Wilhelm von Thoma

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Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma

Wilhelm Thoma , knight of Thoma since 1916 (born September 11, 1891 in Dachau ; † April 30, 1948 ibid) was a German general of the armored forces in World War II .

Life

Thoma was the son of the Bavarian service administrator Eduard Thoma and his wife Sabine, née Klein. After attending the humanistic grammar school , he joined the 3rd Infantry Regiment "Prince Karl of Bavaria" of the Bavarian Army in Augsburg on September 23, 1912 as a two-year-old volunteer and officer candidate . In this regiment he was on 20 May 1913 Ensign and on 1 August 1914. Lieutenant .

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War Thoma fought with the 3rd Infantry Regiment in Lorraine , in front of Nancy - Épinal and on the Somme . In 1915 he took part on the Eastern Front (his regiment now belonged to the newly formed 11th Bavarian Infantry Division ) in the battle of Gorlice-Tarnów , the crossing over the San , the fighting at Przemyśl and the breakthrough battle near Lemberg . After taking Brest-Litovsk and the campaign in Serbia , Thoma took part in the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and returned to the Eastern Front after the start of the Russian Brusilov offensive . There Thoma was able to hold a cleared Austrian command post at Ugly-Kopryle against an advance in close combat and thus prevent a Russian attempt to break through. For this he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order on July 5, 1916 . Associated with this was the elevation to the personal nobility . After the entry in the nobility register , he was allowed to call himself "Knight of Thoma". On December 14, 1917 he was promoted to first lieutenant . During the Allied counter-offensive on the Marne , von Thoma fell into American captivity on July 18, 1918 as leader of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Regiment , from which he was released in September 1919. For his achievements during the war, Thoma was also awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Military Merit Order IV. Class with Swords and the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class with war decoration and the wound badge in silver.

Weimar Republic

After his return in 1920, Thoma was accepted into the Reichswehr . From July 1922 on, he served in the 7th (Bavarian) motor vehicle department for eight years. On February 1, 1925, he became captain and chief of the 2nd company in this department in Würzburg . In the following time he went through several stations, including a. In 1930 in the staff service at Group Command 2 in Kassel , 1931/32 in the 7th (Bavarian) medical department in Munich .

time of the nationalsocialism

In the first time after Hitler came to power he was on the staff of the 7th Division , where he was promoted to major on April 1, 1934 . On October 15, 1934, he was finally appointed commander of Division II of the 4th Panzer Regiment.

Thoma took part in the Spanish Civil War and commanded the armored division of the Condor Legion . From August 1, 1936, he was a lieutenant colonel . With the arrival of the model armored car I over Sevilla in Caceres he made over several months in the headquarters of Franco the Spanish legion made in the handling of the tank. After training, the tank unit was relocated to Cubas de la Sagra , a place 30 kilometers south of Madrid on the Jarama River. At the Battle of the Jarama between February 6 and February 27, 1937 he was the commander of the tank unit. After the victory of the nationalists in this battle, he was awarded the Spanish Medalla Militar with diamonds and the Spanish Cross in gold with swords and diamonds. He was promoted to colonel on April 1, 1938. After returning from Spain , he was given command of the 3rd Panzer Regiment in Vienna .

During the attack on Poland at the beginning of the Second World War, he led his regiment as part of the 2nd Panzer Division up to the Bug . On March 5, 1940, he was transferred to the Army High Command (OKH) and received the post of "General of the Rapid Troops". On August 1, 1940, he was promoted to major general and then took over the 17th tank brigade , with which he participated in the " Operation Barbarossa ", which initiated the German-Soviet war . He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his participation in the Battle of Kiev on December 31, 1941 . From May 23 to July 1, 1942 again as "General of the Rapid Troops" in the OKH, he was promoted to Lieutenant General on August 1, 1942 .

Shortly after his capture, Thoma (right) meets Bernard Montgomery (left)

On September 1, 1942 , he took over command of the German Africa Corps and a little later, on October 24, 1942, he also took over command of the German-Italian " Panzer Army Africa ". In addition, he was promoted to General of the Panzer Force.

At the Second Battle of El Alamein he was captured by the British on November 4, 1942, where he spent the rest of the war. Since November 19, 1942 he was in the "general camp" Trent Park . Since June 17, 1944, he was the German camp elder here. During the wiretapping of the British in Trent Park, it turned out that he did not think much of Adolf Hitler and that he was "ashamed to be an officer" in view of the German war crimes in the Soviet Union. In March 1943 he spoke to General Ludwig Crüwell about rocket tests at the Kummersdorf Army Research Institute . Shortly afterwards, the British discovered the Peenemünde Army Research Center .

post war period

In 1946 one of his legs was amputated in English captivity, and he was repatriated in the same year . Thoma then lived in his home town of Dachau until his death.

literature

  • Sönke Neitzel : bugged. German generals in British captivity 1942–1945. Propylaea, Berlin, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-54907261-9 .
  • Rudolf von Kramer, Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels: VIRTUTI PRO PATRIA. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Self-published by the kb Militär-Max-Joseph-Order, Munich 1966, p. 163, 422–424.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1924, p. 165.
  2. ^ Jörg Nimmergut : German medals and decorations until 1945. Volume 4: Württemberg II - German Empire. Central Office for Scientific Order Studies , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-00-00-1396-2 , p. 2092.
  3. ↑ 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. 743.
  4. ↑ Timm C. Richter: Sönke Neitzel: Abgehört. German generals in British captivity. In: Review. Sehepunkte, review journal for the historical sciences, February 15, 2006, accessed on June 17, 2019 .
  5. ^ Andrew Roberts: The Genocide Generals: secret recordings explode the myth they knew nothing about the Holocaust. Mail Online, July 21, 2007, accessed June 17, 2019 .
  6. ^ Sönke Neitzel: bugged. German generals in British captivity 1942–1945. Propylaea, Berlin, Munich 2005, p. 473.
personal data
SURNAME Thoma, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thoma, Wilhelm Ritter von; Thoma, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German General of the Armored Force in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dachau
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1948
Place of death Dachau