In 1916, Giskes and his unit were deployed on the Western Front, where he was wounded several times and received the Iron Cross, Second Class.

In March 1917 he became a lieutenant in the reserve and, as he was unfit for front-line service, was an instructor with the mountain infantry replacement battalion in Immenstadt in the Allgäu until April 1918.

[1] Released from captivity in March 1920, Giskes went back to Krefeld, initially worked for his father as a tobacco dealer and was married in 1925.

[5] In 1945, near the end of World War II, Giskes was captured by Allied forces and interrogated by both the British and the Americans.

He was released in September 1946, and became an employee of the Gehlen Organization, an intelligence company that worked with the American occupation authorities in a defeated Germany.

[6] In 1953, he published a memoir, London Calling North Pole, recounting his experiences in World War II.