Blue Ring Assassins

WWII historical fiction, laced with true events. Berlin 1939 - 1943 From the smoking ruins of a bombed Berlin brothel, three shocked and injured female survivors are taken to a secluded training facility by Nazi officer, Gruppenführer Walter Schellenberg. They're not there for official business but for medical treatment. Trained by the SS officer in all aspects of espionage, the women are desperate to survive. They turn the tables on their armed captors and kill them. After covering their tracks, the women return to ply the only trade they know... with an added twist. Somehow these 'sisters in arms' escape the attention of the Nazis, despite the high rank of their victims, and their lucrative business thrives. They haven't escaped everyone's notice though. British Intelligence were monitoring Schellenberg's operations for some time, and their attention has zeroed in on the three women. They dispatch one of their top male agents to make contact... True EventDuring the second world war, the Nazis decided to re-open a brothel and use the prostitutes as spies, ordered to seduce secrets out of foreigners and catch out disloyal Germans.The brothel started in 1939, known as Salon Kitty, owned by Katharine Zammit aka Kitty Schimdt.Walter Schellenberg, a Nazi intelligence officer working for the Sicherheit'sdienst (SD), and Reinhard Heydrich gave Kitty an ultimatum: you and your girls work for us, or you're going to the concentration camps. So, Kitty was ordered to take on 20 extra girls produced by the Nazis, place listening devices in all areas and allocate a listening room in her establishment.Once all this was agreed, Schellenberg and other SS officers started arresting prostitutes from all over Berlin. They sorted them into the most beautiful ones to train and recruit for the brothel.The file sent out by Schellenberg to Nazi administration officers stated that they were looking for beautiful, intelligent, multilingual young females who were man crazy.They were trained by the Nazis to recognise high ranking military uniforms, high-ranking Nazi party officials and foreign diplomats, whom they would then relax with, ply them with alcohol, sleep with them, and extract as much information out of them as possible.

After several successful missions over the past three years, Hannah, Petra and Heidi are preparing for their most dangerous mission yet. Hitler's "Directive 18, also known as Operation Felix" is back on the table and the Third Reich generals are storming ahead with preparations. Whilst Spain struggles with staying neutral, they are constantly pressured from both the Axis and Allied powers to join the war, pay offs to the tune of millions are paid to Franco in an effort to sway his decision from both sides. The Allies are fully aware that Franco and Hitler are close friends, also that Franco allows SS agents to operate in Spain and that he has always had a powerful desire to take Gibraltar back from the British. The girls hook up with other female allied agents from France and head for Spain, their objective, make contact with all the SS agents and take them out before "Operation Felix" can commence, destroy any and all invasion support fuel and ammo dumps. Their struggle continues... Hitler's Secret OperationDirective 18, Operation FelixOperation FelixIn 1940 Hitler had his staff draw up plans to invade Gibraltar, directive 18 was sent out, stating that all avenues must be investigated with regards to taking Gibraltar, land, sea and air assaults. It was planned for January 1941 but during late 1940, Hitler decided that Russia was more important, and the plan was shelved. Over the next two years, Hitler and other officers continued talks with General Franco of Spain and his brother-in-law Don Ramon Serrano Suñer. Suñer made regular visits to Berlin and was a close friend of Admiral Wilheim Canaris. Canaris was, in fact, an expert on Spanish culture and both of them got on well and spent many hours at the brothel in Berlin.Canaris was the head of the Abwehr - German military intelligence services and he had already placed several look-out stations around Gibraltar to watch the Allied shipping in the area with Hitler's approval. However, without any approval, he also had a secret intelligence network in Spain that would feed him with all kinds of information, conduct sabotage and espionage missions throughout WWII.Both Canaris and Suñer fed their leaders with lies in an attempt to keep Spain out of the war and whilst all that was going on, the British were also talking to Franco too. There were deals, double deals and false deals.The British wanted Spain to join the Allies in an effort to stabilise the region and prevent Spain from invading Gibraltar, to this end they had given Spain almost £200 million pounds in bribes during the course of the war. Spain has always wanted Gibraltar back ever since the British took it from them back in the early 1800s. This continues even today. Herman Goering - chief of the Luftwaffe - was a ruthless man who spent as much time during the war enriching his own personal wealth as doing his job. He sold many works of art to Suñer, not just for himself but also for Franco, art which he bought possibly with British money. Over 40 espionage and sabotage missions on Gibraltar would be conducted by the Germans and anti-British Spaniards during the course of WWII.

1944. The war has been raging for five years now. With each passing day, the death toll only seems to grow on all sides. In the struggle against the Third Reich, Hannah and Petra are doing all they can to aid the fight, but with Heidi now out of action, it is proving hard to keep their focus on what - or who - they should be fighting against. Despite their internal struggles, both Hannah and Petra are working hard to grow their organisation, all while undertaking several new missions from both the British and the US that will see them travel across war-torn Europe. The end of the war still seems so far. Will the girls prevail, or will everything they have worked towards end in a cloud of smoke? Operation remorseThis British operation was run by the SOE in Hong Kong and China, which involved counterfeiting currency and smuggling. This generated over 77 million in profits for the SOE.