On August 31, 1939, darkness had just descended over the 111-meter-high transmission tower in Gliwice, when seven men stormed into the control room of the German radio station.
They were dressed as Polish farmers, but were in fact a special department of the SS, performing “Operation Grandma is Dead”.
“Listen! This is Gliwice. The radio station is now in Polish hands, “was the message that went out on the air just after 8 pm.
– The radio mast in Gliwice was for a long time the world’s tallest wooden structure. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
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The bodies of several concentration camp prisoners and a German-Polish farmer were then dressed in Polish military uniforms and left on the spot.
“There have been reports that a radio station in Gliwice, Germany, near the Polish border, has been attacked,” the BBC reported a few hours later.
In this way, Nazi Germany believed they had succeeded in creating a pretext for invading Poland, which also happened early the next morning.
False flag
The episode in Gliwice has later emerged as one of history’s most famous false flag operations.
Professor Sven G. Holtsmark at the Department of Defense Studies believes, however, that very few actually believed in the Nazis’ excuse to enter the neighboring country. Both France and Great Britain also declared war on Germany shortly after.
– No one bought the staging in 1939. It had no significance. I do not know to what extent it was bought in Germany, he says to TV 2.
But apparently the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, thought that Hitler had made an elegant move to influence world opinion, for exactly three months later, he tried something similar.
Episoden i Mainila
Stalin had in fact set out to invade Finland, and the pretext he used was seven artillery shells that thundered down on 26 November right next to a Russian border post in Karelia.
However, it was not the Finns who had fired, but the Soviets themselves. And the intention was to portray Finland as an attacker.
– GAMES FOR THE GALLERY: Soviet military brought foreign press corps to the scene of the alleged Finnish attack in 1939. Photo: NTB / Scanpix
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Foreign press people were invited to fear the damage the alleged Finnish shelling had done, but this time too not many people bought the story.
– Awkward and obviously fabricated, wrote the American journalist John Gunther afterwards.
However, this did not stop the Soviets from attacking Finland on November 30, 1939. Shortly afterwards, Stalin established a Finnish puppet government called the Finnish Democratic Republic with its capital in the small village of Terijoki.
Three months later, the Soviet Union won the war and occupied parts of Finland, but at a very high price. Probably more than 160,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in the fighting against the numerically inferior Finnish army.
Hybrid warfare
The Finnish Democratic Republic today finds parallels in the two Russian-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine; The People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
– WELL EQUIPPED: Thanks to Russia, the soldiers in the Ukrainian breakaway republics are equipped with state-of-the-art weapons. Photo: NTB / Scanpix.
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Ever since Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula in March 2014, so-called Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces in the region.
The Kremlin supports the rebels in the east with weapons, money and other materiel. Both Russian mercenaries and regular forces are also said to have taken part in the fighting.
It is in this area that the Pentagon fears that Russia will now use a false flag to justify a major invasion.
“Russia operates and lays a foundation for fabricating a pretext for an invasion,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN.
Specifically, this can be done by Russian special forces carrying out sabotage or terrorist actions against targets in the breakaway areas, and later it seems as if Ukraine is behind it, says an intelligence source to the TV channel.
Harder today
One of the characteristics of the conflict in eastern Ukraine has been the role of social media in exposing Russia’s involvement in the war.
Section leader Palle Ydstebø at the War School therefore believes that Russia will struggle to stage new provocations.
– SKEPTIC: Palle Ydstebø thinks it will be very difficult for Russia to make a pretext for war in Ukraine. Photo: The Armed Forces.
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– In relation to Mainila and Poland, it has become even more difficult to achieve such things today. This is because the access to information from alternative sources will challenge an official narrative, says Ydstebø to TV 2.
– If they want to build a legitimacy, I think Russia understands that this does not go home outside their own country, where they have media control. I think they are aware of how thin that straw will be.
According to historian Sven Holtsmark, false flag operations were and are worthless as a pretext for war under international law.
– You can not legally start an attack on another country on the grounds of some local incident, Holtsmark says to TV 2.
Ydstebø also points out that the international focus on the Russians’ strength building near Ukraine has reduced the moment of surprise.
– If this had been something suddenly appearing, a false flag action might have had a lot to offer. With this, they had bought themselves time before the outside world reacted. But now that everyone is on their toes, and with the warnings that have come, there is a contingency across the spectrum, says Ydstebø.
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