were christened Silvergull (German name Silbermöwe, commanded by H. H. Klose), Stormgull (German name Sturmmöwe, commanded by E. G . Müller) and Wild Swan (German name Wildschwan, commanded by D. Ehrhardt). They were built at the Lürssen dockyard in Bremen-Vegesack for the West German Border Police, but under the pretense that the boats exceeded the speed allowed by the treaty of Potsdam, French and British authorities confiscated the vessels for Klose's missions. In February 1955, during a SIGINT sweep from Brüsterort to Liepāja, there was a 15-minute engagement off Klaipėda with a Soviet patrol boat; Ehrhardt's Wild Swan was fired on by the Soviets but the German boat slipped away at top speed. Operation compromised The operation was severely compromised by Soviet counter-intelligence, primarily through information provided by the British "Cambridge Five". In the extensive counter-operation "Lursen-S" (named for Lürssen, the manufacturer of the E-boats), the MGB/KGB captured or killed nearly every one of the 42 Baltic agents inserted into the field. Many of them were turned as double agents who infiltrated and significantly weakened the Baltic resistance. One of the agents sent to Estonia and captured by the KGB, Mart Männik, wrote an autobiography A Tangled Web: A British Spy in Estonia, which was published after his death and has been translated into English. The book gives an account of his experiences throughout and after the unsuccessful operation. MI6 suspended the operation in 1955 due to the increasing loss of agents and suspicions that the operation was compromised. The last mission was a landing on Saaremaa in April 1955. While the overall MI6 operation in Courland is regarded as a fiasco, Klose missions are considered successful, as far as the SIGINT and the naval aspects of his incursions are concerned. The motorboats were handed over to the new German Navy in 1956. See also Albanian Subversion Bay of Pigs invasion Contras Forest Brothers Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit Luis Posada Carriles Omega 7 Operation Cyclone Orlando Bosch Notes References Hess, Sigurd. The British Baltic Fishery Protection Service (BBFPS) and the Clandestine Operations of Hans Helmut Klose 1949-1956. Journal of Intelligence History vol. 1, no. 2 (Winter 2001) abstract full text Account of covert E-boat operations British Military Powerboat Trust, (2004) Operation Jungle: the failed British SIS mission in the Baltic states 1945 - 56 from latvianhistory.com (In Lithunaian) Arvydas Anušauskas. Užmirštas desantas. Slaptos Šaltojo karo istorijos (The Forgotten Landing Operation. Secret