Operation Weissdorn
Following the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Leibbrandt returned to Berlin in 1938 to study at the Reich Academy for Gymnastics, and stayed on when war broke out. He joined the German Army, where he became the first South African to be trained as a paratrooper.
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris ordered Operation Weissdorn, a plan for a coup d'état to overthrow the government of General Jan Smuts, who had led South Africa into the Second World War on the side of the Allies. In June 1941, under the code name Walter Kempf, Leibbrandt was dropped on the Namaqualand coast north of Cape Town by a confiscated French sailboat under command of Abwehr asset Lieutenant "S"Christian Nissen aka Hein Mück, the Kyloe. He formed the Nasionaal Sosialistiese Rebelle drumming up support through fiery speeches and political campaigning, while secretly training members in bomb making. He also made contact with another pro-German movement, the Ossewabrandwag, but the leader, Johannes Van Rensburg, was unsympathetic.
Read more about this topic: Robey Leibbrandt
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