Lesser known facts...a history

Following your train of non Germans serving - I have read that there were Americans in the German military, even in the SS, but I’ve never seen any data as to how many and why they served.
Does anyone have any info on this?

 

General Leutnant Groppe

Groppe, Theodor

http://www.oocities.org/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalleutnant/GROPPE_THEODOR.html

When he heard of the excesses against Jews in his region ( Saar, September 1939) , he ordered the whole 1st Army, to stop this, even when armed forces were necessary. He also protested when Himmler (see Himmler) admonished the SS members to propagate themselves without marriage agreements. Because of these protests he looses his command and lands in the infamous Führer Reserve. He is supported by Generaloberst Ritter von Leeb (see Leeb) but they can’t change Himmler’s decision. He is retired from the Army, political unreliable, and looses also his rank and the rights of wearing a uniform anymore in the spring of 1942. He looses his retirement compensation too and pushed out from the community. Trailed by the Gestapo on 21-07-1944, for cowardice and resistance, he is condemned to death and transferred to the Fortress Küstrin. On 26-04-1945 he escaped with the help of Major Leussing from the fortress, as his execution was ordered on 27-04-1945. He was released from all accusations by the Bundesministry and got all the rights of a Lieutenant General in 1952.

 

Thanks Kai. Hadn't heard of that particular officer before.

 

… involved Field Marshal (Paul Ludwig) Ewald von Kleist. Recalled from retirement he was a notable non-Nazi, who was actually known for his independence and kindliness in his treatment of his enemy and civilians on the Eastern Front – Hitler didn’t trust him and when things went sour he was canned, and later arrested for suspected involvement in the 1944 bomb plot to kill Hitler. In 1946 he was tried in Yugoslavia as a war criminal and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, after 2 years he was extradited to the Soviet Union and charged with having "alienated through mildness and kindness the population of the Soviet Union."!!! For this so called war crime, Ewald von Kleist remained a captive for the rest of his life. He died there in October 1954, to be buried in an unknown grave somewhere in Russia.

 

" In 1944, despite the increased bombing, the Germans began to withdraw guns from air defence. Remarkably,by Nov 1944 fully 45% of the Luftwaffe´s 88-mm Flak guns were located in the occupied western territories,in Italy, or on the Eastern front, with a great number of these used for ground combat suppoort instead of AA protection. In Dec 1944 100 heavy Flak batteries were moved to support the Ardennes offensive;in January and February 1945 over 300 heavy flak batteries were diverted to the Eastern front, primarily as anti-tank and artillery weapons. During the last week of january 1945 the Luftwaffe transferred 110 heavy and 58 medium and light flak batteries to the German army defence against the Soviet offensive on Berlin.Transfers stripped entire areas of Flak defences."

"Britain´s war machine" by David Edgerton

 

Henri Joseph Fenet (11 July 1919 – 14 September 2002) was a soldier during World War II who was awarded both the Croix de Guerre by France, and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Germany.

Henri Joseph Fenet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Youngest German General

Otto Ernst Remer was born in August 1912 so he was 32 years old as he was promoted to General. On 20th July 1944 he was promoted on the spot to colonel from major.

or

von Hirschfeld, Harald

Hirschfeld

"Am 1. Dezember 1944 wurde er Generalmajor und führte die nun in 78. Sturmdivision umbenannte Einheit. Er war damit der jüngste General des Heeres geworden."

Also 32 years old but only lost by six months.

 

"Up to the end of 1944 three Führer headquarters with various ancillary installations were still being built by the Organisation Todt, "Wolfsschanze" near Rastenburg ( total cost, according to Budget, 36 million Reichsmarks ), Hagen ( 13 million Reichsmarks ) and the "Riese" complex near Charlottenbrunn ( 150 million Reichsmarks ). These three bunker systems alone cost almost 200 million Reichsmarks, not to mention the materials and labour they tied up."

