Wilhelm Heun
Wilhelm Heun (born May 23, 1895 in Herborn , † September 21, 1986 in Göttingen ) was a German lieutenant general and commander of several divisions on the Eastern Front during World War II .
Life
Early career
Heun joined the Kurhessian Jäger Battalion No. 11 as a war volunteer. During World War I he served from October 8, 1914 in the 24th Reserve Jäger Battalion and from January 1915 in the 2nd Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 28 , where he was promoted to lieutenant on May 30, 1916 . After he had advanced to company commander in the last year of the war , he was discharged from the army on December 7, 1918. In 1919, he first attended the Technical School in Darmstadt and then studied economics and social science at the University in Frankfurt am Main . He was reactivated in the Reichswehr on May 1, 1934 and initially served as a captain in the staff of the 15th Infantry Regiment .
In World War II
At the beginning of the Second World War he was in command of the 2nd Battalion of the 471 Infantry Regiment in the 251st Infantry Division . In November 1939 he was then battalion commander in the 116 Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division , which was deployed in France. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 1, 1940 and transferred to the Eastern Front in 1941, where his regiment was deployed in the south of the Soviet Union . On March 22, 1942, he was given command of Infantry Regiment 435 of the 215th Infantry Division .
On April 1, 1942 he was promoted to colonel and received the German Cross in Gold on October 23 . On January 11, 1943, he came into the Führerreserve and attended a training course as a division leader. As of 1 March 1944, he was instead Lieutenant General Theodor Scherer with the leadership of in the 16th Army standing 83rd Infantry Division entrusted whose command he with his promotion to major general took over in early May 1944th When Heun went on home leave from the end of June to August 1944, he was temporarily represented in the division leadership by the then Colonel Heinrich Götz . On November 9, 1944, Heun was promoted to Lieutenant General and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 9, 1944 . His troops suffered heavy losses when they broke out of the Graudenz pocket. He gave up his command on March 28, 1945 to Maximilian Wengler and was again transferred to the Führerreserve.
On April 5, 1945 he was finally appointed commander of the Schlageter infantry division , which was formed from members of the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and was initially subordinated to the 12th Army in the area west of Potsdam and from April 26th to the Blumentritt Army Group . The division arrived as part of the 3rd Panzer Army on April 29 in the area of XXXXVI. Panzer Corps deployed south of Lake Müritz against the Red Army .
On May 3, 1945, Heun and this division went into American captivity in western Mecklenburg . After his release on July 10, 1947, he retired to Göttingen , where he died in 1986 at the age of 91. He was buried in the Meckel family grave in the Göttingen city cemetery (UW 78).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Günther Gellermann: The 12th Army Wenck Bernard and Graefe, Koblenz 1984. p. 31
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Heun, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German officer, most recently lieutenant general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Herborn |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 21, 1986 |
| Place of death | Goettingen |