Harald Mors

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Harald Mors on Mussolini's right. Campo Imperatore , September 12, 1943

Harald-Otto Mors , also Otto-Harald Mors (born November 18, 1910 in Alexandria , Egypt ; † February 11, 2001 in Berg (Starnberger See) ) was a German officer in the Wehrmacht and the Bundeswehr . Mors commanded the parachute hunter training battalion, which carried out the liberation of Mussolini in September 1943 with the " company Eiche ".

origin

The Mors family comes from Baden and has provided German officers and civil servants since the 17th century. Harald Mors' father, Robert Mors, was Prefect of Police of Abbas II , the Khedive of Egypt . His mother came from Lausanne, Switzerland .

Life

Until 1945

When the First World War broke out , Mors' mother fled with the family from Egypt to Switzerland in order to avoid internment . In 1922 the family moved to Berlin .

At the age of 18, Harald Mors gained his first flying experience on gliders , joined the Reichswehr as an officer candidate and attended the war school in Dresden . In 1934 he became a lieutenant in Lufthansa and in the following year in the air force . The family, however, was critical of National Socialism: Harald Mors' father was monitored by the Gestapo , and he himself was considered politically unreliable, which is why his promotion to captain was suspended.

Mors joined the paratrooper force in 1940 and took part in the Battle of Crete . Mors later commanded one of the battalions of the 2nd Division and served on the Eastern Front .

In 1943 he was transferred to Italy as a major at the head of the parachute hunter training battalion . After the disarmament of an Italian division at Lake Nemisee , he led the "company oak" with the participation of almost 20 men of the Waffen-SS and SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny on the orders of General Kurt Student to free the Italian dictator Mussolini captured on the Gran Sasso a successful completion. After his return to the base at Nemisee he was awarded the German Cross in Gold by General Student . The Nazi propaganda , on the other hand, placed the role of Skorzeny and his SS men in the foreground and attributed them to the liberation.

Mors was an officer in the General Staff until January 1944, after which he was transferred back to the Russian front. Towards the end of the war, he was appointed chief inspector of the paratrooper officers' school in Goslar . In March 1945 he was an officer in the General Staff of the 3rd Division and was taken prisoner of war in the Ruhr Basin , from which he was released in September of the same year.

After 1945

Mors spent the first post-war years in Ulm and returned to military service after the Bundeswehr was established. In 1956 he was assigned to the NATO secret service . In 1961 he was promoted to colonel and served his last assignment in Madrid . In 1965 he said goodbye , retired to his house on Lake Starnberg and wrote a family story that ends with the biography of his father and leaves his own contribution to the liberation of Mussolini unmentioned.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Toni Schneiders - A photographer as a »photo reporter« ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Archives , accessed on September 23, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesarchiv.de

Web links

Commons : Harald-Otto Mors  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

personal data
SURNAME Mors, Harald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mors, Harald-Otto (full name); Mors, Otto-Harald (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer in the Wehrmacht and in the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Alexandria , Egypt
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 2001
Place of death Berg (Starnberger See)