"The last days of Hitler" by Anton Joachimsthaler

 

" During the nights of 20 to 23 April three or four aircraft from the Führer- und Kurierstaffel flew a total of twenty flights to Munich,Salzburg and Ainring from the Berlin airports of Gatow and Staken ( the last flight, at 3 a.m.on 26 April, took out Julius Schaub ). One plane, a Ju 352 from the Führer staffel piloted by major Gundelfinger, crashed near Börnersdorf during the night of 22 April with Hitler´s servant Wilhelm Arndt, several men from the bodyguard, baggage belonging to secretaries Wolf and Schroeder, Dr Blaschke´s baggage and the personal baggage of Hitler and Eva Braun on board."

"The last days of Hitler" by Anton Joachimsthaler

 

Tehran Conference - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One remarkable thing that was also decided at the Tehran Conference was the way in which the Allies would deal with Finland, a free democratic country which cooperated with Germany after Soviet aggression and one that had not signed the Tripartite Pact, and had not declared war on any free Allied countries. Their decision stipulated that Finland could conduct its own negotiations to obtain a peace contract with the USSR rather than being subject to the "unconditional surrender" that faced the Germans and Japanese.

 

" Cousin Hein" was German soldier slang for death. From "Eyewitness to hell" by Erich Stahl.

 

HMoNS Uredd is the only Norwegian Navy submarine to have been lost on active service, on 24th February 1943-
HNoMS Uredd (P-41) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Alfons König- Swords document

Alfons König won his Swords on 9. Jun 1944 and it was deliverd to the Reichschancellory 14. Mar 1945. It is not signed so was not ever presented to König.It is unusual that the document was even produced since König died a month after he won the Swords.

König Swords Document | Knights Cross.org

 

HMS Seal was one of six ships of the Grampus-class mine-laying submarines of the Royal Navy. She served in the Second World War and was captured by the Kriegsmarine and taken into German service as U-B. She was the only submarine the Germans captured at sea during World War II.

HMS Seal (N37) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Ernst Ulrich Hans von Leyser

..was a German General der Infanterie during World War II who commanded various Army Corps and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

On 1 December 1942 von Leyser received his final promotion to General der Infanterie. Almost a year later, he was assigned to lead the XV. Gebirgs.-Armeekorps, which was fighting against Yugoslav partisans in Croatia. On 20 July 1944 he switched command with General der Panzertruppe Gustav Fehn, commander of the XXI. Gebirgs.-Armeekorps in the Balkans.

He was captured by United States forces on 8 May, the day of the unconditional surrender of the German forces to the Western Allies. He was proved to be somehow lucky, as both Fehn and his successor, Generalleutnant Hartwig von Ludwiger, were executed by the Yugoslavians, with only the latter standing trial.

Ernst von Leyser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (23 November 1898 – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander in World War II.

Rodion Malinovsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After the start of World War I in July 1914, Malinovsky, who was only 15 years old at the time (too young for military service), hid on the military train heading for the German front, but was discovered. He nevertheless convinced the commanding officers to enlist him as a volunteer, and served in a machine-gun detachment in the frontline trenches. In October 1915, as a reward for repelling a German attack, he received his first military award, the Cross of St. George of the 4th degree, and was promoted to the rank of corporal. Soon afterwards, he was badly wounded and spent several months in the hospital.

After his recovery, he was sent to France in 1916 as a member of the Western Front Russian Expeditionary Corps. Malinovsky fought in a hotly contested sector of the front near Fort Brion and was promoted to sergeant. He suffered a grave wound in his left arm, and received a decoration from the French government. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the French government disbanded Russian units, but offered some of the best Russian soldiers service in the French Foreign Legion. Malinovsky fought against the Germans until the end of the war. During this time, he was awarded the French Croix de guerre and promoted to senior NCO.

 

Aircraft disaster, in 1986, killed more US soldiers from the famed 101St division than the Germans did in one battle (or the entire world war II?) 101ST US division was around during WWII, this division was actually dropped behind German lines.