Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock

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Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock (born May 6, 1897 in Wreschen ; † March 11, 1978 in Hanover ) was a German officer in the Waffen-SS and Schutzpolizei , most recently an SS-Oberführer and Colonel of the Schutzpolizei, as well as a commander of various police and Waffen-SS -Units.

Life

First World War

After graduating from high school , Bock volunteered for the German Army at the beginning of World War I on August 2, 1914 , where he was deployed with field artillery regiments 2 and 38 on both the western and eastern fronts . Promoted to lieutenant in February 1918 , Bock was wounded on September 11, 1918. After his recovery, he served in the army until February 1919.

Between the wars and the Second World War

After the war, Bock joined a volunteer corps in the Baltic to. Up to now he had earned the Iron Cross Second Class and the Wound Badge in black. After working in the agricultural sector , Bock joined the police force on November 15, 1922 in Hamburg as a constable . In 1928 he became a lieutenant in the police force, in 1934 a captain and in 1938 a major. He had already joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 . On September 1, 1939, he was appointed commander of the 111 Police Battalion in Military District XI (Hanover) . In December 1939, he was deployed with Police Battalion 111 in Kielce / Poland, where his unit had to do security and training, property protection, patrol duty, searches of houses for weapons and fighting partisans. Even at this stage the battalion under his command took also was legal before the shootings.

Between March 30 and April 11, 1940, the Bock police battalion was involved in the break-up of the Hubalczycy partisan unit under the Polish Major Henryk Dobrzański in the Końskie and Kielce districts . The Polish partisans had previously inflicted severe losses on the German occupiers on several occasions, which then retaliated against the Polish civilian population. During the action from the end of March to April 1940, the German police troops raged in 31 Polish villages. Twelve villages went up in flames, five of which were completely burned down and 600 farmsteads were destroyed. Mainly the male civilian population was arrested in the places and later executed on execution sites.

Bock kept command of Police Battalion 111 until May 4, 1940 and then took over the command of the II. Division of the Police Division's police artillery regiment, which was being set up .

With the SS Police Division , Bock took part in the attack on the Soviet Union from June 1941. As part of Army Group North , the division was involved in the breakthrough through the Luga position , as well as in the Battle of the Volkhov and the siege of Leningrad .

On November 1, 1941, Bock was accepted into the SS, initially with the rank of SS Sturmbannführer . On January 5, 1942, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer . After the fighting against the Soviet winter offensive in 1942/43 in the Leningrad area, Bock received the Knight's Cross on March 28, 1943, after he had succeeded in repelling several attacks with his artillery units on February 10, 1943, which ultimately led to the failure of the offensive. By then he had already been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Eastern Medal .

The SS police division suffered heavy losses in the Second Ladoga Battle in early 1943 , so that it had to be relocated to the Heidelager SS military training area to refresh . Back at Leningrad at the front, parts of the SS police artillery regiment and various infantry and support units remained, which were combined under the leadership of Fritz Freitag to form the so-called Kampfgruppe Polizei-Division . This combat group of around 5000 men was deployed in the Kolpino area , at the Oranienbaum bridgehead and at the Volkhov. After Friday was transferred, on October 24, 1943, Bock took over the leadership of the combat group, which from then on was often referred to as "Kampfgruppe Bock", and was promoted to SS-Standartenführer on November 9, 1943 .

After the start of the major Soviet offensive in January 1944, the combat group received the order to cover the drainage of German units from the Kirishi area. The combat group returned to Pleskau in hesitant resistance , being surrounded several times and losing a large part of its heavy equipment. From March 15, 1944 to April 13, 1944, Bock temporarily took over the leadership of the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Latvian No. 2) after its commander, SS Oberführer Hinrich Schuldt , had fallen.

Around April 1944, the severely battered combat group was disbanded and the remaining soldiers were transferred to other units. Bock was transferred to the Führerreserve and in June 1944 took over the post of artillery commander of the II. SS Panzer Corps , which was deployed in France and was promoted to SS-Oberführer on August 1, 1944. In August 1944 Bock represented the wounded commander of the 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" and was awarded the Knight's Cross on September 2, 1944 for the division's achievements in the defensive battles at Cheux and Estry . From October of the same year until the end of the war, Bock finally acted again as a corps artillery commander.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lower Saxony State Archives : "Committed to order ...". In the footsteps of the Hanoverian police between 1918 and 1955, STATION 10: OPERATION IN THE EAST - POLICE BATTALION 111
2. ^ Robert Seidel "German Occupation Policy in Poland, Radom District 1939-1945", 1st edition, Schöningh Paderborn 2006, p. 190.
3. ↑ Mark C. Yerger : Waffen-SS Commanders: The Army, Corps and Divisional Leaders of a Legend: Augsberger to Kreutz (v. 1) , Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA 1997, ISBN 0-7643-0356-2 , p 89-92.