Gustav Stoffleth

Captain Stoffleth

Gustav Stoffleth (born February 12, 1881 in Karlsruhe ; † September 1, 1954 there ) was a German lieutenant colonel and knight of the order Pour le Mérite and during the First World War he was the commander of the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 18.

Life

Stoffleth attended the secondary school in his hometown and, having passed the Abitur , entered the infantry regiment "Margrave Karl" (7th Brandenburg) No. 60 of the Prussian Army in Weißenburg on July 21, 1899 as a two-year-old volunteer . As a lieutenant , to which he was promoted in 1901 , Stoffleth was then from 1905 to 1908 adjutant of the 2nd battalion. After his promotion to first lieutenant on October 18, 1909 , he was sent to the military academy for further training in the following year until 1912 . In 1913 he became a tactics teacher at the Neisse War School . In April 1914, Stoffleth, who had been a captain since November 20, 1913 , was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Upper Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 171 in Colmar while remaining in his command at the War School .

First World War

With the outbreak of the First World War, Stoffleth was assigned to the Glatzer Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 38 and appointed chief of the 4th Company . On August 22, 1914, his horse was shot in the body on the western front and his right hand was pierced with a bayonet on September 10, 1914 . A few days later he received the Iron Cross 2nd class. Later he was awarded first class.

On July 15, 1915, he was appointed commander of the Ratzeburg Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 18 fighting in Flanders . Eight days later he was wounded by a shrapnel on his left thigh near Pilkem . He was able to maintain a position entrusted to him at St. Eloi in Flanders, despite a mine blown by the English. In the summer of 1916 his battalion was transferred to the Eastern Front in the Carpathian Corps , where it was used in association with the Jäger Regiment No. 5 of the newly established 200th Infantry Division . Under his leadership, his battalion distinguished itself in the Battle of the Carpathians in August and September. It pushed the opposing wing back at Hala-Lukawiec and stormed Ludowa on August 3 . In the later defense , this key point of the section was maintained under his leadership and Stoffleth was wounded on September 21, 1916 by several shrapnel. In mid-October, the 18th hunters had withdrawn into the stage, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords as an award for his performance in the September battle in the Ludowa region .

In mid-December, he was also assigned the training of company commanders and aspiring officers of the Jäger Regiment No. 5. At the beginning of March 1917, Stoffleth was assigned to the Hungarian Honvéd Infantry Regiment No. 19 as commander of the 1st Battalion for three months. This was south in the High Carpathians on the Romanian border. Back again he took part in the liberation of the Bukowina and made a decisive contribution with his battalion to the conquest of the Wisnitz section .

In autumn 1917 the battalion took part in the Italy offensive . With the storming of Ieza and the capture of Accidas and Cividales , Stoffleth's hunters again distinguished themselves. On October 28, 1917, the hunters penetrated the Italian shooting position at Torrente Torre in a bayonet attack and penetrated deep into the rear of the enemy in Udine , Cadorna's headquarters . The Italian position became untenable and had to be evacuated. The achievement of the set goal of the 200th Infantry Division owed it, as it was said, to a large extent to the Jäger Battalion and its leadership.

Monte Valderoa

At Vidor , Stoffleth suffered gas poisoning on November 28, 1917. Once again recovered, Stoffleth led the mountain battles west of the Piave . In the early morning of December 13th, Captain Stoffleth received an order from Commander Thümmel over the telephone that the Sternkuppe (Monte Valderoa) was to be conquered. The battalion was immediately put on the march and crossed the Cinespatal under cover of darkness. Stoffleth did not go from the point from which the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 23 and the Leib Grenadier Regiment "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (1st Brandenburg) No. 8 had tried unsuccessfully. He pushed his companies as close as possible to the upper valley and then attacked the steepest but hollow rocky slopes, roughly in the middle between Sternkuppe and point 1222. From the former point, the 23rd Reserve Hunter Battalion attracted the attention of the Italian armed forces.

The Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 23 and III. 3rd battalion of Jäger Regiment followed and temporarily subordinated to Stoffleth's battalion. Enemy reinforcements approaching from Monte Solarolo could be prevented. When his battalion was relieved on December 14th on Sternkuppe and brought to Schievenin , 1,000 prisoners, one heavy and three medium-sized mortars, as well as three light and 28 heavy machine guns, faced losses of two thirds of the combat strength.

His regimental commander, Colonel Thümmel, then asked him to be awarded the order Pour le Mérite. The request was supported by the brigade commander, Colonel Lehmann, and General Otto von Below . By AKO on January 22, 1918, Stoffleth was awarded the highest Prussian bravery award by Wilhelm II .

Back in the West his battalion fought in the Great Battle in France . On April 13, 1918, a shrapnel wounded his head and right thigh near Moreuil . During the defensive battle in Champagne , he suffered gas poisoning again while defending the Givet height near Saint-Souplet on September 25th. Stoffleth then gave up command of the battalion on October 8, 1918 and was transferred to Army High Command 17 as an adjutant .

post war period

After the end of the war, Stoffleth was commissioned on November 12, 1918 with the command of Storm Battalion No. 8, which was intended to be used against the troubles in the home. However, since the evacuation no longer took place, he remained with the Army High Command. Stoffleth left this group on Christmas Day 1918. In January 1919 he was assigned to the replacement battalion of the infantry regiment "von Winterfeldt" (2nd Upper Silesian) No. 23 to Neisse. His resignation was approved on May 27, 1919, and he was given the character of a major in August from the day of his departure .

Stoffleth went to the Technical University in Karlsruhe and then continued his studies at the Technical University in Berlin . He later became technical director and board member of an industrial company.

Stoffleth received the character of Lieutenant Colonel on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day.

Awards

• Hanseatic Cross Hamburg
• Hanseatic Cross Lübeck
• Mecklenburg Military Merit Cross
• Order of the Zähringer Lion
• Knight's Cross of the Military Karl Friedrich Order of Merit

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Works

• History of the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 18. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1937.

literature

• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 370–371.
• Hanns Möller : History of the knights of the order "Pour le mérite" in the World War. Volume 2: M-Z. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 380-382.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ When the front line in Flanders froze, a mine war arose there . From both sides of the front it was infiltrated by mine tunnels and then filled with explosives. By blowing them up, the enemy then tried to advance.
2. ↑ Otto von Below was not only the army commander at this time, but also head of the Ratzeburg Jäger Battalion No. 9 since 1916 . From its replacement battalion, the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 18 was formed in 1914 in addition to the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 9 .
3. ↑ Lübeck city archives in terms of Senate files: Directory of the owner of the Lübeckischen Hanseatic Cross. Signature 1093.