Julius von Bernuth (General, 1897)

Major General Julius von Bernuth.

Erwin Rommel and Julius von Bernuth observe a crossing on the Moselle in the spring of 1940

Julius Hans Camillo Friedrich Leo Ludwig von Bernuth (born August 12, 1897 in Metz ; † July 12, 1942 near Ssochkranaja ) was a German major general in World War II . After the First World War , he joined the National Socialists early on and took part in the march on the Feldherrnhalle in 1923.

Life

origin

Julius was the son of the Prussian Major General Julius von Bernuth (1861–1957) and his wife Elsa, née Spruner von Merz (1876–1945).

Prussian Army

Bernuth first attended the military academy in Karlsruhe , the Prussian Hauptkadettenanstalt and entered after the outbreak of the First World War on August 10, 1914 as an ensign in the Life Guards Infantry Regiment (1st Grand Duchy of Hesse) no. 115 of the Prussian army one. Via Belgium he moved into France with his regiment and participated u. a. at the Battle of the Marne , during which he was wounded on September 10, 1914. After hospital stay and recovery, Bernuth was from November 27, 1915 with Field Replacement Battalion No. 70 and then until March 17, 1915 with Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 254. After returning to his main regiment, he acted there as a training as well as as an orderly officer . On February 28, 1917, Bernuth was transferred as platoon leader to Infantry Regiment No. 365, in which he then held the position of battalion adjutant from April 13, 1917 until after the end of the war. At the end of the war he was a lieutenant and had received both classes of the Iron Cross , the Hessian Medal of Bravery and the Badge for Wounds in black.

Weimar Republic

Bernuth returned to his regular regiment on December 13, 1918. After the demobilization , the remnants of the regiment formed the Freikorps 115, to which Bernuth belonged until he was accepted into the Reichswehr on October 1, 1919. Here it was first used in the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment 35. From June 1, 1920 he then served in the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 22. At the beginning of 1921 he was a member of the 16th company of the 15th Infantry Regiment , where he was promoted to first lieutenant on April 1, 1925 . For his participation in the Hitler putsch in Munich in 1923 he was later awarded the Blood Order. The Infantry School followed from 1926 to 1931 , at the same time he was on the 7th Division staff from October 1, 1928 and in the 6th Division from October 1, 1930 , where he received his assistant leadership training .

On April 1, 1931, he was promoted to captain and on August 29 of the same year he was transferred to the staff of Infantry Leader II. From March 7, 1932, von Bernuth was employed in the Ministry of Defense .

National Socialism and World War II

He was appointed company commander in the Munich Infantry Regiment on October 1, 1934 . On October 15, 1935, he became chief of the 2nd company in the 100 Mountain Infantry Regiment and as such was promoted to major on January 1, 1936 . On March 7, 1936, he became the first general staff officer (Ia) in the staff of the 17th Infantry Division . From August 1, 1937, he worked as a tactics teacher at the War Academy and on January 1, 1939, he became a lieutenant colonel in the General Staff .

When the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, von Bernuth Ia and O 1 were of the Panzer Division Kempf . Then he was Ia at XXVI. Army Corps . On March 15, 1940 he became Chief of the General Staff of the XV. Army Corps (motorized). In the absence of the commanding general General of the Infantry Hermann Hoth , he thwarted the French attempt on May 22, 1940 to break through Cambrai and Arras in the direction of Bapaume , for which he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 5, 1940 .

After the end of the campaign in the west , von Bernuth was appointed chief of the 4th (training) department in the Army General Staff on October 26, 1940 and from June 1941 was a liaison officer of the OKH to Army Group South , where he became a colonel on December 1, 1940 i. G. was promoted. On January 10, 1942, Bernuth was promoted to Chief of Staff of the 4th Army and on April 1, 1942 to major general. On April 28, 1942 he became Chief of the General Staff of the 4th Panzer Army under Colonel General Hermann Hoth.

On July 12, 1942, he took off from Army headquarters in a Fieseler Storch on a flight to the XXXX. Army Corps from which he did not return. Search parties found the fallen Fieseler Storch near Ssochkranaja on July 14th. Von Bernuth was buried on July 16, 1942 in the Frolowskij cemetery near Stalingrad .

literature

• Dermot Bradley : The Generals of the Army 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 1: Abberger – Bitthorn. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1993, ISBN 3-7648-2423-9 , pp. 351-352.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The war albums of officer Julius von Bernuth. Retrieved January 21, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 156.
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. 217.