Did you know the Nazis planned to kill Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin... at the same time?

Assassination, sabotage and other similar actions were an ever-present part of World War II. Without listing it all, just think of the countless British commando missions, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, the kidnapping to Hungarian Regent Horthy by the Germans, or the deployment of German troops in Allied uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. (The Griffin That Didn't Fly) None of these, however, beat Unternehmen Weitsprung, "Operation Long Jump," in sheer scope. In 1943, the Germans had no smaller goal than to kill President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill (Churchill – Part I) (Part II) and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin... in a single fell swoop.

Now, please note that very little is known about the operation. It certainly didn't succeed, but many historians doubt it even got truly underway, and that it might have been just an abortive plan. Yet others claim it was a real plot... but by the Soviets, rather than the Germans, and with a different true purpose.

What is certain is that two years after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (The Invasion of Iran), the capital city of the Allies-occupied country hosted the Tehran Conference (Planning World War II – Part I) (Part II), one of the few war conferences where all three major Allied national leaders were present. The three leaders being in the same place, in a country that had friendly relations with Germany before the war, was an opportunity the Germans couldn't miss, and Hitler gave the go-ahead for an assassination attempt after German military intelligence learned of the event through a broken U.S. Navy cipher. The on-site mission leader was going to be the infamous Otto Skorzeny, who would go on to liberate Mussolini from captivity (Rescuing Mussolini), lead Operation Griffin at the Battle of the Bulge and capture Regent Horthy's son.

According to the NKVD, the Soviet secret police (and KGB forerunner), they first became aware of the plot when a drunk SS officer spilled the beans to one of their agents. This was then reinforced by a Soviet spy locating a six-man German advance team parachuted into Iran, and followed them to the villa they were renting in Tehran. German radio messages sent home were intercepted and decrypted; the advance team was arrested and the operation was aborted.

That's the Russian version. Many historians agree that the attempt was never considered seriously. Skorzeny himself later stated the same, writing that Hitler once asked him about the possibility of assassinating Churchill, but he convinced the Führer it was impossible.

But here comes the part that's actually known to be true. Stalin told Roosevelt and Churchill about the plot and suggested they move their residences from their respective embassies in Tehran to the more secure Soviet one, which is where the conference was being held. Several Western officials were highly skeptical of the assassination claim, but Roosevelt did agree to move. 

It's been suggested that the whole story was a Soviet concoction to get the Western leaders into the Soviet embassy, where their conversations with each other and their subordinates could be secretly recorded. It's also been speculated that Roosevelt suspected as much, and agreed to move because he wanted to be eavesdropped on: it was his way of leaking confidential information to Stalin. 

The full truth will probably never come to light.