Editing False flag (section)

===World War II===

====Gleiwitz incident====
{{Main|Gleiwitz incident}}
[[File:Alfred Naujocks.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alfred Naujocks]]]]
The [[Gleiwitz incident]] in 1939 involved [[Reinhard Heydrich]] fabricating evidence of a [[Second Polish Republic|Polish]] attack against [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] to mobilize German public opinion for war and to justify the [[invasion of Poland (1939)|war against Poland]]. [[Alfred Naujocks]] was a key organiser of the operation under orders from Heydrich. It led to the deaths of [[Nazi concentration camp]] victims who were dressed as German soldiers and then shot by the [[Gestapo]] to make it seem that they had been shot by Polish soldiers. This, along with other false flag operations in [[Operation Himmler]], would be used to mobilize support from the German population for the start of [[European Theatre of World War II|World War&nbsp;II in Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lightbody |first=Bradley |title=The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-22405-5 |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |pages=39}}</ref>

The operation failed to convince international public opinion of the German claims, and both Britain and France{{snd}}Poland's allies{{snd}}declared war two days after Germany invaded Poland.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zaloga |first=Steve |title=Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0275982782 |edition=illustrated |location=Westport |pages=39 |orig-date=originally published in 2002 by Osprey Publishing}}</ref>

====Winter War====
On 26 November 1939, the Soviet army [[shelling of Mainila|shelled Mainila]], a Russian village near the Finnish border. Soviet authorities blamed [[Finland]] for the attack and used the incident as a pretext to invade Finland, starting the [[Winter War]], four days later.<ref name="talvisodanpikkujattilainen-turtola13">{{cite book |last=Turtola |first=Martti |title=Talvisodan pikkujättiläinen |publisher=[[Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö]] |year=1999 |editor1-last=Leskinen |editor1-first=Jari |pages=44–45 |trans-title=The Little Giant of the Winter War |chapter=Kansainvälinen kehitys Euroopassa ja Suomessa 1930-luvulla |editor2-last=Juutilainen |editor2-first=Antti}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Murphy |first=David |title=The Finnish-Soviet Winter War 1939-40 Stalin's Hollow Victory. |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |others=Johnny Shumate |isbn=978-1-4728-4394-4 |location=London |pages=9 |oclc=1261364794 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1261364794}}</ref>