Andreas von Aulock
Andreas Maria Karl von Aulock (born March 23, 1893 in Kochelsdorf in the Kreuzburg district ; † June 23, 1968 in Wiesbaden ) was a German colonel in World War II who, in August 1944, refused to join the Allied units as the fortress commander of Saint- To surrender to Malo , gained some notoriety.
Life
origin
He was the son of the Prussian lieutenant Franz von Aulock (1856-1904) and his wife Antonie, nee Schoenheyder. The later major general Hubertus von Aulock was his older brother.
Military career
After visiting the cadet institute , Aulock joined the 6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95 of the Prussian Army as a lieutenant at the end of March 1912 . Aulock fought with the 3rd Company at the beginning of the First World War on the Belgian front near Namur . Transferred to the 4th Company, which he assumed leadership, he came to the Eastern Front . In Poland the regiment fought from December 1914 to March 1915 on the front line from the Bzura to Rawa Mazowiecka . During the further course of the war, Aulock moved up to the regimental staff, fought in 1916/17 in the Battle of Verdun and the Third Battle of Flanders . Aulock received both classes of the Iron Cross for his behavior .
After the end of the war and a stay in the officers' transit camps in Hannoversch-Münden and Göttingen , Aulock was released from military service at the beginning of April 1920. In the early 20s he worked as a free corps leader.
Aulock joined the III. Battalion of the 87th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht with the rank of Captain of the Reserve. In December 1938 he was promoted to major and returned to active service. In March 1939 he became the commander of the 2nd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 212.
During the Second World War, Aulock took over the Infantry Regiment 226 as a lieutenant colonel in August 1940, fought with this regiment on the Eastern Front and took part in the Battle of Stalingrad from August 1942 . After the Red Army closed the Stalingrad Pocket , Aulock was one of the officers who were flown out. As commander of a combat group of the 79th Infantry Division , he was promoted to colonel in November 1943 and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for operations in the Kuban bridgehead . He had already received the German Cross in Gold on October 27, 1941 .
As a result, the High Command of the Army (OKH) transferred him to the Führerreserve . After an assignment with the Wehrmacht commander in chief in the Netherlands, General der Flieger Christiansen , the OKH transferred him to Army Group D at the beginning of January 1944 , where he was designated as the fortress commander . On February 15, he was appointed commandant of Saint-Malo . He set up his headquarters in the old citadel of the city. Its strong walls could not even be penetrated by armor-piercing shells with a projectile weight of 500 kg.
When the Americans covered Saint-Malo with artillery fire for three days after the Allied invasion and at the beginning of the Battle of Brittany at the beginning of August , civil emissaries called on Aulock to surrender, but he strictly refused. After the city was captured and secured on August 14, a captured German chaplain was sent to the citadel to persuade him to surrender, but he refused, saying:
- "A German soldier does not capitulate."
Despite the heavy fighting, Aulock tried to protect the old building stock of Saint-Malo. So there were violent disputes with the commander of the 24th minesweeping flotilla, Corvette Captain Fritz Breithaupt , when one of the boats shot through the church tower of Saint-Malo. Two days before his surrender, he received the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (551st award). Aulock finally surrendered to the Allies on August 17, 1944 with 400 soldiers. On August 18, 1944, Aulock was named in the Wehrmacht report: "Soldiers of all parts of the Wehrmacht, under their commandant Colonel von Aulock, withstood the onslaught of the strongest enemy forces in almost three weeks of heroic struggle and inflicted heavy bloody losses on the enemy" .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 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. 196.
- ^ Website on the Battle of Saint Malo and Dinard - The Citadel section . Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ^ The Wehrmacht reports 1939–1945. Volume 3, p. 207.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Aulock, Andreas von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Aulock, Andreas Maria Karl von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German colonel in World War II |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 23, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kochelsdorf , Kreuzburg OS district |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 23, 1968 |
| Place of death | Wiesbaden |