highest ranking german officer killed in ww2 highest ranking german officer killed in ww2

Moravec had personally selected two dozen of the most promising personnel from among the 2,000 exiled Czechoslovak soldiers based in Britain. The gap in vital statistics between the middle of 1944 and the end of 1945 was estimated. (German Federal Statistical Office), The Statistisches Jahrbuch fr die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960, Page 78, Hans Sperling, Die Luftkriegsverluste whrend des zweiten Weltkriegs in Deutschland, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. According to Overmans, the casualty reporting system broke down in the chaos at the end of the war. WebLt Gen Timothy Maude became the highest-ranking officer killed by foreign action since Gen Buckner when a passenger plane crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Nikdy se nevzdme, slyte? The current view of the German government is that these losses were due to an aggressive war started by the German nation. Multiple memorials have been created in different nations such as in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and in the United Kingdom as a result of both the assassination and its aftermath. Between 122,000 and 150,000 were detained and at least 43,000 did not survive. "[32][33] As Klein gave pursuit, Heydrich stumbled along the pavement before collapsing against the bonnet of his wrecked car. - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958. Germany (West). Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Bd. WebThe casualties suffered by the Western Allies in making this contribution to the defeat of the Wehrmacht were relatively light, 164,590195,576 killed/missing, 537,590 wounded, and Bishop Gorazd took the blame for the actions in the church to minimize the reprisals among his flock, and even wrote letters to the Nazi authorities, who arrested him on 27 June 1942 and tortured him. It was created in 1947 by an ex-soldier of the Czechoslovak army-in-exile, Frantiek Blsk and is dedicated to the paratroopers, the clergymen, and other Czech patriots who died for the sake of the operation. Originally, the plane had been planned to land near Pilsen, but the aircrew had navigation problems and each of the groups landed in different places from where intended. [48], Heydrich's condition while hospitalized was not documented in detail, but he was not noted to have developed any of the distinctive symptoms associated with botulism, which have a gradual onset, invariably including paralysis, with death generally resulting from respiratory failure. WebBellinger and the others managed to escape, and they later returned to retrieve Roses body. This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total. The number of dead and wounded on both sides was about equal. by tigre 10 Feb 2008, 14:16, Post [136], The Soviets set up NKVD special camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and areas east of the Oder-Neisse line to intern Germans accused of alleged ties to the Nazis, or because they were hindering the establishment of Stalinism in East Germany. [151] A study by the German demographer Peter Marschalck put the total deaths directly related to the war both military and civilians at 5.2 million, plus an estimated decline in births of 1.7 million, bringing total population losses related to the war at 6.9 million persons within the borders of 1937. Herausforderung Bevlkerung: zu Entwicklungen des modernen Denkens ber die Bevlkerung vor, im und nach dem Dritten Reich, Ploetz Geschichte des zweiten Weltkrieges Wrzburg, Ploetz 1960 page 80, Burkhart Mller-Hillebrand Das Heer 19331945. Ambrose maintains that the figure of 800,000 POW missing from the US records was a bookkeeping error, that many POW were released and no records were maintained. In 2005 the German government Suchdienste (Search Service) put the total combined German military and civilian war dead at 7,375,800, including ethnic Germans outside of Germany and Austrians. Never! Heydrich's death led to a wave of reprisals by SS troops, including the destruction of villages and mass killings of civilians. [4] Following the Page 264, C. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944, Source: Mller-Hillebrand Das Heer 19331945 Vol.3 Page 265, Source:Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkreiges, A.G Ploetz verlag -Wrzburg 1960 pp. [citation needed], The fate of over one million missing German soldiers in the USSR was an issue in post-war West Germany, with some claiming that they were held in secret labor camps by the Soviets. Monthly figures do not add because of rounding. Mai 1974. [8] However, there is a more recent estimate of 22,000 civilians killed during the fighting in Berlin only. to which the paratroopers fired back and shouted: "Jsme ei! Czechs in World War II", "The attentat on SS Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich", "Jsme ei! Marshall's figure for the Central Pacific is 273,000. 