Researching the Luftwaffe through Prisoner Interrogations

[Bruce Dennis]

"SECRET A. D. I. (K) Report No. 393/1945
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM P/W AS THE
STATEMENTS HAVE NOT AS YET BEEN VERIFIED, NO MENTION OF THEM
SHOULD BE MADE IN INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OF COMMANDS OR LOWER FORMATIONS, NOR SHOULD THEY BE ACCEPTED UNTIL COMMENTED ON AIR MINISTRY INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OR SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS.

G.A.F. INTELLIGENCE IN THE WAR.

Abteilung Ic (Chief of Intelligence).
1. The present report is the first of a series of three dealing with
some aspects of G.A.F. Intelligence during the War and in the series of
European incidents which preceded it. Whilst this report covers the
vicissitudes of the two Chiefs of Intelligence during the major part of
the War, Generalleutnant Josef ("Beppo") SCHMID and Oberst WODARG, the second and third reports will deal respectively with details of sources
of intelligence and their value to the Luftwaffe Operations Staff, and
with the working of Intelligence during the main incidents preceding the
War and in the main campaigns of the War Itself.
2. The information has been supplied by Generalleutnant SCHMID, the
Chef Ic from 1938 to 1942, Oberst WODARG, the Chef Ic from 1942 until
February 1945 and Oberstleutnant KIEMITZ, who worked under both SCHMID and WODARG and finally took over the latter's post. Some additional information was supplied by Hauptmann ZETZSCHE, chief of one of the Groups in the Ic department of Foreign Air Forces West and from
Oberstleutnant OHLETZ who, from January 1941 until March 1943, was
Ic of Luftflotte 6 on the Russian front.
3. The main impression gained from these interrogations is one of two
distinct phases in the fortunes of G.A.F. Intelligence, each the direct
result of the War situation at the time. These two phases fall roughly
into the periods of office of "Beppo" SCHMID and Oberst WODARG.
4. The handling of Ic by SCHMID for the furtherance of personal ends
and as an obliging and gratulatory adjunct to the G.A.F. General Staff
could find no impediment in the rising tide of German success. With the
reversal of fortunes and the ever-widening gap between the wishful
thinking or the General Staff and insistent reality at the fronts,
however, the broad and easy path of SCHMID became a tightrope from which he inevitably fell.
5. It is noteworthy that SCHMID, the close friend of GOERING, departed
to the command of Jagdkorps I with undiminished prestige, whilst WODARG, eclipsed by the glow of a former spurious glory, was left to struggle in evil times to obtain recognition of an unpleasant war situation. At times he was forced to the employment of amazing expedients in order to achieve this end. Since the acceptance of defeat could find no place in
Nazi philosophy it was never possible for the German Intelligence, which
had foreseen defeat as early as 1943, to achieve the prestige,
facilities and effectiveness enjoyed by its Allied counterpart.

