Are there any known cases where, during WW2, nations used regular soldiers to infiltrate and spy on other armies?

by [deleted]

To elaborate, have any nation, allie or axis used e.g a regular (multi-lingual) soldier to infiltrate the enemy's army?

TrendWarrior101

Yes.

  1. Operation Pastorius: In June 1942, eight German agents were inserted behind U.S. lines in the East Coast of the U.S. in attempt to destroy U.S. infrastructure and spread terror among the civilian population. This mission failed after two of the German agents defected to the FBI and told them about the mission's plan. All of them were captured some weeks later and six were executed after a military trial.

  2. During World War II, on 24 September 1944, Josef Wende and Stephan Kortas, two Poles drafted into the German Army, entered across the Moselle Rivers in France behind U.S. lines in civilian clothes, posing as Polish slave laborers, to observe Allied strength and were to rejoin their own military on the same day. However, they were discovered by the Americans and captured. On 18 October 1944, Wende and Kortas were found guilty of espionage by a U.S. military commission and sentenced to death. On 11 November 1944, they were shot in the garden of a farmhouse at Toul, France.

  3. Operation Greif: During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, German commando Otto Skorzeny led the operation that would have troops under his command dressed in U.S. uniforms and go behind U.S. lines in attempt to spread confusion, sabotage equipment, and obtain information about the U.S. movements. However, the mission failed because there weren't enough troops in the mission as well as lacking equipment. 18 of the 23 German soldiers captured in U.S. uniforms behind U.S. lines were tried and executed.