Operation Whale ("Unternehmen Wal" or "Unternehmen Walfisch" in German) was the name of two separate German Intelligence (Abwehr) plans conceived in 1940.
- " Unternehmen Walfisch" was an aborted plan to land a seaplane on a lake in Ireland. Walfisch did not take place and planning was abandoned by July 1940.
- "Unternehmen Wal" was an aborted plan devised in November 1940 to establish contacts with Welsh and Scottish nationalist groups in Britain in preparation for Operation Sea Lion ("Unternehmen Seelöwe" in German).
- The agent that was to undertake the mission was one of the Abwehr's Irish "experts", Helmut Clissmann. He was to be transported to Britain by Christian Nissen aka. "Hein Mueck" or "Agent Hein". Planning for Whale took place when all Irish operations were prohibited by Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris. In order to work around the direct order not to interfere in Irish affairs, Abwehr Section leader Kurt Haller sought permission for an operation which had the stated aim of seeking assistance from Welsh and Scots groups although the outright aim was to seek further contacts with Ireland. Wal did not take place and planning was abandoned by April 1941.
Famous quotes containing the words operation and/or whale:
“It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. The only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of the electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of “Wut,” is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)
“And one rose in a tent of sea and gave
A darkening shudder; water fell away;
The whale stood shining, and then sank in spray.”
—Yvor Winters (1900–1968)