Kirchner, Herman

Born in 1910 in the city of Main on the Rhine. In the German army since November 1, 1929. In December 1939, he received a letter from his acquaintance, Abwehr 2 of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Germany, Hoffmann, Joseph, with a proposal to join the military unit engaged in special tasks. In a response letter, Kirchner wrote to Hoffmann that they therefore needed to meet the question in person. On January 1, 1940, at a meeting, Hoffmann explained to him that the battalion he invited him to join was one of the units of Abwehr 2 and that this formation, by order of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Germany, was carrying out special missions behind enemy lines.

After joining the Brandenburg Battalion 800, Kirchner agreed and was sent to this battalion on January 20, 1940. Upon arrival at the battalion on January 23, 1940, Kirchner signed the battalion commander Theodor von Hippel on non-disclosure of his service in the Brandenburg 800, which was conditionally called the Construction and Training Battalion.

While serving in this battalion during February-March 1940, Kirchner was twice sent to reconnaissance and sabotage courses at Brandenburg 800 at the Quentz estate, near the city of Brandenburg, where he trained for 15 days each time. In these courses, he received training as a saboteur, and also learned methods of intelligence and counterintelligence work in the context of the work of Abwehr 2.

After completing the courses at the Quenz estate, Captain Theodor von Hipel Kirchner was tasked with forming a West Zug strike platoon from among the soldiers of the German army who knew the Dutch language for the operation in Holland. During February-March 1940, Kirchner was engaged in the formation of this platoon and its training in reconnaissance and sabotage. At the end of March 1940, Kirchner was summoned to the German OKW in Berlin to Colonel Stolze, who acquainted him with the plan of Unternemen Tante, whose task was to capture bridges on the Julianne Canal on the Dutch-Belgian border, and ordered Kirchner, together with the personnel of the West Zug platoon implement it.

In early April 1940, Herman with a platoon left for Erkelenz 40 kilometers from the Dutch-German border. Upon arrival in Erkelenz, Kirchner contacted the chief of department 1-A 6 of the army, Major Palto and the head of department 1-A 7 of the division, Lt. Col. Reicheldot, from whom he received photographs of the area where the operation was to take place, intelligence information about the protection of bridges and their condition and got acquainted with the operational plan for this operation.

To double-check the materials, the 1-CI 1-A department, Kirchner, together with Lieutenant Klein, crossed the Dutch-German border three times to clarify the information of these departments and to study the area where he had to conduct Operation Untermen Tante with his platoon. On the night of May 10, 1940, German with his platoon in the form of soldiers of the Dutch army and the Dutch gendarmerie illegally crossed the border and in the morning of May 10, 1940 captured four bridges on the Dutch-Belgian border and provided German troops with access to the territory of Belgium. In this operation, the Dutch garrison, guarding these strategic sites, were killed and wounded, as well as about 180 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. For the successful conduct of this operation, General Fraiger von Gabelenz, Kirchner was awarded the Iron Cross of the 2nd class and Admiral Canaris the Iron Cross of the 1st class.

On the night of June 21-22, 1941, 10 kilometers from the town of Przemysl in the Polish village of Valave, Kirchner was entrusted with the commander of the Brandenburg 800 battalion, Major Heinz, together with the 228th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Division, ordered to force the San River, gain a foothold and prepare to further advance. Following this operation, he, together with the company, was in the area for 5-6 days and took part in small military operations with units of the Soviet army. On or about June 30, 1941, Kirchner was transferred with a company to the Lviv region, where he was tasked by Major Heinz with the task of capturing a power station, barracks and ammunition depot in the city during the German offensive on Lviv.

On July 1, 1941, together with the German army, he entered Lviv and captured the indicated objects, which he guarded for the 4th company for one week. On August 1, 1941, the 2nd and 4th companies were sent to Brandenburg and until July 1942 they were engaged in combined arms training.

In early August 1942, Kirchner arrived with the company in the city of Rovenki. In Ravenka, the commander of the Brandenburg 800 regiment, Gelin von Lanzenauer, according to Hitler's personal order, was entrusted with the development of a plan to capture the bridge across the Kuban River in the vicinity of the village of Varenikovskaya. He developed a plan to capture this bridge, the plan was as follows: the 1st platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Hurl in the form of Red Army soldiers, was thrown from aircraft into the rear of the enemy in the vicinity of the village of Varenikovskaya, which was tasked with reconnaissance in the area of ​​the bridge and, if there were sufficient forces, to capture him, thereby introducing disorganization in the rear of the Soviet army during the German offensive. At the same time, after completing the task of the 1st platoon, Kirchner with the rest of the 4th company was to throw himself in the area of ​​the bridge, and also prevent the retreat of Soviet troops through it and ensure their defeat by the Germans on the southern coast of the Kuban and encirclement from the northern coast. The operation he developed to capture a bridge in the rear of the Soviet army on the Kuban River was approved by Colonel Gelin von Lanzenauer and Captain Wulbers, head of the 1-A regiment of the Brandenburg-800 regiment, but due to the fact that the pilots couldn’t accurately throw assault forces into the intended area at night, the operation was not carried out.

In September 1942, with the alleged offensive of the German army in the Caucasus, I developed an operation to capture the so-called. "Cross Lane" on the Georgian Military Highway in the area of ​​the Devil's Bridge, which was as follows.

Before the German offensive on the mountains. Dzaudzhikau 4th company was supposed to be thrown by troops into the rear of the Soviet army in the area of ​​"Cross Lane", in one of the most strategic places of the Georgian Military Highway, where to destroy the garrison of the Soviet army standing there and capture the Devil's Bridge. After capturing this section of the road, the Soviet army would have cut off the escape routes to the mountains. Tbilisi and its supply. Performing this operation by the 4th company provided the German army with a quick defeat of the Soviet troops on the Georgian Military Highway and unhindered advance into the mountains. Tbilisi. Due to the fact that the offensive was canceled, this operation was not carried out. "

From January to April 1943 he served as commander of the 14th company of the 4th regiment "Brandenburg-800" in the village. Cranes near the city of Brandenburg and until May 1943 - in the city of Stendal, and during this entire period he was engaged in staffing and training personnel. From May to July 1943, the division command was sent to various cities for the recruitment of German volunteers into the Brandenburg-800 division. In total, over this period of time he recruited 150 people. In August 1943, Kirchner from the Brandenburg-800 division was transferred to work in Abwehr 2, and Major Abskhagen, head of the 2-A department, was sent to the Abwehr school at the Kurfürst regiment in Brandenburg. Until the end of August 1943, he was at school, trained in intelligence, counterintelligence and sabotage activities behind enemy lines in the South-East group. At the end of school, Kirchner was sent at the end of September 1943 to the head of the Abwehr Division in Estov on the Albanian-Yugoslav border with the task of organizing a struggle against the partisan movement on the territory of Albania. Upon arrival in Estov, he established contact with the Albanian nationalist gangs in Albania, supplied them with weapons, food and their forces, fought against the partisan movement, and also selected candidates for recruitment from Albanians. At the end of October 1943, Kirchner was wounded and until September 1944 he was cured in Germany. "

Herman Kirchner was arrested on June 22, 1949 by officers of the 2nd Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. On the basis of clause 1 of article 2 of Law No. 10 of the Control Council in Germany (for membership in an organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal), by decision of the Special Meeting at the Ministry of State Security of the USSR of October 1, 1949, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served his sentence until 1955 in Unislag. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 28, 1955, Kirchner was released prematurely from places of detention on October 16, 1955 and repatriated to the GDR. In 1977, he lived in the German city of Kempen. The fate is unknown.

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• [1] (inaccessible link)