THE FIRST CHEF IC - 1938 to 1942.
6. The 5th Abteilung was established as part of the G.A.F. General
Staff on first January 1938 and was to collect information on foreign
air forces and to build up target data for appreciation in air warfare.
The new department was to combine and systematise functions previously
the responsibility of a target data unit and of R.L.M. departments of
foreign air forces.
7. Those two organisations were already known respectively as Gruppe
II of the first Abteilung and the 5th Abteilung, and were manned by
civilians and reserve officers who had large quantities of information
from the foreign press and literature at their disposal, but worked with
no clearly defined aims; their main policy seemed to be deliberate
exaggeration of the strength of foreign countries it order to justify
German armament.
8. An appreciation by Generalleutnant SCHMID of the achievements of
these two organisations up to January 1938 will be found in Appendix I
to this report.
9. The new 5th Abteilung was to be under the command of
Generalleutnant, - then Major, - SCHMID, who since 1935 had been
employed in a ministerial capacity and had no knowledge of foreign
languages. He had, however, been recommended to GOERING by
Oberstleutnant JESCHONNEK, at that time Chief of the 1st Abteilung of
the General Staff.
10. The first task which SCHMID set himself was to replace his staff by
younger and more suitably qualified officers, although these were
difficult to obtain. The organisation of the 5th Abteilung, or
department Ic of the Ops. Staff as it now became, is shown in Appendix
II to this report. After the dismissal of SCHMID in 1944 the department
was reorganised by Oberst WODARG to the form in which it remained until
the closing stages of the war. This aspect is discussed later in this
report and the new organisation appears in Appendix IV.
11. The main departments of SCHMID’s new organisation were set up as a
first echelon at the Wildpark headquarters, and other departments as a
second echelon at the R.L.M. in Berlin. For 21/2 years SCHMID and his
staff lived and worked in the command train which was the "Robinson"
headquarters.
12. By the outbreak of war intelligence departments had also been set
up in the subordinate commands of the G.A.F., but choice and training of
staffs were far from satisfactory, and it was not until 1942 that Ic
(Intelligence) officers were appointed down to Geschwader and Gruppe
levels. Even then the type of officers chosen reflected a lack of
appreciation of the needs of Intelligence.
13. According to Oberstleutnant OHLETZ, the entire Ic service suffered
from lack of experience when the war broke out, since the apparatus to
meet the demands of war was not brought into being, until that time;
from the technical point of view, however, Intelligence had played its
part well up to that time, as, for instance, in that the target indices
available at the outset were good, as were the political and
geographical studies produced.
14. In spite of SCHMID's efforts to introduce younger men into
Intelligence at the time when he took office, his specialist staff was
still mainly composed of older reserve officers, the majority of whom
were lacking in both physical and mental agility. His officers were
blindly devoted to him and appeared uncritical of the course he gave
them to pursue.
15. Actually there was much disagreement in the G.A.F. concerning the
personality of SCHMID. His self-confidence was enormous and his enmity
was feared. By virtue of his double office as Chef Ic and GOERING’s
personal General Staff Officer, he exerted an influence over GOERING
outweighing even that of JESCHONNEK when the latter was Chief of Staff.
The strong tension later existing between SCHMID and JESCHONNEK was
openly discussed. It was also accepted that SCHMID would not tolerate
any officer about him who could become potentially dangerous to his
position.
16. The composition of his staff certainly appeared to bear out this
conviction. By dint bribery, a persuasive tongue and his proverbial
conviviality - was a heavy drinker – he had created about himself a
circle of officers who were completely under his thumb.
17. It is only in the light of this state of affairs that the
discrepancies between the information from intelligence formations at
the front and its dissemination by the Chef Ic to be discussed later in
this series of reports can, to some extent, be understood.

