Eberhard Rodt

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The information given cannot come from the fur gable, only the life data of the person and the award of the knight's cross can be found there. - Nimro ( discussion ) 15:35, Jun 4, 2014 (CEST)

Eberhard Rodt (born December 4, 1895 in Munich , † April 28, 1979 there ) was an officer , most recently lieutenant general of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

Life

Bavarian Army

Rodt joined the Bavarian Army as a volunteer in the 2nd Uhlan Regiment "King" of the Bavarian Army on August 4, 1915 , during the First World War and was initially deployed with it in the border guard around Lorraine . He later fought on the Eastern Front and was promoted to lieutenant on May 26, 1915 . At the beginning of 1918 he was transferred to the 22nd Infantry Regiment "Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern" and seriously wounded as a platoon leader in the assault near Kemmel during the Battle of the Lys . Not yet recovered from his wound, Rodt returned to the 2nd Uhlan Regiment, which was stationed in the Crimea during the last months of the war . There Rodt also experienced the armistice of Compiègne and returned to Germany as an orderly officer with the cavalry association, where they arrived in Ansbach on February 7, 1919 .

Interwar years

After demobilization , Rodt joined the Leoprechting volunteer squadron, with which he took part in the revolutionary struggles in the Naumburg - Munich - Nuremberg area . He was then taken over into the Reichswehr and served as platoon leader with the 1st  Squadron of Cavalry Regiment 24 and in the same function with the 2nd Squadron of Cavalry Regiment 17. In this position he was promoted to first lieutenant on November 1, 1923 . In 1924 Rodt successfully passed a military district examination and attended the Hanover cavalry school in 1927/28 . He then served in the regimental staff of the 17th (Bavarian) cavalry regiment and was later adjutant to the higher cavalry officer 3. In 1936 he became commander of the 1st  division of the 18th cavalry regiment in Stuttgart . Here Rodt was appointed lieutenant colonel on March 1, 1938 .

Second World War

A month before the start of the invasion of Poland , he was appointed commander of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. During the subsequent campaign in the west , Rodt was the commander of the reconnaissance department 25. With this he surprisingly took the city of Ghent for the enemy , and his unit was able to capture around 9,000 members of the Belgian armed forces . For this, Roth was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on June 25, 1940 . After the end of the campaign, he was assigned to the Rifle Regiment 304 in Vienna on September 15, 1940 , where he received retraining on tank units until October 12, 1940. Rodt then became the commander of the 66th Rifle Regiment, which was part of the 13th Panzer Division of Army Group Center in the Eastern campaign . On October 1, 1941, Rodt was appointed commander of the 22nd Rifle Brigade, which was stationed in France at the time. Due to a telegram mutilation during the transmission, however, it was mistakenly assumed that Rodt would have been appointed commander of the 2nd Rifle Brigade, which was not far from his previous regiment. With this brigade , called Kampfgruppe Rodt, he advanced via Davidkowo - Krasnaja - Polyana - Putschki - Gorki - Katyushki towards Moscow , for which he was awarded the German Cross in Gold. After his brigade withdrew to the Lama winter position, on February 1, 1942, after correcting the mistake, Rodt became the commander of the 22nd Rifle Brigade. On November 1, 1942, Rodt rose to command of the 22nd Panzer Division , which was almost completely destroyed by the Red Army in the course of Operation Uranus in November 1942 . On February 9, 1943, the Panzer Division was disbanded and its remnants were distributed to other units. Rodt, without a command, was then transferred to the Fuehrer's reserve at short notice , promoted to major general on March 1, 1943 and appointed commander of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division on June 10, 1943 . At that time it was in Sicily , later in southern Italy , where the major association was involved in violent retreat battles with the Allies . In 1944 the division withdrew via Florence - Lorraine - Saarbrücken . At the turn of 1944/45 it was in the Ardennes area . At the end of March 1945 Rodt and his division fought near Borken . At the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the British , from which he was released in June 1946.

literature

• Walter-Peer Fellgiebel: The bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945. Friedburg 2000. Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 . P. 293.