The Venlo incident

The Venlo Incident was the capture on 9 November 1939 by the Sicherheitsdienst of two British agents of the Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6) in the early months of the Second World War. In the night of 8 to 9 November 1939, German agents crossed the border with the sovereign and officially neutral Netherlands. They were to meet the British agents in Café Backus on the Herungerberg, a few tens of meters from the border. The British were promised that they would meet the general who was the leader of the conspirators. Best and Stevens were joined by Dutch lieutenant Dirk Klop, despite a warning from Henri Koot. This specialist in cryptography found the code used by the alleged German conspirators so weak that he did not take them seriously and suspected a German trap. When Best, Stevens and Klop arrived at Café Backus on the Herungerberg, the Germans forced their car to a halt with machine gun fire. Klop returned fire with his service pistol, but was mortally wounded. The Germans took the two British agents and Klop's body across the border into Germany. Stevens carried a list of British agents with him when he was captured. In Düsseldorf, the British agents had to give more information during their interrogation. This information enabled the Gestapo to arrest more British agents in occupied territories, particularly in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia and the newly annexed Sudetenland. She also obtained information about the organization of the SIS and a list of SIS officers who should be captured once the invasion of Great Britain was completed.