The Study and Training Group for Military Reconnaissance (German: ; LAFBw) was a highly classified clandestine unit of the foreign

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) from 1964 to 1979.

History

Stay-behind units were formed in occupied West Germany right after World War II by the British, US and French intelligence services in their respective sectors as well as the Dutch and Danish in northern West Germany. The running of these Stay-behind organizations (SBOs) was coordinated with the Organization Gehlen, which later became the

Bundesnachrichtendienst The Federal Intelligence Service (, ; BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Federal Chancellery of Germany, Chancellor's Office. The Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service, BND headquarters is ...

(BND), the West German foreign intelligence service. In 1956, the BND took over these networks and merged them into one SBO, the Lehr- und Ausbildungsgruppe für das Fernspähwesen der Bundeswehr (LAFBw) or Teaching and Training Group for Long Range Reconnaissance of the German Armed Forces. pp.14-16 The STGMR was founded as the ''Special tasks unit 404/III'' within the BND and used the military name as a cover. It was officially disbanded in 1979.

Duties

In the

state of defence The state of defence (, ) is the constitutional state of emergency in Germany if the country is "under attack by armed force or imminently threatened with such an attack". Established by a constitutional amendment in 1968 during the Cold War, this ...

, the unit's task would have been tasked with secret operations as a

Stay-behind A stay-behind operation is one where a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case of a later enemy occupation. The stay-behind operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, and act as ...

unit. The planned role of BND-led Stay-behind units during the early phase of a

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

invasion would have been marginal. Stay-behind agents were instructed to survive an invasion, and to lie low and quiet during the early occupation phases. Plans called for at least 500 LAFBw personnel in case of a conflict. Only in what the BND described as the third phase, ‘every-day/routine occupation’, would they start sending messages, recruit fighters, and then conduct ‘massive sabotage operations’. These operations included

partisan warfare A partisan is a member of a domestic irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movement ...

against occupying forces, smuggling of equipment and personnel, reconnaissance and training BND and Bundeswehr personnel in commando warfare. In the 1980s, the BND tried to regain one of its stay-behind missions to assist friendly aircrew to escape from Warsaw Pact-led forces by conducting SAR ops.

Organization

Training

The unit's training was conducted by the

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

, the

Bundesgrenzschutz Bundesgrenzschutz (; abbreviation: BGS; ) is the former name of the German ''Bundespolizei'' (Federal Police). Established on 16 March 1951 as a subordinate agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the BGS originally was primarily focu ...

, and the US Army's

10th Special Forces Group The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG (A), or 10th Group) is an active duty United States Army Special Forces (SF) Group. 10th Group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: Unconventional warfare (United States), ...

Bad Tölz Bad Tölz (; Bavarian: ''Däiz'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany and the administrative center of the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. History Archaeology has shown continuous occupation of the site of Bad Tölz since the retreat of the gla ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

''Reinhard Gehlens Schattentruppe – die Stay-Behind-Organisation des BND 1956 bis 1968''
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812064646/http://www.geheimdienste.info/texte/Bonusmaterial_Kap_8.pdf, date=August 12, 2022 Intelligence operations Special forces of West Germany Federal Intelligence Service