Walther Nehring

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Walther Nehring (right) with Erwin Rommel at a briefing before the attack on Tobruk, April 1942

Walther Kurt Joseph Nehring (born August 15, 1892 in Stretzin ; † April 20, 1983 in Düsseldorf ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the tank troops in World War II .

Life

First World War

After graduating from high school on September 16, 1911, Nehring joined the Teutonic Order Infantry Regiment No. 152 in Marienburg as a cadet . At the beginning of the First World War he was a platoon leader and was wounded for the first time on the Eastern Front in 1914 . He returned to his parent regiment in December 1914 after serving as adjutant of the Mobile Replacement Battalion 148 in November 1914 . He was awarded the Iron Cross in 1914 and promoted to lieutenant on June 16, 1916 .

In the spring of 1916 he was transferred to the air force at his own request . After only 14 days of flight training, he crashed on June 23, 1916, breaking his jaw and contracting a concussion. After he recovered, he was transferred to the Infantry Regiment "Keith" (1st Upper Silesia) No. 22 , which fought on the Western Front . On July 1, 1918, he was seriously injured by a shot in the stomach on Kemmelberg , so that he experienced the end of the war in the hospital. At the end of 1918 / beginning of 1919 he took part in the border protection battles against Poland in West Prussia.

Between the world wars

In 1921 he was accepted into the Reichswehr , where he was made captain on March 1, 1923 . On September 7, 1923, he married Annemarie Rohrbeck, a young girl from a wealthy family from the Neuburg manor near Christburg in the Stuhm district. The young couple moved into a two-room apartment in Allenstein, which Nehring soon had to leave because he had been assigned to Koenigsberg on October 1, 1923 for the first course in leadership assistant training . This was a camouflaged training to become a general staff officer , because the Treaty of Versailles forbade the Reichswehr to set up a general staff. On October 1, 1925, Nehring was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry and was one of 15 to take part in the 3rd general staff training course. The family, meanwhile their daughter Annemarie, moved to Berlin. Subsequently, on October 1, 1926, he was transferred to the General Staff, then called the Troop Office for camouflage. There he dealt in the operations department (T 1) with the motorized deployment of troops in maneuvers. A year later he met Major Heinz Guderian , who had been transferred there. This was commissioned to draft regulations for the vehicle service. On March 1, Nehring was transferred to Münster to familiarize himself with the heavy transport vehicles and their use at the 6th (Prussian) medical department. There he also got his military driving license for trucks. In August 1929 he was assigned to the 6th (Prussian) motor vehicle department in Münster. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Erler, the Reichswehr's first combat vehicle unit was built here. It consisted of three companies . The 1st company under Captain Nehring was set up as a motorcycle rifle company (twelve light and four heavy machine guns on BMW motorcycles with sidecars), the 2nd company under Captain Brensing had existed as a combat vehicle company, equipped with dummy tanks, since 1927. Company under Captain Nedtwig was intended as a tank reconnaissance company. On February 24, 1930, their second child, Christoph, was born in Münster.

On February 1, 1932, Nehring was appointed major in the General Staff. On March 1, 1932, he returned to the Reichswehr Ministry, where he became the first general staff officer for the inspection of the motor vehicle troops. At that time, the chief of staff was Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Guderian . In the next three years he played a major role in building up the German armored forces .

At the end of 1932, on behalf of the training department (T 4) of the Troop Office, Nehring prepared a study on the subject of "The tank brigade as part of the cavalry corps" with the core theses: "Comprehensive action against the flank and back of the enemy - apart from other, slower formations, is the main task of Tank unit; but it can also be of decisive importance in frontal breakthroughs. Used for pursuit, he can bring about the dissolution of the retreating enemy. On the other hand, he is little able to sustainably maintain the land he has gained; this will mostly require the allocation of motorized infantry and artillery. The essence of his warfare is not the conduct of protracted battles, but rather the commitment to short, temporally and spatially limited operations with narrowly defined tasks. "

At Pentecost 1934, with the Third Conversion Order, the Reichswehr decided to set up a total of three tank divisions. On September 1, 1934, Nehring was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In the winter of 1935/36 Guderian and Nehring worked on the subject of "The armored troops and their interaction with other weapons". In 1936 Nehring's book Panzerabwehr was published by ES Mittler & Sohn Verlag in Berlin.

In July 1936, in connection with the Spanish Civil War , Nehring took over the organization for the transport of volunteers and the embarkation of tanks from Panzerabteilung 88 and other heavy equipment from Stettin to Burgos. In 1940 he received the Commander's Cross of the Spanish Military Merit from Madrid for this achievement .

In 1936/37 Nehring attended a one-year course at the Wehrmacht Academy under Infantry General Wilhelm Adam in Berlin. On March 1, 1937, he was promoted to colonel . On October 1, 1937, Nehring became the commander of the 5th Panzer Regiment in Wünsdorf near Berlin (target strength 150 tanks).

In June 1939, when Austria was annexed, a new General Command ( XIX Army Corps ) was established in Vienna and placed under Guderian. As a former commander, he brought the 2nd Panzer Division with him from Würzburg, and Colonel Nehring was appointed Chief of the General Staff of this army corps on July 1, 1939.

Second World War

During the German invasion of Poland , he served as chief of the general staff of the XIX. Army corps under General of the Panzer Force Heinz Guderian. The corps was initially deployed in the Polish Corridor and, on the second deployment, took two armored divisions and two motorized infantry divisions across East Prussia against Brest-Litovsk . It was the first deployment of an independently operating tank army, in which the motorized infantry had the task that the dismounted cavalry had to do in the past.

