Operation Long Jump

Operation Long Jump
Date October-November 1943 Location Tehran, Iran Result Plot discovered and aborted
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Soviet Union  United States  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Ernst Kaltenbrunner Otto Skorzeny

Operation Long Jump was the codename given to the unsuccessful World War II German plot to assassinate the "Big Three" Allied leaders, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt, at the 1943 Tehran Conference.^[1]

The plot was approved by Adolf Hitler and headed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. German intelligence had learned of the time and place of the conference in mid-October 1943, after breaking a US Navy code.^[2] Otto Skorzeny was chosen by Kaltenbrunner to head the mission. Also involved was German agent Elyesa Bazna (better known under the codename "Cicero"), who transmitted key data from Ankara, Turkey concerning the conference.

Skorzeny in 1943

However, Soviet intelligence quickly uncovered the plot. The first tipoff came from Soviet agent Nikolai Kuznetsov. Posing as Wehrmacht Oberleutnant Paul Siebert from Nazi-occupied Ukraine, he got SS Sturmbannführer Hans Ulrich von Ortel - who was described as "talkative" and "a drinker"^[3] - to tell him about the operation while drunk.

Nineteen-year-old Soviet spy Gevork Vartanian had recruited a small number of agents in Iran, where his father, also a spy, was posing as a wealthy merchant. It was Vartanian's group which located an advance party of six German radio operators who had dropped by parachute near Qum, 60 km (37 mi) from Tehran, and followed them to Tehran, where the German spy network provided a villa for them. They established that the Germans were in contact with Berlin via radio and recorded their communications; when decoded, these revealed that they planned to drop a second group of operatives led by Skorzeny for the actual assassination attempt. Skorzeny had already visited Tehran to reconnoiter and had been followed by Vartanian's group.^[2]

Following that, all German transmissions were intercepted by Soviet and British intelligence. However, one of the Germans radioed a message with a secret code indicating that they were under surveillance and the operation was called off. Skorzeny himself considered the intelligence coming from Tehran to be inadequate and did not believe the complex scheme could have worked.^[4]

Vartanian was awarded the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1984 for his World War II and Cold War service.^[2]

References

1. ^ Nikolai Dolgopolov (November 29, 2007). "How "The Lion And The Bear" Were Saved". Rossiiskaya Gazeta. http://rbth.ru/articles/2007/11/29/lion_and_bear.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Tehran-43: Wrecking the plan to kill Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill". RIA Novosti. October 16, 2007. http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071016/84122320.html. 
3. ^ Havas, Laslo (1967). Hitler's Plot to Kill the Big Three. Cowles Book Co.  p. 164
4. ^ Havas, Laslo, Hitler's Plot to Kill the Big Three