A German Spy Radio Receiver. WW2 Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Abwehr German Spy Network Intelligence Service Radio Receiver. Organisation 'Max' Spy Ring In Teheran. Also Used For U-Boat Section Clandestine Commando Raids

The very same radio was used by German WW2 Abwehr Secret Agents Richard Kauder (codename: Richard 'Max' Klatt), who used it in Sofia (Bulgaria), in the 'MAX' spy network organisation and Franz Mayr, who used it in Tehran (Persia). See below the Max Klatt affair. Richard Kauder was one of the most intriguing German, Russian and American connected double-triple agent spying stories of WW2. and Franz Mayr one of two specific Nazi agents in Iran – Hitler’s Middle East spy ring and the plot to assassinate FDR, Churchill & Stalin at Tehran. When the spy ring collapsed in Teheran all their spy radio sets that had previously been used by the German Embassy in Tehran, they handed the radios over to the Japanese, who kept them until they were forced to leave as well. When the radios finally ended up in the hands of the British, they were no longer operational. "An Enigma Called Max" is an historical documentary series based entirely around Richard Kauder's 'Max' spy ring

A military shortwave receiver, developed and manufactured in 1941 by Radio N. Eltz in Wien (Vienna, Austria). It was used during World War II (WWII) by the German Army (Wehrmacht), Navy (Kriegsmarine) and the Intelligence Service (Abwehr). As a spy radio set. It was often used in combination with the RS-20M transmitter, but also as a standalone receiver, for example with the Abwehr S-87/20 transmitter.

Abwehr
The German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr, used the R-3/RS-20M as a small commando station. The R3 was also used as a stationary receiver in some head-end stations of the Abwehr, commonly in combination with an existing transmitter like the S-87/20 .
Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
Another WWII German secret service, the Sicherheitsdienst or SD (security service), also used the this R3. Examples are secret agent Richard Kauder (codename: Klatt), who used it in Sofia (Bulgaria), and Franz Mayr, who used it in Tehran (Persia, now: Iran)

U-Boat service of this receiver
The receiver and the RS-20/M transmitter were also used by the U-Boat section of the Kriegsmarine for backup purposes, and for troops that were landed ashore for special operations (commandos) This R3 is visible in the movie Das Boot

the “Max-Klatt Affair.” It takes some interesting twists and turns during World War II, and involves the intelligence services of 3 countries, 2 of whom were allies deceiving each other.

‘Max’ was the German code name for Richard Kauder who used ‘Richard Klatt’ as an alias.

Kauder operated an espionage network that penetrated the Kremlin in Moscow.

Germany invaded the USSR, our ally, and took massive amounts of territory and inflicted crushing defeats. Kauder operated radios from Budapest or Sofia that maintained contact with his network in the USSR. Kauder radioed their reports to the Abwehr, German military intelligence. Kauders’ agent in the Kremlin was sending details of Soviet military plans and strategy meetings to the Germans.

British signals intelligence had been able, through ULTRA, to read encrypted German communications. ULTRA was one of the greatest secrets of the war. Access to its intelligence was severely limited and could not be shared with the Soviets. So while we were aware of a massive intelligence leak at a time our ally was getting hammered, we could not tell the Soviets.

What neither the Germans nor British knew was that Kauders’ network in the USSR had been penetrated by the NKVD which was feeding deceptive information to the Germans.

Also unknown was the fact that the Soviets had penetrated British intelligence. NKVD agent Anthony Blunt informed the Soviets of the intelligence leak in the Kremlin. The Soviets felt betrayed because the British withheld such important intelligence. Of course the Soviets could not confront the British on their duplicity.

Because the Germans believed Kauders’ network was genuine, so too did the British, although there were some in MI5 who thought Klatt might be a Russian double agent.

Within German intelligence arose a question as to whether Kauder was legitimate. Eventually, German military intelligence concluded Kauder was a double agent. By this time, German military intelligence had lost a power struggle to the SD and were being ignored in Berlin.

