Operation Gold was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1950s to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. This was a much more complex variation of the earlier Operation Silver project in Vienna.
Soviet officer inside the tunnel
Wiretap/recording equipment consisting of British-made products
The tapped telephone wires are presented to the press.
By 24 April 1956, the remains of the tunnel were being toured extensively by the Soviet and East German authorities
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence on foreign nationals in support of its Five Eyes partners. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
SIS Building, the headquarters of MI6 in London
54 Broadway, SIS headquarters from 1924 until 1964
A young Englishman, member of the Secret Intelligence Service, in Yatung, Tibet, photographed by Ernst Schäfer in 1939
Operation Gold: the Berlin tunnel in 1956
