General of Intelligence

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The General of the Intelligence Service ( GdNA for short ) was a Wehrmacht service during the Second World War . The task was to record and, if possible, decipher the hostile message traffic (also called: offensive cryptology). In addition, checking and maintaining the stability of the company's own cryptographic procedures was one of the tasks (defensive cryptology). The GdNA office was subordinate to the Army High Command (OKH) , which is also clear from its short name OKH / GdNA .

OKH / GdNA is to be seen as a counterpart to OKW / Chi, i.e. the encryption department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) , or the so-called B-Dienst of the Navy , the Research Office (FA) of the Air Force and the Office VI E in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA ) .

Message soldier at the receiving device

history

Towards the end of the war, in October 1944, the intelligence reconnaissance of the German army was restructured and three central offices were merged, namely the AgN / NA, the LNA and the HLS Ost.

The AgN / NA was the department responsible for intelligence (NA) within the Office Group News (AgN). Its full abbreviation was OKH / AHA / AgN / NA for "High Command of the Army / General Army Office / Office Group News / Intelligence". It emerged in the autumn of 1943 from Inspection 7 Group VI (In 7 / VI), the full name of which was "Chef H Rust u BdE / In 7 / VI", and which in turn was founded in 1941. Its seat was near the Bendlerstrasse in Berlin and it was subordinate to the chief of armaments and the commander of the reserve army .

The abbreviation LNA referred to the "control center for intelligence" in Zossen (near Berlin). Their tasks included the evaluation of non-Russian radio traffic. It was divided into sections for British , American , Italian , Greek , Turkish , Tunisian , Portuguese and Spanish news. She received deciphered radio messages from In 7 / VI.

The abbreviation HLS Ost stood for "Horchleitstelle Ost". This central office dealt with the deciphering and intelligence analysis of Russian traffic. Its seat was Lötzen in what was then East Prussia . Due to the war-related withdrawal of this office and relocation to Zossen in the Bunker Wünsdorf "Zeppelin" , the logical consequence was the merger of HLS Ost, LNA and AgN / NA, the former In 7 / VI. This resulted in the GdNA office in October 1944.

structure

The below links given TICOM -Verhörprotokoll I-113 by Maj. Dr. Rudolf Hentze dated September 18, 1945, the organizational structure can be seen. According to this, the department under the direction of Colonel Friedrich Boetzel and his chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Andrae, was divided into several groups (group), similar to OKW / Chi , which were designated with Roman numerals with the exception of group Z :

  • Size Z, Central Tasks, Major Hüther
  • Size I, Tactical Control, Major Johannes Marquardt (* 1909)
  • Size II, West data acquisition ( final evaluation West ), Captain Dr. Thiel
  • Size III, message capture east ( final evaluation east ), Captain Karl-Heinz Gorzolla
  • Size IV, Cryptanalysis, Major Dr. Rudolf Hentze
  • Size V, equipment, bailiff's block
  • Size VI, American and Russian telex correspondence, Captain Herbert Röder

The cryptanalysis group headed by Hentze was of particular importance. This was further subdivided into six main presentations and various presentations that were specialized in the different manual and machine key processes.

literature

Web links

  • Army Security Agency : Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 4, Washington (DC), May 1946. PDF; 7.5 MB (English). Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  • Interrogation of Major Dr. Rudolf Hentze. Head of Group IV (Cryptanalysis). General of intelligence. TICOM / I-113. Sep 1945. PDF; 4.7 MB (English). Retrieved May 4, 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Army Security Agency: Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 4, Washington (DC), 1946 (May), p. 6. PDF; 7.5 MB.Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  2. ↑ Interrogation of Major Dr. Rudolf Hentze. Head of Group IV (Cryptanalysis). General of intelligence. TICOM / I-113. Sep 1945. PDF; 4.7 MB (English), p. 9. Accessed: December 18, 2017.