Gottlob Hartwig Alfred Michael von Ludwiger
Born: 29 Jun 1895 in Beuthen, Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien)
Died: 03 May 1947 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Executed)
Promotions:
Fahnenjunker-Gefreiter (26 Sep 1914); Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier (10 Dec 1914); Fähnrich (08 May 1915); Leutnant (30 Jul 1915); Oberleutnant (31 Jul 1925); Hauptmann (01 Feb 1930); Major (01 Nov 1935); Oberstleutnant (01 Oct 1938); Oberst (01 Sep 1941); Generalmajor (01 May 1943); Generalleutnant (01 Jan 1944)
Career:
Entered Army Service (17 Aug 1914)
Fahnenjunker in the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (17 Aug 1914-02 Feb 1915)
Detached to Fahnenjunker-Course at Döberitz (17 Oct 1914-10 Dec 1914)
In the Field with the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (02 Feb 1915-11 Oct 1915)
Platoon Leader in the MG-Company of the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (11 Oct 1915-13 Dec 1916)
Company Leader in the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (13 Dec 1916-24 Oct 1917)
Platoon Leader in the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (24 Oct 1917-10 Dec 1917)
Director of the MG-Training-Courses with the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (10 Dec 1917-12 Dec 1917)
Adjutant & Training-Officer with the Assault School Gopes with Special Purpose General Command 62 (12 Dec 1917-20 Apr 1918)
Transferred back to the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (20 Apr 1918-02 Apr 1918)
Battalion Adjutant & Battalion Signals Officer in the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (02 May 1918-19 Oct 1918)
Regimental Signals Officer of the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (19 Oct 1918-12 Dec 1918)
Company Leader in the 11th Grenadier-Regiment (12 Dec 1918-10 May 1919)
Company Leader in the 63rd Reichswehr-Infantry-Regiment (10 May 1919-21 Jun 1919)
Platoon Leader in the MG-Company of the 63rd Infantry-Regiment (21 Jun 1919-28 Sep 1919)
Signals-Officer with Infantry-Leader 32 (28 Sep 1919-20 Feb 1920)
Leader of MG-Company Landgericht Breslau (20 Feb 1920-15 May 1920)
Company Officer in the 16th Infantry-Regiment (15 May 1920-01 Jul 1920)
Company Officer in the 7th Infantry-Regiment (01 Jul 1920-01 Feb 1930)
At the same time, detached to Weapons School Course at Dresden (01 Apr 1925-15 Aug 1925)
Company Chief in the 1st Infantry-Regiment (01 Feb 1930-01 Oct 1934)
Company Chief in Infantry-Regiment Gumbinnen (01 Oct 1934-15 Oct 1935)
Company Chief in the 43rd Infantry-Regiment (15 Oct 1935-06 Oct 1936)
Commander of the III. Battalion of the 28th Infantry-Regiment (06 Oct 1936-01 Mar 1940)
Commander of the 83rd Jäger-Regiment (01 Mar 1940-04 Jan 1943)
Delegated with the Leadership of the 704th Infantry-Division (20 Feb 1943-01 Apr 1943)
Commander of the 104th Jäger-Division (01 Apr 1943-29 Apr 1945)
Delegated with the Leadership of XXI. Mountain-Corps (29 Apr 1945-13 May 1945)
In Yugoslav captivity & because of alleged war crimes against the civilian population of the Balkans, he was executed (13 May 1945-03 May 1947)
Awards & Decorations:
- Ritterkreuz (359): am 15.07.1941 als Oberstleutnant und Kommandeur des Infanterie-Regiment 83
- Eichenlaub (163): am 23.12.1942 als Oberst und Kommandeur des Jäger-Regiment 83
- Ritterkreuz des Kgl. Preuss. Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern
- 1914 EK I: 14.05.1917
- 1914 EK II: 02.07.1915
- Herzogl. Sachsen-Meiningisches Ehrenkreuz für Verdienst im Kriege
- Verwundetenabzeichen, 1918 in Silber
- Schlesischer Adler-Orden II. Stufe
- Schlesischer Adler-Orden I. Stufe
- Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
- Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. bis I. Klasse
- Spange zum EK I: 18.10.1939
- Spange zum EK II: 17.09.1939
- Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
- Krimschild
- Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/1942”
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Hartwig von Ludwiger was born in Beuthen, Silesia, in 1895. He had two brothers, both of whom were killed during World War II. Ludwiger was called to the Prussian Army on 17 (or 19) August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, as an officer candidate. He fought in World War I with the 11th Grenadier Regiment, after being commissioned a Leutnant on 30 July 1915. Ludwiger served in various platoons and companies as commander and participated in several well-known battles of the Great War in the Western Front – the battle of Champagne, the battle of Arras, the battle of Somme, the battle of Flandres and the battle of Maas – earning the Iron Cross 1st Class for his bravery. He was also wounded in action several times and was awarded the Wound Badge in Silver.
After the capitulation of the German Empire in 1918, he was retained in the Reichswehr. During the early 1920s, he took part in the suppression of the Silesian Uprisings. He was promoted to Oberleutnant in July 1925 and Hauptmann in 1930. He served in various infantry regiments, and as part of the military mobilization following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, he was named commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment in 1936, with the rank of Major.
