Operation Citadel - hell on the Kursk Bulge. Agent Werther's secret. Who at Hitler's headquarters helped us win the Battle of Kursk Game echo operation suppression
A very pathetic order was issued by the commander of the 7th Infantry Division on July 4, 1943 on the occasion of the next day: “Soldiers! The time has come for the offensive. I know that each of you will do his duty to the last. You will cover with new glory the victorious banners of the division that destroyed the enemy in Poland, France and at the gates of Moscow, and then, in the course of two years of defensive battles, repelled all offensives on Russian soil. Our fallen soldiers look at you from their graves. We welcome Germany, we are devoted to her and her beloved Fuhrer. "
It was clear to Lieutenant General Fritz-Georg von Rappard where he was sending his soldiers. His message of June 28 leaves no doubt on this score: “The enemy opposing our corps is awaiting a German offensive and has concentrated significant forces. It possesses exceptionally deep, well-trained and manpower-free positions, it has developed a strong, carefully distributed anti-tank defense system and, in addition, the enemy has unusually powerful artillery and a large number of multi-barreled rocket launchers, and it also has a shock reserve, in including tanks. We should expect stubborn resistance from the enemy ready for defense on the front line, as well as later diversionary operations and counter-offensives. "
The German leadership was well aware of what would happen after the offensive, scheduled for 3 hours 30 minutes in the morning on July 5. From the north, the 9th Army of Army Group Center, under the command of Walter Model, and from the south, the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group South, under the command of Hermann Hoth, were to advance towards Kursk. in order to destroy the Soviet troops dug in on the ledge of the front section 200 kilometers long and 100 kilometers deep.
Just a limited offensive operation
Even if the exact figures regarding the number of enemy forces were not known to the leadership, their order testified to the existing delusion. 625,000 German soldiers with 2,700 tanks and 1,300 aircraft were to attack an enemy three times outnumbered with 17,000 earth fortifications, 30,000 artillery pieces and turning the Kursk front into the largest field fortification of all time. It is no coincidence that the intelligence department "Foreign armies of the East" (Fremde Heere Ost) warned: “Thus, it is unlikely that the German offensive will be able to break through the defenses ... will be urgently needed. "
In principle, it was only about proving to itself, to the internal front and to the enemy, its ability to act and at the same time defeat as many units of the Red Army as possible. "Operation Citadel ... should already have been considered not a strategic offensive, but a limited offensive operation within the framework of strategic defense," emphasizes the historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, one of the best experts in World War II in the east.
Complete rejection of surprise
Although the plans for operational deployment constantly emphasized the need to keep preparations for the offensive in the strictest confidence, the Soviet leadership, no later than June, figured out the plans for a German operation. And German intelligence was also able to find out about this in a timely manner. Nevertheless, the Wehrmacht abandoned its greatest trump card, which until recently allowed in the course of lightning-fast operations to achieve impressive success, at least at the initial stage - that is, from surprise. The enemy is "fully prepared for defense," emphasized in the order cited at the beginning, which, along with other documents of the 7th Infantry Division, can be found in the Military Archives of the Federal Archives in Freiburg.
This unit included the 9th Army, which was supposed to move from the north towards Kursk. The positions of the Red Army were stretched 30 kilometers in depth and consisted of trenches, as well as other field-type fortifications. Only once on the first day of the offensive was it possible to break through to a depth of eight kilometers. Already on July 6, one day after the start of the operation, an order was received for a "temporary transition to the defense."
On August 23, 1943, the grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge ended. For a month and a half of battles with Soviet troops, the army of the Third Reich bled to death - 500 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded, 1500 tanks and 1700 aircraft were destroyed. Nazi Germany never recovered from this defeat: the Germans began to retreat along the entire Eastern Front. In fact, our victory at Kursk was secured on April 12, 1943, when Soviet intelligence put on the table Stalin the plan of the future operation "Citadel", signed by all the generals of the Wehrmacht - himself Hitler saw the same plan ... only three days later! It was thanks to the success of the intelligence officers that the USSR was able to prepare for the German tank offensive and crush the enemy. Meanwhile, the names of our agents in Hitler's entourage, who got the Citadel plan, have not yet (!) Been declassified. Only their code names are known - Werther and Olga.
The richest spy
It is believed that the main role in the theft of documents from Berlin was played by the owner of the modest publishing house "Vita-Nova" Rudolf Rössler... This 45-year-old German, who emigrated to Switzerland after Hitler came to power, in November 1942 offered his services to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR, receiving the nickname Luci... Rössler handed over to the secret services of the Soviet Union not only the Citadel plan, but also the blueprints German tank"Panther" and other valuable information. Alas, unlike most Soviet residents abroad, Rössler was not a convinced communist - he worked exclusively for money and was considered the highest paid agent in the entire history of Soviet intelligence. The exact figure is unknown, but Western newspapers claimed that Rudolph received about $ 500,000 for the Citadel.
