Wilhelm Mayer (General)

Wilhelm Mayer (born October 7, 1886 in Urach , † July 17, 1950 in Egglkofen ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the air force in the Wehrmacht in World War II .

Life

Mayer joined on 24 July 1905 as an ensign in the Grenadier Regiment "King Karl" (5 Württembergisches) no. 123 of the Württemberg army in Ulm one. From January to October 1906 he attended the Danzig War School and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant . From October 1913 to July 1914 he graduated from the War Academy in Berlin and in July 1914 was also assigned to the Airship Battalion No. 1 in Tegel .

When the First World War broke out, Mayer moved to the western front as a first lieutenant with his regular regiment , where he served as platoon and company commander until March 27, 1915 . He was then transferred as a general staff officer to the staff of the army group " von Strantz ", from which he resigned at the beginning of May 1915. After the end of the war, further assignments of the general staff to eight different agencies followed as well as his interim promotion to captain on June 18, 1915. Subsequently, he was with Army High Command 3 (May 1915 to April 1917), with the 20th Landwehr Division (April to December 1917), with the Army Group Linsingen (December 1917 to February 1918), in the General Command z. b. V. 56, in the Eichhorn Army Group , in the I. Reserve Corps (April 1918), in the General Staff of the 17th Army and most recently from June to December 1918 in the VII Reserve Corps . For his achievements during the war, Mayer was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Knight's Cross of the Military Merit Order , the Knight's Cross I Class of the Albrecht Order with Swords and the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class with war decorations.

On December 18, 1918, Mayer was transferred back to his regular regiment and served here until the demobilization on March 22, 1919. He then joined the Freikorps formed from parts of his old regiment , the 2nd Württemberg Volunteer Regiment and then the 1st Württemberg Volunteer Regiment. On August 1, 1919, Mayer was transferred to the provisional Reichswehr and initially used in the staff of Infantry Leader 13. Then, from October 1, 1919, he acted as company commander in the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment that had emerged from the 1st Württemberg Volunteer Regiment 26 and briefly from October 1 to December 31, 1920 in the same function in the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment 25.

On January 1, 1921, Mayer joined the staff of the 13th (Württemberg) Infantry Regiment of the Reichswehr , where he stayed until the beginning of March 1924. Most recently he served there as a company commander from October 1922. On March 5, 1924, Mayer was assigned to Group Command 1 for the rest of the month . From there he was in the on April 1, 1924 the Defense Ministry placed where Mayer of the end of September 1927 as adviser in the Army Organization Department (T 2) Truppenamt was used. He then served as a major from February 1, 1928 , until September 1930 in the staff of Artillery Leader V in Stuttgart . In the following years Mayer worked as a teacher at the Cavalry School in Hanover until September 1933 , where he taught various ensign courses. In October 1933, Mayer rose to become Chief of Staff in the Elbing Military District Command .

On April 1, 1936, Mayer joined the Air Force , where he was employed as head of the 1st Department in the Reich Aviation Ministry until the end of February 1937 . In the meantime he had been entrusted with the management of the business as head of the air force command staff. From March 1937 to June 1938 Mayer acted as the commander of the pilot schools and the pilot replacement department 7. On July 1, 1938 he was appointed commanding general and commander of the Luftgau IV Dresden and promoted to lieutenant general on August 1, 1939 .

Mayer kept this command over the beginning of the Second World War and was promoted to General der Flieger on February 1, 1941. From October 24, 1941 to June 15, 1943 he worked in the same position in the Luftgau Southeast and in the Luftgau tab Greece . Then Mayer was transferred to the Führerreserve , from which he retired on May 31, 1944. A reactivation until the end of the war, like a subsequent captivity , did not take place.

literature

• Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Part II. Volume 2: Habermehl – ​​Nuber. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1991, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 370-371.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Otto von Moser : Die Württemberger in the world wars. 2nd expanded edition. Chr. Belser AG. Stuttgart 1928. p. 117.
2. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1924. p. 145.