Siegfried of La Chevallerie

Friedrich Ludwig Franz Siegfried von La Chevallerie (born November 7, 1860 in Danzig , † April 26, 1950 in Ehningen ) was a German artillery general .

Life

origin

Siegfried came from the Chevallerie family, originally based in France . He was the son of the Prussian Major General Ludwig von La Chevallerie (1813-1884) and his wife Ida, née von Berg (1820-1893).

Military career

Chevallerie joined the 1st Hanover Field Artillery Regiment No. 10 of the Prussian Army in Hanover on October 1, 1879 as a flag junior . There he was appointed ensign on May 13, 1880 and promoted to second lieutenant on February 12, 1881 . As such, he was commanded for further training from October 1, 1882 to September 30, 1884 at the United Artillery and Engineering School. Subsequently, Chevallerie was from October 1, 1885 adjutant of the riding division of his regiment and on September 20, 1890 was Premier Lieutenant . With the promotion to captain , he rose to battery boss on November 15, 1894 . Chevallerie was then from June 16, 1901 to April 23, 1904 adjutant of the 2nd division in Insterburg . He was then transferred to Stettin as a major and was here in command of the 1st Division of the Vorpommern Field Artillery Regiment No. 38 . Chevallerie was then from July 1, 1907 to December 19, 1910 commander of the cavalry division of the 1st Pomeranian Field Artillery Regiment No. 2 in Belgard , in the meantime became a lieutenant colonel on September 17, 1909 and as such finally on December 20, 1910 commander of the Field artillery regiment "Grand Duke" (1st Baden) No. 14 appointed in Karlsruhe . In this position he was promoted to colonel on April 22, 1912 .

First World War

With the outbreak of World War I , Chevallerie took to the field at the head of his regiment in association with the XIV Army Corps on the Western Front . Wounded in Alsace on August 12, 1914, he stayed with his troops and then took part in the fighting in Lorraine and around Nancy - Epinal . On September 26, 1914, Chevallerie received command of the 33rd Field Artillery Brigade and moved into the Argonne , where he had to face heavy fighting in the months to come. On January 27, 1915, he was promoted to major general. In the months that followed, Chevallerie was repeatedly in command of the entire artillery of the XVI. Army Corps and effectively coordinated the procedure with the infantry .

On September 25, 1916, Chevallerie was finally appointed commander of the newly formed 221st Division . With her he was initially still in use in the Argonne Forest and then moved to the Somme in mid-October 1916 . Here the division took part in the battle there until the end of November 1916 and then went into position warfare. In the spring of 1917 the large association returned to the Siegfried Line and then fought in the Battle of Arras from mid-April to May . From June to August Chevallerie led his troops in Flanders , was pulled from the front after heavy losses and recovered in Champagne . In mid-November, the division briefly entered the fighting in Flanders before being withdrawn from there and relocated to Cambrai . After repelling the British major attack, Chevallerie went over to counterattack, was able to conquer the strategically important height 100 southwest of the Bourlon Forest and advance to Graincourt. For this achievement, Chevallerie was submitted to the Pour le Mérite by his commanding General Otto von Moser . Thereupon, on January 20, 1918, Wilhelm II awarded him the highest Prussian valor award.

After the end of the fighting, the division was back in the Siegfried position and prepared from February 1918 for the planned Great Battle in France . In the 17th Army , the large formation attacked on March 21, 1918 and was able to break through the enemy positions between Monchy and Cambrai . Heavy fighting at Bapaume followed on March 24th and 25th , before Chevalleries troops returned to trench warfare after the failure of the German offensive in April. After several months of positional battles between Arras and Albert as well as on the Ancre , Somme, Avre and Matz , the division had to endure heavy defensive battles in August 1918. Here Chevallerie was promoted to lieutenant general on August 18, 1918 . In his section on the north channel at Lesle and Royon , he succeeded several times in repelling British tank attacks before the division was withdrawn on the Oise . Here, too, Chevallerie at Sequehart repeatedly succeeded in stopping the enemy by counter-attacks. For this, the division was named in the army report and Chevallerie was awarded the oak leaves for the Pour le Mérite on October 5, 1918. In the following weeks Chevallerie withdrew first to the Hermann position , then to the Antwerp-Maas position.

post war period

After the armistice of Compiègne , Chevallerie led his remaining troops back home and, after being demobilized on December 23, 1918, was initially transferred to the army officers. On January 12, 1919, he was given command of the 3rd Division in Stettin . He gave up this post on June 23, 1919 and took over the 4th Division active in the Eastern Border Guard . The division had its headquarters in Deutsch Krone and was responsible for the section between Bromberg and Kreuz . However, through the Peace Treaty of Versailles , this area came to Poland and Chevallerie then submitted his departure , which was granted to him on March 3, 1920.

Chevallerie received the character of general of the artillery on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day. He was a legal knight of the Order of St. John .

family

Chevallerie married Mechela Agnes von Lettow-Vorbeck (* 1868) in Potsdam on March 29, 1894 . She was a daughter of the Prussian general of the infantry Hermann von Lettow-Vorbeck (1835-1913) and his wife Hildegard, née von Selchow (* 1845).

From 1920 Chevallerie took his permanent residence at the Ehningen Castle , which he had received through succession. He lived here with his family until his death.

literature

• Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Berlin 1935, pp. 191–193.
• Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 257-259.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Heinrich Emil Theodor [von Lettow-Vorbeck] . In: Marcelli Janecki , Deutsche Adelsgenossenschaft (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the German nobility . Second volume. WT Bruer's Verlag, Berlin 1898, p. 454-455 ( dlib.rsl.ru ).
2. ↑ Siegfriedstrasse on the portal of the Heimatgeschichtsverein Ehningen eV ( Memento from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )