Full name: Friedrich Wilhelm Müller
Nickname: The Butcher of Crete
Date of birth: 29.08.1897 - Barmen, Prussia (German Empire)
Date of death: 20.05.1947 - Athens, Greece (shot by firing squad)
Battles and Operations: World War I, Eastern Front, Occupation of Crete, Dodecanese Campaign, Balkans retreat, East Prussia 1945
NSDAP-Number: No information
SS-Number: No information
Religion: No information
Parents: No information
Siblings: No information
Spouse: No information
Children: No information
Promotions:
26.11.1915 Leutnant d. R.
00.00.19__ Oberleutnant
00.00.19__ Hauptmann
16.03.1936 Major
01.05.1939 Oberstleutnant
01.01.1942 Oberst (mit RDA vom 01.10.1941)
01.08.1942 Generalmajor (mit RDA vom 01.09.1942)
01.04.1943 Generalleutnant
01.07.1944 General der Infanterie
Career:
1915 infantryman with 2. Infanterie-Regiment then Leutnant with 266. Infanterie-Regiment (World War I service)
1936 Major
10 November 1938 - 15 November 1940 commanding officer 3rd Battalion, Infanterie-Regiment 105
15 November 1940 - 30 December 1940 commanding officer 1st Battalion, Infanterie-Regiment 697
30 December 1940 - 1 August 1942 commanding officer Infanterie-Regiment 105
1 August 1942 - 1 September 1942 acting commander 22. Infanterie-Division
1 September 1942 - 15 March 1944 commander 22. Infanterie-Division (Luftlande)
15 March 1944 - 8 April 1944 unemployed
8 April 1944 - 12 April 1944 attached to Army Personnel Office
12 April 1944 - 21 April 1944 at disposal of Army Group North Ukraine
21 April 1944 - 8 May 1944 acting commander LIX. Armeekorps
8 May 1944 - 2 June 1944 acting commander V. Armeekorps
2 June 1944 - 10 June 1944 acting commander LIX. Armeekorps
10 June 1944 - 1 July 1944 unemployed
1 July 1944 - 18 September 1944 commandant of Fortress Crete
18 September 1944 - 18 November 1944 military commander Macedonia
18 November 1944 - 1 December 1944 commander XXXIV. Armeekorps
1 December 1944 - 27 January 1945 commander LXVIII. Armeekorps
27 January 1945 - 29 January 1945 unemployed
29 January 1945 - 8 May 1945 commander 4. Armee (Eastern Front)
1945-1947 prisoner of war
Awards and Decorations:
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (1914) 25 May 1916
Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (1914) 29 August 1916
Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber (1918)
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht 4. Klasse (4 Jahre)
Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht 3. Klasse (12 Jahre)
Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht 2. Klasse (18 Jahre)
Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 2. Klasse 22 December 1939
Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen
1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 1. Klasse 12 June 1940
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes #521 (22 September 1941) as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 105 / 72.Infanterie-Division. The award recognized his leadership during the pursuit battles around Nikolajew in the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa. Soviet forces had halted the German advance at Warwarowka with determined resistance from entrenched positions amid the rolling Ukrainian steppe. At the head of his Vorausabteilung advance detachment Müller personally rallied his men under heavy fire launching a swift and aggressive assault that shattered the enemy line and recaptured the town in close-quarters fighting. Moments later his troops raced forward to the critical 950-metre-long bridge spanning the Bug River where Soviet engineers were frantically preparing demolition charges. Under intense machine-gun and artillery fire Müller’s forces overran the bridgehead prevented the bridge from being blown and secured an intact crossing. This single act proved decisive not only for his corps but for the entire army enabling the rapid continuation of the advance deep into Soviet territory and earning him the 521st Ritterkreuz.
