Albin Nake

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Albin Nake (born March 1, 1888 in Kleinaugezd / Bohemia , † 1947 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian officer and officer in the Wehrmacht , most recently a lieutenant general in World War II .

family

Little is known about his family. Nake probably had a son, lawyer Albin Nake in Salzburg.

Life

After the cadet training kicked Nake 1909 as an ensign in the imperial army of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy , and indeed in the kuk Infantry Regiment "Erzherzog Rainer" no. 59 , which was stationed in Salzburg where he was promoted in 1912 to lieutenant.

First World War and the time until the annexation of Austria by the German Empire

During the First World War and the post-war period, Nake stayed with the regiment, was first lieutenant and captain.

On April 1, 1937, he became a lieutenant colonel in command of the 1st battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the Austrian Armed Forces.

Third Reich and World War II

Taken into the Wehrmacht , he held several military leadership positions. In January 1939 he was a lieutenant colonel in the staff of the 136th Mountain Infantry Regiment and on September 1, 1939, he became a colonel in command of the 136th Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Mountain Division . The regiment took part in the attack on Poland in the Lemberg area as part of the 2nd Mountain Division . Then the regiment was deployed in the Murmansk area on the Liza front , where the German troops suffered considerable losses and the advance to the east was stopped. He remained in command of the regiment until the end of 1939 and then took over command of an infantry regiment.

From July 15, 1942 to March 15, 1943, he commanded the 709th Infantry Division with which he provided the garrison garrison of Brittany in France .

Nake was then from June 1943 to April 1944 commander of the 264th Infantry Division , which was deployed in Dalmatia . In this capacity he was also from December 1, 1943 to April 18, 1944 commander of the Dalmatian province of Zadar

Nake, who was promoted to lieutenant general on July 1, 1943 , was appointed commander of the 159th Infantry Division on July 1, 1944. In mid-August 1944, all parts of the Wehrmacht and the Todt Organization ( army , navy , air force , field command, labor service , etc.), insofar as they were in the southern Atlantic area, were subordinated to the division. This included around 40,000 German civilians (women and men) who could not be used in fighting.

As the Allies advanced, the division commander Nake called his staff and the commanders of the division into a castle-like house that belonged to a winery owner and university professor in Bordeaux and discussed with them the possible alternatives: march north to the Angoulème area and then to the east in In the direction of the German border, defense in the only makeshift permanent places in Bordeaux and Bayonne , as well as marching south and internment in Spain. A clear majority was in favor of a march to the German border with all combat-able forces using all motorized vehicles. The remaining parts should also march northwards on foot, on bicycles and horse-drawn wagons.

Lieutenant General Nake and his division staff knew that with around 50,000 people, of whom only around 10,000 were fit for action, the narrow tube near Bordeaux could only be passed if the French promised a safe conduct . Immediately after the commanders' meeting, Lieutenant General Nake therefore asked the Prefect of Bordeaux, Maurice Sabatier, to meet with him at night in the prefecture . In this meeting, the free withdrawal to the Angoulème area (about 120 km from Bordeaux) was promised under the following conditions:

  • Non-destruction of the port of Bordeaux
  • Non-destruction of the port of Bayonne
  • Non-destruction of the Mont-de-Marsan power station
  • Non-destruction of the Pont de Pierre bridge over the Garonne in Bordeaux.
  • Handover of clothing and food supplies
  • Leaving prisoners behind ( maquis )

With regard to the first three destructions, there was an express order from Hitler. Concern for the fate of the non-soldiers and the responsibility to bring back the fighting parts of the division without losses, however, prompted Nake to accept the prefect's offer. It was determined that the German troops should leave Bordeaux by midnight on August 27 and that French troops would move into the city from 00:00 on August 28. The French kept their promise.

The division marched through the city of Bordeaux while the French stood in silence on the roadsides. The division suffered no casualties, with the exception of one company that turned northeast against the orders and is therefore lost.

In order to enable an orderly withdrawal, Nake ordered that Mot vehicles and bicycles "should be ruthlessly requisitioned". But he also ordered that unauthorized requisitioning be punished as looting. He also issued a special order to regulate the judiciary, punishing attacks against the troops, possession of weapons and acts of sabotage in serious cases with the death penalty. The prerequisite was a conviction by a court martial . The march group leader had to order the execution. In urgent cases the court martial could decide by unanimous decision. The "immediate" execution of irregulars by the troops was thus prohibited.

The management of the non-motorized parts was entrusted to Major General Botho Henning Elster , Field Commander of Mont-de-Marsan, to whom Nake had given a free hand in a one-to-one conversation and asked him to avoid all unnecessary losses. Elster later capitulated to the American troops in the Poitiers area.

The rest of the division with the motorized forces marched through Poitiers and Angoulème and reached the area north of Besançon on September 4th after about 1000 km of march . Up to this point the division was on its own. On September 4, 1944, while crossing the street in Vesoul , Nake fell over a rope stretched between two vehicles and suffered a broken shoulder and was no longer fit for duty. British newspapers reported that Nake was seriously wounded but not captured in an enemy air strike. But this does not correspond to the facts. On September 6, 1944, he had to give up the divisional command and had not held any military office until the end of the war.

He died in Salzburg in 1947.

Assessments

Although Nake was promoted to lieutenant general and led two divisions as commander, he was not always judged positively. As recently as 1944, it was said that he was a commander with an Eastern mark, who did not have the toughness and determination to lead the division in the most difficult situations.

