Ernst von Below

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Ernst von Below

Ernst von Below (born April 17, 1863 in Königsberg , † April 2, 1955 in Schleusingen ) was a German infantry general .

Life

origin

Ernst came from the old noble family von Below . He was a son of the later Prussian major general Ferdinand von Below (1812-1870) and his wife Therese, née Mauve (1823-1895).

Military career

On April 16, 1881, Below joined the Infantry Regiment No. 99 of the Prussian Army in Neustadt as an ensign coming from the Cadet Corps . There he was appointed second lieutenant on February 11, 1882 and served as an adjutant from July 1, 1886 to May 10, 1889 . Subsequently, Below was adjutant of the 1st Battalion, was commanded as such from October 1, 1890 to July 23, 1893 at the War Academy and meanwhile promoted to Prime Lieutenant on October 14, 1890 . After his return he continued to serve in his main regiment and was transferred to the Infantry Regiment "Graf Bose" (1st Thuringian) No. 31 in Altona on April 21, 1894 . At the same time as his promotion to captain , Below was appointed company commander. For almost a year he was then commanded from October 4, 1899 to the Infantry Training Battalion. This was followed by the transfer as company commander to Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 . From April 1, 1903, Below was commanded to serve Prince Joachim Adalbert of Prussia. On May 6, 1903 he was promoted to his personal adjutant and on January 27, 1904 to major . Below gave this position on September 13, 1906 when he was appointed commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Oldenburg Infantry Regiment No. 91 . On April 4, 1908, he was then commander of the Second Sea Battalion in Wilhelmshaven . Almost a year later he emigrated to Tsingtau to serve as commander of the III. Sea battalion to act. There he commanded the occupation forces in Beijing and Tientsin and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on March 20, 1911 . After his return to the German Reich, Below was from March 22, 1912 in command of the III. Tribe Sea Battalion in Cuxhaven . He then came to Berlin on January 27, 1913, to the staff of the Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . With the promotion to colonel on October 1, 1913, he was appointed commander of the 8th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 153 in Altenburg . Six months later, Below moved to the Reichskolonialamt as commander of the protection force .

First World War

After the outbreak of the First World War , Below was appointed commander of the infantry regiment "Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia" (2nd Magdeburgisches) No. 27 on August 14, 1914 , after its previous commander Colonel Krüger had fallen near Liège . This was followed by the further advance as well as the Battle of the Marne and the fighting at Arras . From 30 November 1914 to 28 March 1915 was Below commander of the front Reims lying 26th Reserve Infantry Brigade and then to May 20, 1915 commander of the 39th Reserve Infantry Brigade, the VIII. Army Corps was assigned . He then became the commander of the newly formed 2nd Jäger Brigade, the force trained primarily for mountain warfare with which he was deployed in the Carpathian Mountains . In the spring the brigade returned to the Western Front in France, where they fought in Champagne and in front of Verdun . From August 1916, the brigade was relocated again to the Eastern Front and assigned to the 200th Division deployed there .

On January 27, 1917 Below was major general and on September 14, 1917 commander of the 200th division. With this he took part in the Isonzo offensive against the Italians . Below had the order to take the second most important base of the enemy positions, the 929 m high Ieza. During the successful storming, thousands of prisoners, 99 artillery pieces, 75 machine guns , 45 mine and grenade launchers , three large searchlights and a host of other pieces of armament, equipment and clothing were brought in. On October 27, parts took the Azzida Division and pursued the Italians Udine addition to the Piave , where the offensive came to a halt and the trench warfare passed. In February 1918 the division was transported to France, where it was preparing for the spring offensive in conjunction with the 2nd Army . At the end of March, the division was deployed on the Avre east of Amiens . This was followed by assignment to the 7th Army , with which they carried out the last German attack battle west of Reims in July . Up until the armistice , Below was involved with the division in the retreat fighting off the Antwerp - Maas position and led the association back home after the end of the war.

post war period

After demobilization Below was transferred and on February 6, 1919 the officers of the army on August 11, 1919 by awarding the character as a lieutenant general for disposition made.

Below received the character of General of the Infantry on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day.

After his death he was buried in the family grave of Below in the Invalidenfriedhof Berlin . His grave is preserved.

Awards

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 79-81.
  • Hanns Möller : History of the knights of the order "pour le mérite" in the world war. Volume 1: A-L. Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1935, pp. 61–63.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 8, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1941], DNB 367632837 , p. 29, no. 2465.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, p. 1348.
personal data
SURNAME Below, Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1955
Place of death Schleusingen