Friday, January 18, 2013

Poles: A Reliable Ally in Operation Foxley


Operation Foxley document 





Some National Archives documents on Operation Foxley are here.


  1. Here's another blog's take on Operation Foxley:

  2. Don't forget the fact that one of the first, if not the first, attempt on the life of Hitler was conducted by Poles. This took place in 1939 in German-occupied Poland. When Hitler had his victory march in Warsaw, dynamite had been wired near the main street and connected to a detonator. A spotter was hiding, ready to signal another person to set off the charge the moment that Hitler was at that spot.

    Unfortunately, the Germans moved Poles away in the last moment, and so the spotter could not signal the man in hiding to set off the detonator.

    How would the course of history been different, if at all, had the assassination attempt against Hitler succeeded?

  3. Thanks for the mention, Di.

    I wish I had enough cycles to research this one more. It was new to me and it has the making of a great tale.

    Besides the big-screen story factor I think it also underscore how the Allies thought about Poland.

    This came from the British National Archives site but when I was working at the Science and Technical Reports room at the Library of Congress in DC that warehouses the NDRC/OSRD papers I had to focus on radar, MAD, and the L-8 but they have the papers from foreign organizations they interacted with.
    Hope to someday find something that might put a dent in the misconceptions about Poland.

    re: Killing Hitler.
    It's discussed by some of the things I've read that were written just at the end of the war. One interesting thought is that killing Hitler early in the war may have lead to the fall of England. Hitler, besides being nuts, was a terrible soldier. Had he been assassinated, a Rommel or Doenitz would have been more successful and then sued for peace.
    Germany would also have developed the Bomb. The man who ended up the archivist for the NDRC discusses Hitler, science and the Bomb. The biggest hurdle was that Hitler would not listen to science that came from Jewish sources. He would not listen to "Jewish Physics". German scientists who suggested a Jewish scientist - borrowed intelligence through spies or forced labor - was right put their careers (and the ability to breath) in jeopardy so they started "inventing" things under there own names.
    If they had killed him before the war, I'm not sure the war would have occurred at all or, if so , it would be a limited war. I can only imagine how European history in the 40's and 50's would have changed and whether the Cold War would have occurred. Or the Space Race....

    1. Otto, thanks for that info about how the timing of a potential Hitler assassination would have affected world history.


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