- Rössler is a very mysterious person in the history of world espionage, - believes Dietrich Mainz, research historian from the Swiss city of Basel. - Since the beginning of the German invasion of Europe, he, like tomatoes in the market, traded secrets for the intelligence services of Britain, Switzerland and the United States, and then decided to help the USSR. According to him, "only the Soviet Union is able to win the war." Surprisingly, until May 1944, Soviet intelligence did not even know his real name! A participant in the First World War, he was familiar with a large number of senior officers of the Third Reich. It is assumed that Luci had established contacts at Hitler's headquarters, about two hundred (!) Agents worked for him: Werther, who supplied information about the Wehrmacht's operations, Olga (in the command of the Luftwaffe), Anna(in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Reich), Teddy and Bill.
And although Moscow repeatedly demanded to provide the real names of the agents, Rudolf Rössler flatly refused to do so. There is an opinion that he called them the GRU of the USSR only before his death (December 11, 1958) - however, our special services do not comment on this. Even 70 years after the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, the archives on the work of agent Lucie are still classified, and this allows us to make a huge number of assumptions: who exactly was Agent Werther, who photographed the documents of the Citadel plan and transferred them to Switzerland through Olga ... is he at all? The West German magazine Der Spiegel published an investigation in 1967, where he claimed: only one informant worked for Rössler in Berlin, and he simply invented the rest to emphasize his importance and "knock more money out of the Russians." Writer Helmut Roever in his book "German and Soviet espionage in World War II," he called Rössler a "hoaxer": they say, Rudolph, obsessed with a thirst for royalties, allegedly fabricated reports to Moscow and London from ... ordinary newspaper clippings. But neither Der Spiegel nor Roever bothered to explain - where did the "hoaxer" get the blueprints for the Panther tank and the secret plan "Citadel"? After all, even Colonel General Alfred Jodl, the head of the operational leadership of the high command of the Wehrmacht, said at the Nuremberg trials: "Stalin received the documents about our offensive near Kursk much earlier than they were on my desk."
Sex and exploration
— The head of the Soviet reconnaissance group "Dora" in Switzerland Sandor Rado at one time he was also surprised: how can Rössler receive information from Hitler's headquarters with such speed? - speaks swiss journalist Pierre Lomier... - Later in his memoirs, he noted that it would take several couriers plying around the clock between Berlin and Lucerne, and this is physically impossible.
Rössler's apartment did not have a walkie-talkie, and he was not trained as a radio operator. Perhaps Werther and Olga transmitted radiograms from Berlin to their confidant in Switzerland, who took them to Rössler, and only then Dora sent the material to Moscow. The Germans, observing the work of Soviet intelligence on the German border, were furious. In 1943, they undertook a cunning maneuver: an Abwehr employee arrived in Switzerland Hans Peters- a handsome man who was called a "bed officer". Knowing how to court women professionally, Peters quickly seduced Dora's 23-year-old radio operator Margarita Bolli... During the night of love, she told him the name of the book used for encryption - "It all began in September." On October 13, 1943, Bolly was arrested by the Swiss police, and in May 1944, the authorities detained Rudolf Rössler himself ...
Germany foaming at the mouth demanded that the Swiss authorities urgently extradite Luci - the secret services of the Third Reich were eager to find out the name of agent Werther, who ensured Hitler's defeat in the Battle of Kursk. However, during interrogations, Rudolph was silent, and by that time Germany's affairs at the front had become very bad. Taking this into account, the Swiss did not contact the USSR - after a few months Rössler was fully acquitted. Marguerite Bolly received a lenient sentence - 9 months probation and a fine of 500 francs.
For three days I tried to find Marguerite Bolly in Basel, where she moved with her husband in 1956. She should be 93 years old now. Whether the radio operator is still alive is difficult to say, but there is no information in the press about her death. However, I could not find her address in the Basel inquiry service - perhaps she lives under a different name. Bolly, meanwhile, is the only (besides Rudolf Rössler) member of the Dora group who knew the name and position of Werther's agent in Berlin. I have no doubt that this person existed. But who the hell is he?
“This is a person from the circle of the Fuhrer. Perhaps a friend of his family. " Adolf Hitler and Eve Braun Introduced by a Soviet agent? Read the continuation in the next issue of "AiF".
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