Operation Jungle

Operation Jungle
Part of the Cold War and the anti-communist insurgencies in Central and Eastern Europe

Three German Silbermöwe-class motorboats, used during the last phase of Operation Jungle
Date1949–1955
Location
Result Soviet-Polish victory
• Overall operational failure
• Naval success[1]
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 West Germany
 Sweden
 Denmark
 United States
 Soviet Union
Poland Polish People's Republic
Commanders and leaders
United States Harry S. Truman
United Kingdom Henry Carr
United Kingdom John Harvey-Jones
West Germany Hans-Helmut Klose
West Germany Reinhard Gehlen
Sweden Gustaf VI Adolf
Denmark Fredrik IX
Soviet Union Viktor Abakumov
Soviet Union Lavrentiy Beria
Poland Bolesław Bierut
Strength
2 E-boats
3 motorboats
Soviet patrol boats
Casualties and losses
3 agents killed[2]
Several agents captured
Unknown

Operation Jungle was a programme by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) early in the Cold War from 1949 to 1955 for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into Poland and the Baltic states. The agents were mostly Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian exiles who had been trained in the United Kingdom and Sweden and were to link up with the anti-Soviet resistance against the communist governments (the cursed soldiers, the Forest Brothers). The naval operations of the programme were carried out by German crew-members of the German Mine Sweeping Administration under the control of the Royal Navy. The American-sponsored Gehlen Organization also got involved in the draft of agents from Eastern Europe. However, the MGB penetrated the network and captured or turned most of the agents.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hess was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Dorril, Stephen (2002). MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Simon and Schuster, p. 292. ISBN 0743217780