Operation Scherhorn

Operation Scherhorn (in English sources) or Operation Berezino (original Soviet codename) or Operation Beresino (in East German sources) was a secret deception operation performed by the NKVD against the Nazi secret services from August 1944 – May 1945. It was proposed by Joseph Stalin, drafted by Mikhail Maklyarsky and executed by Pavel Sudoplatov and his NKVD subordinates, assisted by ethnic German antifascists and communists.

The main objective of Operation Berezino was to create an illusion of a large German armed group operating behind the front line in Soviet held territory and to deplete Nazi intelligence resources, through capture and extermination of their field operatives sent to assist these fictitous troops. The NKVD set up a fake German "resistance pocket" under "command" of Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich Scherhorn, a real German prisoner of war forced to cooperate with the Soviets. The German response, Otto Skorzeny's Operation Freischütz (Operation Poacher in post-war English sources) developed according to Soviet expectations. The German commandos sent by Skorzeny were routinely arrested and forced to take part in the Soviet funkspiel. German support gradually faded but the German command maintained radio contact with "Group Scherhorn" until May 1945.

According to Pavel Sudoplatov, Operation Berezino was conceived by the NKVD officers Victor Ilyin and Mikhail Maklyarsky as an extension of Operation Monastyr (1941–1944). In 1941 NKVD operative Alexander Demyanov (Soviet codename Heyne, German codename Max), wearing a persona of a disgruntled bohemian socialite, established contact with the German resident in Moscow. The NKVD used this opportunity to expose the undercover network of the Abwehr in the Soviet Union. In December 1941 Demyanov "defected" to the German side and showed up at the Abwehr field office in Smolensk. Three months later he returned to Moscow as a trusted German agent. His apartment became a death trap for scores of genuine German agents but he retained the trust of his German superiors. In the middle of 1942, Demyanov's control officer Willie Fischer expanded the operation into a strategic level disinformation campaign. For more than two years, Demyanov supplied Reinhard Gehlen, the head of the Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East) department of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH, German Army High Command), with carefully scripted "military plans". According to Sudoplatov, the German success in repelling the Soviet Rzhev offensive were, in part, influenced by correct information fed to Gehlen through Demyanov. The intent of feeding the Germans information about an operation, was to conduct strategic deception to distract the Germans from the simultaneous Operation Uranus in the south. The Germans were indeed surprised by the latter attack, resulting in the encirclement and eventual surrender of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad.

...
Wikipedia