Wehrmachtbericht 19 January 1942
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #86 (8 April 1942) as Oberst and Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 105 / 72.Infanterie-Division. The medal were awarded for his regiment’s outstanding performance in the bitter winter fighting on the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea particularly the reconquest of Feodosia in mid-January 1942. Soviet amphibious landings had seized the port city creating a dangerous bridgehead that threatened German control of the entire Crimea. In freezing temperatures amid deep snow and gale-force winds Müller’s men spearheaded the counterattack. The Wehrmachtbericht of 19 January 1942 explicitly praised him noting that the Knight’s Cross bearer Oberst Müller had once again distinguished himself through outstanding personal bravery decisive action and prudent leadership of his regiment during the recapture of Feodosia. Leading from the front Müller directed relentless assaults through fortified Soviet positions coordinating infantry advances with supporting artillery while exposing himself repeatedly to enemy fire to maintain momentum. His regiment’s determined push overwhelmed the defenders recapturing the vital harbor and eliminating the Soviet threat in the sector an achievement that stabilized the entire front in southern Russia and proved of great significance for subsequent operations in the area.
Krimschild
Deutsches Kreuz in Gold 18 June 1943
Wehrmachtbericht 18 November 1943
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern #128 (27 January 1945) as General der Infanterie and Kommandierender General LXVIII. Armeekorps. The award recognized his exceptional command achievements during the complex and perilous German withdrawal from the Balkans in late 1944. By October 1944 Allied pressure and partisan activity had turned the retreat into a fighting withdrawal across rugged mountainous terrain with overstretched supply lines. Müller first took ad-hoc command of improvised forces and successfully held the vital supply node of Kraljevo against repeated enemy attempts to seize it despite being outnumbered and short on heavy weapons. His troops fought house-to-house and along key road junctions repelling assaults while keeping the crossroads open for the passage of withdrawing units. Later as full commander of LXVIII. Armeekorps he orchestrated a masterful series of delaying actions and rearguard battles across Macedonia and northern Greece. Facing superior Soviet Bulgarian and partisan forces attempting to cut off and annihilate the evacuating German columns Müller repeatedly shifted his depleted divisions to block encirclement maneuvers coordinated precise withdrawals under constant air and artillery harassment and ensured that thousands of troops equipment and civilians reached safer positions farther north. His calm decisive leadership prevented the total collapse of the Balkan front and allowed the orderly extraction of forces that would otherwise have been trapped a feat conducted under the most desperate conditions of fuel shortages ammunition scarcity and relentless pursuit.
Wehrmachtbericht 10 March 1945
Wehrmachtbericht 30 March 1945
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Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who rose from infantry service in the First World War to command divisions and corps on the Eastern Front and in occupied Greece and the Balkans. Born on 29 August 1897 in Barmen, Prussia, he earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for battlefield leadership but became infamous as the Butcher of Crete for ordering brutal reprisals against civilians and prisoners that resulted in hundreds of deaths. He ended the war commanding the German 4th Army in East Prussia before surrendering to Soviet forces and was later extradited to Greece where a military court convicted him of war crimes leading to his execution by firing squad in Athens on 20 May 1947 the sixth anniversary of the German invasion of the island.
Müller entered military service at the outbreak of the First World War in 1915 as an infantryman with the 2nd Infantry Regiment. Later that year he received a commission as second lieutenant and transferred to the 266th Infantry Regiment where he saw frontline combat throughout the conflict. He earned both classes of the Iron Cross for bravery under fire during the grinding trench warfare of the Western and Eastern Fronts. After the armistice he chose to remain in the Reichswehr the small professional army permitted under the Treaty of Versailles steadily advancing through the ranks until he attained the position of major in 1936. Details of his family background early education and personal life remain sparse in historical records reflecting the limited documentation available for many mid-level officers of his generation.
By the late 1930s Müller had risen to command infantry battalions and in November 1938 he took charge of the 3rd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 105. He led that unit into the early campaigns of the Second World War including the invasion of Poland and operations in the west before assuming command of the full regiment in December 1940. Promoted to lieutenant colonel shortly after the outbreak of hostilities he prepared his troops for the massive offensive against the Soviet Union in June 1941. His regiment formed part of the 72nd Infantry Division within Army Group South and participated in the rapid advances across the Ukrainian steppe where Müller demonstrated aggressive tactical skill that would soon bring him national recognition.