On 1 March 1940, Ludwiger was appointed commander of the 83rd Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division, with which he took part in the Invasion of France. Following Operation Barbarossa, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 15 July 1941, and was promoted to Oberst on 1 September 1941. Due to the heavy casualties his regiment (and the division as a whole) suffered while fighting in the Battle of Moscow, the 28th Infantry Division was moved to occupied France to refit as a Jäger division on 1 December. The 28th Jäger Division was sent back to the front in southern Ukraine, where it participated in the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea and in the Strait of Kerch. During his award ceremony, he met his future superior, Hubert Lanz, and his future subordinate Harald von Hirschfeld.
Ludwiger was posted as commander of the 704th Infantry Division in Yugoslavia on 20 February 1943. The division was later (1 April 1943) renamed to 104th Jäger Division and Ludwiger assumed his post on 3 March 1943, while within the next month, he was promoted to Generalmajor.
Ludwiger was quite active in the anti-Partisan operations. In particular, he was placed in command of a unit consisting mainly of the 724th Jäger Regiment and a Bulgarian regiment, designated Kampfgruppe von Ludwiger (Battle Group von Ludwiger). Aided by the Italian Taurinense Division, Kampfgruppe Ludwiger was tasked with the obliteration of armed guerrillas in the area of Montenegro, mainly Chetniks and Tito's communist partisans. This campaign was launched on 20 May under the codename Fall Schwarz (Case Black). But, as partisans deliberately avoided open battles with the well-equipped German forces (at least in Ludwiger's sector), the overall action of the Kampfgruppe returned rather poor results. Subsequently, the unit was dissolved on 9 June and Ludwiger with his staff returned to Požarevac.
Of course, Ludwiger didn't quit his activities concerning the suppression of partisans. But with chances of extermination of the partisan forces themselves being slim, in the meanwhile Ludwiger launched a terror campaign against the civilian population. Specifically, he implemented the typical 50:1 reprisals ratio, which ordered the execution of 50 civilian hostages for every German killed by partisan activity. As a result, in two months' time, from 1 April to 1 June, Ludwiger's superior, supreme commander of Military District Serbia, General Paul Bader, was virtually flooded with Ludwiger's requests for reprisals, but he nevertheless authorized them. In total, 500 civilians were killed in reprisals for the murder of 8 German soldiers and 2 Serbian mayors from partisans, while numerous villages were looted and torched.
Upon completion of Operation Black, 104th Jäger Division was ordered to move to Western Greece. While on march to Agrinio, on 10 July, the 2nd Company of the division's Pioneer Battalion was ambushed near the Trichonida Lake by Greek guerrillas, who were reported to be dressed like British soldiers. Two officers and 16 soldiers were killed, while another 20 were wounded and several vehicles were destroyed. The next day, an officer was killed from a hand grenade tossed on his vehicle. Ludwiger, installing his headquarters in Agrinio, applied to carry out his usual reprisal tactics against civilians, but this time his request was rejected from the staff of Army Group "E", as the Germans initially tried to maintain good relations with the Greek population. Despite this, German forces razed a village near Nafpaktos and executed 12 "suspicious gangsters".
After the Allied invasion of Sicily, Italian forces signed an armistice with the Allied troops. The Germans were prepared for this possibility and launched Operation Achse to forcibly disarm Italian troops in southern France and the Balkans. The 1st Company of the 724th Battalion of Ludwiger's division was ordered to disarm the Italian garrison in Kefalonia along with the 1st Mountain Division, something that resulted in one of the largest executions of POWs to be committed during World War II: the massacre of the Acqui Division in September 1943.
Ludwiger was promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 January 1944. As of by August 1944, Ludwiger's forces continued the reprisals against the Greek population, now aided by SS divisions. Ludwiger wrote in his report that:
"With the permanent destruction of the villages in all the areas they passed from, but mainly with the decisive burning of the communistic centre of Karpenisi, the partisans were deprived from numerous possible shelters."
Ludwiger and the surviving elements of his division, which had suffered heavy casualties in the Balkans, were captured towards the end of the war. His successor in command of 104th Jäger Division, Generalleutnant Friedrich Stephan was captured as well and was shot in Ljubljana along with three other generals without trial from Yugoslav partisans in early June.
After being held in a POW camp, Ludwiger was put on trial before a Yugoslavian court-martial in Belgrade (during the 6th Process of the Yugoslav war crimes trials of German officials) between 27 March and 4 April 1947, along with several German officers, such as Generalmajor Hans Gravenstein and SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Karl von Oberkamp, all of whom received the death penalty. Ludwiger was specifically indicted for:
[...] Harassment, torture and murder of POWs and prisoners of the People's Liberation Army, for torching, looting, kidnapping of non-combatants to concentration camps and violent crimes against women and children.
Found guilty of the charges, he was sentenced to death on 1 April 1947. He was executed in a prison at Belgrade; The exact date varies according to the source - possibly on 3 or 5 May, and less plausibly on 25 April.
Source :
https://alchetron.com/Hartwig-von-Ludwiger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartwig_von_Ludwiger
http://www.oocities.org/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generalleutnant2/LUDWIGER_HARTWIG.html
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