Gustav-Adolf von Zangen
Gustav-Adolf von Zangen (born November 7, 1892 in Darmstadt , † May 1, 1964 in Hanau ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Infantry in World War II and from 1944 to 1945 Commander-in-Chief of the 15th Army .
Life
Pliers completed his high school and then went on 24 February 1910 as a cadet in the Infantry Life Guards "Grand Duchess" (third Grand Ducal Hessian) no. 117 in Mainz one. In 1911 he was transferred to the 9th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 160 and promoted to lieutenant on August 18, 1912 . He was platoon leader in the 4th company and later adjutant of the III. Battalions. On August 18, 1912, he rose as a first lieutenant to regimental adjutant.
In August 1914 he went to the First World War with his regiment and was wounded several times. In the spring of 1917 he was promoted to brigadjutant and then 1st orderly officer in the staff of the 15th Infantry Division .
After the end of the war, Zangen was released from the army on January 31, 1920 and employed by the police . There he rose to lieutenant colonel and was accepted into the Wehrmacht on August 1, 1935 with this rank . He was appointed commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 51st Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to colonel on March 1, 1938 , and on November 10, 1938, appointed commander of the 88th Infantry Regiment, which was part of the 15th Infantry Division .
Second World War
With this he took part in the western campaign (May and June 1940). From June 22, 1941 (the beginning of the Barbarossa company ) he fought in Russia. For his leadership during the Battle of Moscow , he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on January 15, 1942 . On December 25, 1941 he was given command of the 17th Infantry Division , of which he became commander on February 1, 1942. At the same time he was promoted to major general. On January 1, 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant general . On April 1, 1943, Zangen took over the leadership of LXXXIV. Army Corps , which was stationed in Normandy . In June 1943 he was promoted to General of the Infantry and Commanding General of the LXXXIV. Army Corps. On August 1, 1943, he became the commanding general of the LXXXVII. Army Corps. With this he marched into northern Italy after Mussolini had been deposed on July 27, 1943 (" Axis case "). He then became commander in chief of the forceps army division in northern Italy. On July 12, 1944, he and General Erich Brandenberger were ordered to the Fuehrer's headquarters . Zangen was designated as the army commander. Before that he was made available on July 27, 1944 by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring for a special task: He was supposed to organize the defense of the Reich in the south of the Reich together with the Gauleiters and organize “fixed places” or “fortresses” (an idea by Hitler from the Spring 1944).
On August 20, 1944, Zangen became Commander-in-Chief of the 15th Army in the West. Zangen led the army back behind the Scheldt and onto the Walcheren peninsula ; from there it defended the mouth of the Scheldt for two months. For this he was awarded the oak leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on November 5, 1944 . This meant that the Allies could only use the port of Antwerp , which they had conquered at the beginning of September and which they urgently needed for their supplies, after Canadian troops had won the loss-making battle of the Scheldt estuary (October 2 and November 8, 1944) and the had cleared numerous sea mines . It was not until November 28 that the first Allied convoy entered the port.
Zangens command was then the Western Wall used, in early 1945 he had to retreat to the Rhine. Parts of his army fought in Operation Lumberjack in early March, during which the Ludendorff Bridge near Remagen was captured on March 7, 1945 .
In April 1945 the 15th Army was destroyed in the Ruhr basin ; Zangen became a US prisoner of war . After his release in 1948, he returned to Hanau.
Web links
literature
- Walther-Peer Fellgiebel : The bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 . 2000, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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. 802.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zangen, Gustav-Adolf von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German officer, most recently general of the infantry |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Darmstadt |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1964 |
| Place of death | Hanau |