During the summer fighting of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 Müller's regiment distinguished itself in the pursuit battles near Nikolayev. Soviet defenders had dug in at Warwarowka halting the German momentum across the open terrain. Leading a forward detachment under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire Müller personally rallied his men for a direct assault that shattered the enemy positions in intense close-quarters combat. Moments later his troops charged forward to seize a vital 950-meter bridge over the Bug River as Soviet engineers prepared demolition charges. Despite withering defensive fire the regiment overran the bridgehead prevented its destruction and secured an intact crossing that allowed the entire corps to surge deeper into Soviet territory. For this decisive action Müller received the Knight's Cross on 22 September 1941. The following winter he earned the Oak Leaves on 8 April 1942 for his regiment's role in the brutal reconquest of Feodosia on the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea. Amid deep snow freezing gales and gale-force winds his soldiers spearheaded a counterattack against a dangerous Soviet amphibious bridgehead. Müller directed relentless assaults from the front coordinating infantry pushes with artillery support and exposing himself repeatedly to enemy fire to maintain momentum. The recapture of the harbor eliminated the immediate threat to German control of the Crimea and was highlighted in the official Wehrmacht communique as a model of personal bravery and prudent leadership.
In August 1942 Müller advanced to command the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division which had been transferred from the Eastern Front to occupy Crete following the costly German airborne invasion of the island the previous year. Promoted rapidly to major general and then lieutenant general he oversaw garrison duties that quickly escalated into counter-insurgency operations against growing Cretan resistance. Under his leadership troops carried out systematic reprisals including the massacres at Viannos Anogia Amari and Damasta where entire villages were razed and hundreds of civilians including women and children were executed in retaliation for partisan attacks. In 1943 during the Dodecanese Campaign his forces also executed more than one hundred captured Italian officers on the island of Kos burying them in mass graves after Italy's armistice with the Allies. Müller returned briefly to other duties before resuming command of Fortress Crete in July 1944 replacing Bruno Bräuer. He intensified reprisals further with the so-called Holocaust of Kedros in August 1944 ordering the destruction of multiple villages and the killing of at least 164 civilians in response to resistance activity. These actions cemented his notorious reputation as the Butcher of Crete and prompted British Special Operations Executive plans to kidnap him though the mission ultimately captured his successor Heinrich Kreipe instead.
As the war turned against Germany in late 1944 Müller was reassigned to corps-level commands in the Balkans where he orchestrated critical rearguard actions during the German withdrawal. First holding the vital supply hub of Kraljevo against superior partisan and Allied pressure with improvised forces he later assumed full command of LXVIII Army Corps. Facing relentless pursuit by Soviet Bulgarian and partisan units across rugged mountainous terrain he coordinated precise delaying battles and phased retreats that prevented encirclement and allowed thousands of troops and equipment to evacuate northward despite severe shortages of fuel and ammunition. For these achievements he received the Swords to the Knight's Cross on 27 January 1945. Transferred to the Eastern Front he took command of the battered 4th Army in East Prussia on 29 January 1945 conducting desperate defensive operations around the Heiligenbeil Pocket amid the Soviet winter offensive. His forces fought rearguard actions to delay the Red Army advance and facilitate partial evacuations before the army's remnants surrendered to Soviet troops on 8 May 1945.
Müller spent the immediate postwar period as a prisoner of the Soviets before being extradited to Greece in 1946 to face justice for his wartime conduct on Crete. A Greek military court in Athens convicted him of ordering massacres of hostages and civilians in reprisal actions. Sentenced to death on 9 December 1946 he was executed by firing squad alongside former General Bruno Bräuer on 20 May 1947 symbolically timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Axis invasion of Crete. His death marked the end of a career that exemplified both the tactical competence and the ruthless brutality that characterized many senior Wehrmacht officers in the occupied territories.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich-Wilhelm_M%C3%BCller
https://www.historic.de/Militar/Personen/Mueller/Mueller.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027112647fw_/http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/HEER/General2/MUELLER_FRIEDRICH.html
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