Gerhard Bechly was a professional soldier who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and adjutant in the 295th Infantry Division of the German Army.
[1][2] In 1942, Lieutenant-Colonel Bechly was captured at the Battle of Stalingrad by the Soviet Army and became a prisoner-of-war at Lunjowo POW Camp 27, in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast.
Bechly returned to Germany in September 1947, and in 1952, he joined the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP, Barracks People's Police) and became its head of department in the 6th Management of Staff.
[1] Shortly after the establishment of the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD), a recruitment campaign was envisioned for German officers who were held as prisoners-of-war in the Soviet Union.
The BDO greatly assisted the efforts of the National Committee for a Free Germany in providing propaganda as part of the German resistance to Nazi movement, which culminated with the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944.