Fritz Bayerlein (Lieutenant General)

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Fritz Bayerlein, 1944

Fritz Hermann Michael Bayerlein (born January 14, 1899 in Würzburg ; † January 31, 1970 there ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Bayerlein occurred during the First World War on June 5, 1917 as a cadet in the 9th Infantry Regiment "Wrede" the Bavarian army and came on May 28, 1918, the Western Front . After the end of the war he served briefly in the volunteer battalion "Dittmar" and was then taken over into the 100,000-man army of the Reichswehr . There he was promoted to lieutenant in the 21st (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment on January 21, 1922 . He proved himself as a troop officer and was commanded to the military academy to receive general staff training. From 1935 he acted as captain iG in the staff of the XV. Army Corps service, was promoted to Major i on June 1, 1938 in this position . G. promoted and a short time later transferred to the 3rd Panzer Division as Second General Staff Officer (Ib) .

On April 1, 1939 Bayerlein was appointed First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 10th Panzer Division and took part in the attack on Poland with this unit .

From February 25, 1940 he was in the same position at the XIX. Army corps and took part in the French campaign. He stayed in this position when the corps was converted to Panzergruppe 2 . With her he took part in the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 .

Since September 1, 1940, Lieutenant Colonel i. G., he was appointed Chief of Staff of the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel on October 5, 1941 .

Bayerlein (center) with Erwin Rommel (left) and Albert Kesselring (right), 1943

For his leadership in the fighting in the Sidi Rezegh area and the retreat to El Agheila in November 1941, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 26, 1941 . On April 1, 1942, he was promoted to Colonel i. G. and on October 23, 1942 the award of the German Cross in Gold. From December 7, 1942 he acted as Chief of Staff of the Panzer Army Africa and retained this position when the army was renamed "Italian 1st Army" (1a Armata Italiana) in February 1943 and the Italian General Giovanni Messe took command took over. On March 1, 1943, he was promoted to major general. Just in time for the end in Tunisia, Fritz Bayerlein was flown out to Italy on May 6, 1943 in one of the last aircraft and transferred to the so-called command reserve of the army.

On July 6, 1943, he was awarded the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his services in the leadership of the Italian 1st Army.

Bayerlein took over command of the 3rd Panzer Division on October 25, 1943 , with which he fought first on the central Dnieper and then in the Kirovograd area . He tried to bring his experiences from the African campaign to the most agile warfare possible in the east and was able to end the temporary confinement in the city of Kirovograd with a successful breakout with his division in January 1944 and to rebuild a solid front, contrary to a “Führer order”. Shortly afterwards, at the request of his mentor, Colonel General Guderian, he was commissioned to reorganize the army's only fully armored division, the so-called "Panzer Training Division" . On February 4, 1944, he was appointed its commander and on May 1, 1944, Lieutenant General promoted. After an initial deployment during the occupation of Hungary in March 1944, the tank training division was relocated back to France and trained further. After the Allied invasion of Normandy began on June 6, 1944 , Bayerlein led his division in the battles for Tilly, St. Ló and Avranches , for which he received the oak leaves with swords for the Knight's Cross on July 20, 1944.

The very heavy losses of the division, especially when the Americans broke out of the bridgehead at the end of July 1944, led to a reduction to a so-called "combat group" and a retreat to the western border of the Reich, where a partial "refreshment" took place, but mostly with little trained soldiers and with much less material equipment. Nevertheless, the division under Fritz Bayerlein took part in the Ardennes offensive in December 1944 and January 1945 as part of the 5th Panzer Army.

Bayerlein gave up the division and took over the leadership of the LIII on February 7, 1945 . Army corps until its destruction in the Ruhr basin on April 15, 1945. Bayerlein was the first commanding general of the Wehrmacht to formally surrender for his entire corps in a hopeless situation . Up to this point, generals had only surrendered for themselves and their immediate staff. At the end of 1947, the then 48-year-old Bayerlein was released from captivity in the US .

After his release from captivity, Bayerlein worked, among other things, on studies about the Second World War. The American screenwriter Carl Foreman sought advice from Bayerlein for the film Die Kanonen von Navarone .

Fritz Bayerlein died on January 31, 1970 in Würzburg, his grave still exists today in the Würzburg main cemetery.

Awards

literature

  • Destiny North Africa / Ed. By the Association of former Members of the German Africa Corps eV in conjunction with d. Rommel social work. Overall editor: Siegfried Westphal . Staff: Fritz Bayerlein [u. a.], Döffingen Krs. Böblingen / Württ. : Europa-Contact Verl.-Ges. 1954 DNB
  • Erwin Rommel: War without hatred. African memoirs , edited by Lucie-Maria Rommel and Fritz Bayerlein, Verlag Heidenheimer Zeitung , Heidenheim / Brenz 1950 DNB 454186711
  • Military History Research Office of the Bundeswehr (ed.): The German Reich and the Second World War . 10 vols. Stuttgart 1991-2005.
  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.) The Generals of the Army 1921–1945. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1: Abberger – Bitthorn. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2423-9 , pp. 241-242.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Bayerlein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 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 , p. 207.
personal data
SURNAME Bayerlein, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bayerlein, Fritz Hermann Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1970
Place of death Wurzburg