Colonel Von Ingorslebon

Colonel von Ingorslebon is one of the principal antagonists of the film Force 10 from Navarone. He was played by Franco Nero.

Biography
Von Ingorslebon was a German spy posing as a Kurdish laundry boy named Nicolai in in Castelrosso. When Mallory's team stopped there briefly, von Ingorslebon listened at the door and was quickly caught and questioned by Andrea Stavros. When their contact Major Baker and his subordinate Sergeant Grogan arrived, the commandos demanded Baker take Nicolai into custody.

Baker, who didn't believe Nicolai was a spy, refused, and demanded the laundry boy be released. Instead, Major Roy Franklin ordered Spyros Pappadimos to shoot Nicolai, and also Major Baker if he interfered. A horrified Baker protested, and finally relented, agreeing to keep Nicolai locked up. Von Ingorslebon was taken away by Grogan, but Baker foolishly released him right after the commandos left, allowing the spy to contact his superiors on Navarone and alert them of the team's impending arrival.

Afterwards, with his cover more or less blown, von Ingorslebon was reassigned to Yugoslavia to pose as a Partisan fighter named Captain Lescovar, serving under the command of Major Petrovich. Eventually Mallory and John Miller arrived, along with Force 10 (or what remained of it) commanded by Mike Barnsby. Von Ingorslebon, in the guise of Lescovar, assisted Mallory and Miller in infiltrating Major Schroeder's Cetnik camp, but Schroeder didn't believe their cover story about smuggling penicillin. He sent Mallory and Barnsby along with Cetnik fighter Maritza to find the hidden drugs and prove their story, keeping Lescovar, Miller, Walter Weaver and Doug Reynolds captive.

They were questioned by two SS officers and a Gestapo agent, and it's unknown if they or Schroeder ever knew Mallory, von Ingorslebon's true identity. Eventually, Miller and Barnsby arrived, having been aided in escaping by Maritza, who was a Partisan and not a Cetnik. Freeing them, they chained up the SS officers and the Gestapo agent and intended to take Schroeder with them as a prisoner. However, Feldwebel Bauer grabbed a gun and killed Reynolds, setting off a chain reaction that ended in von Ingorslebon - remaining in-character - shooting the chained up SS officers and Gestapo agent when the agent went for an overlooked gun.

After the death of Schroeder, the group escaped the camp and made their plans to blow up the dam, stopping briefly at a Partisan encampment, where Maritza discovered Lescovar's true identity, forcing him to kill her. He did it during a German air raid so her death could be disguised as being caused by the explosions, but Mallory suspected him. He and another Partisan named Marko then accompanied the Allies to get explosives from a German depot. While they were busy, von Ingorslebon approached Feldwebel Bismarck and revealed his true identity. He enlisted Bismarck's help in capturing the commandos.

However, Bismarck saluted him as a superior officer which gave Mallory another clue about his real identity, and Marko managed to kill Bismarck and his men before being killed himself, foiling the Germans' attempt to apprehend the commandos who escaped in a train. Still undercover, von Ingorslebon accompanied them but was confronted about his real identity. After being figured out, he was shot and killed by Barnsby.

Comments

 * Von Ingorslebon doesn't appear in the novel Force 10 from Navarone and there is no such Partisan as Lescovar, either. The character of Nicolai does appear in the previous novel (and film) The Guns of Navarone, but he is not actually confirmed as a German spy - merely suspected of being one. It is only in the movie version of Force 10 from Navarone that Nicolai is confirmed to be a spy and revealed as being a German officer named von Ingorslebon.