Gustav Wilke (General)

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Gustav Wilke (born March 6, 1898 in Deutsch-Eylau , † March 14, 1977 in Oberstdorf ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Gustav Wilke joined the army in 1916 and served in Grenadier Regiment No. 4 . He participated in various infantry and grenadier regiments in the First World War. In 1920 he was discharged from the army and drafted into the Reichswehr in 1925 .

He served again in various infantry regiments. In 1935 he switched to the Air Force and became the commander of the Giebelstadt Fliegergruppe . In April 1939 he was group commander in the airborne squadron in Hagenow / Lippstadt. After his promotion to lieutenant colonel , he was commander of Kampfgruppe zbV 12 from April 1940 and later until August 1940 commander of Luftlandegeschwader 1 . From September 1941 to the end of April 1942 he was a special representative of the Luftwaffe for a contract with Messerschmitt- Werke for the development of a large transport glider. Then he was with an Air Force Field Regiment on the Eastern Front . From September 30, 1942, with interruptions until October 1943, he was in command of the newly established 1st Air Force Field Division with participation in the Demyansk Kessel Battle . As a colonel , he took over command of the 2nd Paratrooper Division for a few days in November 1943 , which he now led as major general from late 1943 to mid-February 1944, representing Hermann Ramcke , who was wounded in combat in Italy . He took part in the Second Battle of Kiev and the fighting due to the Dnepr-Carpathian operation in Kirovograd and Uman . He then took over the newly established 5th Paratrooper Division , which he handed over to Ludwig Heilmann in October 1944 . In May 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant general and witnessed the landing of the Allies in Normandy with the association . Just like Eugen Meindl , he strictly implemented the punishment of soldiers in "arbitrary and violent actions against the civilian population". So were z. B. by a field court led by Gustav Wilke in June 1944 two senior hunters sentenced to death for looting. On September 24, 1944 he had already received his appointment as commander of the newly established 9th Paratrooper Division and at the beginning of March 1945 he switched to the newly established 10th Paratrooper Division as a commander . In April 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Americans, from which he was released in 1947.

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Peter Lieb : Conventional War or Nazi Weltanschauung ?: Warfare and Fight against Partisans in France 1943/44 . Walter de Gruyter , 2012, p. 552.
  • Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007). Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944 . PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. P. 97.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Forsyth: Ju 52 / 3m Bomber and Transport Units 1936-41 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4728-1881-2 , pp. 79 ( google.de [accessed on July 14, 2020]).
  2. ^ 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. 285 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Bruce Quarrie: The Ardennes Offensive: I Army & VII Army: Southern Sector . Osprey Military, April 1, 2001 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham Jr: Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944 . Stackpole Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8117-3384-7 , pp. 70 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ 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. 289 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ 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. 110 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ↑ 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. 296 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ 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. 787.
personal data
SURNAME Wilke, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH German Eylau
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1977
Place of death Oberstdorf