SOURCES OF INTELLIGENCES.
18. It was impossible for the 5th Abteilung to achieve the ideal
solution for the collection of intelligence, namely, the subordination
to it of all agencies concerned with the procuring of information.
SCHMID’s suggestion to set up an inter-service department of O.K.W,
which would build up a complete picture of the military, naval, and
industrial potentialities of the enemy met with no more success. The
result was that each service produced a partial appreciation from
available sources, whilst the S.S. maintained a separate agent and
foreign service.
19. The 5th Abteilung sought to administer its own press and attaché
service, the technical study of foreign aircraft and the interrogation
of prisoners. It also claimed that it should be the channel for liaison
with the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Propaganda, should have the
right to control sales of German aircraft abroad, and finally that it
should have the sole responsibility for a day-to-day appreciation of the
situation in war. From SCHMID's point of view, however, few of these
matters were arranged satisfactorily.
20. In the spring of 1939 he was able to obtain control of the R.L.M.
press department following upon certain blunders in the censorship, and
in the few months remaining before the War introduced a tighter
discipline.
21. The aims of the press department were to glean information from the
foreign press as well as to conduct propaganda for the G.A.F. in press
articles, pictures and films whilst maintaining a control of the
security aspect and, after outbreak of War, to organise the G.A.F. press
publicity units. The wartime organisation was never clearly defined,
however, being complicated by the rival intervention of the Propaganda
Ministry.
22. Liaison with the Propaganda Ministry produced good results only in
the form of films and other comforts for the troops, but in the
favourable periods of the War the difficulties of propaganda and
censorship were not important. Later, however, WODARG found himself
blamed by GOERING or the Chief of Staff for errors in publication over
which it was impossible to keep a control – a situation which led to
much personal friction.
23. The provision of foreign newspapers was in the hands of the
Sicherheitsdienst and the supply of daily papers for intelligence
purposes was therefore irregular, although periodicals could be obtained
without much difficulty. Liaison with foreign scientific institutes was
forbidden and could only be conducted through the Abwehr.
24. The G.A.F. Attaché Service abroad was subordinate to the Chef Ic,
and was also responsible for securing the confidence of German-allied
and neutral air attachés in Germany. Although the Attaché Service was
regarded as a valuable potential source of information, its
subordination to the 5th Abteilung was not brought about until the
spring of 1939.
25. Its contribution to the information on foreign air forces was very
small both in peace and war. Before 1939, when the Attaché Service had
been subordinated to the central office at the R.L.M., its chief, Major
CRAMON, had refused to regard the obtaining of information as part of
his task, added to which GOERING's attitude had always been to send illqualified officers abroad as air attachés.
26. The importance attached by the head of Ic to the Attaché Service
did not meet with official approval and the Attaché conferences held at
Berlin at which was expressed the dissatisfaction of Bulgaria, Rumania,
Hungary and Turkey with the lack of German support, were finally
forbidden on account of their political character.
27. The Foreign Office declined to pass on military or air information
via its officials, and only after outbreak of war was closer liaison
effected by setting up a representative (Ic/Pol) who, however, only
covered the rather restricted questions of violations of the frontier,
exchange of prisoners, free passage of ships and listening to enemy
radio.
28. Intelligence officers of all departments had at first been allowed
to listen to the enemy radio, but this was restricted in summer 1942 to
Ob.d.L. and the heads of the Luftflotten and a list had to be sent to
the Propaganda Ministry of all persons to whom this authority was
delegated.
29. SCHMID considered the Abwehr department to be the worst
functioning institution of O.K.W. and stated that whatever material was
supplied by it could not be appreciated at its true value because there
was no way of judging the reliability of the agents. The Abwehr was a
huge and expensive organization but, according to SCHMID, it was manned by the worst and most unsuitable officers in the services. It achieved very little in peace and only occasional chance results in war. At the beginning of the war it had undeserved larols thrust upon it by the
attention paid in enemy countries to the fifth column. SCHMID did not
find it surprising that the S.S. took over the whole organisation with
apparent ease.
30. At the outbreak of war the special photo-reconnaissance Staffel
formerly subordinated to the office of O.K.W. was put under the control
of the 5th Abteilung and became the Ob.d.L. Gruppe. SCHMID praised the
outstanding reconnaissance work of this unit in all theatres of war, as
well as pioneer technical achievements in high altitude flying. The main
sources of intelligence were, however, the wireless interception service
and the interrogation of prisoners of war although the latter did not
produce any outstanding results until towards the closing stages of
SCHMID's period of office.
31. The wireless interception service was developed in peace-time by
General MARTINI and was still controlled by him during the whole of the
war. SCHMID recognised the valuable nature of the work done by this
department, but depreciated the tendency of the Signals Staff to issue
independent appreciations which were necessarily incomplete and
unbalanced. In his opinion much more could have been achieved by its
subordination to an organisation with a wider horizon and more
penetrating aims. This deficiency became even more apparent to SCHMID
when later in the war he became the Chief of Jagdkorps I and was
concerned with defence of the Reich.
32. An appreciation by Generalleutnant SCHMID from memory, and unaided by documents, of Intelligence covered by the organisations mentioned above appears in Appendices III A to C of the present report.

