Richard Sorge. Born in 1895, in the Russian Empire, a member of the German minority in Russia, he moved back to Germany with the whole family in 1898. Since 1914, Richard volunteered for Germany during WWI. While fighting until 1916 in the German artillery, Richard was injured by an accidental blast of a shell from his side and had to return to the civil life, having an official status of disability. During his time in a hospital, Richard got acquainted with some leftist German officers and accepted the Marxist views. He, eventually, became a member of the German Communist Party, and, while learning Economics, received a Bachelor's Degree in the University of Hamburg in 1919. In 1924, Richard Zorge moved to the Soviet Union. Soon, he became a Soviet citizen, and, in 1929, Richard started serving in the Espionage Committee RKKA. Then, since 1930, he worked in Shaghai, and in 1933, as an influential correspondent of two German newspapers, was sent to Japan. Richard Sorge's achievements in his work made a huge difference in the outcome of the war for Russia. In 1941, he predicted that Germans would attack Russia. However, Stalin ignored that message, which was a huge blunder in the defensive potential of Russia. Another significant prediction was that Japan was too busy fighting Americans in the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, Japan would NOT attack Russia. This allowed Stalin to take 26 divisions of the Russian well-trained and well-armed Siberian fighters away from the Far-East Front, and right away sent them to defend Moscow. They successfully stopped Germans about 40 km before the capital of the Soviet Union. Richard Sorge, 1940. Eventually, the Japanese found out about Richard's Soviet links, and he was arrested. In 1944, he was hung in a Japanese prison "Sakugama." His last words were: "Hail, Communist Party, Soviet Union, Red Army!" In history, he is regarded by many as the best spy of WWII.
Thank you, John. Gladly will follow your posts as well. The more information I gather, the more posts I will write. I am making threads, so that, at the end, some solid information on one topic would be gathered in it. Definitely will write more today.
Lona Cohen. An American spy who worked for the Soviet Union. In 1942, one of her contacts in a New York munition plant smuggled a model of a new working machine gun. Why? Unnecessary since the U.S. were selling weapons to the Soviets during WWII anyways. Lona Cohen. Later on, she dispatched intelligence to Moscow, while being a courier who picked up reports from Theodore Hall about the American Secret atomic weapons project. Lona Cohen was also a member of the Communist Party USA.
The spies of war are by far the best. I couldn't imagine all the secrecy. Knowing that if you were caught it would be the in or even torture. I give merit to anyone willing to walk behind enemy lines and deliver information to their allies. It would be one heck of a ride.
Thank you very much for this thread. I am always up for learning something new and i got to do just that here in this thread. I look forward to more posts on the subject. This one really got me going and i plan on doing a little research of my own soon.
I think spying in nazi-held territory muct have been one of the most nerve-wracking jobs of WW2. The Gestapo/SS were never too hung up on the Geneva convention anyway so getting caught as a spy must have been a 'carte blanche' in cruelty to them.
Along with Sorge,I think Gevork Vartanian[Amir] also worth to mention/remember.He saved the Lives of the trio , Churchill-Stalin-Roosevelt,in '43 at Tehran[Tehran Conference].He was hardly 20 yrs then . Hitler was determind to break the coalition of UK-USSR-US by hook or by crook.Finding no other suitable ways,Hitler decided to kill them at Tehran Conference in '43.It was one of the most secret operations of 3rd Reich . When he was only 16 yrs old he made a direct contact with NKVD-Tehran['40] on behalf of a resident-girl Goar[later became as his wife],enable to detect 400 people,who attached with German-intelligence. Usually this type of work requires some surveillance techniques to go through.A British school for such training was there to conduct subversive activities in Russia,recruiting volunteers who spokes Russian.So Vartanian took the chance and passed out successfully. As per his Information,all German-Agents were captured before the Conference and saved three nations from a catastrophic disaster.. A film was made-'Tehran '43 in later years.
Leopold Trepper was a Soviet spy who established the "Red Orchestra" in Western Europe working in close cooperation with the French Communists. He was able to tap the Abwehr phones and discover the invasion plans of Russia in 1941. In 1942 the German's broke up this spy ring but Trepper escaped and remained hidden in Paris until it was Liberated in 1944. The information on the German invasion of Russia came from a Luftwaffe officer Harro Schulze-Boysen's resistance group who sent the details via the Red Orchestra. The military penetrated Schultz- Boysen's group and over 40 of its members were executed.
For more on Trepper and his Red Orchestra I would recommend "The Red Orchestra" written by Gilles Perrault. Just finished it and found that it helped to humanize many of the now nearly forgotten people on both sides of this largely neglected story about World War II.
A real history From soldier to interpreter, 2nd world war surviver book, Tumay Janos need support to translate ans publish it. "On the dead's jaws". http://igg.me/at/Tumay-Janos-book/x/4226408
