Hans von Below

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Hans von Below

Hans Vinzent Stanislaus von Below (born June 27, 1862 in Graudenz , † August 6, 1933 in Waynesville / USA ) was a Prussian lieutenant general in the First World War .

Life

origin

Hans came from the old noble family von Below . He was the eldest son of the later Prussian Lieutenant General Hugo von Below (1824-1905) and his wife Alexandra Ludowika Friederike, born von Lupinski (1827-1898). His eldest brother was the in the First World War as Commanding General of the 14th Army has become known Infantry General Otto von Below .

Military career

Below entered after his education in the cadet corps on April 17, 1880 as an ensign in the Fusilier Regiment No. 80 of the Prussian Army . Here he was promoted to second lieutenant on November 16, 1880 . From October 1, 1884, Below was commanded as a teacher at the non-commissioned officer school in Potsdam for three years. After his return to his main regiment, he was promoted to Prime Lieutenant on June 17, 1889 and as such was assigned to the General Staff from April 1, 1893 . With his promotion to captain on 24 July 1894 and his appointment was made to the company commander in Fusilier Regiment. 80. This position had to come almost six years until May 21, 1900 held Below to then as adjutant to 22 Division by Kassel to be transferred. Left in this position, Below was then transferred to the 8th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 153 on April 22, 1902 and at the same time promoted to major . After three years he was appointed commander of the III. Battalion of the Grenadier Regiment "Prince Carl of Prussia" (2nd Brandenburg) No. 12 in Frankfurt (Oder) .

Below was adopted on April 10, 1906. He traveled to Argentina and was hired as a colonel in the Argentine Army and teacher at the Academy of War (Escuela Superior de Guerra) in Buenos Aires . In 1910 his activity in South America ended.

Below returned to Germany, was reactivated on May 1, 1911 with the rank of lieutenant colonel ( patent from January 27, 1909) and assigned to the staff of the Anhalt Infantry Regiment No. 93 in Dessau . On February 20, 1912 he was promoted to colonel and two days later he was appointed commander of the Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 in Koblenz .

With the outbreak of World War I, Below gave up his regiment and was given command of the 15th Reserve Infantry Brigade belonging to the 1st Guard Reserve Division . With her he took part in the invasion of neutral Belgium , was promoted to major general on August 19, 1914 and took part in the fighting that led to the conquest of the fortress of Namur . He then moved with his association to the Eastern Front and was used here for the first time in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes . This was followed by the campaign in southern Poland, the battles at Opatow , Ivangorod and the Rawka - Bzura .

On May 27, 1915 Below gave up his brigade and was appointed commander of the 6th Reserve Division . At that time it was in front of Schaulen and belonged to the Nyemen Army , which was commanded by his brother Otto. With his division he took part in the summer campaign in Lithuania and Courland . He succeeded in taking Libau , Bauska and Mitau . He then advanced via Ekau to Riga before the division went into position warfare on the Daugava . Here Below was able to repel attacks by Russian corps under General Kuropatkin several times in the Battle of Kekkau from July 16 to 22, 1916 with his troops, which were brought up to corps strength . For these achievements, Below was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class with oak leaves and swords.

Below was transferred to Romania on October 18, 1916 as commander of the 89th Division . At this time, the large association fought in the Carpathian Mountains in the area of Predeal and Bodza and was then involved in the Christmas battle at Rimnicul-Sarat from December 21 to 27, 1916 . On January 2, 1917, Below was dismissed from his post and appointed commander of the newly established 238th Division . Below fought with her in the spring battle at Arras . During the Third Battle of Flanders in October 1917 Below u. a. was entrusted with the defense of the village of Passchendaele . After heavy fighting, the two northern regimental sections of the division with the main line of resistance were lost in a major attack on October 30, 1917. Below succeeded, however, in a counter-attack and supported by artillery, the partially evacuated and almost completely destroyed village and the main line of resistance to retake and subsequently hold them. Below was then submitted to the Pour le Mérite by the commanding general of the Guard Corps and Wilhelm II finally awarded Below the highest Prussian valor award on November 24, 1917 by AKO .

In the meantime, his division had been exhausted from the front to freshen up. She then joined the 18th Army and fought in the Great Battle of France from March 21, 1918 . After the offensive ceased, the division joined the 1st Army in Reims in mid-April , where Below was promoted to Lieutenant General on April 18, 1918. After trench warfare , the Fort de la Pompelle was captured in the Battle of Soissons and Reims from May 27 to June 13, 1918 . On August 22, 1918 Below was commissioned with the management of General Command 51 . As part of the 2nd Army , he commanded it in the battle of Péronne , the defensive battle between Cambrai and St. Quentin and in the retreat battles before and in the Hermann position and in front of the Antwerp - Maas position.

After the Armistice of Compiègne Below led his troops back home. He then submitted his departure and was put up for disposition on May 12, 1919 .

Below later lived in the United States, where he died in 1933.

Awards

family

In Argentina he met Nina Ross Bryce (born November 25, 1867, † December 28, 1949) know. They married on April 3, 1907.

Fonts

  • Mis memorias de guerra. L. Bernard, Buenos Aires 1923.

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A – G, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 85-86.
  • Hanns Möller-Witten : History of the knights of the order "pour le mérite" in the world war. Volume 1: A – L, Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 67–69.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 10, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1942], DNB 986919810 , pp. 453-454, no. 3323.
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv (Hrsg.): Battles of the World War Flanders 1917. Volume 27, Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg / Berlin 1928, p. 145
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg Army Corps for 1914. Ed .: War Ministry , Ernst Siegfried Mittler & Son , Berlin 1914, p. 156
  4. ↑ grave site
personal data
SURNAME Below, Hans von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Below, Hans Vinzent Stanislaus von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant general
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Graudenz
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1933
Place of death Waynesville, USA