Hans-Walter Heyne

Hans-Walter Heyne-Hedersleben (born January 10, 1894 in Hanover , † August 29, 1967 in Bodenengern ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

family

He came from the monastery owner family Heyne in Hedersleben . His father was Adolf Friedrich Eduard Heyne-Hedersleben, owner of a manor on Radaxdorf ; his mother Wally Marie, née von Willich. Heyne married Elisabeth Mummy, the daughter of the shipowner Ludolf Hieronymus Mummy.

Military career

Heyne joined the 1st Grand Ducal Hessian Field Artillery Regiment No. 25 of the Prussian Army in Darmstadt on February 26, 1913 . There he was promoted to lieutenant on June 19, 1914 with a patent from June 23, 1912 . With the outbreak of the First World War, Heyne moved into neutral Belgium as a battery officer with his regiment and took part here a. a. participated in the battle of Neufchâteau . From September 8th to December 5th, 1914 Heyne was adjutant of the 2nd division, then came to the 6th battery and in the middle of the month to the 2nd replacement division. On December 29, 1914 Heyne was transferred to the 1st Battery of the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 56. On this date the regiment had been reorganized from parts of its old one and was subsequently used on the Eastern Front . There he was promoted to first lieutenant on October 18, 1917 . After the armistice in the Romanian theater of war , his regiment moved to the Western Front , where Heyne was assigned to lead the I. Department during the fighting off Verdun in June / July 1918. For his achievements he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Hessian Medal of Bravery and the Braunschweig War Merit Cross , 2nd class.

After the end of the war and his return home, his regiment in Weilburg was first demobilized and finally dissolved. Heyne was then reassigned to his regular regiment. With the formation of the Provisional Reichswehr , he came to Giessen as a regimental adjutant in the light Reichswehr Artillery Regiment 18 . In the transitional army he then worked in the 11th Reichswehr Artillery Regiment in Fulda, until Heyne was finally transferred to the 15th Cavalry Regiment on April 29, 1920 . On December 1, 1925, he was promoted to Rittmeister and on February 15, 1926, he was transferred to the staff of the 3rd (Prussian) Cavalry Regiment in Rathenow . On April 1, 1926, he was appointed head of the training squadron, also stationed in Rathenow, which Heyne commanded until September 30, 1928. He then became chief of the 2nd Squadron. Due to a skull injury sustained by falling off his horse, Heyne was retired on February 28, 1930.

On April 1, 1930, Heyne was hired as a state security officer in the Reichswehr Ministry. Here he was the head of pre-military youth training and head of the military district command in Zauch-Belzig . On October 1, 1933, he was taken on as an L officer and appointed adjutant of the Perleberg district command. On March 5, 1935, while being promoted to major, he was transferred to the E-Corps and assigned to the military district command Potsdam II.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Heyne took part in the attack on Poland (White case), for which he received the repeat clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd class. On September 28, 1939, he was appointed commander of the 754 light artillery division, and on April 1, 1940, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On December 1, 1940, he was hired as an active troop officer and at the same time appointed commander of the 1st division of the 217th Artillery Regiment. Heyne led this division during the attack on the Soviet Union until he was transferred to the Führer Reserve on February 23, 1942. On March 28th In 1942 he became commander of the 182nd artillery regiment and four days later he was promoted to colonel . On April 16, 1943, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his services in the defensive battles ( Voronezh-Charkov Operation ) in the division's operational area, east of Kursk near Kastornoje . From March 15, he was in charge of the 82nd Infantry Division and, after his promotion to major general , was its commander on June 1, 1943 until the division was dissolved in May 1944. During the Bobruysk offensive in June 1944, he was a lieutenant general (appointed December 1, 1943) and commander of the 6th Infantry Division , in Soviet captivity , from which he was released on October 6, 1955.

Heyne retired with his wife on their property, the Bodenengern moated castle. He is buried in the cemetery of the municipality of Rehren near Rinteln, a neighboring town of Bodenengern.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Brockmann: Die Generale des Heeres 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 5: von Haack – Hitzfeld. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1999. ISBN 3-7648-2538-3 . Pp. 408-410.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jürgen Kraus : Handbook of the associations and troops of the German army 1914-1918. Part IX: Field Artillery. Volume 2. Militaria Publishing House. Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-902526-15-1 . P. 754.
2. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1924. p. 167.
3. ↑ 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. 390.