Parleying with the Devil by Gaj Trifković

Author:Gaj Trifković [Trifković, Gaj]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II, General
ISBN: 9781949668100
Google: 9dfcDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2020-06-23T00:59:57+00:00

Despite the incident, preparations for the assassination continued. On 28 October 1943, representatives of the 2nd Panzer Army and the Brandenburg Division discussed “Special Assignment Tito,” which included an attack on the Bosnian town of Jajce where the Partisan leader was known to have his headquarters.284 Two weeks later, the commander of the division submitted a detailed plan for the killing or capturing of the Partisan leader. The plan envisaged two possibilities: a) an airborne attack on Tito’s stronghold, or b) assassination. The latter could be carried out either by an explosive package sent to Tito by two German agents posing as Allied officers, or by poison administered by “an agent infiltrated into Tito’s circle.”285 Kidnapping was added to the list shortly thereafter, but this option would also require someone who could get close to the Supreme HQ. Ambassador Kasche thought he had a solution to the problem. On 10 December, he informed the foreign ministry that he had introduced Lieutenant Boeckl, the leader of the mission against Tito, to Hans Ott. The latter was supposed to travel to Tito’s HQ in a few days, and this opportunity could be exploited to bring one of Boeckl’s men close to the target. Kasche added that he had not informed Ott about the plan.286 There were two possible reasons for this: either the ambassador feared that the engineer would not agree, or there were concerns that Ott might repeat the mistake from October and let something slip during his talks with Partisan representatives.287

Even if Ott had been told of Boeckl’s mission and had agreed to lead him to Tito, it is highly unlikely that he would have ever been brought anywhere near the target. On 9 November 1943, Tito received a cable from Dmitrov, warning him about a German agent posing as an officer with the Supreme HQ: “A link between this agent and the Germans is being maintained by the chief of the German intelligence service center, Ott, director of aluminum firm ‘Hansa Leichtmetall’ in Mostar. He works for General Glaise [Glaise-Horstenau] and uses the following codenames: ‘Doctor Bauks’ [sic], ‘R,’ ’513.’ This is for your information, so you can take appropriate measures.”288 One day later, Tito responded that the case of the German engineer-spy “was well-known” to the Supreme HQ. There were no enemy agents in the Supreme HQ, the cable continued, but there was a Partisan officer whose task was to extract information from Ott. “The issue is known to us and there is no reason to be worried.”289

In his contacts with the Partisan envoys, Hans Ott had always tried to appear “as a German who was sympathetic and even friendly to the People’s Liberation Movement.”290 According to his post-war statement, the Partisans tried to capitalize on this sentiment by attempting to recruit him as an agent. During a meeting in Pisarovina in the summer of 1944, Stilinović told Ott that the Yugoslavs considered him “one of their own,” and asked him whether he was willing to supply information of military value.

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