DISSEMINATION OF INTELLIGENCE
33. In the early stages of the war the 5th Abteilung was responsible
for drawing up situation reports under the headings of air attacks, air
defence and the sea and land situation. These reports were based upon
those received twice daily from the fronts by the Ic Report Centre and
often had to correct hasty and exaggerated reports which had reached
GOERING through In (Operational channels). When Germany began to suffer reverses in the War the distribution of these Intelligence reports was
restricted and in the spring of 1942 GOERING forbad their publication
altogether.
34. Chef Ic had other tasks which were not purely concerned with the
G.A.F. direction in that he passed Intelligence to interested specialist
ministers and general staffs of German-allied countries whenever it
seemed necessary or opportune, being thereby drawn into conferences
outside the G.A.F.
35. At certain intervals reports were issued by Chef Ic containing a
survey of the position on individual fronts. There were, however, other
bodies which trespassed upon the functions of the 5th Abteilung or
overlapped in the issue of intelligence appreciations. UDET's technical
office under Oberst Ing. TSCHERSICH (GL/Rü) appeared to consider that
its task was to prove that all foreign equipment was inferior to German.
His reports on the excellence of German Intelligence, bombs, and weapons
were preferred by GOERING, and enjoyed great popularity in the period
after the French campaign. This organisation was finally linked up with
the Chef Ic in 1940 and was reorganised with good effect under Oberst
Ing. SCHWEPKE.
36. The head of the O.K.W. Wirtschaftsstab had announced at a
conference in the summer of 1939 that his task in War would include the
conduct of strategic air war-fare. This body did in fact issue reports
on the sensitivity of foreign countries to air attack. A Ic
Wirtschaftsstab was later formed under WODARG, but according to the
staff of Oberstleutnant KILLINGER of Dulag Luft the opportunity of
interrogation of Allied prisoners on industrial subjects was almost
completely neglected; the interrogators could never obtain the necessary
briefing or outside interest for such work.
37. An example of the worth of the Ic Wirtschaftsstab in January 1943
in the form of appreciation of British synthetic oil production and
Russian oil production has recently come to light in a captured document
now in the hands of A.D.I.(K) Document Section (List No.93).
38. In the opinions of KIENITZ, OHLETZ and ZETZSCHE the Ic Service
itself suffered from the fact that its Chief did not present with
sufficient obduracy a plain unvarnished picture of the situation which
was to be concluded from practical experience at the front, and from
indubitable facts photographic reconnaissance and captured material,
underlined by P/Ws’ statements, outside intelligence and above all by
evidence from the wireless interception service.
39. One result of this was that the total numbers of British bombers
engaged in night attacks on Germany was not believed, and when the Chief of Ic confirmed the accuracy of CHURCHIL's figure for the 1000-bomber raid on Cologne in May 1942, he laid himself open to charges of
defeatism and theorising. His reports acquired the reputation of
"Lügenmeldungen" (lies) among members of the Operations Staff, and the
Chief of Air Staff finally ordered that the Ic staff should be cut down
to lessen the output of unpleasant nonsense.
40. In another instance of this kind, which is described more fully in
the final report of this series, disagreement of Luftflotte 6's figures
of Russian strength became so acute that JESCHONNEK ordered an enquiry into the methods of appreciation by Oberstleutnant OHLETZ, the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Luftflotte.
41. The strength postulated by Chief Ic for the Russian Air Force was
but a fraction of the enemy strength actually encountered at the front
and so increasingly worthless did the appreciations become that at the
instance of von GREIM, OHLETZ refrained from handing them down to the
operational units in order that their faith in the Higher Command should
not be further shaken. There were days on which over 100 aircraft were
shot down in the area of Luftflotte 6 alone, whilst Chef Ic was
estimating the total Russian effort as 150 to 200 aircraft on the entire
Eastern front.
42. In order to cover his intelligence officers, von GREIM himself flew
immediately to headquarters to put the case personally. On his return he
informed OHLEZ that JESCHONNEK had recognised the accuracy of the
Luftflotte reports and wished the fact to be conveyed to him; he added
that Oberst SCHMID would not remain in office much longer.

