The Czechoslovak communist military counter-intelligence trained secret commando units to infiltrate West Germany in the early 1970s, according to newly found documents.

Some 100 agents in this top secret setup were meant to carry out tasks such as sabotage, kidnappings and murders in the event of a World War III.

The files were found in the archives of the current military intelligence service. They contain information about a special counterintelligence unit that was set up following warnings from the Soviet Union of a similar plot across the border in West Germany.

A general in the Soviet intelligence service warned of an imminent danger to the Warsaw Pact, and urged the allies in Prague to set up their own top secret sabotage unit. The command was so secretive that it didn't even have a name. Its existence was only known by a handful of people.

'Sleepers' in Germany

The unit focused on West Germany and its leading politicians, military commanders and business executives. It is now known that around 100 hand-picked agents, so called "sleepers," lived on the border with Bavaria, just on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.

They were prepared to launch into action in case of a military conflict between the Western and Eastern blocs, said Milan Macak, a researcher with the intelligence service of the Czech military.

"If a conflict arose, they were to the first sent into action," he said. "Their main goal was to partially disrupt or stop altogether enemy actions and provide for an element of surprise. They were trained to protect anything that might be a target of the West German or American Military. They were also ordered to capture targets and people in the West and hold them, or, failing that, liquidate them."

The agents were chosen to blend in to their surroundings, working as bakers, postal workers, or even party secretary. They reportedly maintained their own networks of German nationals who were potential agents and collaborators across the border in West Germany.

Difficult requirements

The special unit agents went through continuous training. They had to meet tough requirements. The agents had to be in above-average physical condition, and they had to be able to speak more than one language, and German was mandatory.

One agent had an even better listing in his dossier: he spoke perfect German with a Bavarian accent.

"And there was another important requirement: Each agent had to complete basic military training, but no one was allowed to work in the Army or with the police," Macak said. "That might have posed a serious security breach."

Closed in 1989

The activities of the secret command unit first began to slow down with the relaxing of international tensions in the mid 1970s, when the East and West came together in Helsinki to sign an agreement at the Conference for Security and Cooperation.

However, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, things were openly unsettled in Prague, and the command unit came alive again. It was ultimately closed in 1989, with the initial collapse of the Soviet Union. The researchers now refuse to release any of the agents' names citing Czech security concerns.