Gustav von Vaerst (General)

Gustav von Vaerst (left), May 1943

Gustav Fritz Julius von Vaerst (born April 19, 1894 in Meiningen ; † October 10, 1975 in Stockheim ) was a German general of the armored forces in World War II .

Life

Vaerst came from an old Westphalian noble family. He was the son of the Meiningen state veterinarian and later Munich university professor Gustav von Vaerst and his wife Emmeline, née Hack. His first education he received from 1903 to 1908 in Meiningen, where he remained until 1907, the school Bernhardinum that and until July 1908 secondary school attended. He then moved to a Munich secondary school , where he graduated from high school in July 1912. On 15 July 1912 he joined as a cadet in the Hussars "Landgrave Friedrich II. Of Hesse-Homburg" (second Kurhessisches) no. 14 in Kassel. On February 18, 1914, retroactively to February 18, 1912, he received his officer license as a lieutenant .

First World War

During the First World War , Vaerst was deployed with this regiment from August 3, 1914 on the theaters of war in France, Belgium, Russia and Romania. He served in the 22nd Cavalry Brigade first as platoon leader , later as squadron leader and from 1916 as regimental adjutant . Vaerst was promoted to first lieutenant the following year and during the war was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Cross for Faithful Service and the Saxony-Meiningen Cross for Merit in War .

After the end of the war he returned home with his association at the end of 1918 and, after demobilization in 1919, joined the Hessisch-Waldeck Free Corps. With this Freikorps he went to Silesia as leader of the 2nd Squadron .

Between the world wars

During the establishment of the Provisional Reichswehr , he was taken over as squadron leader in the 16 Cavalry Regiment in November 1919. From 1921 to 1922 he received the training of assistant leaders , then served in various units and rose to Rittmeister in 1924 . In 1930 Vaerst was transferred to the staff of the 1st Cavalry Division in Frankfurt (Oder) as the first General Staff Officer (Ia) . After the National Socialists came to power , he was appointed as a tactics teacher at the Hanover Cavalry School in spring 1933 , and later at the Hanover War School. On February 1, 1934, he was promoted to major , at the beginning of 1935 transferred as battalion commander to Rifle Regiment 2 of the 2nd Panzer Division in Meiningen and promoted to lieutenant colonel in August 1936 . After Austria was annexed to the German Reich in 1938, the 2nd Panzer Division was relocated to Vienna. Vaerst was promoted to regimental commander of the 2nd Rifle Regiment on January 20, 1938 and promoted to colonel on March 1, 1939 .

Second World War

With the beginning of the Second World War Vaerst was commander of the 2 rifle brigade of the 2nd Panzer Division. He commanded them in the campaign against Poland in 1939 and against France in 1940 . For his work in the conquest of Boulogne Vaerst was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on July 30, 1940 . With his brigade Vaerst took part in the campaign against Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941 and was instrumental in the capture of Thessaloniki and the surrender of the Greek armed forces there. On June 1, 1941, Vaerst was replaced as troop commander and appointed deputy commander of the Krampnitz cavalry school near Potsdam. On September 1, 1941, he was appointed major general .

After the commander of the 15th Panzer Division , Major General Walter Neumann-Silkow , died on December 7, 1941 in the North African theater of war, Vaerst was appointed as the new division commander and posted to North Africa. He arrived at the German Africa Corps on December 17, 1941 and took command of his division . He led them in the fighting against the British and allied forces until his wounding on May 28, 1942 at Got el Ualeb. After his recovery, Vaerst returned to the front as commander of his division in August 1942. When the commanding general of the German Africa Corps, General of the Panzer Force Walther Nehring , was seriously wounded during the German-Italian offensive against El Alamein , Vaerst took command of the commanding general for a few days on August 31, 1942 on the orders of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel about the German Africa Corps. After the appointment of General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma as commanding general of the Africa Corps, Vaerst returned to his division. With the start of the British offensive on October 23, 1942, the withdrawal of the German and Italian troops began.

At the end of November 1942, Vaerst fell seriously ill and had to be transported back to Germany. On December 1, 1942 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and in March 1943 to General of the Panzer Troops. Since Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim had taken over the supreme command of the German Army Group Africa after Rommel was recalled , Vaerst, meanwhile healed, was in his place commander of the 5th Panzer Army , which was now in Tunisia. Although he was aware of the hopelessness of his situation, he accepted the further deaths of German and Allied soldiers and, fighting against British and American troops, withdrew with the remainder of his troops to the Tunisian coast and finally surrendered on May 9, 1943 at Porto Farina, near Bizerta . Vaerst went into captivity and was first placed in a prisoner of war camp in the USA . He was later transferred to Great Britain.

post war period

In 1947 Vaerst was released to Germany from British captivity. After his return from captivity, he lived in retirement as a pensioner on the remaining Lower Franconian family property in Stockheim near Mellrichstadt .

Vaerst had been married to Astor Freiin von Swaine since August 30, 1925 and had a son and three daughters.

He was instrumental in rebuilding the Red Cross in Stockheim.

literature

• Dieter Brosius: History of the Vaerst family - von Vaerst. ISBN 3-7752-5851-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin 1924, p. 139.
2. ↑ 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. 755.