Hans Schmidt (General)

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Hans Schmidt (born April 28, 1877 in Ulm , † June 5, 1948 in Stuttgart ) was a German officer , most recently general of the infantry in World War II .

Life

Schmidt was the son of a general and corps physician and department head in the Württemberg war ministry .

He joined the Württemberg army on July 11, 1895 . During the First World War he was employed as a major and battalion commander in the infantry regiment "Alt-Württemberg" (3rd Württembergisches) No. 121 from Ludwigsburg . After the end of the war, he was accepted into the Reichswehr . There he served u. a. from 1 February 1930 to 31 January 1931 as an infantry leader VI in Hanover and was eliminated subsequently awarded the character as a lieutenant general from active service.

During the mobilization in 1939 he was reactivated and became the first commander of the 260th Infantry Division . Under his command, the division reached Desna on September 1, 1941 as the first major unit . Although the flanks were threatened, Schmidt decided to throw the infantry regiment 470 over the river and thus form a bridgehead on the south bank at Kisselewka. On September 2, 1941, the place Wibli was taken and the crossing over the Desna was successful. This established the connection to Army Group South . On September 6, 1941, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . On September 24, 1941, he issued the following order of the day:

“The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht awarded me the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. This award is in recognition of the performance of the division, which paved its way south in weeks of heavy fighting, was the first to force the Desna crossing and thus played a decisive role in the successes against the Russian Army Group South. I am proud of the division and thank all relatives. "

On 1 January 1942 he became the commanding general of the IX. Army Corps , with which he was deployed in Army Group Center until 1943 . On October 31, 1943, he was retired as one of the oldest generals in the Wehrmacht .

However, he was reassigned to the service in 1944 and was appointed commander of the Deputy General Command in Military District V (Stuttgart) . From November 1944 until the end of the war in 1945 he was Commander-in-Chief of the 24th Army formed from this . This framework association was set up on the left flank of the western front between the border triangle Switzerland-France-Germany and the eastern edge of the Black Forest near Lörrach against an alleged Allied offensive over Switzerland. Schmidt was subject to practically no combat troops, since all available replacement troop units of the military district had to be handed in for use on the Upper Rhine front in the winter of 1944/45, but only a few construction companies and four reconnaissance staffs. With these he should explore defensive positions and locking bars and develop them. In February 1945 Schmidt and his "army" were subordinated to AOK 19 . It was not until April 1945 that the garrisons from the Radolfzell , Konstanz and Friedrichshafen sites were added, as well as five customs border guard battalions (customs border guard battalion Upper Rhine VIII, IX, X, XII, XIV) and a tank reconnaissance company. A total of ten battalions of 300 men each were available, but only two of them were trained. Schmidt is said to have behaved as an unyielding fanatic on the question of the defense of Constance.

On April 26, 1945, Division No. 405 in the Bad Wurzach area was transferred by the 19th Army under Lieutenant General Karl Faulenbach as a replacement and training division with six battalions. On the same day, the association received the defense order for Vorarlberg, which thus left the area of ​​command of the general of the mountain troops Valentin Feurstein . Since April 27 and 28, 1945, the AOK 24 protected the western entrance of the Alpine fortress, which ultimately did not exist .

Three defensive zones were formed: Immenstadt with a replacement and training force formed ad hoc on April 27, 1945 under Lieutenant General (Erich?) Hofmann with 1½ marching battalions; Staufen with combat group OT Jurkschat (2 marching battalions from Isny ​​and Leutkirch); finally Weiler- Bregenz under Lieutenant General Faulenbach with eight replacement battalions of the 405th Replacement and Training Division, the only real association. That was a total of 8,000 to 9,000 men, including dispersed Waffen-SS , Standschützen, order troops, etc. There was also a battery of light mountain flak (12 × 2 cm).

On May 4th and 5th, 1945 the retreat took place through the Arlberg tunnel to Strengen . Parliamentarians of this small armed force (four weak battalions left) were in front of the lines of the French 1st Army on May 4, 1945 .

Shortly beforehand, the French commander, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny , was asked by the superior OB of the 6th US Army Group, General Jacob L. Devers , to send a parliamentarian to negotiate with the German AOK 19.

The Frenchman wrongly concluded that he would probably be invited to hand over the AOK 19, but at the same time was entitled to accept the handover of the AOK 24 exclusively to his own army. Schmidt's emissaries returned with this decision.

In the meantime, however, the German general had been informed of the surrender of his superior Army Group G (on May 5, 1945 in Haar near Munich by General of the Infantry Hermann Foertsch on behalf of General Field Marshal Albert Kesselring ). Schmidt had to inform the French General de Lattre that it was no longer necessary to surrender his AOK 24 alone. His staff had already taken captivity to the 44th US Division on May 5, 1945.

De Lattre, after learning of Devers' agreement with Schmidt's view, contradicted it by pointing out that AOK 24 was not mentioned in the surrender documents . At Devers' request, he now sent a courier to General Erich Brandenberger (OB AOK 19) to ask AOK 24 to capitulate to the French. Until then, the fighting will continue.

AOK 24 and its only association, the replacement and training division 405, accepted the ceasefire from May 5, 1945 at 6:00 p.m. and were surprised by the French attack after this date. On the night of May 6, 1945, the troops in the Innsbruck area were pushed into the American zone; the Germans were not aware of the demarcation line .

Very few soldiers became captured by the French, the majority came into American captivity .

Awards

literature

  • Wolf Keilig: The German Army 1939–1945. Structure, commitment, staffing. 3 volumes (loose-leaf work). Podzun Publishing House. Bad Nauheim 1956 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 309 ( google.de [accessed on April 22, 2019]).
  2. ↑ http ://www.zoll Grenzschutz.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=88
  3. ↑ Helmut Maurer (Ed.): Grenzstand Konstanz 1945 , Südkurier, Konstanz 1988 [ ISBN 3-87799-074-6 ], p. 112
  4. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner: War in Austria 1945 , Austrian Federal Publishing House for Education, Science and Art, Vienna 1970 (= Writings of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien, 5) [ ISBN 3-215-73301-3 ], p. 246
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1930. p. 108.
  6. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 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. 669.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1948
Place of death Stuttgart