Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945

Title: Hitler's Spies
Subtitle: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945
Author: Evert Kleynhans
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Johannesburg, South Africa 2021
ISBN 9781776190201 / ISBN 978-1-77-619020-1
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 271 pages, several b/w images

About: Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945

The aim of this book, Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945, is to provide an unrivalled account ot the German intelligence networks that operated in conjunction with the Ossewabrandwag in South Africa during the war, and to shed light on the threat level presented by the Germans to the Union's national security. As such, the book investigates the broader intelligence war through a number of research objectives:

• to examine the functioning of the broader Axis intelligence networks in southern Africa during the war;
• to explore the initial contacts that were established between Germany and the South African opposition;
• to discuss the nature and functioning of the embryonic Rooseboom operation;
• to examine the quest by the Ossewabrandwag to establish a viable intelligence network and contact with Germany, particularly in the structure and operation of the Felix organisation;
• to consider the Allied counterintelligence efforts in South Africa during the war;
• to explore the post-war hunt to collect the necessary evidence to arraign Hans van Rensburg and his inner circle for high treason;
• to investigate the unsuccessful attempt of the Union War Prosecutions to finalise the case of high treason against Van Rensburg amid a changing political landscape.

Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945 relies on a wealth of primary documents, including both official and private papers, from South Africa and the United Kingdom. Taking a cue from Gaspard's 'archival intelligence hacking', the manuscript critically engages with both national and international archival material, including primary sources preserved at the Department of Defence Archives, the Ossewabrandwag Archive, the South African National Archives, as well as the National Archives of the United Kingdom. As such, Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945 aims to offer a fresh perspective on a largely forgotten episode of South African history.

Dr. Evert Kleynhans is a senior lecturer in the Department of Military History at the Faculty of Military Science at Stellenbosch University (SU). He is the author of Hitler’s Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa (2021) and The Naval War in South African Waters, 1939-1945 (2022). He is also the editor of Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. Several of his articles have been published in academic journals and he has also contributed chapters to two books.

Content: Hitler's Spies: Secret Agents and the Intelligence War in South Africa, 1939-1945

Introduction
Prelude: U-boats off Cape Town!
Initial contacts with Germany
Wartime couriers
Opening a channel to Berlin
The Rooseboom operation
U-boat attacks in South African waters
Lothar Sittig: the accidental spy
The birth of the Felix organisation
Vryburg to Berlin: establishing a direct
wireless link
How effective was the Felix organisation?
The counterintelligence war
Closing in on the Felix organisation
The post-war hunt
Bloodhounds of the Empire
High treason?
The missing 'German Documents'
Postscript
Addendum
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Sources
Index