Wilhelm Canaris

Here's a few of them.

That the British Secret Service, for instance, wanted to get rid of Heydrich because he was about to arrest Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr, which was the secret intelligence service in Nazi Germany, Nazi Germany's MI6 or CIA of equivalent.

because Canaris was in fact a double agent for the British.

Now that was true, but there's no evidence to suggest that Heydrich knew that fact.

Um, in turn, uh, it was transmitted to the British diplomat, George Ogilvie Forbes, who, of course, made it public in British intelligence circles, um, you know, almost immediately.

And, um, the belief almost certainly, or the understanding almost certainly was it was Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Abwehr, who was the intelligence leak, okay? And he was, he was present there.

Um, and it's interesting for all kinds of reasons that this is what he chose to really, this is what he chose to leak in lieu of some other things over the, because Canaris didn't leak everything.

And sometimes he did what was, um, what one would consider to be the patriotic thing to do at critical junctures.

Initially, that had been a, a live plan.

And number two, Flora Mon Duc was the case agent to the most important German spy of World War II, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who ra- ran the Abwehr intelligence agency.

But by spring of 1944, Hitler had fired him.

So under ordinary circumstances, OSS would have never asked Flora Mon Duc to go in because he knew far too many secrets.

Yeah.

Uh, Fleur Montdux was the case officer to Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was the most important, uh, spy in Germany during World War II.

So he was the chief of the, of Germany's military intelligence.

He despised Hitler.

So he was ...

Uh, Florimond Duque was also the case officer to the most important spy of the wor- war, uh, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who worked for, uh, German, uh, Germany's Abwehr intelligence service.

I say worked for, but he was actually the chief of the Abwehr.

He hated Hitler, uh, de- uh, detested the Nazis, and, uh, approached the Allies, the Western Allies early in the war offering to help out.

The Allies were understandably suspicious, but finally opened up around 1943, and Florimond Duque, who was a fluent French speaker, and Canaris was also a French speaker.

That was a language that they could communicate in.

But in early 1944, Canaris was fired by, uh, by Adolf Hitler, who was suspicious.

He did not yet have concrete proof that Canaris was working against him, but Canaris was, was, uh, was let go, and near the same time, the Allies decided that the invasion would happen through France rather than through Southeastern Europe.