Operation Jungle
Encyclopedia
Operation Jungle was a program by the British Secret Intelligence Service
early in the Cold War
(1948 - 1955) for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into the Baltic states
. The agents were mostly Estonian
, Latvian
and Lithuanian
refugees who had been trained in the UK and Sweden
and were to link up with the anti-Soviet resistance in the occupied states (the Forest Brothers
). However, the KGB
penetrated the network and turned most of the agents.
, who had also served as an Waffen-SS
Standartenführer during Estonia's occupation by Nazi Germany, the Latvian group led by former Luftwaffe officer Rūdolfs Silarājs and the Lithuanian group led by history professor Stasys Žymantas.
The agents were transported under the cover of the "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service" (BBFPS), a cover organization launched from British-occupied Germany, using a converted former World War II E boat. Royal Navy Commander Anthony Courtney
had earlier been struck by the potential capabilities of former E-boat hulls, and John Harvey-Jones
of the Naval Intelligence Division
was put in charge of the project and discovered that the Royal Navy still had two E-boats, P5230 and P5208. They were sent to Portsmouth where one of them was modified to reduce its weight and increase its power. To preserve deniability, a former German E-boat captain, Helmut Klose, and a German crew were recruited to man the E-boat.
Agents were inserted into Saaremaa
, Estonia, Užava and Ventspils
, Latvia, Palanga
, Lithuania, and Ustka
, Poland
, all typically via Bornholm
, Denmark
where the final radio
signal was given from London
for the boats to enter the territorial waters
claimed by the USSR. The boats proceeded to their final destinations, typically several miles offshore, under cover of darkness, and met with shore parties in dinghy
s. Returning British agents were received at some of these rendezvous.
. British officers, Lieutenant Commanders Harvey-Jones and Shaw sailed the boat to Simrishamn
in Southern Sweden
where Swedish officers replaced the British. The Swedes then proceeded via the cover of Öland
Island, then east to Polanga, north of Klaipeda
, arriving around 10:30pm. Within 300m of shore the six agents disembarked in a rubber dingy and made their way to shore. The boat returned to Gosport
, picking up the British officers at Simrishamn and refueling at Borkum
.
Following the success of the initial operation, MI6 followed up with several more improvised landings via rubber dingy. Two agents were landed at Ventspils
on November 1, 1949; three agents landed south of Ventspils on April 12, 1950 and two agents in December at Polanda.
In late 1950, British Naval Intelligence and MI6 created a more permanent organisation with Klose hiring a crew of 14 sailors and basing the boat at Hamburg-Finkenwerder. The "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service" was thus invented as a credible cover story given the harassment of West German fishermen by the Soviets. The operation evolved with a secondary task of visual and electronic reconnaissance of the Baltic coast from Saaremaa
in Estonia to Rügen
in East Germany. For this purpose the boat was re-fitted with additional fuel tanks for extended range and an extensive antenna suite and American equipment for COMINT and ELINT. During this phase a total of four landings were performed between 1951 and 1952 with a total of 16 agents inserted and five agents retrieved.
In August 1952, a second E-boat was put into service as a refuelling and supply vessel and consort for the SIGINT operations under the command of Lieuntenant E. G. Müller, a former executive officer who served under Klose during World War 2. Eight Polish agents were inserted during this period.
, primarily through information provided by British double agents. In the extensive counter-operation "Lursen-S" (named for Lürssen
, the manufacturer of the E-boats), the NKVD
/KGB
captured nearly every one of the 42 Baltic agents inserted into the field. Many of them were turned as double agents who infiltrated and significantly weakened the Baltic resistance.
One of the agents sent to Estonia and captured by the KGB, Mart Männik, wrote an autobiography "A Tangled Web. A British Spy in Estonia" which was published after his death and has been translated into English. The book gives an account of his experiences throughout and after the unsuccessful operation.
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
early in the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1948 - 1955) for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
. The agents were mostly Estonian
Estonians
Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...
, Latvian
Latvians
Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
and Lithuanian
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
refugees who had been trained in the UK and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and were to link up with the anti-Soviet resistance in the occupied states (the Forest Brothers
Forest Brothers
The Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
). However, the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
penetrated the network and turned most of the agents.
History
In the late 1940s SIS established a special center in Chelsea, London, to train agents to be sent to the Baltic states. The operation was codenamed "Jungle" and led by Henry Carr, director of the Northern European Department of MI6, Baltic section head Alexander McKibbin. The Estonian group was led by Alfons RebaneAlfons Rebane
Alfons Vilhelm Robert Rebane, known simply as Alfons Rebane was an Estonian military commander. He was the most highly decorated Estonian military officer in the course of the Second World War, serving in various German military units against the armed forces of the Soviet Union.After World War...
, who had also served as an Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
Standartenführer during Estonia's occupation by Nazi Germany, the Latvian group led by former Luftwaffe officer Rūdolfs Silarājs and the Lithuanian group led by history professor Stasys Žymantas.
