The '''Venlo Incident''' in 1939 was a SIS agents in the early months of World War II, on November 9, 1939.

British agents had met supposed German officers who said that they were plotting against Hitler in the town of Venlo, The Netherlands, 8 km from the border of Germany. German agents who adopted the guise of refugees in the Netherlands, but actually worked for Gestapo, arranged the meeting. One of them was named Walter Schellenberg. Their intent was to gather more information about British intelligence methods and pass false information to them.

SIS had assigned two agents, Captain Sigismund Payne Best and Major Richard H. Stevens to the case. They met three officers, including "Major Schaemmle" (Walter Schellenberg) in The Netherlands. "Schaemmle" claimed the German high command was concerned about high losses suffered during the campaign in Poland and intended to have Hitler arrested. 

Heinrich Himmler, however, ordered the British spies captured. On the night of November 8-9, 1939, German agents including Alfred Naujocks crossed into Netherlands. They were to meet with British agents in a café, Café Backus, just across the border. The British had been promised that they were to meet the general who was the leader of the plotters and Best and Stevens took with them Dutch intelligence officer Dirk Klop.

When Best and the others arrived, the Germans stopped their car with machine-gun fire, killed Klop and forcibly dragged the British along with Klop's body over the border to Germany. 

Stevens had a list of British agents with him when they were captured. The agents were forced to reveal more under interrogation in Düsseldorf. With this information the Gestapo was able to arrest British agents in occupied territories, especially Czechoslovakia. They also obtained information about SIS organization and collected a list of SIS officers to be arrested when Britain was invaded.

Dans les premiers mois de la Secret Intelligence Service ou MI6). Cette affaire est connue sous le nom d'« '''incident de Venlo''' ».

== Les protagonistes ==
=== Les exécutants ===
* Les agents britanniques du Secret Intelligence Service : •&nbsp;Major Richard Henry Stevens •&nbsp;Captain Sigismund Payne Best.
* L'officier des services secrets néerlandais : Dirk Klop. 
* Les membres du Sonderkommando allemand : •&nbsp;Walter Schellenberg, « ''Major Schaemmle'' » •&nbsp;Alfred Naujocks • ....(à compléter)

=== Les responsables ===
* Allemagne : •&nbsp;RSHA.
* Royaume-Uni : •&nbsp;Lord Halifax, ministre des Affaires étrangères •&nbsp;Stewart Menzies, directeur de l’Intelligence Service (MI6) •&nbsp;Claude Dansey, son adjoint.
* Pays-Bas : Johan W. van Oorschot, chef des services secrets.

==Contexte==
Des officiers allemands de la Hitler. L'un de ces officiers allemands était Walter Schellenberg, qui deviendra par la suite le chef des services secrets de la Sicherheitsdienst (SD). L'objectif de cette rencontre était de recueillir des renseignements sur les méthodes de travail des services secrets britanniques, ainsi que de transmettre de fausses informations.

Les deux agents britanniques, Sigismund Payne Best et Richard H. Stevens, rencontrèrent trois officiers, dont "Major Schaemmle" (Hitler.

Heinrich Himmler, cependant, ordonna l'arrestation des agents britanniques. Dans la nuit du 8 au 9 novembre 1939, des agents allemands, parmi lesquels Alfred Naujocks, pénétrèrent sur le territoire néerlandais. Un rendez-vous avait été arrangé dans un café de Venlo. Les britanniques, auquel on avait fait la promesse que le général à la tête du complot serait présent, amenèrent avec eux un officier des services secrets néerlandais, Dirk Klop.