"The Venlo incident" Topic

"Introduction
To attack a neutral country like The Netherlands without immediate cause, even a warlord like Hitler thought to be too risky. He was industriously looking for a motive to be able to carry out his plans. This excuse took not long to come along and received its carrying out under the name of the so called Venlo incident.

British Secret Intelligence Service.
Already during the First World War the British Secret Service had established a representation in The Hague. This department operated under the undercover name of Passport Control Service. This service under command of Major R.H. Stevens had been established during the First World War in order to collect information from the neutral Netherlands regarding the German armed forces. In order to achieve this, a large number of Dutch contacts were used that needed to travel frequently to and from Germany because of their profession. The British Secret Service unit in The Netherlands belonged to the Secret Intelligence Service. During the First World War the Service was established as an organization that provided visa for people that traveled to Great Britain via The Netherlands. After the war visa were no longer required but the service continued to exist as a cover for the SIS.

The German Abwehr
The British Secret Service however had been infiltrated already for a long time by the German Abwehr [Counter Intelligence]. The contact person for the British, Vrinten, had since long been won over by one of its employees, Friedrich Günther, who was a double spy himself. In 1938 another collaborator of Vrinten, Koutrik crossed over to the Abwehr. Mainly through this Koutrik the German Abwehr received all names of British secret agents. Vrinten had been employed by GS III [ Dutch Secret Sercvice] and traveled frequently to Germany as a businessman. His company Zaal & Co. soon became a cover up for the operations of the Passport Control Office. The company succeeded on short notice to acquire a large number of people that gathered intelligence as "spy" for the British. Unknown to Vrinten the German Abwehr had already penetrated his organization by the end of the thirties. Friedrich Günther, an agent of the Abwehrstelle Hamburg had become an employee of Vrinten. As said before, also Kouterik joined the Abwehr. GS III was not aware of all these matters…"
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Amicalement
Armand