Otto Sponheimer

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Otto Sponheimer (born December 19, 1886 in Nuremberg , † March 14, 1961 in Theuern near Amberg ) was a German infantry general in World War II .

Life

Otto Sponheimer joined the Bavarian Army as a volunteer in October 1907 and advanced to lieutenant in the 14th Infantry Regiment "Hartmann" at the end of May 1909 . With this association he took part in the First World War, rose to captain until 1918 and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross IV. Class of the Order of Military Merit with Swords. After the end of the war only in the Reichswehr , he was adopted at the end of September 1920 and he switched to the Bavarian police service .

In March 1935 he was accepted into the Wehrmacht as a colonel . From October 1937 to September 1939 he was in command of the 24th Infantry Regiment in Braunsberg . Subsequently, during the Second World War, he was first major general (promotion in June 1939) from the beginning of November 1939 to January 10, 1943, commander of the 21st Infantry Division and was briefly replaced in April 1942 by Lieutenant General Wilhelm Bohnstedt . In July 1941 he was promoted to lieutenant general. He stood with the division in the Eifel and took part in the western campaign. In September 1940, his large unit moved to the 1st Army Corps in East Prussia . He took part in the Battle of Luga and the Volkhov Battle and was replaced shortly before the Second Battle of Ladoga . For his work, Sponheimer received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 8, 1941 and the German Cross in Gold on November 29, 1942 .

In July 1943 he was briefly commanding general of the X Army Corps . At the beginning of August 1943, also promoted to General of the Infantry that month, Sponheimer took over as Commanding General of the LIV. Army Corps (also known as the Sponheimer Group and transferred to the Narva Army Department after his departure ) and remained in this position until February 1944. With the LIV. Army Corps, he withdrew from Leningrad to the Panther Line and was able to repel Russian attacks there for six months with suitable defensive tactics. From late July to late October 1944 he was the commanding general of the LXVII. Army corps , which operated around Amiens and later around Breda . From September 1944 he stopped with fewer and fewer soldiers, among other things because the assigned division was poorly equipped and the 719th Infantry Division from LXVII. Army Corps was withdrawn, the area around Antwerp . The advance of the Allies could not be prevented and after Bergen op Zoom was lost, Otto Sponheimer was released from command. There was no further military use until the end of the war.

In 1946 he wrote the history of the LXVIII as German Military Studies for the Allies. Army Corps (as archive number B-236).

literature

  • Wolfgang Keilig : The German Army. 1939-1945. Volume 3, Podzun, 1956, p. 323.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian War Ministry: Ordinance sheet of the Royal Bavarian War Ministry . Printed in the K. Bavarian War Ministry, 1918, p. 1835 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Bavarian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of officers of the Royal Bavarian Army. Munich 1918, p. 64.
  3. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 64 + 65 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  4. ^ Military weekly paper . ES Mittler, 1941, p. 324 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  5. ↑ 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. 714.
  6. ↑ The archive; Reference book for politics, economics, culture . S. 401 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  7. ↑ Robert Forczyk: Walter Model . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84908-358-4 , pp. 40 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  8. ^ Earl F. Ziemke: Stalingrad to Berlin: the German Defeat in the East . Office of the Chief of Military History, US Army, 1968, pp. 262 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  9. ^ Mark Zuehlke: Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944 . D & M Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-1-926685-80-9 , pp. 103 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  10. ^ Charles Brown MacDonald: The Siegfried Line Campaign . Center of Military History, United States Army, 1993, p. 219 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  11. ^ Mark Zuehlke: Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944 . D & M Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-1-926685-80-9 , pp. 382 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
  12. ^ World War II German Military Studies: Part I. Introduction and guide . Garland Pub., 1979, ISBN 978-0-8240-4300-1 , pp. 1 ( google.de [accessed on May 18, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Sponheimer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General of the Infantry in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1961
Place of death Theuern near Amberg