CIC Assists in Capture of German Spies in Iran (15 AUG 1943)

Photo By Erin Thompson | Franz Mayr (standing right) with German commandos in Iran, 1943. (courtesy: The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, UK)  

UNITED STATES

08.14.2023

Story by Erin Thompson 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

15 AUGUST 1943
On 15 August 1943, the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) assisted British intelligence officers in locating and arresting German espionage agents in Iran. The capture of these spies within the Persian Gulf Region led the Iranian government to join the Allies in World War II.

The Persian Gulf was invaded in August 1941 by British and Soviet forces during Operation COUNTENANCE. Shortly thereafter, several CIC headquarters were organized in the region, with personnel located in Tehran, Iran and Basra, Iraq. Sometime in 1941, German spy Franz Mayr and a group of commandos arrived in Iran. Mayr, known as “Max” after a character from a German folktale, had been a law student before joining the signals platoon in Potsdam and being recruited by the German Security Service (SD). Mayr’s mission in Iran was to gather local collaborators and gain support for an invasion of the Persian Gulf by the German Afrika Korps. These operations were thwarted by the arrival of British and Soviet troops in 1941, and the British continued to occupy Iran while sending more soldiers to Iraq. Mayr’s team went into hiding.

Intelligence officers knew German spy rings were active in Iran and Iraq. Between February and November 1943, the CIC Iraq-Iran Group was the largest intelligence group in the Middle East. Agents from CIC headquarters and field offices in the Persian Gulf performed various counterintelligence duties, including “loyalty checks and investigations of disaffection, espionage, and sabotage.” They also assisted in the containment of pro-Axis campaigns during the British occupation. Despite efforts to root out these spies, German saboteurs continued their propaganda campaigns, inflaming the prevalent anti-Semitic and anti-colonial attitudes within the Iranian population.

Mayr’s group, still in hiding two years after Operation COUNTENANCE, moved frequently to avoid detection. In March 1943, diaries belonging to Mayr were discovered in an abandoned safehouse by British intelligence agents. These proved useful for connecting the work of the “Franz Group” in Iran to various espionage activities. When German officials realized Mayr was still in Iran, they began planning an audacious effort against the “Big Three”—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet President Joseph Stalin—during the Tehran Conference in November 1943. German officials tasked Mayr with assassinating these leaders.

Mayr’s team was joined by six parachutists from the SD to help in this undertaking, codenamed Operation Long Jump. However, shortly after landing in Iran, the CIC learned of the commandos’ movements and began following them to meetings with Mayr. On 15 August 1943, Franz Mayr was discovered attempting to burn important documents. These papers included Mayr’s identification; maps of Iranian railroads and tunnels ordered destroyed by Adolf Hitler; and a lengthy list of informants, collaborators, and other German agents in the Persian Gulf. Approximately 130 Iranian collaborators were arrested upon the discovery of these documents by British and American intelligence.

Intelligence officer Horace D. Hodge of Bay City, Michigan, was one of the CIC team members who helped in the operation and reportedly played a key role in facilitating the capture of the commandos before handing them over to British intelligence officers. Mayr and his conspirators were extensively interrogated by the British and gave invaluable information, including implicating top German officials in planning the assassination attempt. Mayr was interned, tried, and executed by the British shortly after his capture. Lt. Col. John T. McCafferty, who commanded the CIC detachment of the Persian Gulf Service Command, later attested the arrest of Mayr pushed the Iranian government to join the Allies and declare war on Germany.

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• Date Taken: 08.14.2023
• Date Posted: 08.14.2023 10:57
• Story ID: 451309
• Location: US