On August 31, 1939, Nazi SS troops staged the Gleiwitz incident, dressing in Polish uniforms to attack a German radio station. This fake assault, orchestrated by Himmler and Heydrich, provided Hitler with a propaganda pretext to invade Poland the next day, marking the start of World War II.

Operation Bernhard was a secret Nazi plan to collapse the British economy by flooding it with counterfeit £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes. After perfecting the designs and serial codes, printing began in 1942 at Sachsenhausen using 137 skilled Jewish prisoners. Much of the fake cash was later dumped in Austria’s Lake Toplitz.

Edward, the Duke of Windsor, openly admired the Nazi regime after his 1937 Germany trip, funded by Hitler. As war erupted, Hitler hoped to restore him to a pro-Nazi English throne. When Edward fled to neutral Spain and later Portugal, the Nazis launched Operation Willi. SS intelligence agent Walther Schellenberg aimed to lure him back by claiming a British conspiracy, or kidnap him if needed. This episode reveals how the SD operated and why this bold plot, which could have shifted the war’s balance, ultimately collapsed.

The feat that made possible the release of Benito Mussolini from his imprisonment on the Gran Sasso plateau was one of the most dramatic operations carried out by special forces in military history. After being arrested on 25 July 1943 by his own officers, the Duce had been transferred to the Campo Imperatore hotel, an isolated mountain resort (accessible only by cable car), where he was watched. Hitler ordered the paratrooper general Kurt Student to organize a mission for the liberation of the Italian dictator, using his Fallschirmjäger, a highly trained special unit, and, for political reasons, an SS unit under Captain Otto Skorzeny. On September 12, 1943, Student's paratroopers launched a daring assault with gliders, the aim of which was to surprise the Italian garrison guard and free Mussolini. This episode reconstructsthe military action in detail and analyzes its consequences

In September 1943, Adolf Hitler, furious at Mussolini's ouster, sent German troops to Rome and ordered SS General Karl Wolff, who had been Heinrich Himmler's main aide, to occupy the Vatican and kidnap (and possibly kill ) Pope Pius XII. At the same time as they planned to deport Rome's Jews to Auschwitz, Wolff began to play a dangerous game: blocking Hitler's plot against the pope, which he hoped would save him from the noose in case Germany lost the war. To save Pius XII, Wolff and other conspirators blackmailed him into silence when the Jews were rounded up, hoping that Hitler would cancel his order. A story of intrigue and betrayal, one of the most important stories ever told of the Second World War. In this episode we will try to nvestigate what is true in all of this. Is there any documented evidence in this incredible story? What went wrong? How was Pius XII saved?

In the final months of WW2, the Third Reich was being squeezed by the steady advance of both fronts. Undeterred by the constant defeats, Adolf Hitler ordered his last great counter-offensive in the Ardennes, that would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. Among the missions carried on this winter campaign, one of the most dangerous and ambitious was Operation Greif. Personally planned by the Führer himself, It consisted of infiltrating special Waffen-SS units behind the enemy lines by disguising them as American soldiers and create havoc among the Allied troops. A mission so secretive, that even those who participated in it didn’t have a clue what they were training for a very long time. To lead this Operation, Hitler would once again trust his star Commando Otto Skorzeny, who had successfully liberated Mussolini with Operation Eiche and overthrew the Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy with Operation Panzerfaust, earning by the US intelligence the nickname of “the most dangerous man in Europe.” Using English speaking German soldiers, dressed in GI Uniforms and using captured US military equipment, Skorzeny would succeed in launching chaos among his enemies to the point that even General Eisenhower would feel threatened. Yet, many of his men would be captured and promptly executed.