Ferdinand Schörner during World War I

Ferdinand Schörner during the WW1.

Son of a superintendent of the police of Munich has never been able to hide his origin of petty bourgeois. Throughout his life he avoided mentioning his parents in their conversations. The school teacher candidate served between 1911/12 as a one-year volunteer at the Leibregiment in Munich in Bavaria. At the beginning of the war he was a reserve NCO. In November 1914, he became Vizefeldwebel of the Reserve and was badly injured as an officer candidate in the assault on the Fleury fortress in the Verdun Massif. He was already a reserve lieutenant and the leader of the 12. Company of the Leibregiment, when in October 1917 he had the luck of war during the battle of the Piave. At that time Schörner already had a tendency to self-exaltation.

The goal of General von Below was to penetrate the main line of defense south of the Isonzo River. The key points of the line were the imposing Mount Mataiur, Mount Kuk, Kolovrat mountain range and Hill 1114. Lieutenant Ferdinand Schörner, a Bavarian commander, set the pace, urging his coughing and staggering volunteers forward so ruthlessly in spite of their heavy loads of machine guns and ammunition that one of its men fell dead of exhaustion before the unit reached the objective: Hill 1114, key of all the mountain range of Kolovrat, whose fortress was occupied by an Italian unit numerically very superior. The professional mountaineers of his company suggested to Schörner that he should tackle the task under the cover of darkness. Schörner decided. The company climbed through a hole in the wire obstacle to the Italian position. At dawn, 300 frightened Italians surrendered without resistance.

By taking Hill 1114, Schoerner was awarded the highest Prussian medal, the Pour le Mérite. That outraged Rommel, who considered that he owed the credit to him. With the Pour le Mérite around his neck, Schörner decided to change his career as a school teacher to that of an active officer. A lieutenant with the Pour le Mérite was also attractive after the lost war for the new Reichswehr. There were only 101 bourgeois subaltern infantry soldiers with the Pour le Mérite. Schörner was accepted.

Source :
"The Trail of the Fox" by David Irving
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