DISMISSAL OF SCHMID
43. Matters were brought to a hold as far as SCHMID was concerned when
in August 1942 an Ic officer of the Attaché Gruppe, Oberstleutnant
SCHULZT-BOYSEF, was arrested by the Gestapo, in agreement with GOERING, on a charge of espionage for Russia. A number of other members of Ic were questioned and altogether at least 100 persons were arrested in Berlin in what became known as the "Rote Kapelle affair".
44. It was established that SCHULZT-BOYSEF, had had sources of
information in the G.A.F. Technical Office, in the Foreign Office and
the O.K.W. although he had not received secret information of any kind
from Ic. Nevertheless, SCHMID was reproached by GOERING and the Chief of Staff for having protected SCHULZE-BOYSEF in 1938 and at the beginning of the war against the suspicions of the Gestapo.
45. In October 1942 SCHMID was relieved of his post, officially because
of the Rote Kapelle affair; in the G.A.F., however, it was considered
that his departure was due to events at the front not having conformed
with his predictions.
46. After SCHMID, the task of taking up the reins of Ic was allotted to
Oberstleutnant KOEGL who, however, was not suited to his duties and
handed them over shortly afterwards to Major WODARG. KOEGL’s short
tenure had one good effect in that it brought Oberstleutnant KIENITZ
more into the picture. According to OHLUTZ that officer was a very
accurate worker, but unfortunately, although undeniably the most
valuable of the officers in responsible positions, did not possess the
particular gifts necessary to make a successful Chef Ic.

WODARG's TENURE OF OFFICE - 1942 to 1945
47. Major WODARG had been deputy head of Ic under Oberst SCHMID and he was also involved in the Rote Kapelle affair and was dismissed at the
same time on a charge of failing to maintain adequate supervision. He
was saved from further punishment only because it was maintained that
meticulous secrecy had been carried so far in the Gruppe Ost and the
Operations Staff that supervision by WODARG had been impossible.
However, 5 months after the dismissal of SCHMID, WODARG succeeded KOEGL as Head of Ic.
48. He took up his duties with remarkable energy and he soon rid
himself completely of the superannuated personal staff of Ic, apart from
a small number of experts, and introduced young and highly ambitious
General Staff officers. By this means he diffused considerably more
energy into the department. Oberstleutnant KIENITZ was available to
facilitate the smooth change-over from the SCHMID regime, and with his
complete mastery of the methods of the past provided a good liaison with
the new generation.
49. A table showing the Ic staff after its reorganisation by WODARG
appears in Appendix IV and may be compared with the organisation under
SCHMID given in Appendix II.
50. According to KIENITZ, WODARG undoubtedly brought the required ideas and breadth of vision to Intelligence. His methods of evaluating the
War situation were completely revolutionary and his appreciations were
built up on the basis of front Intelligence, being given out unvarnished
and untainted by the methods which had played such a big part with his
predecessor. For protection against attempts to oust him from the saddle
he relied on a very close relationship with the ministry of Dr. GOEBBELS
and the Reichssicherheits Hauptamt (security police headquarter).
51. His work was much hampered by his one outstanding peculiarity,
which stamped his department with a certain character. His mind was
imbued with a morbid distrust of the whole world and he suffered from a
form of spy mania which could almost be described as pathological. This
made life very unpleasant both for himself and for those about him. He
had his officers watched continually and he checked every possible
method and procedure with Amt IV of the Sicherheitsdienst in order to be
in a position to cope immediately with any possible threat to himself or
his department.
52. In his relations with GOERING Oberst WODARG was made to feel that
he was an imperfect substitute for Oberst SCHMID the founder and
architect of the Ic Service. WODARG never attended a Führer’s
conference, nor was he allowed in HITLER’s presence because of his
Jewish appearance - he had Jewish connections in both his own and his
wife's family. In the O.K.L. he was the least important personality of
the staff and he himself did not consider that he was the right man,
especially in view of his ill health, to have played an active part in
the shaping of policy and the raising of Ic from its subordinate role in
the councils of O.K.L.
53. In spite of the drive which WODARG brought to Ic and in spite of
his many ideas the work of Ic was doomed to failure in that it had to be
performed at a time when the G.A.F. was at its lowest ebb, when through
lack of air reconnaissance and liaison with Mi1itary Intelligence
services, the enemy dispositions were becoming increasingly difficult to
arrive at. Ides might burst from WODARG in an unfailing flow, but no
sooner did some new factor crop up than the situation grew out of hand
again. That the department functioned with any regularity at all WOGARD
felt was due to Oberstleutnant KIENITZ, who as WODARG’s permanent deputy provided the one stable focal point in the entire organisation.

