liberation Army, to liberate the many Gulags in the area, and recruit the inmates into their ranks. The small invasion force would need to defeat any local Red Army resistance and arm the freed prisoners, with them all eventually marching south, to convene with the other groups and begin their campaign.

The plan was approved by the Reich Security Head Office, and soon there were at least 150 POW recruits, who had been trained for the operation. The 150 volunteers were to split into two forces, each consisting of an assault force, radio operators, and a medical team. The first operation went ahead on the 2nd of June, 1943. A small group of 12 volunteers, dressed as members of the NKVD, were dropped behind enemy lines, into the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Within a week, on the 9th of June, the group was discovered by actual NKVD agents. Two were killed in a short firefight, while the others were taken prisoner.

The operation was immediately abandoned. Bessonov was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and his anti-Bolshevik organisation was dissolved, though some did go on to serve in Operation Zeppelin. The Gulag operation had to potential to be a useful operation, as there were millions imprisoned in the Gulag system all over Russia. Many of those imprisoned were already ideological enemies of the Soviet state, while many others were simply hardened criminals, already willing and able to commit serious violence. If it had been a success, Siberia would have been a warzone in its own right, taking at least some pressure off of German forces fighting further West. The operation failed miserably on its first attempt, and there was never a second.

Along with espionage and intelligence gathering, Operation Zeppelin had one more aim, more important than any other; the assassination of General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. The job fell to one Pyotr Shilo. He had a long criminal record, had escaped POW camps on multiple occasions, was a long-term thief, and had worked as an investigator to his local prosecutor prior to the war. He was drafted into the Red Army, but surrendered himself to the Germans only four months later. The Abwehr, the intelligence service for the Wehrmacht, took note of Shilo, who was then going by the name of Tavrin. He met with Heinz Gräfe, who oversaw many of the Zeppelin operations, and was deemed a perfect candidate for the job. After his training he was presented to Otto Skorzeny, Germany’s top intelligence agent, who assessed his skills as a spy very highly.

Tavrin and his “wife”, another agent, were supplied with false documentation. His documents identified him as a Major General, a member of the Soviet Division of Counterintelligence, and a Hero of the USSR, these “qualifications” hopefully giving him easy access to his target, and allowing him to pass through Soviet territory without too much suspicion or interrogation. He had at his disposal different types of weapons, with their use depending on how the assassination was undertaken. Along with a pistol loaded with poisoned rounds, he also had a concealed grenade launcher, capable of penetrating 30mm of armoured steel at 300m, and a radio-controlled mine.

The operation got off to a bad start. The specially modified Arado cargo plane encountered bad weather, and was forced to land in a less than ideal location. The two agents then disembarked on a motorcycle, and headed East. The pilots, in order to not ruin the operation if the aircraft was discovered, rigged the plane to explode, and headed back towards the German lines on foot. Counter to their aims, the explosion drew the attention of a nearby Soviet patrol, who soon captured the pilots, and a quick shoot-out that resulted in the death of one German operative. The pilots were interrogated by the NKVD, and quickly gave up information regarding their mission. Tavrin and his “wife” were soon captured, and taken directly to their destination, Moscow, and Stalin was made aware of the plot on his life.

Rather than execute the couple, the Russian intelligence services decided to make use of them, for counter-intelligence operations. Under the supervision of NKVD Captain Gregorii Grigorenko, Tavrin was to communicate with his handlers via radio, and to act as if the mission was going according to plan. After a tense were communications, the Germans finally took the bait, replying “Your mission is to firmly root yourself in Moscow and prepare to carry out your assignment. In addition, you must report on the situation in Moscow and the Kremlin.” The counter-intelligence operation, codenamed “Fog”, was intended to prevent the Abwehr from training and sending any more groups for the same mission, believing if they thought Tavrin was having success, they would not send any more, whom the Soviets were not guaranteed to discover quite so easily.

The exchanges continued until the end of the war, with Tavrin never being discovered by his German handlers to be a double-agent. Right until the last days of the war, the hope was that he would succeed in his mission to kill Stalin, win Nazi Germany the war, and provide Operation Zeppelin with endless honour and prestige. The operation turned out to be little more than an embarrassment for Nazi Germany, wasting endless resources on attempt after attempt, none of which made any real contribution to the war effort. Despite his cooperation, Tavrin and his wife were executed seven years following the war, in 1952, 12 months before the death of Stalin, who died of natural causes.

Operation Zeppelin had the potential to be a very effective tool in the war against the Soviet Union. As a union of dozens of different ethnicities and religions, there were many opportunities to sow nationalist and religious divisions, to turn one section of Soviet society against another. Unfortunately for Nazi Germany, the operation never had a single real success. Intelligence played a large part in World War Two, more-so than it had in any war prior. Every belligerent nation made use of trained spies, deception tactics, false-flags, and even double-agents. Soviet organisations such as the NKVD, GRU, and SWERSH, proved almost impenetrable. Almost every time the Nazi forces attempted to infiltrate agents into Soviet territory, they were caught. But not only were the German operations failures, the Soviet counter-intelligence services were able to turn their own agents against them, turning an expensive German operation into a Soviet success.

If Zeppelin had been a success, the Soviet Union would have been plunged into chaos and unrest, and Joseph Stalin would be dead. The outcome of the war could have been vastly different, and so would be the world we live in today.