Even Alf R. Jacobsen has in his description of the battle of Murmansk out that the career of Nake in the Wehrmacht was very slow and he at an age of 53 years among the oldest officers of the General of the Mountain Troops Eduard Dietl was. Yet he was arrogantly ambitious and “suffered from a sore throat”. This meant that he apparently wanted to achieve the Knight's Cross through a successful venture .

Despite these negative assessments, Lieb in particular paints a positive image of Nake. Although Nake had initially even ordered the destruction of power stations and substations on Hitler's orders, he refused to obey his supreme warlord and reached a secret agreement with the local Resistance about non-destruction in order to enable the Germans to withdraw unhindered and thus without losses. Lieb compares this with the decision of General Dietrich von Choltitz to leave Paris undamaged to the enemy. He also points out that many massacres of the civilian population would have been prevented if other generals had given similar prudent orders on how to deal with militants as they withdrew. In any case, nothing of this kind has come to light in connection with the 159th Infantry Division.

Literature and archive data

  • Federal Archives Msg 2/2951
  • Website Maparchive.ru (Russian with google translation function Divisions / 159. Reserve department digital [15] ). The website contains archive supplies from the American Historical Association. The NARA National Archives (NARA) has the most complete collection of German original documents.
  • Peter Lieb , Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauungskrieg ?, 2007, pp. 455 ff, 482 (withdrawal from France) partly online [16]
  • Francis Cordet , Carnets de guerre en Charente, 1939–1944, p. 307 ff, (withdrawal from France) online [17] with footnotes p. 345 and 348 online [18]
  • Pierre Miquel , Bordeaux 29 août 1944, Une reddition négociée, publié le 24/05/2004, (withdrawal from France) in L'EXPRESS online [19]
  • Douglas Boyd, Voices from the Dark Years: The Truth About Occupied France 1940–1945 (Google eBook), 2015 (withdrawal of the division from Bordeaux) [20]
  • Division No. 159 / 159th Reserve Division / 159th Infantry Division on EHRI portal from the Federal Archives
  • Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 209 + 210, (159th Infantry Division) ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 [21]
  • Christine Dr. Belz-Hensoldt, Death in Burgundy: based on the book by Emmanuel de Maigret: Druy Parigny un village une guerre, e-book 2013 (without page numbers - keyword: Nake) (withdrawal from France) [22]
  • Pierre Bécamps, Liberation de Bordeaux, e-book 1974 (without page numbers - keyword: Nake) (negotiations in Bordeaux from a French perspective) [23]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Legal information system of the federal government (Austria), OGH judgment of October 3, 1960 (3Ob371 / 60) [1]
  2. ^ Rainer Regiment, IR 59 Archduke Rainer, personalities, officers and commanders from 1914, [2] . Pictures show Nake as first lieutenant and captain as well as commander of the 1st Baon (battalion).
  3. ↑ Günter Erik Schmidt Medals and Medals in Austria in the Interwar Period, 1918–1938, p. 167, snippet view [3]
  4. ^ Alf R. Jacobsen , Miracle at the Litza: Hitler's First Defeat on the Eastern Front, 2017, pp. 35, 50, 51, 54. [4]
  5. ↑ Ben Cahoon, Word Statesman, Croatia (Zara / Zadar) [5]
  6. ^ Albert Bömeke (first lieutenant and 1st orderly officer of the division), letter to the general. aD. Meyer-Rabingen of October 27, 1953 (Bundesarchiv Msg 2/2951)
  7. ↑ a b Kurt Pickart (major i. G. and Ia of the division), letter to the Federal Archives (military archives) in Freiburg from August 4, 1983, (Bundesarchiv Msg 2/2951)
  8. ↑ Peter Lieb , Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauung War? , 2007, p. 482 online [6]
  9. ↑ Francis Cordet , Carnets de guerre en Charente, 1939–1944, p. 307 ff, online [7] with footnotes p. 345 and 348 online [8]
  10. ↑ Pierre Miquel , Bordeaux 29 août 1944, Une reddition négociée , in L'EXPRESS online May 24, 2004
  11. ↑ Peter Lieb , Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauungskrieg ?, 2007, p. 458 (not visible in the preview)
  12. ↑ Joachim Ludewig, Retreat, The German Retreat from France 1944, Kentucky 2012, pages 118, 181, google books preview [9]
  13. ↑ The Canberra Times, Wednesday 13 September 1944, page 1, 2nd column, digital [10]
  14. ^ Josef Folttmann, Hanns Möller-Witten, sacrifice of the generals: the losses of the generals and admirals and the other officers and Beaten in the same rank in World War II, 1959, snippet view [11]
  15. ↑ Sönke Neitzel , Harald Welzer , soldiers: Protocols from fighting, killing and dying, 2011, e-book without page numbers , [12] Reference is made to BA / Ma, Pers 6/770 and an assessment by Freiherr von Adrian-Werburg dated September 2, 1943, BA / MA Pers6 / 10239.
  16. ↑ Alf R. Jacobsen , Miracle at the Litza: Hitler's First Defeat on the Eastern Front, 2017, pp. 35, 50, 51, 54. [13]
  17. ↑ Peter Lieb , Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauungskrieg ?, 2007, pp. 455 ff, 482 (withdrawal from France) partly online [14]
personal data
SURNAME Nake, Albin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian infantry officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleinaugezd / Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH 1947
Place of death Salzburg