INTERNAL INTRIGUE.
54. From the time of his own implication in the Russian spy affair,
WOGARD maintained more or less friendly relations with officials of the
S.D. in the Reichssicherheitsdienst Hauptamt, relations which were
fostered by the judicious distribution of delicacies from G.A.F. stores.
Apart from the confession that these occasional visits provided him with
an excuse vis-à-vis the O.K.L. Staff for leisure hours in Berlin or
otherwise unauthorised journeys, WODARG gave three examples of his
exploitation of these contacts.
55. He passed on as a precaution any reports on officers who seemed to
him to arouse suspicion, but often without any further action to be
taken as the investigating authorities were too overburdened. In return
the S.D. sometimes passed to Ic reports of corruption inside the G.A.F.
which were dealt with internally by the O.K.L. without BORMANN being
drawn into the matter.
56. After the bomb explosion in HITLER’s headquarter WODARG shortcircuited the S.D.'s investigations into the General Staffs by himself
undertaking to watch over O.K.L. by means of GOERING’s Forschungsamt.
This telephone eavesdropping was reduced to a farce since there was only
one possibility of listening-in on six exchanges with a daily average of
12-18,000 telephone conversations. Discreet personal warnings were
passed by WODARG to the Air Staff, and a few weeks later the control was
dropped after WODARG had reported to GOERING and so to HIMMLER that the task had been carried out with negative result.
57. In autumn 1944 the Sicherheitsdienst office at Frankfurt charged
Oberstleutnant KILLINGER and his interrogation officers with anglophile
tendencies, defeatism and transgression of service rules. The S.S.
demanded punishment of the offenders and subordination to the S.S. of
the prisoner of war interrogation centre, which WODARG interpreted as a
move by Amt IV of the R.S.H.A. to steal a march on Amt VI. WODARG claims the credit for having taken successful steps to get the matter settled by G.A.F. court martial instead of in the People’s Court.
58. Through his former activity as G.A.F. censor, he was on good
relations with Dr. GOEBBELS, about whom he records the admittedly quite
new point of view that he was personally in favour of coming to terms
with the Allies long before the catastrophic effects of Allied air
supremacy. He had a wholesome respect for Allied statesmen, and warned
against the error of underestimating the enemy. WODARG used his contacts in the Propaganda Ministry, the personnel of which was mainly G.A.F. officers, to play off one government clique against another and to
secure private information which he claims to have used to protect
O.K.L. against the S.S. - until the latter took over all the key
positions in the Propaganda Ministry.

OBERSTLEUTNANT KIENITZ
59. In February 1945 Oberstleutnant KIENITZ was put in charge of Ic,
although he was never appointed Chef Ic. After service as a
Gruppenkommandeur with J.G.3 in the early part of the war he held office
successively under SCHMID, KOEGL and WODARG, being responsible for Order of Battle first on the eastern front and later in the West. From
November 1944 onwards he was WODARG's deputy and right hand man.
60. After taking over from WODARG, KIENITZ very soon came to the
conclusion that the G.A.F. had become a purely ground support air force,
and he therefore directed all his efforts towards the determination of
Allied intentions first in the East, later in the West — as indicated by
the position of new airfields, ammunition and fuel dumps, unit
movements, etc. For this information he relied mainly on the W/T
listening service; the results of his findings he embodied in as air
situation report.

