The Rebecca Code - Rommel's Spy in North Africa and Operation Kondor by Mark Simmons

Author:Mark Simmons [Simmons, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752478852
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

Wilhelm Franz Canaris was 50 in 1937. He was born in the small mining town of Aplerbeck near Dortmund Westphalia, the son of the wealthy industrialist Carl Canaris. In his youth Wilhelm convinced himself he was related to the Greek Admiral and freedom fighter Constantine Kanaris. This is said to have influenced his desire to join the navy, but it brought him into direct conflict with his father, who told him if he wished to join the armed forces, which was not a family tradition, he would join the cavalry and a commission was sought in a Bavarian Regiment. Fate intervened, his father dying of a stroke in 1904. Canaris’ mother, Auguste, allowed her son to choose his own future. He passed his high school exams with high marks, and due to his linguistic skills – he spoke three languages – he sailed through the entrance exam for the navy. He joined the Imperial Navy Academy on 1 April 1905, where a military infantry course was followed by nine months of naval training. A fellow cadet found him ‘slow to speak but quick to listen’. He was tough but displayed a good sense of humour.6

By the time of the First World War, Canaris was serving in the South Atlantic on the light cruiser SMS Dresden as an intelligence officer. He had already gained a reputation for being reliable and competent. The Dresden had been part of Admiral Maximilian Graf Von Spee’s squadron that had sunk the British Pacific Fleet at Coronel, the first defeat for the Royal Navy in over a century, with the loss of two armoured cruisers and nearly 1600 men. For three months the Germans had been masters of the South Pacific but too late, with British forces closing in, decided to run for home via the South Atlantic. The Admiralty had despatched a powerful fleet under Admiral Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, which caught up with Spee’s force off the Falkland Islands. On 8 December 1914 the powerful battle cruisers Inflexible and Invincible trapped the German force and sent them to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Only the Dresden survived the Battle of the Falklands owing to her superior speed. For several months she played a game of hide-and-seek with the British fleet, much to the chagrin of the Admiralty in London. Canaris was instrumental in arranging clandestine meetings with supply ships. However, the Dresden was finally cornered near Chile by HMS Glasgow, which opened fire although both ships were in neutral waters. Here Canaris showed his guile and a degree of courage by going over to the British ship – which was still firing although a white flag had been raised – to parley. Meanwhile his colleagues opened the sea cocks and lay charges to scuttle the ship, which blew up while Canaris was still on board the Glasgow.

In Chile the crew of the Dresden faced internment for the rest of the war. But Canaris got to the capital Santiago and managed to obtain a Chilean passport from the German Embassy in the name of Reed Rosas.

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