strategic point in the Carpathian Mountains between Poland and
Czechoslovakia. On 26 August 1939, not having received word of the
delay of the Polish invasion, an advance 70-man unit of the Abwehr
under the command of Albrecht Herzner attacked a critical rail sta-
tion and tunnel and captured some 800 Polish soldiers. A German
combat division was then prepared to advance from its camp in the
High Tatra. This untimely incursion, however, compromised the ef-
fect of Operation Tannenberg—the plan of the Sicherheitsdienst
to paint Poland as the instigator of hostilities. See also BRANDEN-
BURG DIVISON.JÄHN, SIGMUND (1937– ). The first German to orbit in space,
Sigmund Jähn joined the air force of the Nationale Volksarmee of
the German Democratic Republic in 1955. A graduate of the USSR
Juri Gagarin Air Force Academy, he was accepted into the Soviet
cosmonaut unit in 1976. His two years of preparatory training re-
quired “performing services” for the East German military attaché
in Moscow, whose office was directly controlled by the Verwaltung
Aufklärung. While on board the Soyuz 31 and Soyuz 29, however,
Jähn carried out no known intelligence assignment during the nearly
eight-day flight in 1978.
JAHNKE, KURT (1888–1945). A spy active from the eve of World
War I to the conclusion of World War II, Kurt Jahnke was born near
Gnese (now Gniezno, Poland) on 17 February 1888, the son of a
Pomeranian landowner. Enlisting in the German navy shortly after
1900, he subsequently worked for the International Customs Service
based in Peking and established his first contact with the Chinese
secret police. Following a brief return to Europe with the outbreak
of the Russo-Japanese War, he immigrated to the United States in
1909 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. His postings included San
Francisco, Pearl Harbor, and the Philippines before a case of malaria
forced his discharge 10 months later. Based in San Francisco prior
to 1914, he operated a lucrative shipping and smuggling business
between the Pacific ports of the United States and Mexico and those
of East Asia. His adroit ability to alter his appearance was reflected
in the numerous aliases he employed, such as Aveenky, Yeenky, Ya-
huke, Kurt or Kort Boden, Albert E. Steffens, Jan Peter Cronje, and
JAHNKE, KURT • 207