Walther Wenck

Walther Wenck

Walther Wenck
Born (1900-09-18)18 September 1900
Wittenberg
Died 1 May 1982(1982-05-01) (aged 81)
Bad Rothenfelde
Allegiance  Weimar Republic (to 1933)
 Nazi Germany
Service/branch Heer
Years of service 1920–45
Rank General der Panzertruppe
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Walther Wenck (18 September 1900 – 1 May 1982) was the youngest general in the German Army and a highly experienced staff officer during World War II. At the end of the war, he commanded the German Twelfth Army that took part in the Battle of Berlin. He was known during the war as "The Boy General".[1]

Early life

Wenck was born in Wittenberg, Germany. Prior to joining the Army (Reichswehr) of the Weimar Republic in 1920, he was a member of the Free Corps (Freikorps) in 1919.

World War II

From 1939 to 1942, Wenck was Chief of Operations for the 1st Panzer Division. In 1942, he was an instructor for the War Academy, Chief of Staff for the LVII Corps, and Chief of Staff for the Third Romanian Army on the Eastern Front.

Wenck stayed on the Eastern Front and, from 1942 to 1943, he was Chief of Staff of "Army Detachment Hollidt", named after Karl-Adolf Hollidt, which was subordinated to the Third Romanian Army. In 1943, he was Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army. From 1943 to 1944, Wenck was Chief of Staff of the First Panzer Army. In 1944, he was Chief of Staff of Army Group South Ukraine. There he first attracted Adolf Hitler's attention with his report about conditions on the Eastern Front, saying, "As you see My Führer, the Eastern Front is like a Swiss Cheese, full of holes." Even though he was reprimanded for using informal language, Hitler commended the "liveliness" of his report.

From 1944 to 1945, Wenck was Quartermaster General I. Wenck was seriously injured in a car accident on 17 February.

Western Front

On 10 April 1945, Wenck was appointed commander of the German Twelfth Army located to the west of Berlin to guard against the advancing American and British forces. But, as the Western Front moved eastwards and the Eastern Front moved westwards, the German armies making up both fronts backed towards each other. As a result, the area of control of Wenck's army to his rear and east of the Elbe River had become a vast refugee camp for German civilians fleeing the path of the approaching Soviet forces. Wenck took great pains to provide food and lodging for these refugees. At one stage, the Twelfth Army was estimated to be feeding more than a quarter million people every day.[2]

Battle of Berlin

Main article: Battle of Berlin

On 21 April, Adolf Hitler ordered SS-General Felix Steiner to attack the forces of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. Zhukov's forces were encircling Berlin from the north. The forces of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front were encircling Berlin from the south. Steiner was to attack Zhukov with his Army Detachment Steiner. With few operational tanks and roughly a division's worth of infantry, Steiner requested that his "army" be allowed to retreat instead of attacking.

On 22 April, as Steiner retreated, Wenck's Twelfth Army became Hitler's last hope to save Berlin. Wenck was ordered to disengage the Americans to his west and, attacking to the east, link up with the Ninth Army of Colonel General (Generaloberst) Theodor Busse. Together, they would attack the Soviets encircling Berlin from the west and from the south. Meanwhile, the XLI Panzer Corps under General Rudolf Holste would attack the Soviets from the north.

Wenck's forces attacked towards Berlin, but they were halted outside of Potsdam by strong Soviet resistance. Neither Busse nor Holste made much progress towards Berlin. By the end of the day on 27 April, the Soviet forces encircling Berlin linked up and the forces inside the city were cut off.

During the night of 28 April, Wenck reported to the German Supreme Army Command in Fuerstenberg that his Twelfth Army had been forced back along the entire front. According to Wenck, no attack on Berlin was possible as support from Busse's Ninth Army could no longer be expected. Instead, Wenck moved his army towards the Forest of Halbe and linked up with the remnants of the Ninth Army, Hellmuth Reymann's "Army Group Spree," and the Potsdam garrison. Wenck brought his army, remnants of the Ninth Army, and many civilian refugees across the Elbe and into territory occupied by the U.S. Army.

According to Antony Beevor, Wenck's eastward attack toward Berlin was aimed specifically at providing the population and garrison of Berlin with an escape route to areas occupied by United States armed forces:

Comrades, you've got to go in once more," Wenck said. "It's not about Berlin any more, it's not about the Reich any more." Their task was to save people from the fighting and the Russians. [...]

Wenck's leadership struck a powerful chord, even if the reactions varied between those who believed in a humanitarian operation and those keener to surrender to the Western allies instead of the Russians.

— Antony Beevor[3]

Later life

Wenck was taken prisoner by the U.S. Army. He was released in 1947. During the 1950s, Wenck worked as the managing director of Dr. C. Otto & Comp., a producer of industrial ovens, and in the 1960s as the director of the Diehl Group, an arms manufacturer.[4]

In 1982, Wenck died in a car accident in Bad Rothenfelde.

Awards and decorations

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ According to Scherzer as chief of the general staff of the Armeegruppe Hollidt.[6]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ O'Reilly & Dugard 2014.
  2. ↑ Ryan 1966: p. 443
  3. ↑ Beevor 2002: p. 286
  4. ↑ Kurowski, Franz (1967). Deutsche Offiziere in Staat, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft, p. 267-269
  5. ↑ Fellgiebel 2000, p. 442.
  6. ↑ Scherzer 2007, p. 777.

Bibliography

  • Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin, The Downfall 1945. Viking. 
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 – The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6. 
  • O'Reilly, Bill; Dugard, Martin (2014). Killing Patton: the strange death of World War II's most audacious general. Henry Holt and Company, New York. ISBN 978-0-8050-9668-2. OCLC 881469212. 
  • Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8. 
  • Ryan, Cornelius (1966). Last Battle. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 443. 
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2. 

Further reading

External links

Military offices
Preceded by
Generaloberst Alexander Löhr
reformed		 Commander of 12. Armee
10 April 1945 – 7 May 1945 		Succeeded by
disbanded
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