Helmuth Beukemann

Helmuth Beukemann (born May 9, 1894 in Hamburg ; † July 13, 1981 there ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II .

Military career

On May 4, 1914, Beukemann joined the 5th Hanover Infantry Regiment No. 165 of the Prussian Army in Quedlinburg as a flag junior . During the First World War he was promoted to first lieutenant until June 1918 and received, in addition to both classes of the Iron Cross, the Wound Badge in black. Taken into the Reichswehr, he was first used as a platoon leader in the 8th (MG) company of the 12th Infantry Regiment and from December 1926 as a company commander . On February 1, 1928 he was promoted to captain and on October 1, 1934 appointed as a tactics teacher at the Munich War School . He received further promotions, still employed at the war school, on December 1, 1934 to major and on October 1, 1937 to lieutenant colonel . From November 10, 1938, Beukemann became commander of the 1st Battalion of the 89th Grenadier Regiment of the 12th Infantry Division , with which he took part in the 1939 attack on Poland .

From January 13, 1940, Beukemann was commander of the 382 infantry regiment in the association of the newly established 164th Infantry Division . In the French campaign , the division was used in the association of the 12th Army, after the end of the fighting as an occupying force in the Reims area. On September 1, 1940, Beukemann was promoted to colonel . In January 1941 the division was transferred to Romania in the area south of Bucharest , from where it crossed the Danube in early March 1941 and marched over the Schipka Pass to the Bulgarian southern border. The border with Greece was crossed on April 6, 1941 and the division advanced via Ehinos and Xanthi to the Nexos crossings at Toxote. Then she occupied the islands of Samothraki and Lemnos and the area of Alexandroupolis . On May 14, 1941, Beukemann was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his regimental leadership . In August 1941, the 382 infantry regiment was moved to the Saloniki area as an occupying force . Here Beukemann became the site elder. In January 1942 the division was reclassified to the fortress division of Crete, which also included Beukemann's regiment. From July 9, 1942, the regiment then moved, reinforced by a division of the 220 artillery regiment and the division's 220 engineer battalion in air and ship transport to Tobruk , North Africa, where it was used in the first battle of El-Alamein . For this Beukemann was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Bravery .

On August 17, 1942, his activity as regimental commander ended. He was briefly transferred to the Army Reserve Command, and then on September 15, 1942, he took over the leadership of the 75th Infantry Division on the Eastern Front near Voronezh. On November 1, 1942, Beukemann received his promotion to major general and became division commander. He commanded the division until July 9, 1944 in the retreat battles from the bridgehead at Voronezh, on the western edge of the Kursk Arc, in the further retreats through northern Ukraine, near Cherkassy and in the "Hube Kessel" to Galicia. On May 1, 1943, Beukemann became lieutenant general .

After a vacation, Beukemann was transferred to Division Command 539 in Prague on September 1, 1944. At the end of the war in 1945, Beukemann was taken prisoner by the Americans, from which he was released in July 1947. He lived in Stuttgart in 1955, later back in his native Hamburg, where he died in 1981.

literature

Wolfgang Keilig : The generals of the army. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 32.

Individual evidence

↑ 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 .
↑ Walther-Peer Fellgiebel : The bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939-1945 - The holder of the highest award of the Second World War of all parts of the Wehrmacht . Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2004, ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 , p. 112 .

personal data
SURNAME	Beukemann, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	May 9, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	July 13, 1981
Place of death	Hamburg

[Scherzer-1] 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 .

[2] Walther-Peer Fellgiebel : The bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939-1945 - The holder of the highest award of the Second World War of all parts of the Wehrmacht . Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2004, ISBN 3-7909-0284-5 , p. 112 .