Like something out of a spy thriller, a ruthless Nazi hitman’s mission to assassinate Winston Churchill is foiled by a top-notch team of Soviet agents.
The audacious plan to “assassinate” the famous prime minister during World War II is said to have been foiled by Red Army spies in Iran.
For decades it was believed that German spy Franz Mayr had tried to assassinate the wartime leader at the 1943 Tehran Conference.
Now, 79 years later, the assassination has been exposed as nothing more than Russian propaganda, according to new research by a respected British historian.
For nearly eight decades, it was believed that the Soviets had managed to thwart a daring Nazi plan to assassinate Winston Churchill in 1943
The mastermind of the conspiracy – which has since been exposed as Russian propaganda – was pictured German spy Franz Mayr
The assassination attempt that had been believed for 79 years is finally foiled
According to the story, German spy Franz Mayr was ordered to assassinate Winston Churchill in Iran.
The Nazi plot was foiled by the Soviets in Tehran, where they claimed he tried to kill the British leader during an important conference in 1943.
And as proof of the claim, Churchill was presented with a German Iron Cross medal for bravery, which Mayr was said to have been taken from during his capture.
But in reality, the assassination story was nothing more than fiction – designed by the Soviets as propaganda, with the medal belonging to another German soldier.
Historian Andy Saunders believes the story was invented by the Russians to hold the meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran and increase their control over a key summit meeting between US President Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
In reality, Franz Mayr had been captured by British troops in August 1943 – three months before the Teheran Conference.
The conspiracy, now proved to be fiction, claimed that an Iron Cross medal was subsequently taken from Mayr and presented to Churchill as a souvenir.
The German bravery prize has been on display for years at Chartwell – Churchill’s family home in Kent, now owned by the National Trust.
Next to it is a descriptive plaque explaining to visitors that Mayr was stripped of the Iron Cross when he was captured as part of a plot to assassinate Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.
Now a respected historian has delved into the National Archives to uncover the truth behind the medal and the assassination.
Iron Cross Magazine editor Andy Saunders discovered the medal while visiting Chartwell.
His suspicions arose quickly, since German intelligence agents like Mayr could not receive medals for bravery, and they certainly would not wear them while undercover in enemy territory.
Mr Saunders has compiled extensive research which he believes proves that the Iron Cross at Chartwell was never owned by Mayr and that there was never an assassination plot in Iran at the Tehran Conference.
The first meeting between Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin took place in November 1943, when the war ended in the Allies’ favour.
Mr Saunders believes the story of an assassination attempt was fabricated by the Russians to hold the meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran and increase their control over the summit.
In the archives he discovered that Mayr had briefly served on a communications train in Potsdam during World War I, but had never received an award for his service.
After the war he became a law student and during his studies he was recruited by the SS Reich Security Department 6 as a spy.
As a result of the assassination, Winston Churchill was presented with a German medal of bravery, the Iron Cross, which was said to have been snatched from his would-be assassin
But now historian Andy Saunders (pictured) has claimed that this assassination was a work of the imagination, concocted by the Russians to try to stage a meeting at the Soviet embassy in Tehran
At the end of 1940, Mayr was stationed in Persia and lost the support of his superiors because the situation there was not developing in Germany’s favour.
Hiding in an Armenian cemetery for six months, he devised an “extraordinary” plan to invade Persia and incorporate it into the larger German empire.
Mayr’s plan led him to found a disruptive movement called Hizb-i-Melliun in July 1942, but by the fall his plan had fallen apart.
British security forces searched his home in Isfahan, Iran, arrested him and discovered all of his carefully written plans in their entirety.
He was a compulsive hoarder, resulting in the raid completely undermining his position in Persia and forcing him to flee the country.
He made his way to Tehran, where he remained in hiding for nine months, his influence and operational capability crippled by the resettlement.
When he asked Berlin for money and an experienced radio operator, they sent in a whole squad of untrained Waffen-SS paratroopers.
Their mission when they arrived in March 1943 was simply to cause as much destruction and chaos as possible.
They were undisciplined and technically incompetent and did not perform any operations in the five months prior to their capture.
British forces arrested them at gunpoint in August 1943, three months before the Tehran Conference.
Records of his interrogation have been preserved in the National Archives and there is no mention of an assassination plot.
Mayr reveals that Gunther Blume, one of the paratroopers, was wounded in the Russian campaign and awarded the Iron Cross Class I before being sent to Tehran.
Mr Saunders obtained declassified secret files after interrogating German spy Mayr, showing no assassination plot was ever mentioned
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Mr Saunders believes it is likely that Blume carried his award while dressed in civilian clothes as evidence of his service status in the event he was captured.
Mayr was too experienced to carry an Iron Cross while working undercover.
One thing is certain, Mayr did not lead an assassination attempt on Churchill and it is definitely not his Iron Cross on display at Chartwell.
Mr Saunders said: “I was walking through the Chartwell Museum when I saw the Iron Cross on display and wondered what the real story behind it was.
“He was a spy, so the idea that he would be carrying a German military decoration while being covered up with forged documents seemed highly unusual.
“The only way he would keep that in his possession is if he was very stupid or just plain incompetent.
“I ordered documents about Franz Mayr from the National Archives and found that there was no evidence that he was even there to organize an assassination.
The Iron Cross medal was presented to Churchill and had been kept at his family home, Chartwell, in Kent
It is believed that the medal given to Churchill actually belonged to Gunther Blume, a German soldier sent to help Mayr in a failed mission to wreak havoc in Tehran
“The assassination plan was used by Stalin and the Soviets to ensure that the conference was held at their embassy under their control.
‘It seems likely that the Iron Cross given to Churchill belonged to Gunther Blume, one of the soldiers sent to help Mayr stir up discontent in the area.
“All I can say for sure is that it did not belong to Mayr and there is no evidence of Churchill’s assassination.”
A spokesman for the National Trust in Chartwell said: “We welcome more and more research and information on objects and sites in our care.
“Our collections are not static, and this type of work can shed more light on all aspects of their often complex history.
“We are aware of this work and look forward to studying the research results.”