GERMAN INTELLIGENCE – CONCLUSIONS.
61. The mentality of the German rulers, who had risen to power in
internal political strife and were fanatical to the point of despising
the intelligence of the so-called "Intellektuellen", was such that they
were incapable of appreciating an intelligence service of their own
fashioning or of respecting the intelligence service of the enemy.
Otherwise according to WODARG, they would have avoided the War in the
first place, or having recognised the absolute superiority of the enemy,
would have concluded peace earlier - about the beginning of 1942.
62. The General Staff of the G.A.F., in common with the other branches
of the armed forces, was in WODARG's opinion too small and untrained to
assume effective leadership even if the Chief of Staff had recognised
the value of the intelligence service in general or appreciated its work
in detail. Since this recognition was lacking, Ic was inadequately
staffed in comparison with Ia, the operations department. Moreover, the
lack of co-ordination between the sources of information and Ic limited
considerably the latter's ability to draw up a complete intelligence
picture.
63. The activity of the General Staff and particularly the Ic
department was further crippled by HIMMLER's assumption of power over
the State and armed forces, and from spring 1944 onwards the General
Staff had to struggle for existence against the encroachments of the
S.S.
64. Hauptmann ZETZSCHE has summed up the main weaknesses of German
Intelligence during the War in the following main points:-
A) Within the State.
i) There was no hard and fast Ic organisation within the
Wehrmacht with boundaries clearly demarcated from those
of similar civil bodies.
ii) Wehrmachtführungsstab Ic did not co-ordinate the work of
the Heeres-, Marine- and Luftwaffenführungsstäbe Ic, but
was merely a distributing agency for the Ic reports of
the individual Wehrmacht components, exercising
practically no authority over them.
iii) The large number of intelligence organisations in Germany
without clearly defined tasks, including O.K.W./
Amtsgr.Ausland, R.S.H.A. (Mil.Amt), R.S.H.A. (Hauptamt
IV) and Reichsministerium Speer (1. Abtlg). (The
Propaganda Ministry and the Foreign Office also partly
covered the same territory).
iv) The lack of a Ministry of Economic Warfare. Military
Commands were obliged to cope with the problems without
expert knowledge or guidance, (e.g. in the Battle of
Britain). With so many independent intelligence
organisations and no centrally co-ordinated hand the
Germans consequently never saw the enemy picture as a
whole.
B) Within the G.A.F.
i) Again innumerable bodies working over the same ground as
G.A.F. Ops. Staff Ic, TLR Rü, Gen. Nafü, Waffengeneräle,
Forschungsamt, etc. These departments were not
responsible to Ic and on grounds of personal ambition
worked by and far for themselves. All this was due to the
lack of a “man of stature” as chef Ic (GOERING’s phrase).
ii) The not altogether happy organisation of G.A.F. Ops.
Staff Ic (Luftwesen, Ic/See, Ic/Bild).
iii) The subordination of Ic to Chief of G.A.F., whose
decisions were too often swayed by In considerations.
iv) Ic was kept as ill-informed on the subject of German
weapons, apparatus, etc. that it was incapable of
offering suggestions which would otherwise undoubtedly
have arisen from Ic knowledge of Allied material.
v) Ic's tactical suggestions were mainly ignored owing to
the jealousy of the Training Abteilung which again was in
no position to evaluate enemy information since in the
sphere of training too, there were many figures in the
pie (principally those of the Waffengeneräle and Forward
Commands).
vi) Ic was unable to have its wishes carried out by Forward
Commands. It could not order but only request.
vii) The poor quality of Ic personnel. Many officers who were
not wanted by other branches of the service found their
way into the various departments of Ic.
viii) Ic was considerably understaffed. Moreover, such staff
as it had was unevenly distributed in relation to the
tasks.
ix) There were no Ic officers with the flying units, so that
valuable lessons which might have been drawn from battle
experience were lost.
x) The lack of intelligence courses for officers
xi) The insufficient support of Ic in every sphere, e.g. no
aircraft, no cars, no money or additional comforts and
drinks (the latter for P/W interrogation centre,
Oberursel), insufficient communications with Oberursel.
65. Ironically, the sole organisation to recognise the worth of Ic was
the S.S. (since most personnel had connections with foreign countries
and were therefor already under suspicion). Hence the efforts of the
S.S. (by means of agents) to keep a watch on the entire Ic organisation
in Germany and finally even to take it over.

A.D.I.(K) and Walter A. Frank
U.S. Air Interrogation. for:- S.D. Felkin
Group Captain."