Abelard Möller (died 13 June 1944) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer during World War II. Möller was the mastermind of Operation Kraken, a plan to use stealth-plated U-boats to launch surprise V-2 attacks on the United States, only for his plot to be foiled by the SOE and OSS. Möller was killed by OSS sniper Karl Fairburne as he attempted to flee the Chateau de Berengar in occupied France.
Biography[]
Abelard Möller was born in the German Empire, and he was wounded while serving in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. He joined the NSDAP during the Interwar period and rose to the rank of Obergruppenführer (lieutenant general) during World War II. In late 1943, as the Allies began to push Axis forces back in Southern Europe, Möller began collaborating with the Japanese on Operation Kraken. Based at the Chateau de Berengar in occupied France, Möller plotted to use stealth-plated U-boats and borrowed Imperial Japanese Navy I-400 submarines to carry V-2 missiles across the Atlantic and bombard the American East Coast. By June 1944, the French Resistance caught wind of Möller's plans, and, after the Colleville-sur-Mer raid, Bletchley Park intelligence officers overheard Möller discussing Operation Kraken with his subordinate Friedrich Vogel. American OSS agent Karl Fairburne, with the help of British SOE agent Charlie Barton and French Resistance fighter Marie Chevalier, investigated Kraken and began sabotaging the operation piece-by-piece. Fairburne raided Möller's chateau and Mont-Saint-Michel for intelligence, disabled the German war machinery factory at Martressac, destroyed a prototype U-boat during field tests at Guernsey, put the V-2 testing grounds in the Massif Central out of order, and destroyed the stealth fleet at St. Nazaire. Möller, fearing that Hitler would want him dead for his failures, made plans to flee from the Chateau de Berengar to a place beyond the dictator's reach. Fairburne tracked him down and shot him before he could leave the chateau in his staff car.
