Gerhard Georg Mertins (30 December 1919 – 19 March 1993) was a German

paratrooper A paratrooper or military parachutist is a soldier trained to conduct military operations by parachuting directly into an area of operations, usually as part of a large airborne forces unit. Traditionally paratroopers fight only as light infa ...

, post-war arms dealer and German Intelligence operative. In 1943, he participated in the

Gran Sasso raid During World War II, the Gran Sasso raid (codenamed ''Unternehmen Eiche'', , literally "Operation Oak", by the German military) on 12 September 1943 was a successful operation by Fallschirmjäger, German paratroopers and ''Waffen-SS'' commandos ...

rescuing

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

from prison. According to

Manuel Contreras Juan Manuel "Mamo" Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda (4 May 1929 – 7 August 2015) was a Chilean Army officer and the former head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto ...

, he allegedly supplied the

Pinochet regime An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the Presidency of Salvador Allende, democratically elected socialist government of Salv ...

with arms and helicopters. In 1976, he and Manuel Contreras traveled to Tehran to offer the Shah regime help in killing

Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal () or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convict who conducted a series of assassinations and terrorist bombings from 1973 to 1985. A committed Marxist–Leninist, ...

Awards

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. While it was order of precedence, lower in preceden ...

on 6 December 1944 as ''

Hauptmann () is an officer rank in the armies of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is usually translated as ''captain''. Background While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has, and originally had, the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literall ...

'' and leader of Fallschirm-Pionier-Bataillon 5Scherzer 2007, p. 538.

References

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Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mertins, Gerhard 1919 births 1993 deaths Arms traders German anti-communists Fallschirmjäger of World War II Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Federal Intelligence Service informants Recipients of the Gold German Cross German businesspeople Military personnel from Berlin