The XIX. Army corps then took part in the French campaign from May 1940 . Colonel Nehring had the task of the attacks as Chief of Staff 1 ., 2 . and 10th Panzer Division , reinforced by the Großdeutschland infantry regiment, to plan and prepare in the Sedan area. After the breakthrough, Hitler had the Guderian Panzer Group formed on May 28, which consisted of four tank and two motorized infantry divisions. At the beginning of August 1940 the headquarters of the Guderian Panzer Group was in Berlin.

After his appointment as major general on August 1, 1940, Nehring was given command of the newly formed 18th Panzer Division with its headquarters in Chemnitz with effect from October 25, 1940 .

With the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, his division was under Panzer Group 2 , which was led by Colonel General Guderian. The bow was waded through with floating tanks intended for the invasion of England, and the attack carried as far as the Berezina . During the fighting for the Russian bridgehead at Baryssau , the two most important bridges over the Beresina were taken. For this, Nehring was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on July 27, 1941 .

Nehring was promoted to Lieutenant General on February 1, 1942 after he freed the 216th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Werner von Gilsa and other troops from a cauldron. On the same day he gave up command of the 18th Panzer Division.

At the beginning of March 1942 he took over the leadership of the German Africa Corps on behalf of Ludwig Crüwell, who was on home leave . Due to Crüwell's capture shortly after his return, he kept this also during the Theseus operation from May to June 1942, which led to the conquest of Tobruk . With the promotion to General of the Panzer Force on July 1, 1942, he was then appointed Commanding General of the Corps. During the Battle of Alam Halfa , he was seriously wounded in an air raid on August 31. After his recovery in Germany, Nehring was given command of the German troops in Tunisia on November 16, 1942 . He organized the German and Italian troops. Three days later he defeated the Allied forces at Medjez-el-Bab and by the end of the month had taken Djedeida .

As commander in Tunisia, he imposed a fine of 20 million francs on the Jewish community in Tunisia, as international Jewry was responsible for the Anglo-American landing in North Africa. In violation of international law, he let the Jewish population do forced labor to build fortifications. After Hans-Jürgen von Arnim took over command in Tunisia at the beginning of December, he was transferred to the Führerreserve .

In February 1943 Nehring was ordered to the Eastern Front , where he commanded the XXIV Panzer Corps and from July 1944 to August 1944 the 4th Panzer Army . For his services in the low-loss repatriation of his troops (11 days and 250 km) in the so-called "Wandering Kessel bei Kielce" he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with the Oak Leaves with Swords on January 22, 1945. On March 20, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, he became Commander-in-Chief of the 1st Panzer Army .

post war period

At the end of the war he was taken prisoner of war in Budweis in the Czech Republic on May 9, 1945 , from which he was released on May 31, 1948. During his imprisonment, first in Garmisch, later in Allendorf and Neustadt near Marburg / Lahn, Nehring wrote works on war history as a contribution to the preparation of American war history of the Second World War. In 1947, Nehring worked with Colonel-General Guderian in the open Steimbel camp in Neustadt, later also known as the historians' camp. In 1949 Nehring joined the West Prussian Landsmannschaft , volunteered for it and wrote articles on West Prussia. He built up a civilian career with the company Deutscher Kraftverkehr in Düsseldorf, was most recently its head of personnel and, as a passionate hunter, organized the hegering in the German Hunting Protection Association with his then company boss Karl Kniebaum . He was a member of the Rhein-Ruhr-Club and served on the board for several years. After working for the company Deutscher Kraftverkehr, he wrote several books on military history from 1964 (including the history of the German tank weapon 1916 to 1945 , Berlin 1969) and was a sought-after military expert at a time when the Wehrmacht's files were still used for German research were not available again. In 1955 he made himself available to the CDU Defense Committee as an advisor while preparing the establishment of the Bundeswehr. On July 27, 1973 he was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class .

Awards

Fonts

  • Chariots to the front! Historical and modern development of the chariot abroad. Johannes Detke publishing house, Leipzig 1934.
  • Armies of tomorrow. A contribution to the question of military motorization abroad. Voggenreiter Verlag, Potsdam 1935.
  • The history of the German tank weapon. 1916-1945. Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1969. Motorbuch Verlag 2000, ISBN 978-3-87943-320-9 .

literature

  • Klaus-Volker Gießler:  Nehring, Walther Kurt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 41 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hubertus W. Nehring (Ed.): 90 years - almost a century. Walther K. Nehring, August 15, 1892 - August 15, 1982. Self-published by the editor, Siek 1982.
  • Wolfgang Paul: Panzer General Walther K. Nehring. A biography. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-613-01151-4 .
  • Wolfgang Paul: History of the 18th Panzer Division 1940–1943 with the history of the 18th Artillery Division 1943–1944. 3rd edition self-published, Berlin 1981.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul: Panzer General Walther K. Nehring. 1986, p. 62.
  2. ^ Raul Hilberg: The Destruction of European Jews , Volume 2, Fischer Taschenbuch 1990, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , p. 6860
  3. ↑ a b Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1930, p. 137
  4. ↑ Veit Scherzer : The knight's cross bearers. The holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 1939-1945. 2nd edition, with corrections, additions and new entries. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 563.
personal data
SURNAME Nehring, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nehring, Walther Kurt Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General of the Armored Force in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Stretzin
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1983
Place of death Dusseldorf