Operation Periwig

At the beginning of the war, the British secret service was aware that it was practically impossible to establish a real resistance movement in Germany.

Due to the almost insurmountable surveillance by the German security organs, it was considered hopeless to attempt creating such a complex structure, especially since all British agents deployed in Germany were exposed and arrested at the beginning of the war.

In cooperation with the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a plan was made to invent a suitable resistance movement.

This measure was intended to involve the German security organs in practically useless activities tracking down the fictitious resistance fighters.

Gdańsk, Dresden, Hamburg, Nuremberg and other important cities in Germany were chosen as further locations for resistance cells.

The office of the Wehrmacht resistance movement in London, under British control, would be in constant contact with the headquarters in Berlin.

Containers with weapons, ammunition, propaganda material, food and the like were to be dropped by aeroplane over supply points of the ostensible resistance movement.

It announced that three additional armoured vehicles and 24 men of the NSKK, under the leadership of Major Ludwig Läubl, would be deployed to protect the 37-year-old Gauleiter of Westphalia South, Albert Hoffmann.

This description was followed by a list of Nazi members who already had been liquidated and ended with the text that now also the mayor of Bochum, Dr. Piclum, had disappeared without trace.

Through earlier planning, a free hand in the actions, and full support from other intelligence institutions, Periwig could possibly have made a significant contribution to the overthrow of the Nazi regime.