Erwin Menny

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Erwin Menny (born August 18, 1893 in Saarburg , † December 6, 1949 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German officer , last lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Erwin Menny with Erwin Rommel , France, March 1944

Erwin Menny was the son of the administrative clerk Max Menny , joined the army with the Dragoons in mid-1912, and served as a lieutenant in Dragoon Regiment No. 22 . He served as an officer in the First World War .

After the end of the war he switched to the Reichswehr , in 1932 in the 18th Cavalry Regiment . In the Wehrmacht he worked, since 1937 with the rank of lieutenant colonel , as a commander in various units, including promotion to colonel in 1939/40 of the newly established Rifle Replacement Regiment 81 and 1940/41 of the likewise newly established Rifle Regiment 69 .

He then became commander of the 15th Rifle Brigade in the 15th Panzer Division . This was under the command of the German Africa Corps . At the beginning of December 1941, the commander of the 15th Panzer Division , Lieutenant General Walter Neumann-Silkow , was fatally wounded and Colonel Menny only took command of the 15th Panzer Division for a few days. Menny was again commander of the 15th Rifle Brigade with which he subsequently took part in the Theseus operation and the conquest of Tobruk . In early April 1942 he was promoted to major general. In July 1942 he returned to Germany.

From mid-September 1942 until the end of 1942 he was in command of the 18th Panzer Division . As commander of the 387th Infantry Division , he was deployed from May to mid-July 1943 as a substitute for Major General Eberhard von Schuckmann . He was then commander of the 333rd Infantry Division until it was dissolved in early November 1943 . He ordered the division to withdraw to Zaporozhye on the Dnieper . In October 1943, promoted to Lieutenant General at the beginning of October 1943, he was also commander of the 123rd Infantry Division on behalf of Lieutenant General Erwin Rauch and then again for less than a month as the commander of the 72nd Infantry Division . On November 20, 1943, he handed over command to Colonel Hermann Hohn . In the period from September 1942 to November 1943 he was deployed on the Eastern Front.

From February 10, 1944 he was in command of the newly formed 84th Infantry Division with which he fought on the Western Front . In this position he was captured on August 21, 1944 in the Falaise pocket and was taken prisoner of war in Canada and later British . in British captivity he came to Trent Park . In 1947/48 he was released from captivity and died in Freiburg in 1949.

Documentation from captivity

During his time in Russia in 1943, Menny enforced discipline in his unit, including shootings. For example, he had some soldiers who had left their position at the front during a Russian attack executed on the spot and, according to his own statement, restored discipline in the following days so that his own front line was stabilized again.

Erwin Menny's opinion on the duty of a general not to give up under any circumstances in a war was supported by his diary notes in US captivity from November 1944:

“Still, I am shocked by how few of the more than 40 generals I met in captivity personally fought to the last. It is simply a matter of course that every soldier, and of course a general above all, tries everything, including the hopeless. Those who are lucky also succeed in the impossible. How often have I got out of cauldrons and other desperate situations with my men, even though we were all long gone. And that this time I was left alone with two gentlemen after the toughest fights, that was a coincidence or almost a miracle. I can do without being admired by the enemy, but I would prefer the English newspapers to write of me that I had dogged myself and with unbelievable tenacity to the extreme and sought death in order to escape imprisonment. I will never understand how a general can 'capitulate'. "

He also noted that he refused to go into captivity with his hands up. In his diary he also noted that, because he was now in captivity, he would no longer have the opportunity to get the coveted oak leaves on the Iron Cross.

While he was a prisoner of war, his conversations with other generals were also recorded. He repeatedly denied his former superior, Erwin Rommel , his military and technical skills. He also reports on the shooting of Canadian soldiers by the Waffen SS .

His legacy, including the diaries, is archived in the Federal Archives .

Awards

literature

  • Wolfgang Keilig : The German Army. 1939-1945. Volume 3, Podzun, 1956, p. 217.
  • François de Lannoy, Josef Charita: Panzer troops . Casemate Pub & Book, 2001, p. 77.
  • Samuel W. Mitcham Jr : The Panzer Legions. A guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of WWII and their Commanders. Stackpole Military History, 2007, ISBN 978-0811733533 , p. 147.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Bahls: The 3rd Baden Dragoon Regiment Prince Karl no. 22: on the basis of the printed regimental histories and as yet unpublished sources from the pre-war period as well as the regiment's official war files and private records of the combatants from the world war . Bernard & Graefe, 1934, p. 126 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  2. ↑ a b c Peter Lieb: Conventional war or Nazi ideological war ?: Warfare and fighting partisans in France 1943/44 . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70741-0 , p. 541 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  3. ↑ a b Ranking list of the German Imperial Army . ES Mittler & Sohn., 1932, p. 133 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  4. ^ Military weekly paper . ES Mittler., 1940, p. 15 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  5. ^ Franz Kurowski: Das Afrika Korps: Erwin Rommel and the Germans in Africa, 1941-43 . Stackpole Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8117-0591-2 , pp. 119 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  6. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham Jr: Panzer Legions: A Guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of World War II and Their Commanders . Stackpole Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4617-5143-4 , pp. 125 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  7. ↑ Volkmar Kühn: With Rommel in the desert: Kampf u. Downfall d. German Africa Corps 1941-1943 . Motorbuch Verlag, 1975, p. 219 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  8. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham Jr: Panzer Legions: A Guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of World War II and Their Commanders . Stackpole Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4617-5143-4 , pp. 145 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  9. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 89 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  10. ↑ a b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 40 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  11. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 177 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  12. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 123 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  13. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 142 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Sönke Neitzel , Harald Welzer : Soldiers - Protocols of fighting, killing and dying . Fischer Taschenbücher 2012, ISBN 3-5961-8873-3 .
  15. ↑ a b Sönke Neitzel , Harald Welzer : Soldiers - Protocols of fighting, killing and dying . Fischer Taschenbücher 2012, ISBN 3-5961-8873-3 , p. 706.
  16. ↑ Peter Lieb: Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauungskrieg ?: Warfare and Fight against Partisans in France 1943/44 . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70741-0 , p. 90 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  17. ↑ Peter Lieb: Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauungskrieg ?: Warfare and Fight against Partisans in France 1943/44 . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70741-0 , p. 170 ( google.de [accessed on May 19, 2020]).
  18. ↑ 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 .
  19. ↑ Walther-Peer Fellgiebel : The bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939-1945 - The holder of the highest award of the Second World War of all parts of the Wehrmacht . Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2004, ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 , p. 252 .
personal data
SURNAME Menny, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarburg
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1949
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau