The Secret Front

Book excerpt: First published in 1953. The author held important posts throughout the Balkans and Italy and was personally responsible for the abduction of Count Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, from Allied-held Rome.Here we meet the men who founded the feared 'secret front' - Himmler, the head of the S.S.; Heydrich, his truly evil genius; Mueller, the Gestapo criminologist with the card-index mind; the coarse Kaltenbrunner and the nimble Schellenberg.Wilhelm Hoettl describes some of the most horrifying chapters of the spy war. He unveils the dark conspiracy between the Russian and German secret services which cast new light on the downfall of Marshal Tukhachevsky and the purge of the Red Army leaders at the Moscow trials. 'Operation Bernhard' - the story of the forged pound notes - the kidnapping of two British officers on the Dutch frontier and the plot against Hitler's life at the Munich beer-cellar are all fascinatingly recounted.In his epilogue, the Intelligence chameleon Hoettl traces the activities and whereabouts of some of the notorious survivors of the secret front as far afield as the Middle East and South America.