The audacious plan to assassinate the Big Three in Tehran in 1943 has been told by New York Times best-selling author Howard Blum
A group of Nazi-trained commandos almost managed to kill Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin during a top secret summit in Tehran, a new book has claimed.
The book, Night of the Assassins: The Untold story of Hitler’s plot to kill FDR, Churchill and Stalin, uses information from declassified archives in Washington, Moscow and London.
Author Howard Blum’s story outlines how Hitler’s favourite commando, Otto Skorzeny, developed the audacious plan to kill the three leaders using a crack team of 42 assassins, who would be parachuted to the outskirts of the Iranian capital in November 1943 before striking.
The Tehran Conference was the first time Roosevelt and Churchill met Stalin. The plan was to open discussions about defeating Hitler and Japan and the future of post-war Europe.
When German intelligence agents had discovered details about the proposed meeting and Hitler ordered a mission to wipe out his opponents.
Roosevelt had spent two years trying to arrange a meeting with Stalin, believing he would be able to negotiate with the tyrant, though the Soviet leader was reluctant to travel, fearing assassination.
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, pictured here in Yalta in February 1945 had met for the first time in Tehran in November 1943 to discuss plans for the opening of the second European front
The meeting between the Big Three in Tehran, pictured, went ahead, despite the Allies being aware of a plot to kill the Nazi plot to kill the wartime leaders
Otto Skorzeny, pictured left with Adolf Hitler, right, impressed the Fuhrer when he rescued Benito Mussolini who had been captured in 1943. Skorzeny led a group of commandos who landed in gliders on the mountaintop mansion Mussolini was being held
The mission, Operation Long Jump, saw Skorzeny train a group of renegade Russians – who were opposed to Stalin – in commando tactics. They were tasked with parachuting into Iran in two groups ahead of two further groups of German commandos – including Skorzeny himself.
Skorzeny was chosen for the mission by Hitler as he had led an audacious mission to rescue Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who was being held under guard in a mountain top hotel that was only accessible by cable car.
After conducting aerial surveillance, Skorzeny decided to use a pair of gliders to storm the mountain top and rescue the dictator. The plan involved Mussolini then being flown to safety on a Storch aircraft. The Storch had the ability to land and take off in a little more than twice its own length.
Tehran was chosen as the location for the meeting as Stalin was unwilling to travel far from Russian territory and Iran was nominally neutral during the conflict.
It was an important meeting as it was the first time that Stalin had met with the US and British leaders. He was anxious by the failure in late 1943 of Roosevelt and Churchill to launch a second front in Europe, to help relieve pressure on Soviet troops.
Ahead of the meeting, Soviet intelligence claimed to have gathered information that the Germans, having cracked US naval codes, knew about the meeting and were planning to strike.
The Soviets also claimed to have agents close to those involved in the plot.
Tehran had been flooded with 40,000 NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB) ahead of the conference. The Russians claimed to have intercepted the first group of parachutists and killed them. The Russians also wiped out the second group of commandos, but had not been able to track down the last remaining threats.
Skorzeny, pictured, developed the plan to assassinate the Big Three but did not parachute into Iran with his troops
They claimed both Churchill and Roosevelt would be at risk while travelling to the Soviet embassy from their own compounds during the conference and should instead stay as guests of the Russian ambassador – in rooms which had been bugged.
The plot, which is outlined in detail in the book, seemed utterly implausible.
According to Blum: ‘Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace in its aftermath. And so a plan is devised—code name Operation Long Jump—to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.
‘Immediately, a highly trained, hand-picked team of Nazi commandos is assembled, trained, armed with special weapons, and parachuted into Iran. They have six days to complete the daring assignment before the statesmen will return home.’
Blum gathered together details of the plot from documents held in archives in London, Moscow and Washington.
He outlined how FDR’s Secret Service chief, Mike Reilly, who described himself as ‘an Irish cop with more muscle than brains’, had to ensure the safety of the president.
The assassins were working on a plan developed by Otto Skorzeny, who was once described as ‘the most dangerous man in Europe’.
The Russian defectors among the commandos were split into two groups and would parachute separately into the outskirts of Tehran.
One group planned to meet up with local tribesmen who would act as guides to bring them into the city.
The men were equipped with Soviet manufactured machine guns and uniforms. They also planned to use British-made bombs which had been captured by the Germans to blow up the three leaders.
The two groups of Russians were killed shortly after arriving in Iran.
A group of six Germans, under the command of Rudolf von Holten-Pflug, managed to avoid capture after they dropped into the wrong location near Qom.
Skorzeny was described as ‘the most dangerous man in Europe’ after leading the Mussolini rescue mission
Skorzeny, pictured right, survived the war and later settled in Martinstown House in Co Kildare
They managed to sneak into Tehran undetected ahead of the conference despite the presence of a large NKVD force.
The commandos made the decision to continue with their attack despite the growing evidence that they had been betrayed.
According to Blum: ‘Skorzeny, seeing the element of surprise had been lost, stayed in Germany, not wanting to risk his life or his reputation.’
The book claims the commandos had been betrayed by a group of Iranian wrestlers who had been sheltering them in a gymnasium after they accepted a $20,000 reward.
Yet the highly trained German operatives managed to escape and decided first to make an attempt on Churchill’s life during his birthday party which was being held at the British embassy.
The commandos had planned to attack using water tunnels under the building. However, a captured German spy had surrendered details of the plot, allowing the allies to saturate the area with guards.
