Heinrich Gerhard Scherhorn

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Heinrich Gerhard Scherhorn (born November 5, 1897 in Apelern ; † July 8, 1972 in Cologne ) was a German officer in the First and Second World Wars , most recently in the Wehrmacht with the rank of colonel .

Life

Heinrich Scherhorn took part in the First World War and was captured in 1918. In 1919 he was released from French captivity.

During the Second World War, Scherhorn was among other things commander of the 36th Security Regiment of the 286th Security Division , later of the 221st Security Division . In July 1944, the wounded Lieutenant Colonel Scherhorn, meanwhile commander of the Landesschützen Battalion 675 of the 4th Army in Army Group Center , was encircled and captured by the Red Army in the area around the Berezina River . (→ Operation Bagration )

Scherhorn's first interrogation was carried out in Moscow's Lubyanka prison at the end of September 1944 and he was forced to write reports about the fight against partisans in the occupied eastern territories. He was later driven to a conspiratorial meeting in a small town called Sloboda, near Baryssau . There he met a group of Soviet GPU -Offiziere in German uniforms and they received a young SS officer in Russian uniform, which one of captured radio operator from the unit later together with Scherhorn Otto Skorzeny was the one to battle group Scherhorn had sent to Get in touch with.

In the course of the capture of Scherhorn, the identity of a so-called German combat group Scherhorn was established by the Russian secret service, which - overrun by the front - now supposedly operated behind enemy lines in the area around Berezino and was supposed to consist of around 2,500 men including military equipment. The German Abwehr and the SS hunting units under Otto Skorzeny were successfully deceived about the existence of the combat group by means of fictitious radio messages intercepted by the front reconnaissance command 103 of Army Group Center . Contrary to all doubts on the German side, the Wehrmacht started an action under the code name Freischütz or Scherhorn . Their aim was to support or evacuate the combat group. Scherhorn, in Soviet captivity, was given the code name Schubin as a key figure and "supplied" the German troops with reports of alleged acts of sabotage. The operation, run by the NKVD as Operation Beresino , ran with Hitler's intercession until the end of the war. The last radio message from Kampfgruppe Scherhorn was received in early May 1945. Scherhorn was promoted to colonel in mid-March 1945 on the assumption that he continued to operate behind enemy lines and was awarded the Knight's Cross at the end of March 1945 .

After the end of the war, Scherhorn remained in captivity in a camp near Moscow until the summer of 1949. While still in captivity, the NKVD in the form of Pawel Sudoplatow tried to recruit Admiral Erich Raeder , who was also a prisoner of war, via Scherhorn, but discovered personal differences and abandoned this project. After his release, Scherhorn returned to a middle-class existence in Lower Saxony .

His son was the future professor Gerhard Scherhorn .

literature

  • Günther W. Gellermann : Moscow calls Army Group Center . Defense Research Working Group , Bernard & Graefe, 1988.
  • Stuart Smith: Otto Skorzeny: The Devil's Disciple. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, p. 124 ff.
  • Geoffrey J. Thomas, Barry Ketley: Luftwaffe KG 200 : The German Air Force's Most Secret Unit of World War II . Stackpole Books, 2015, p. 232 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oleg Prudkov: German-Russian era: war and peace, 1941-1995 . Nomos Verlagsges.MBH + Company, 1995, ISBN 978-3-7890-3683-5 , p. 431 ( google.de [accessed on April 23, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Günther W. Gellermann, Working Group for Defense Research: Moscow calls Army Group Center -: What was not in the Wehrmacht report: the operations of the secret Kampfgeschwader 200 in World War II . Bernard & Graefe, 1988, ISBN 978-3-7637-5851-7 , pp. 149 ( google.de [accessed on April 23, 2020]).
  3. ↑ John J. Dziak: Chekisty: A History of the KGB . Lexington Books, 1988, ISBN 978-0-669-10258-1 , pp. 122 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Helmut Roewer: The Red Orchestra and other secret service myths: Espionage between Germany and Russia in the Second World War 1941-1945 . Ares Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-902475-85-5 , pp. 379 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Magnus Pahl: Fremde Heere Ost: Hitler's military enemy reconnaissance . Ch. Links Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86284-203-2 , p. 221 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Eberhard Panitz: The secret Order of the Red Banner: Caucasian Novelle . Heinen, 2006, ISBN 978-3-939828-04-4 , pp. 154 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  7. ^ Pavel Sudoplatov, Anatolii Pavlovich Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. Schecter, Leona P. Schecter: Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness- a Soviet Spymaster, pp. 173-182 . Warner, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7515-1240-3 .
  8. ↑ a b c Skorzeny's ghost army. Zeit, (magazine), Erik Verg, June 19, 1952, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Sean M. Mcateer: 500 Days: The War in Eastern Europe, 1944-1945 . Dorrance Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4349-6159-4 , pp. 285 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  10. ↑ John J. Dziak: Chekisty: A History of the KGB . Lexington Books, 1988, ISBN 978-0-669-10258-1 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  11. ↑ Magnus Pahl: Fremde Heere Ost: Hitler's military enemy reconnaissance . Ch. Links Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86284-203-2 , p. 223 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  12. ^ G. Colombo: Who's who in Germany 1996 . Who's Who in Italy, 1996, ISBN 978-88-85246-34-8 , pp. 1471 ( google.de [accessed April 24, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Scherhorn, Heinrich Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer in the First and Second World Wars
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Apelern
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1972
Place of death Cologne