Operation Zeppelin (assassination plot)

Operation Zeppelin was the name of an elaborate German plan to assassinate Joseph Stalin in Moscow. It was conceived in July 1944 when Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who succeeded Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA, asked the Luftwaffe's KG 200 unit if they could land a man within 60 miles from Moscow, far in advance of the German front lines at that time.

The plan involved a secret flight by a German transport plane to a landing in the countryside near the Soviet capital. An assassin — a former Soviet prisoner of war who had demonstrated his loyalty — would be provided with a motorcycle and the weapons needed to kill Stalin as he drove through the city. The assassination team members had been thoroughly trained and well-armed. Provisions for escape had been made and a hideout secured for them in Moscow.

Before the mission was to begin a woman — also a former Soviet officer — was added to the team. The two were married on the eve of the mission.

Operation Zeppelin began with a German reconnaissance party parachuting into the proposed landing area to check its suitability, and then sending a "go" radio signal that all was well. On the night of September 4–5, 1944, an Arado Ar 232B transport plane took off from an airfield in Latvia and headed to the designated site, which was about 60 miles from Moscow, between Smolensk and the capital. While most of the flight went without incident, the plane was fired upon by Soviet antiaircraft fire.

It turned out that the advance team had been captured and forced to send the radio signal back to Germany; furthermore the radio checks had failed to detect that the team had been compromised. The antiaircraft guns had fired upon the plane without authorization from the Soviet forces who planned to set a trap for the plane, despite the fact that they were unaware of the mission's purpose.

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