Generaloberst Walter Heitz
Born: 08 Dec 1878 in Berlin
Died: 09 Feb 1944 in Moscow (Buried in Krassnogorsk)
Promotions:
Leutnant (18 Aug 1899); Oberleutnant (17 Sep 1909); Hauptmann (01 Oct 1913); Major (01 Apr 1922); Oberstleutnant (01 Nov 1927); Oberst (01 Feb 1930); Generalmajor (01 Feb 1933); Generalleutnant (01 Oct 1934); General der Artillerie (01 Apr 1937); Generaloberst (30 Jan 1943)
Career:
Entered Army Service (07 Mar 1898)
Fahnenjunker in the 2nd West Prussian 36th Field-Artillery-Regiment (07 Mar 1898-01 Oct 1899)
Transferred into the 72nd Field-Artillery-Regiment Hochmeister (01 Oct 1899-01 Oct 1901)
Detached to the Artillery & Engineer School (01 Oct 1901-01 Oct 1903)
Adjutant of II. Battalion of the 72nd Field-Artillery-Regiment (01 Oct 1903-01 Feb 1908)
Regiments-Adjutant of the 72nd Field-Artillery-Regiment, Marienwerder (01 Feb 1908-02 Aug 1914)
Battery-Chief in the IV. Battalion of the 72nd Field-Artillery-Regiment (02 Aug 1914-00 Dec 1916)
Leader of III. Battalion of the 36th Field-Artillery-Regiment (00 Dec 1916-18 Dec 1918)
Battalion-Leader in the 72nd Field-Artillery-Regiment (18 Dec 1918-01 Oct 1919)
Instructor at the Artillery-School Jüterbog (01 Oct 1919-01 Mar 1922)
Training-Advisor with the Inspection of Artillery, RWM (In 4) (01 Mar 1922-01 Feb 1927)
Commander of I. Battalion of Artillery-Regiment Halberstadt (01 Feb 1927-1929)
Commander of the Artillery Firing School (1929-1930)
With the Regiments-Staff of the 1st Artillery-Regiment, Königsberg (01 Feb 1931-01 Oct 1931)
Commandant of Fortress Königsberg (01 Oct 1931-01 Aug 1936)
President of the Reichs War Court (01 Aug 1936-11 Sep 1939)
Commander Danzig-West Prussia (11 Sep 1939-23 Oct 1939)
Commanding General of VIII. Army-Corps (25 Oct 1939-31 Jan 1943)
At the same time, Delegated with the Leadership of 15th Army (00 Jan 1942)
Captured by the Red Army as Stalingrad (31 Jan 1943)
In Soviet Captivity (31 Jan 1943-09 Feb 1944)
Died (09 Feb 1944)
Decorations & Awards:
- Ritterkreuz (208): am 04.09.1940 als General der Artillerie und Kommandierender General des VIII. Armee-Korps
- Eichenlaub (156): am 21.12.1942 als General der Artillerie und Kommandierender General des VIII. Armee-Korps
- Deutsches Kreuz in Gold: am 22.04.1942 als General der Artillerie und Kommandierender General des VIII. Armee-Korps
- RK des Kgl. Preuss. Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern
- 1914 EK I
- 1914 EK II
- Hamburgisches Hanseatenkreuz
- Verwundetenabzeichen, 1918 in Schwarz
- Kgl. Preuss. Dienstauszeichnungskreuz
- Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
- Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. bis I. Klasse
- Spange zum EK I: 19.05.1940
- Spange zum EK II: 10.10.1939
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Walter Heitz was born in Berlin on December 8, 1878, Heitz joined the Prussian army on August 18, 1899. Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he became battalion adjutant in 1909 and was promoted to captain in 1913. At the outbreak of World War I, he was regimental adjutant of the 36th (2nd West Prussian) Field Artillery Regiment “Hochmeister”. He remained with his regiment during World War I, where he became a battery commander and battalion commander, and fought in East Prussia (1914), on the Russian Front (1914–1915), and on the Western Front from the fall of 1915 until the end of the war.[1] During the war, he awarded the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords.
Selected for the reduced Reichswehr, he served on the staff of the Artillery School at Jueterbog (1919–1922) and in the Artillery Inspectorate in the Defense Ministry (1922–1927). He then commanded the 4th (Saxon) Artillery Regiment at Dresden (1927–1929), the Troop Maneuver Area at Jueterbog (1929–1930), and the Artillery School itself (1930–1931). Heitz eventually became the commander of Fortress Koenigsberg in late 1931 and achieved the rank of Colonel.
Described by historian Samuel W. Mitcham as a "harsh, right-wing career officer", Heitz was a staunch supporter of Nazism and Hitler. This played a partial role in his appointment as the President of the Reichskriegsgericht (Reich Military Court) on 1 August 1936, Nazi Germany's highest military court. On 1 April 1937 Heitz was promoted to General of the Artillery (General der Artillerie).
