Rudolf Witzig

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Rudolf Witzig (born August 14, 1916 in Röhlinghausen ; † October 3, 2001 in Oberschleißheim ) was a German airborne pioneer officer in the Wehrmacht and played a key role in the conquest of the Belgian fort Eben Emael on May 10, 1940.

Wehrmacht and World War II

Witzig joined the Pioneer Battalion 16 as an officer candidate on April 1, 1935 and was promoted to lieutenant . As a platoon leader he took over the pioneer platoon of a parachute infantry battalion of the Air Force in August 1938, with which he took part in the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War . As a first lieutenant he was commanded with his pioneer train to the "Sturmabteilung Koch". In preparation for the capture of Eben-Emael , he went to Czechoslovakia, visited the Czechoslovak Wall and the fire tests and bombing tests that the Wehrmacht made there in order to learn from them for the conquest of the Maginot Line .

Witzigs from airborne pioneers existing train ( "battle group Granite") launched on 10 May 1940 before dawn with eleven drag-drawn carriages (one Ju 52-3m pulled a glider DFS 230 ) at the airport Cologne-Ostheim. A glider had to make an emergency landing in Düren after a misunderstood release signal. Furthermore, the tow of the towing team broke in whose glider Zugführer Witzig was sitting; the team landed in Germany on a Rhine meadow. Witzig therefore only reached the scene of the action at the fort with a new tow plane after the end of the actual fighting around 8:30.

The other nine gliders landed on the plateau of Fort Eben-Emael ; the fortress, occupied by 1185 Belgian soldiers, capitulated at 11:30 a.m. the next day. Witzig was largely responsible for the planning and training of this difficult company, which was important for the success of the Western campaign. The fact that this operation was carried out successfully despite the early failure of the platoon leader is considered a prime example of the superiority of German mission tactics . After this success he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and promoted to captain .

In skirmishes after the jump over Crete (near Maleme ) as part of Operation Mercury (May 20, 1941) he was seriously wounded and flown to an Air Force field hospital in Athens. After his recovery he was in action as a battalion commander in the fighting for Tunisia ( Africa campaign ) and on the Eastern Front , for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross Oak Leaves (662nd award) for bravery in front of the enemy on November 25, 1944 . Before that he had already received the German Cross in Gold on October 17, 1943 . Major Witzig experienced the end of the war as commander of the Paratrooper Regiment 18 in the west .

Bundeswehr and life in the Federal Republic of Germany

Witzig joined the newly established Bundeswehr on January 16, 1956, where he served, among other things, as commander of the 7th Pioneer Battalion in Holzminden . He retired as a colonel on September 30, 1974 .

Witzig was the first chairman of the Bund Deutscher Fallschirmjäger e. V. and later his honorary member .

Contributions

  • Rudolf Witzig: The capture of Eben-Emael . In: Pionier 7/2, 1965, pp. 50-58

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Pissin: The capture of the fortress Eben-Emael on 10./11. May 1940 . In: General Swiss Military Magazine (ASMZ) . tape 125 , no. 8 , 1959, pp. 596 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-37841 .
  2. ↑ a b c 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. 793.
  3. ↑ Condolences on command . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1959 ( online - May 13, 1959 ).
  4. ↑ 1985-1989. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008 ; Retrieved September 26, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Funny, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, airborne engineer officer of the Wehrmacht
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Röhlinghausen
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2001
Place of death Oberschleissheim