LEADERS ARRESTED IN WIDE-SPREAD OPERATION

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14299, 24 February 1947, Page 3

LEADERS ARRESTED IN WIDE-SPREAD OPERATION

COMB-OUT OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN

ZONES

London, Feb. 23. British and American forces in Germany in what is described as the biggest operation of its kin<J since tb.e occupation have arrested a number of Germans suspected of being leaders of a new Nazi underground movement. The arrests were made during a comb-out which covered the entire British and American zones. It began last night and was still going on late to-day. It was giving the code name "Operation Selection Board." Those arrested include a former officer of the bacteriological department of the German High Command, an exofficer of the SS and an important member of Hitler's secret service, a former Nazi leader in Poland, and another member of the SS who is described as one of the chief leaders of the new underground movement. The comb-out was concentrated mainly in the British zone. The chief aim of the movement, said a British officer., was to restore a totalitarian regime in Germany by building up military strength and demanding the release of Nazis from internment and prisoners of war camps. There has been talk within the movement of making these demands with the threat of a new and devastating bacterial weapon. Both British and American officials say that the movement could have been built up by clever leaders into a big organisation which would have threatened the security of the occupation. General Clay has described the movement as subversive and not particularly dangerous. He said: "Along with the British we have been watching the men behind the movement for a long time and we thought it was time to move in and clean them out."