The agents were transported under the cover of the "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service" (BBFPS), a cover organization launched from British-occupied Germany, using a converted former World War II E boat. Royal Navy Commander Anthony Courtney
Anthony Courtney
Commander Anthony Tosswill Courtney, OBE, RN was a British Royal Navy officer and politician. While a Member of Parliament, he was a victim of a plot apparently instituted by the KGB to discredit him, which appeared to contribute to the loss of his seat...
had earlier been struck by the potential capabilities of former E-boat hulls, and John Harvey-Jones
John Harvey-Jones
Sir John Harvey-Jones MBE was an English businessman. He was the chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries from 1982 to 1987...
of the Naval Intelligence Division
Naval Intelligence Division
The Naval Intelligence Division was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence...
was put in charge of the project and discovered that the Royal Navy still had two E-boats, P5230 and P5208. They were sent to Portsmouth where one of them was modified to reduce its weight and increase its power. To preserve deniability, a former German E-boat captain, Helmut Klose, and a German crew were recruited to man the E-boat.
Agents were inserted into Saaremaa
Saaremaa
Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring 2,673 km². The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago...
, Estonia, Užava and Ventspils
Ventspils
Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...
, Latvia, Palanga
Palanga
Palanga and beautiful sand dunes. Officially Palanga has the status of a city municipality and includes Šventoji, Nemirseta, Būtingė and other settlements, which are considered as part of the city of Palanga.-Legend:...
, Lithuania, and Ustka
Ustka
Ustka is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northwestern Poland with 17,100 inhabitants . It is also part of Słupsk County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously in Słupsk Voivodeship .- History :...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, all typically via Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
where the final radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
signal was given from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for the boats to enter the territorial waters
Territorial waters
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
claimed by the USSR. The boats proceeded to their final destinations, typically several miles offshore, under cover of darkness, and met with shore parties in dinghy
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship's boat by a larger vessel. It is a loanword from either Bengali or Urdu. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor,...
s. Returning British agents were received at some of these rendezvous.
Phases
The operation evolved into a number of phases. The first transport of agents occurred in May 1949, with six agents boarded the boat at KielKiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
. British officers, Lieutenant Commanders Harvey-Jones and Shaw sailed the boat to Simrishamn
Simrishamn
Simrishamn is a locality and the seat of Simrishamn Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6,546 inhabitants in 2005. Simrishamn is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city....
in Southern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
where Swedish officers replaced the British. The Swedes then proceeded via the cover of Öland
Öland
' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people...
Island, then east to Polanga, north of Klaipeda
Klaipeda
Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County....
, arriving around 10:30pm. Within 300m of shore the six agents disembarked in a rubber dingy and made their way to shore. The boat returned to Gosport
Gosport
Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...
, picking up the British officers at Simrishamn and refueling at Borkum
Borkum
Borkum is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany.-Geography:Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait , to the east by the Osterems strait, to the north by the North Sea, and to the south by the Wadden Sea...
.
Following the success of the initial operation, MI6 followed up with several more improvised landings via rubber dingy. Two agents were landed at Ventspils
Ventspils
Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...
on November 1, 1949; three agents landed south of Ventspils on April 12, 1950 and two agents in December at Polanda.
In late 1950, British Naval Intelligence and MI6 created a more permanent organisation with Klose hiring a crew of 14 sailors and basing the boat at Hamburg-Finkenwerder. The "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service" was thus invented as a credible cover story given the harassment of West German fishermen by the Soviets. The operation evolved with a secondary task of visual and electronic reconnaissance of the Baltic coast from Saaremaa
Saaremaa
Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring 2,673 km². The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago...
in Estonia to Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
in East Germany. For this purpose the boat was re-fitted with additional fuel tanks for extended range and an extensive antenna suite and American equipment for COMINT and ELINT. During this phase a total of four landings were performed between 1951 and 1952 with a total of 16 agents inserted and five agents retrieved.
In August 1952, a second E-boat was put into service as a refuelling and supply vessel and consort for the SIGINT operations under the command of Lieuntenant E. G. Müller, a former executive officer who served under Klose during World War 2. Eight Polish agents were inserted during this period.
Operation comprised
The operation was severely compromised by Soviet counter-intelligenceCounter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
, primarily through information provided by British double agents. In the extensive counter-operation "Lursen-S" (named for Lürssen
Lürssen
Lürssen is a German shipbuilding company based in Bremen-Vegesack.Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels...
, the manufacturer of the E-boats), the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
/KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
captured nearly every one of the 42 Baltic agents inserted into the field. Many of them were turned as double agents who infiltrated and significantly weakened the Baltic resistance.
One of the agents sent to Estonia and captured by the KGB, Mart Männik, wrote an autobiography "A Tangled Web. A British Spy in Estonia" which was published after his death and has been translated into English. The book gives an account of his experiences throughout and after the unsuccessful operation.