In a final change of plan, the commandos decided on a suicide attack on the VIP convoy as it approached the airport. Again, the commandos were betrayed and blew themselves up to avoid capture.
Blum told The Express: ‘There is too much documentary evidence and too many witness statements proving that the assassination plot was real. But in espionage you never know the entire truth.
‘The plot would have succeeded if the Russians hadn’t killed most of the commando force. And if a captured spy hadn’t disclosed the scheme to use the water tunnel to enter the embassy compound, German commandos would have burst in on Churchill’s birthday party. It would have changed the face of the war, and possibly reshaped the world for years to come.’
- Night of the Assassins, By Howard Blum, goes on sale next month by Harper books
Who was Otto Skorzeny, Adolf Hitler’s favourite commando
Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna, Austria in 1908 and was once described as ‘the most dangerous man in Europe’.
His most famous operation involved the rescuing of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in September 1944.
He led a group of commandos in a pair of gliders to storm the mountain top hotel where Mussolini was being held. The allies believed the location was safe as it could only be accessed by cable car.
The 6’4″ commando was a national hero upon his return to Germany and was awarded an Iron Cross for saving the Italian dictator.
Waffen-SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Otto Skorzeny, who rescued Benito Mussolini from imprisonment after his overthrow. Gran Sasso, Italy – 12 Sep 1943 World War II, Hitler commended Skorzeny for this daring glider-plane mission
Otto Skorzeny, the Austrian Nazi officer who freed Mussolini, photographed during his lawsuit in Nuremberg – 1947
Skorzeny had a prominent five-inch scar on his cheek which he received in a fencing duel in university.
The SS officer publicly denied any involvement in Operational Long Jump, though he revelled in his reputation as ‘the most dangerous man in Europe’.
Towards the end of the war, Skorzeny was responsible for sabotaging the invasion of Germany.
His last major action in the war was at the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest – which had him brought before the War Crimes tribunal.
Skorzeny was a distinctive character, standing at 6’4 inches tall and weighting over 250 lbs. He also had a large scar on his cheek that he sustained while jousting in a university fencing match, he came to be known as ‘Scarface’ for this feature
He surrendered to US troops which saw him brought before the Dachau tribunal – a smaller version of the trials at Nuremberg.
Skorzeny ordered his men to dress in American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. However, he was acquitted at the Dachau trials after a British officer admitted wearing an enemy uniform was something the Allies had done.
According to documents in the National Archives in Kew, Skorzeny had been developing ‘poison bullets’ which he had claimed were for suicide, though Allied war crimes investigators believed they were to be used in assassinations.
He managed to escape from custody dressed as a US military policeman along with several other SS officers.
After hiding out for a time in Bavaria, he was pictured outside a cafe on Paris’s Champs Elysées.
The photo appeared in the French press the next day, causing him to flee to Salzburg to evade capture.
After a short while he moved to Madrid. Spain was still in the grip of fascist dictator Francisco Franco and Skorzeny was among many former Nazis to find comfort and respite there.
A considerably older Otto Skorzeny outside his property, Martinstown House, in the Curragh in Kildare with his dog
In 1952 he was ‘denazified’ in absentia by a West German court like many former low-ranking Nazis, which allowed him to travel freely outside of fascist strongholds like Spain.
From Madrid he moved to Egypt for a stint in training the Egyptian army, and then he followed a well-travelled Nazi route to Latin America, and Juan Peron’s Argentina.
He acted as bodyguard – and allegedly had an affair with – Eva Peron, before arriving in Ireland in June 1957.
However, in 1959, Skorzeny bought a large farm, Martinstown House, in Kildare, Ireland.
Otto Skorzeny rarely visited the island after 1963 and sold Martinstown House in 1971. He lived out his remaining years in Madrid.
He died of cancer in 1975 and was buried by his former comrades with his coffin draped in the Nazi colours.
Why was the 1943 Tehran Conference so important?
The Tehran Conference between the Big Three, Franklin D Roosavelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin was the first time the Soviet leader met the western leaders.
It has been marked as the marking the origins of the Cold War, with the British and Americans agreeing to the Soviet Union reclaiming some Polish territory and the opening of negotiations about the fate of a the post-war Germany and Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
Poland, under the plan was to be compensated by gaining some German territory, but the Soviets later insisted Poland must remain in their sphere of influence as a buffer zone.
Winston Churchil, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt held talks in Tehran in 1943
Roosevelt wanted an assurance from Stalin that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia would only rejoin the Soviet Union in the event their people supported it during a free and fair referendum. Stalin claimed any vote would take place under the terms of the Soviet constitution and there would be no international control of the ballot.
Churchill and Roosevelt confirmed to Stalin plans surrounding Operation Overlord and secured the agreement of the Soviet leader for his troops to launch a counter-offensive against the Germans on the eastern front to divert troops and equipment from the defence of France.
The leaders also discussed the possibility of Russia declaring war on Japan following the eventual defeat of Germany, however, Stalin extracted territorial concessions in the Pacific – including the Kuril Islands – an area that remains disputed today.
Stalin refused to travel far from the Soviet Union, so instead, Roosevelt boarded the USS Iowa on a secret mission to sail across the Atlantic.
Roosevelt met Churchill in Cairo before the Tehran meeting, where they had a conference with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek about the war against Japan.
In Tehran, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed the need for a ‘United Nations’ following the failure in the 1920s and 30s of the League of Nations.
All three leaders issued a statement at the end of the conference supporting and independent and sovereign Iran.