In early 1945 the Gestapo became suspicious of Kauder and threw him in prison. He was freed in May and promptly went to work for the OSS and tried to reactivate his network in the USSR.

In 1946 a Soviet operation to kidnap Kauder was thwarted.

In 1947 Kauder confessed to the British that in 1941 he suspected his network had been penetrated.

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

15 AUGUST 1943
On 15 August 1943, the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) assisted British intelligence officers in locating and arresting German espionage agents in Iran. The capture of these spies within the Persian Gulf Region led the Iranian government to join the Allies in World War II.

The Persian Gulf was invaded in August 1941 by British and Soviet forces during Operation COUNTENANCE. Shortly thereafter, several CIC headquarters were organized in the region, with personnel located in Tehran, Iran and Basra, Iraq. Sometime in 1941, German spy Franz Mayr and a group of commandos arrived in Iran. Mayr, known as “Max” after a character from a German folktale, had been a law student before joining the signals platoon in Potsdam and being recruited by the German Security Service (SD). Mayr’s mission in Iran was to gather local collaborators and gain support for an invasion of the Persian Gulf by the German Afrika Korps. These operations were thwarted by the arrival of British and Soviet troops in 1941, and the British continued to occupy Iran while sending more soldiers to Iraq. Mayr’s team went into hiding.

Intelligence officers knew German spy rings were active in Iran and Iraq. Between February and November 1943, the CIC Iraq-Iran Group was the largest intelligence group in the Middle East. Agents from CIC headquarters and field offices in the Persian Gulf performed various counterintelligence duties, including “loyalty checks and investigations of disaffection, espionage, and sabotage.” They also assisted in the containment of pro-Axis campaigns during the British occupation. Despite efforts to root out these spies, German saboteurs continued their propaganda campaigns, inflaming the prevalent anti-Semitic and anti-colonial attitudes within the Iranian population.

Mayr’s group, still in hiding two years after Operation COUNTENANCE, moved frequently to avoid detection. In March 1943, diaries belonging to Mayr were discovered in an abandoned safehouse by British intelligence agents. These proved useful for connecting the work of the “Franz Group” in Iran to various espionage activities. When German officials realized Mayr was still in Iran, they began planning an audacious effort against the “Big Three”—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet President Joseph Stalin—during the Tehran Conference in November 1943. German officials tasked Mayr with assassinating these leaders.

Mayr’s team was joined by six parachutists from the SD to help in this undertaking, codenamed Operation Long Jump. However, shortly after landing in Iran, the CIC learned of the commandos’ movements and began following them to meetings with Mayr. On 15 August 1943, Franz Mayr was discovered attempting to burn important documents. These papers included Mayr’s identification; maps of Iranian railroads and tunnels ordered destroyed by Adolf Hitler; and a lengthy list of informants, collaborators, and other German agents in the Persian Gulf. Approximately 130 Iranian collaborators were arrested upon the discovery of these documents by British and American intelligence.

Intelligence officer Horace D. Hodge of Bay City, Michigan, was one of the CIC team members who helped in the operation and reportedly played a key role in facilitating the capture of the commandos before handing them over to British intelligence officers. Mayr and his conspirators were extensively interrogated by the British and gave invaluable information, including implicating top German officials in planning the assassination attempt. Mayr was interned, tried, and executed by the British shortly after his capture. Lt. Col. John T. McCafferty, who commanded the CIC detachment of the Persian Gulf Service Command, later attested the arrest of Mayr pushed the Iranian government to join the Allies and declare war on Germany.

SOURCES:

MI6 Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, by Stephen Dorril (Touchstone, New York, 2000), pages 410-411, 419-421, 838 footnote 47–50

KAHN ON CODES Secrets of the New Cryptology, by David Kahn, (Macmillan, New York, 1983), pages 238-242, 323 footnote 51

A LIFE IN SECRETS Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII, by Sarah Helm, (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, New York, 2005), pages 421-422, 425

SPY BOOK The Encyclopedia of Espionage, Updated and Revised Edition, by Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen (Random House, New York,1997), page 307

Code: 25568