3-4, "Merkel ally quits after claiming Nazis didn't start war", Centre Against Expulsions, foundation website, "Our Foundation", "Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgrberfrsorge e. V.", "Germany Still Locates 40,000 War Casualties a Year", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_casualties_in_World_War_II&oldid=1150881183, Military history of Germany during World War II, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, By Official Cause of Death (per R. Overmans), German military dead on the Eastern Front (per R. Overmans), Add:Estimated losses of Soviet Volunteers, German POW deaths- Overmans estimate 2000, German POW Held in Captivity (Per R. Overmans), Expulsion and deportation civilian dead/missing. Contradictory accounts exist concerning whether sulfanilamide, a new antibacterial drug, was given; Gebhardt testified at his 1947 war crimes trial that it was not. WebPages in category "German military personnel killed in World War II" The following 140 pages are in this category, out of 140 total. ", German Strategy & General German Military Discussion, Life in the Third Reich & Weimar Republic, Kriegsmarine surface ships and Kriegsmarine in general, Luftwaffe air units and Luftwaffe in general, German Strategy & General German Military Discussion, NSDAP, other party organizations & Government, The Dieter Zinke Axis Biographical Research Section, The Ron Klages Panzer & other vehicles Section, Panzer & other vehicles - Photo threads, Axis Documents, Feldpost numbers, Postcards & Other Paper Items, The United Kingdom & its Empire and Commonwealth 1919-45, The Allies and the Neutral States in general, German Colonies and Overseas Expeditions, The end of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1923, Translation help: Breaking the Sound Barrier. [50], Hitler ordered an investigation and reprisals on the day of the assassination attempt, suggesting that Himmler send SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski to Prague. Right: US Army soldiers and [62] Ata was executed by the Nazis in Mauthausen on 24 October 1942, the same day as his father, his fiance, her mother, and her brother.[63]. Overmans was an associate of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office from 1987 until 2004 and was on the faculty of the University of Freiburg from 1996 to 2001. - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958 p. 14, Willi Kammerer; Anja Kammerer- Narben bleiben die Arbeit der Suchdienste - 60 Jahre nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg Berlin Dienststelle 2005. Like 2 Comments. Also, a memorial has been placed in Arisaig, Scotland, to the Czechoslovakian members of SOE who trained in that area, with a list of those killed and the missions in which they took part. 1892-1946) was a top German military officer during World War II and part of the leadership cadre around Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. A third plan was to kill Heydrich in Prague. Of the 350,000 civilians listed as dead (not including refugees), 126,000 of the deaths occurred after January 31, 1945. He was then transferred to the back of the truck on his stomach and taken to the emergency room at Bulovka Hospital. [44], One of the theories was that some of the horsehair in the upholstery of Heydrich's car was forced into his body by the blast of the grenade, causing a systemic infection. Ambrose points out that the US and the UK had to cope with a major logistical problem in order to maintain the huge number of surrendered German personnel and finds the claim that Eisenhower and the US military deliberately withheld support for the German POW to be without merit. In 1992 when Overmans began the project, German military dead in the war listed at the military search service Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) were 4.3 million men (3.1 million confirmed dead and 1.2 missing and presumed dead). Previously it was reported that 70,000 persons were murdered in the euthanasia program, recent research in the archives of the former East Germany indicate that the number of victims in Germany and Austria was about 200,000. (transl. [9], By late 1941, Germany under Hitler controlled almost all of continental Europe, and German forces were approaching Moscow. Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek of the University of Silesia in Katowice, author of a monograph titled Polacy w Wehrmachcie ("Poles in the Wehrmacht") noted that many Polish citizens in the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany were forcibly conscripted in Upper Silesia and in Pomerania. [38] The surgeons reinflated the collapsed left lung, removed the tip of the fractured 11th rib, sutured the torn diaphragm, inserted several catheters, and removed the spleen, which contained a grenade fragment and upholstery. The following 142 pages are in this category, out of 142 total. Overmans maintains that many individual reports of casualties were not processed by the end of the war and are not reflected in the German High Command (OKW) statistics.