Paul Conrath

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Major General Paul Conrath.

Paul Conrath (born November 21, 1896 in Rudow near Berlin; † January 15, 1979 in Hamburg ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the parachute force in World War II .

Life

Conrath joined the 4th Guards Field Artillery Regiment on August 10, 1914 as a war volunteer and officer candidate and was assigned to the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 44 in October 1914 after his basic training . With the unit he was transferred to the Western Front in France. In October 1916 he was deployed as a battery officer, promoted to lieutenant on March 1, 1917 and shortly thereafter appointed department orderly officer in the 4th Baden Field Artillery Regiment No. 66 . He held this position until the end of the war.

On January 20, 1919, he said goodbye to the army and, barely a year later, switched to the police on January 11, 1920 . There he rose to major and was accepted as such in the Air Force on April 1, 1935 . Initially, Conrath worked until September 30, 1936 as adjutant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Hermann Göring . From October 1, 1936 to September 30, 1937 he was battery chief in Flak Regiment 12 in Berlin-Lankwitz . He then took over as commander of the III. light flaka division of the Air Force Regiment General Göring .

From January 1, 1938, he served as chief adjutant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 1, 1938 . He kept his position after the Second World War .

Paul Conrath (left) next to Hermann Göring walking along the front (1942)

On March 1, 1940 Conrath was promoted to colonel and on June 1, 1940 he was appointed commander of the Air Force Regiment General Göring . With this he took part in the fighting in France and, after its end, in Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union from June 22, 1941. His regiment was expanded into the Air Force Brigade in June and from October 17, 1942 into the Air Force Division . On June 15, 1942, he had already been promoted to major general. The division came to Tunisia to reinforce the Africa Corps and had to surrender in large parts after the battle for Tunisia or was destroyed.

From the remnants of the division, the Panzer Division Hermann Göring was formed in Italy in May 1943 . With this Conrath was initially deployed against the Allied landing on Sicily. On September 1, 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant general . In January 1944, the division was reorganized again, was given the name Fallschirm-Panzer-Division Hermann Göring and later played a major role in the fighting around Monte Cassino .

On April 15, 1944 Conrath was relieved of his command by Lieutenant General Wilhelm Schmalz and appointed commanding general of the training and replacement troops of the parachute army and inspector of the parachute troops . He did not receive a front command until the end of the war. On January 1, 1945 he was promoted to general of the parachute force. With the total German surrender on May 8, 1945, Conrath was briefly taken prisoner by the US , but was soon released again.

Awards

literature

  • Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935–1945, Volume 1 Abernetty-v.Gyldenfeldt , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 167–168.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 262.
personal data
SURNAME Conrath, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and general of the parachute force in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Rudow near Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 15th January 1979
Place of death Hamburg