On 17 August 1938, during Heitz's appointment as president of the Reichskriegsgericht, Wehrkraftzersetzung (undermining military force) was established as a sedition offence in German military law, which criminalized all criticism, dissent and behavior opposed to Nazi political and military leadership, particularly within the Wehrmacht's military justice. The Wehrkraftzersetzung consolidated and redefined paragraphs already in the military penal code to punish "seditious" acts such as conscientious objection, defeatist statements, self-mutilation, and questioning the Endsieg. Convictions were punishable by the death penalty, heavy sentences in military prisons, concentration camps, and forced mobilization in combat or penal units. In 1939, a second decree was issued extending the law to civilians.
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Heitz was already 60 years old and would have gone into retirement. Nevertheless, he requested to be sent into the frontlines. On September 14, 1939, during the invasion of Poland Heitz was appointed as the commander of the armed forces in Danzig-West Prussia, partially because of his hatred for the Poles. On September 10, 1939, he wrote enthusiastically that he would “rule the area with a mailed fist” and that the combat troops under his command were "over inclined towards a false sense of chivalry." However, his command in Danzig-West Prussia only lasted four weeks.
On October 25, 1939, Heitz was appointed as the commanding general of the VIII Army Corps despite his advanced age. He led the Corps in the Invasion of France and on 4 September 1940 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for personally scouting for river crossings and leading his troops across the Oise river under enemy fire.
Heitz continued to command the VIII Army Corps during the German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa. The Corps was sent into central Russia, and took part in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk and the First Battle of Smolensk. After an interlude in the fall of 1941 when the VIII Corps was sent into Paris for occupation duty, the Corps was sent back to the Eastern Front. In the summer of 1942, the Corps was sent towards Southern Russia to participate in the main German strategic summer offensive of the year, Case Blue. In the offensive, Army Group B which included Heitz's Corps was to attack towards the Volga river and Stalingrad.
In August of 1942, the VIII Army Corps was sent along with the rest of the 6th Army, commanded by General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus into Stalingrad. The Germans managed to capture 90% of the ruined city, splitting the remaining Soviet forces in the city into two narrow pockets. On 19 November the Soviet forces launched Operation Uranus, a massive counteroffensive that involved over 1 million Soviet military personnel, aimed against Hungarian and Romanian units defending the 6th Army's flanks. The outnumbered and under-equipped Romanian 3rd Army at the northern flank and Romanian 4th Army Corps at the southern flank were overrun and by 23 November, the VIII Army Corps along with the rest of the German 6th Army was encircled and threatened with destruction.
As the situation worsened for the Germans in Stalingrad, he ordered defeatists and every man who attempted surrender to be shot and coined the slogan: "We fight to the last bullet but one!" Meanwhile, other generals such as General der Artillerie Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, had already given their regimental and battalion commanders permission to act and surrender independently according to local conditions. When Seydlitz released his divisional commanders on 25 January to decide for themselves whether or not to surrender, Paulus relieved him of his command and placed all of Seydlitz's divisions under Heitz. A few days later when Seydlitz and over a dozen other officers fled the German lines to surrender, bursts of machine-gun fire were aimed at them from German lines, Seydlitz later claimed that 2 German officers were mortally wounded because of Heitz's 'apocalyptic order'. On 29 January 1943, Heitz ordered that "Whoever surrenders, will be shot! Whoever displays the white flag, will be shot! Whoever does not immediately deliver bread or sausages dropped by our pilots, will be shot!" As late as the 31 of January, German soldiers who attempted surrender were shot in the back on the basis of Heitz's orders.
On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets north and south of Mamayev Kurgan. The northern pocket consisted of the XI Corps, and the VIII Corps, under Heitz. On 28 January, the two pockets were split into three. The northern pocket consisted of the XI Corps, the central with the VIII and LI Corps, and the southern with the XIV Panzer Corps and IV Corps "without units". The sick and wounded reached 40,000 to 50,000. On 29 January, Heitz had stated that he would seek the death of a soldier while defending his command post. He later attempted suicide but was stopped by his chief of staff. On 31 January 1943, Heitz surrendered the central pocket of German forces.
At the time of his arrest, Heitz was the second-highest ranking German officer taken prisoner by the Allies, behind Paulus. In prison, he vehemently refused to cooperate with the anti-Nazi National Committee for a Free Germany that operated out of the Soviet Union, despite being pressured by the Soviets, who beat him and threatened his family. He died on 9 February 1944 while in Soviet captivity.
Source :
https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&rows=45&page=1&fq%5B%5D=search_s_keywords_poolparty:%22Duitse%20strijdkrachten%22&filterAction&q=heitz&reverse=0
https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dba/de/search/?yearfrom=&yearto=&query=walter+heitz#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Heitz
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/Generaloberst/HEITZ_WALTER.html
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/6270959/obiekty/473175
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