Trijose žvalgybose : Lietuvos kavalerijos kapitono istorija
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos respublika; Lietuvos kariuomenė; Sovietinė okupacija; Antibolševizmas; Vokietijos karinė žvalgyba; Gestapas; Šveicarijos saugumo tarnyba; Vietinė rinktinė; JAV centrinė žvalgybos valdyba; Lietuvos aktyvistų frontas; Republic of Lithuania; Lithuanian army; Soviet occupation; Anti bolshevism; German military intelligence; Gestapo; Security service of Switzerland; Local team; USA central intelligence board; Lithuanian militant front.
ENThis book tells the story of Bronius Michelevičius, aka Bruno Michels, aka Bruno Henry Michels, and his fight against the Soviets in the Lithuanian underground, the German Abwehr, and subsequently the CIA.Three countries, three names, three intelligence services, but always the same target: the Soviets. This book is based on Bruno Michels's personal diaries from the Eastern front during WWII, POW diaries, letters, reports, photos, and recollections by his daughter, Astra Michels. Historical narrative is important for English-speaking readers of history because it sheds light on the lesser known tragic fate of Lithuanian army officers after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, on the theater of the German-Russian War, and on intelligence activity on the Eastern front during World War II and because it gives an insider's look at anti-Soviet intelligence activity by the CIA during the Cold War. [...] Bronius Michelevičius, who was designated as chief of staff of the 26th Cavalry Regiment of the Red Army's 29th Territorial Corps, did not hesitate to refuse to swear an oath to the Soviet Union and reject a career in the Red Army. On October 7,1940, he abandoned his Vilnius apartment, crossed the border into Germany (the Kretinga-Jokūbavas line) and gave himself up to the German border guards. After being interrogated by the Germans, he was allowed to remain in Klaipėda (Memel), which at that time belonged to Germany. The Germans recruited Bruno Michelevičius or Michels to work with the Wehrmacht's intelligence service - the Abwehr- where he served from November 1940 to May 1945. Once again, Captain Michels went into battle against the Soviets. There was no desire to help the Nazis win the war but rather the understanding that only Germany could be a countervailing force to the Communists and could help liberate Lithuania in the event of war.Bruno Michels began his German intelligence career as an agent with the assignment to infiltrate Soviet-occupied Lithuania with the objective of establishing contact with the Lithuanian underground and gathering military intelligence. [...] Upon establishing relations with the Berlin-based LAF, on December 4,1940, disguised in a Red Army officer's uniform, Bruno Michels covertly crossed the border from Germany into Lithuania at the very same spot where he had first entered Germany. In December 1941, the Abwehr designated Bruno Michels as a principal agent at its advance post in Klaipėda (Memel) gathering information about the Soviet Army and the Soviet Union until the war began in June 1941. He also continued his role as liaison between the LAF leadership and the Lithuanian underground. [...] As the German-Soviet War was beginning in June 1941, Bruno Michels was transferred to the Wehrmacht's 18th Army in Johannesburg, Prussia, and assigned to the 21st Infantry Division's intelligence corps as a warrant officer: Russian translator/interrogator. [...] He served in the 21st Division until October 1941. [...] In his war diaries, Bruno Michels records his observations on the Eastern front, the workings of the Abwehr from the inside, and intelligence activity on the Leningrad-Volkhov fronts as well as the hardships of war. [...] During the war, Captain Michels trained and sent over 100 agents as well as 30 paratrooper groups by land and sea behind Soviet enemy lines. For his bravery, he was awarded two Iron Crosses and various other medals. In March 1945, Captain Michels was relieved of his duties with the 112th Section and named the leader of the 9th Army's 119th Intelligence Unit in Fiirstenwald, about 30 km east of Berlin. He led this unit until Germany’s capitulation. His diaries describe leading the intelligence group and the hardships of retreat. [...].Bruno Michels’s POW diaries describe the days in the Allied POW camps, the prevailing mood of the POWs, the situation in Germany, and ruminations about why Germany lost the war. The book also includes his war-time letters to the woman who would become his wife and anti-Soviet operative partner, Aldona Dirkis. [...] From 1946 to 1949, Bruno was involved in covert work for the U.S. CIC in West Germany gathering intelligence about the Soviet Army in East Germany and about Soviet agents, some of them among the displaced persons (DPs). He developed his own intelligence network, which encompassed the Baltics, East Prussia, Poland, and the Soviet Sector in East Germany. In 1949 alone, he submitted to his superiors 94 classified reports and drawings of military installations in the Soviet Union and its satellites. After Germany, Bruno Michels began working for the CIA in Washington, D.C., but only on one condition - that he be assigned to fight the Soviets and their satellites. [...] This book follows Michels's activity through various CIA assignments: Luxembourg, Chile (just before Allende), Argentina, Amman (during the Yom Kippur War), Japan, Singapore, Thailand, his last post before retirement in Bonn, Germany, etc. [...] Lithuanian Cavalry Captain Bruno Michelevicius-Michels fought his own private battle with Communism and the USSR on a secret front unseen by the general public, strongly believing that his work was necessary not only for Lithuania's eventual freedom but also as a service towards destroying Communism and liberating the many other nations under its yoke. In the end he was right. [From the publication]
