Reinhard Gehlen: Encyclopedia II - Reinhard Gehlen - Military service

Reinhard Gehlen - Military service

Reinhard Gehlen joined the Reichswehr in 1920 and entered the German Staff College in the 1930s. He was promoted to captain and was attached to the Army General Staff. In 1940, promoted to major, he became the liaison officer to Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch. He was transferred to the Army Chief of Staff General Franz Halder. In July, 1941, he became a lieutenant colonel. Gehlen worked extensively on the Eastern Front and because of his superior talents and expertise was promoted to senior intelligence officer with the German General Staff on the Russian front.

In 1942, he was approached by Colonel Henning von Tresckow, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and General Adolf Heusinger to participate in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. His role was minor. When the plot culminated in the failed bomb plot of July 20, 1944, Gehlen's role was covered up and he escaped Hitler's brutal repression of the traitors.

In December 1944, Reinhard Gehlen reached the rank of major General and was tasked with concentrated intelligence gathering directed at the Soviet Union and its battlefield tactics.

Knowing the end was near for the Third Reich, Gehlen laid plans for his eventual capture by the Americans and concealed his files on the Soviet army and political leaders in a drum in the Bavarian Alps. In May 22, 1945, Gehlen surrendered to the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Bavaria. The first American recognition of the importance of this prisoner was made by Brig. General Edwin Sibert, the G-2 (Army intelligence) of the Twelfth Army. Gehlen impressed Sibert with his knowledge of Soviet military and political affairs. Gehlen also revealed a number of OSS officers who were secret members of the U.S. Communist Party.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Military service", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki