Erwin Engelbrecht

Erwin Engelbrecht (born November 12, 1891 in Wildpark-West , † April 8, 1964 in Munich ) was a German artillery general in World War II .

Life

Engelbrecht joined the 2nd Lower Silesian Field Artillery Regiment No. 41 of the Prussian Army on February 5, 1910 as a flag junior and was promoted to lieutenant in mid-August 1911 . During the First World War he took part as an orderly officer , platoon leader , company commander and adjutant . Engelbrecht was promoted to captain by mid-August 1918 and received the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords for his work, in addition to the two classes of the Iron Cross .

After the end of the war Engelbrecht was transferred to the 8th (Prussian) cavalry regiment of the Reichswehr . On October 1, 1924, he was transferred to the command department of the 1st Cavalry Division , on March 1, 1928 chief of the 3rd Squadron and on October 1, 1930 to the command department of the 1st Division . By May 1, 1935, he was promoted to colonel and had been in the Reichswehr Ministry from January 1, 1935 . On May 1, 1937, he was appointed commander of Army Service Center 11, which was moved there after the “Anschluss” of Austria and was renamed Army Service Center 30. Here Engelbrecht received his promotion to major general on January 1, 1939 .

During the mobilization on August 26, 1939 on the occasion of the Second World War, the name was changed to Border Guard Section Command 30. On November 18, 1939 Engelbrecht was then commander of the 163rd Infantry Division of the 7th wave of deployment in Defense District III . Engelbrecht led his division during the occupation of Norway , where it remained until May 1941. Engelbrecht received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on May 9, 1940 and became Lieutenant General on October 1, 1940. His division moved in June 1941 - a one-off operation - through neutral Sweden by rail and then by ship to southern Finland, in order to take part in the offensive towards the Swir River as part of the Finnish army from the end of June 1941 . After this was successfully completed, the division moved in January 1942 to Lapland to the AOK Lapland and fought there together with the neighboring 169th Infantry Division in the Salla area until September 1944.

Engelbrecht took over the leadership of the higher command zbV XXXIII in Trondheim on June 15, 1942 , at the same time commander of Central Norway and was promoted to general of the artillery on September 1, 1942. On January 23, 1943, the higher command in XXXIII. Army Corps renamed and Engelbrecht Commanding General . On December 25, 1943 he had to surrender his command to Lieutenant General Ludwig Wolff and was transferred to the Army Reserve's Reserve . It was not until September 13, 1944 that he was re-used as leader of the newly formed Higher Command Saarpfalz, which, however, only included fortress and construction troops and does not appear in the army's war organizations. Engelbrecht surrendered to the American troops in April 1945 and was released from captivity in 1947.

literature

• Wolfgang Keilig : The Generals of the Army 1939–1945. Friedberg 1983, p. 82.
• Waldemar Erfurth : The Finnish War 1941–1944. Munich 1977.