Willibald Utz

Willibald Utz (born January 20, 1893 in Furth im Wald , † April 20, 1954 in Bad Reichenhall ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II

Life

Willibald Utz joined the Bavarian Army as a flag junior at the end of 1913 . As a lieutenant in 1914 he served in the 13th Infantry Regiment "Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary" and took part in the fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. Utz rose to the rank of first lieutenant by mid-April 1918 and received, in addition to both classes of the Iron Cross, the Wound Badge in Black, the Knight's Cross IV. Class of the Military Merit Order with Swords and Crown and the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class.

After the war , Utz initially retired from military service, joined the Reichswehr in 1921 and worked in the 19th (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment . He later served in the Wehrmacht as a battalion commander in the Mountain Infantry Regiment 100. In March 1937 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel .

From September 1939 on he was in command of the 100 Mountain Infantry Regiment in the 1st Mountain Division , and from the end of 1940 in the 5th Mountain Division . As regimental commander, he took part in the attack on Poland and the campaign in the west . From 1941 the regiment was active in Greece, broke through the Metaxas line with the division and took part in the airborne battle over Crete . For this he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on June 21, 1941 .

This was followed by operations with the regiment on the Eastern Front, among others at Leningrad , on the Neva and at the First Ladoga Battle (August to October 1942). Subsequently, Colonel Willibald Utz (promoted in February 1940) took over the 100th Jäger Division, which had been newly established in Belgrade , in April 1943 . With this he fought in Croatia and Albania . In October 1943 he headed company 505 , which had the task of destroying communist gangs and Italian units in the Tirana - Elbasan - Kavajë - Shijak area. Over 100 deaths and over 1,000 prisoners were reported. The captured Italian officers Colonel Fernando Raucci, commander of the military area of Peza, and Lieutenant Colonel Goffredo Zignani, chief of the general staff of the command of the Italian mountain troops, were simply shot dead after days of interrogation. A total of 15 Italian officers who allegedly wanted to flee were shot by the division commanded by Utz. In 1944 the regiment was still used against partisans and for coastal protection in Albania. Subsequently sent to the Eastern Front to stabilize the front in Galicia . He was their commander until January 1945 and was only promoted to major general in July 1943 and lieutenant general in February 1944.

From the beginning of February 1945 until the end of the war he was in command of the 2nd Mountain Division with the operational area on the Western Front and was awarded the German Cross in Gold on March 2, 1845 . Withdrawn from the Upper Rhine front in the “ Alpine fortress ”, the unit capitulated at the end of the war in the St. Johann in Tirol area and Willibald Utz was taken prisoner by the Americans . In 1947 Utz reported to the American military court about the street attacks by the Albanian communist partisans.

literature

Wolfgang Keilig : The German Army. 1939-1945. Volume 3, Podzun, 1956, p. 347.

Individual evidence

↑ 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. 755.
↑ ^a ^b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 248 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).
^ Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy: perpetrators, victims, prosecution . CH Beck, 1996, ISBN 978-3-406-39268-9 , pp. 73 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).
^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 264 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).
^ Sönke Neitzel : bugged: German generals in British captivity 1942-1945 . Propylaea, 2005, ISBN 978-3-549-07261-5 , pp. 540 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).
↑ Erich Maschke: On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War: The German prisoners of war in Yugoslavia, by KW Böhme . E. and W. Gieseking, 1962, p. 401 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).

personal data
SURNAME	Utz, Willibald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Lieutenant General in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	January 20, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Furth in the forest
DATE OF DEATH	April 20, 1954
Place of death	Bad Reichenhall

[1] 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. 755.

[:0-2] Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 248 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).

[3] Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy: perpetrators, victims, prosecution . CH Beck, 1996, ISBN 978-3-406-39268-9 , pp. 73 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).

[4] Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 264 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).

[5] Sönke Neitzel : bugged: German generals in British captivity 1942-1945 . Propylaea, 2005, ISBN 978-3-549-07261-5 , pp. 540 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).

[6] Erich Maschke: On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War: The German prisoners of war in Yugoslavia, by KW Böhme . E. and W. Gieseking, 1962, p. 401 ( google.de [accessed on May 17, 2020]).