Martin Gareis

Martin Gareis (born October 6, 1891 in Buch ; † February 26, 1976 in Kreuth ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Infantry and Commanding General of the XXXXVI. Panzer Corps in World War II .

Life

origin

Gareis was the son of a pastor.

Military career

He was educated in the cadet corps and then joined the infantry regiment "Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin" (4th Brandenburg) No. 24 of the Prussian Army on December 21, 1909 as an ensign . After successfully attending the Potsdam War School , Gareis was promoted to lieutenant on August 18, 1911 . From February 1914 he served in the MG company with which he went to the First World War . Wounded at the end of October 1914 during the fighting on the Aisne , Gareis came to Döberitz as a teacher for the MG training course after his recovery in mid-February 1915 . From April 1915 he returned to his regiment on the Western Front as a company commander . After the spring battle at La Bassée and Arras and the position battles in Flanders and Artois , Gareis was an orderly officer with the staff of the 5th Infantry Division from mid-October 1915 to March 1916 . He then returned to his regular regiment and fought as a company commander in the Battle of Verdun over the next few months . At the end of September 1916, Gareis was a brief machine gun officer at the staff and rose to regimental adjutant on October 14, 1916. For his achievements he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern , the Mecklenburg Military Merit Cross 1st Class and the Wound Badge in black. In the last days of the war, Gareis served as first lieutenant from October 23, 1918 as an adjutant of the 12th Infantry Brigade.

After the armistice of Compiègne , the return home and the demobilization , he was initially used from April 1, 1919 as adjutant of the Berlin II district command. On August 1, 1919, he was accepted into the provisional Reichswehr . Gareis was assigned to the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 30 and commanded as an adjutant of the field supplement department of Reichswehr Brigade 15 in Angermünde . Left in this command, he was transferred to the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 103 on December 1, 1919. After two months Gareis became adjutant of the garrison command in Brandenburg an der Havel . In mid-May 1920 he was transferred to the 5th Infantry Regiment as platoon leader , to which he also belonged in various functions until January 31, 1932 after the formation of the Reichswehr. Subsequently appointed adjutant to Infanterieführer II and commander of both Mecklenburgs, Gareis was promoted to major on August 1, 1933 and two months later transferred to the Schwerin military headquarters. He stayed there for a year and took over as commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Allenstein Infantry Regiment. He kept this command even after the expansion of the Wehrmacht and its renaming to Infantry Regiment 2. On March 1, 1936, he became a lieutenant colonel .

In October 1937 Gareis worked as the commander of teaching group B at the Munich War School. He was promoted to colonel on August 1, 1938, was transferred to the Führerreserve on March 1, 1939 , and was entrusted with training the state rifle associations in Bavaria.

Second World War

At the beginning of the Second World War , Gareis was the commander of the 282 Infantry Regiment, which was formed on the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Defense District XIII as part of the 5th wave of the newly established 98th Infantry Division . It was used in the western campaign and in the German-Soviet war . Here he received both repeat clasps for the Iron Cross and on October 18, 1941 the German Cross in Gold .

In December 1941 Gareis was entrusted with the leadership of the 98th Infantry Division, whose commander he became major general in February 1942 . He was deployed with his division in the east for two years, with this division suffering heavy losses - some regiments of the division were disbanded. During its submission to Army Group Center from October 1941 to June 1943, the division was equipped with Soviet T-26 and T-70 booty tanks. On January 1, 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant general and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on November 29, 1943 .

After this division was handed over to Lieutenant General Alfred-Hermann Reinhardt , he was in the Fuehrer's reserve for around two months and received a new command on May 5, 1944 with the native 264th Infantry Division , which was mainly deployed in Dalmatia . He was subsequently awarded the military order Michael the Brave and he handed the division over to Major General Alois Windisch . From January to May 1945, after a short time in the Führerreserve, he was still in charge of the XXXXVI. Panzer Corps, which fought in West Prussia and Pomerania, and on April 1, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, he was promoted to General of the Infantry and Commanding General of this Panzer Corps.

On May 2, 1945 Gareis was taken prisoner by the British . From May 8, 1945 he worked as a German liaison officer between the headquarters of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the POW camps of the British Army. He was released in June 1947.

Gareis died on February 26, 1976 and was buried in the Kreuth cemetery.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: 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 4: Fleck-Gyldenfeldt. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1996. ISBN 3-7648-2488-3 . Pp. 184-185.
• Georg Bewersdorf: General of the infantry Martin Gareis. One of the first to be awarded the German Cross in gold . In: Orders and Medals. The magazine for friends of phaleristics. Ed .: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde , issue 98, 17th volume, Gäufelden 2015. ISSN 1438-3772.

Web links

• Martin Gareis on specialcamp11.co.uk

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reinhard Stumpf : The Wehrmacht Elite. Structure of rank and origin of the German generals and admirals 1933–1945. (Military history studies). Harald Boldt Verlag. Boppard am Rhein 1982. ISBN 3-7646-1815-9 . P. 264.
2. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1925. p. 110.
3. ↑ ^{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. 326.