Walter Fries (General)

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Walter Fries (born April 22, 1894 in Gusternhain ; † August 6, 1982 in Weilburg ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the tank troops in World War II .

Life

Promotions

Early years and World War I

Fries joined the fusilier regiment "von Gersdorff" (Kurhessisches) No. 80 on October 1, 1912 as a one-year volunteer , where he received his basic training . On September 30, 1913, he resigned from the Prussian Army , released as a reserve .

In the course of mobilization , Fries was reactivated at the outbreak of the First World War on August 3, 1914 and assigned to the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 88 . With this Fries fought in 1914 in the Battle of the Marne and from 1915 as a company commander in this same regiment on the Eastern Front . He then served in the same position in the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 253 and in the Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 83 until the end of the war . On December 3, 1918, Fries retired from active military service as a lieutenant in the reserve.

Interwar years

On January 19, 1919, Fries joined the police in Kassel as a police commissioner candidate . In September 1919 he switched to the protection police there . From May to August 1922 Fries completed an abbreviated course for future police officers in this context. On March 6, 1926, he was transferred as a police captain to the police station in Cologne , where he remained until July 1933. Subsequently, Fries became an adjutant of the state police department in Frankfurt am Main on August 1, 1933 . In this position he completed a police major candidate course from January to March 1934. After its completion, he served from April 1934 to March 15, 1936 at the Police Inspection Southwest with the rank of police major.

Wehrmacht and World War II

On March 16, 1936 Fries joined the Army of the Wehrmacht as a major , where he was initially employed in the staff of the 34th Infantry Division . On April 1, 1936, he moved to the general staff of this division. On October 6, 1936, he took over the command of the Infantry Regiment 15 (motorized) , with which he was involved in both the attack on Poland and the campaign in the west . On November 15, 1940, he took over as commander of the 87 (mot) infantry regiment , with which he took part in the eastern campaign in the area of Army Group Center from June 1941 . For the fighting at the Battle of Moscow , Fries received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 14, 1941 . On October 15, 1942, his previous regiment was renamed Grenadier Regiment 87 . Consequently, it was Fries temporarily into the leader Reserve of the Army High Command transferred and acted from mid-January to the end of February 1943 as commander of the teaching staff at the III Infantry School Döberitz .

On March 1, 1943, Fries was entrusted with the leadership of the 29th Infantry Division , of which he was commander on June 1, 1943. On June 23, 1943, this division was renamed the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division and then fought under his command in Sicily and southern Italy . On March 5, 1944, Fries handed over command of the division to Hans Boelsen and switched again to the OKH's reserve command . On September 21, 1944, Fries became the leader of the XXXXVI. Panzer Corps , whose commanding general he was appointed General of the Panzer Force on December 1, 1944. The corps was engaged in heavy fighting in the greater Warsaw area from September 1944 to January 1945 . There, contrary to his orders, Fries ordered the withdrawal of his exhausted troops to the north bank of the Vistula . Thereupon he was relieved of his command on January 19, 1945, transferred to the Führerreserve and indicted in the Reich Court Martial on March 24, 1945 .

The judge in this process was the general staff judge Dr. Karl Schmauser. With the Presidency were General der Nachrichtentruppe Albert Praun and Lieutenant General Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt and as assessor Artillery General Maximilian Fretter-Pico commissioned. The general of the tank troops, Otto von Knobelsdorff , stood by Fries' side as defender . The indictment accused Fries of having withdrawn his troops on the west bank of the Vistula in front of the Red Army , contrary to the orders . Although this was just an evasion, it was considered a retreat. In the course of the proceedings, however, Fries was acquitted because the court came to the conclusion that his troops would have been completely exhausted, overwhelmed and with practically no heavy weapons, food and fuel, worn out. Despite his acquittal, Fries was not given a command until the end of the war and was taken prisoner on May 8, 1945 , from which he was released on June 30, 1947.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley, Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: Die Generale des Heeres 1921–1945 Volume 4: Fleck-Gyldenfeldt , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2488-3 , pp. 106-107.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maximilian Fretter-Pico: "... abandoned by the gods of victory": abused infantry . Kyffhäuser Verlag, 1969, p. 168 ( google.de [accessed October 14, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 321.
personal data
SURNAME Fries, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General of the Armored Force in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Gusternhain
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1982
Place of death Weilburg