Secret Field Police | |
---|---|
Geheime Feldpolizei | |
Active | 1939–1945 |
Disbanded | 8 May 1945 |
Country | Germany |
Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
Branch | German Army (later under the operational control of the RSHA, though still nominally part of the Wehrmacht) |
Type | Military police, secret police |
Role | Counterpropaganda Counterinsurgency Counterintelligence Covert operation Criminal investigation Crowd control Force protection Intelligence assessment Law enforcement Raiding Security checkpoint |
Commanders | |
Leiter | SS-Oberführer and Police colonel Wilhelm Krichbaum |
The Geheime Feldpolizei (German: [ɡəˈhaɪmə ˈfɛltpoliˌtsaɪ] ; transl. "Secret Field Police"), shortened to GFP, was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plainclothes and undercover security work in the field. Their operations included clandestine operations, counterpropaganda, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, creation of a counterinsurgency intelligence network, detection of treasonable activities, infiltration of resistance movements, gathering intelligence and destroying targets, protecting military installations, assisting the German Army (Heer) in courts-martial investigations, tracking and raiding targets to capture or kill, and setting-up security checkpoints in high-risk areas. GFP personnel, who were also classed as Abwehrpolizei, operated as an executive branch of the Abwehr (German armed forces military intelligence), detecting resistance activity in Germany and in occupied France. They were known to torture and execute prisoners.