[20]. Reinhard Heydrich had been the chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) since September 1939 and was appointed acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia after replacing Konstantin von Neurath in September 1941. [3][4], Civilian deaths during the war include air raid deaths, estimates of German civilians killed only by Allied strategic bombing have ranged from around 350,000[5][6] to 500,000. ), Indicative of the huge discrepancy are the. WebOddlyenough the highest raking Army Air Corp general killed was Eighth Air Force General Nathan Bedford Forrest III was the great-grandson of Confederate General Nathan Casualties of German citizens during World War II, Records of German military search service, Wartime statistics compiled by German High Command (OKW), Comparison of figures at 12/31/1944 of Overmans and German High Command, German casualties in English language sources, United States Army figures for German and Italian losses, The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Civilians killed in 1945 military campaign, Deaths due to Nazi political, racial and religious persecution, NKVD special camps in East Germany 19451950, Expulsion of Germans after World War II and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union, Population balance for Germany in 1937 borders (not including Austria or the ethnic Germans of East Europe): May 1939 to October 1946, Population balance for the ethnic Germans of Eastern Europe, Rdiger Overmans, Deutsche militrische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. [23] Professor Vojtch Mastn argues that he "clung to the scheme as the last resort to dramatize Czech resistance". He ran out to the street and attracted Klein's attention by shouting and pointing inside the shop. He killed millions of innocent people because they existed. The exiled government of Czechoslovakia under President Edvard Bene was under pressure from British intelligence, as there had been very little visible resistance since the occupation of the Sudeten regions of the country in 1938. (Published by the Search Service of the German Red Cross. [52] In March the daily rate of POWs taken on the Western Front was 10,000;[53] in the first 14 days of April it rose to 39,000[54] and in the last 16 days the average peaked at 59,000 soldiers captured each day. Heydrich was first placed in the driver's cab, but complained that the truck's movement was causing him pain. He would gain the dubious distinction of being the highest ranking American soldier killed in combat in World War II. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. [49] Data from the Soviet Archives published by G. I. Krivosheev put the deaths in the USSR of German POWs at 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit. [29], Heydrich and Klein leapt out of the shattered Mercedes with drawn pistols; Klein ran towards Kubi, who had staggered against the railings, while Heydrich went to Gabk, who stood paralyzed holding the Sten. I HATE this guy. According to Gregory Frumkin this presumably referred to aggregate German forces including those conscripted outside the 1937 German borders. at 215,000. The Statistisches Jahrbuch fr die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960, Page 78. [39] He soon slipped into a deep coma and never regained consciousness, dying on 4 June around 04:30. WebAlfred Jodl (ca. Page 262, The figure of 1,277,000 killed and missing from January1 1945 - April30 1945 was estimated by the U.S. Army in the 1947 report German Manpower[24], B. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Of the children, 81 were later killed in gas vans at the Chemno extermination camp, while eight were adopted by German families. Traitor Karel urda was hanged for high treason in 1947 after attempting suicide. The following schedules summarize the OKW figures published in the post-war era. A staggering Heydrich came towards Gabk, who dropped his Sten and tried to reach his bicycle, but was forced to abandon the attempt and took cover behind a telegraph pole, firing at Heydrich with his pistol. [106] Marshall's figures of enemy battle deaths are juxtaposed with deaths in the US Army only, suggesting that the losses of Japanese naval forces are not included, nor Japanese casualties in theaters where the Americans were not the main opposing force. In 1950 the West German government made a preliminary estimate of 3,000,000 German civilians missing in Eastern Europe (1.5 million from pre war Germany and 1.5 million ethnic Germans from East Europe) whose fate needed to be clarified. The estimate by West German government in November 1949 for Germany in 1937 borders was 450,000 killed in bombing and 50,000 in ground fighting. Schramm put the total at 4,188,057. The personnel records included 3,070,000 men who were confirmed dead in the Death Files and another 15,200,000 men in the General Files who had served in the war including those listed as missing and presumed dead. Overmans maintains that his research project taking a statistical sample of the records of the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) found that the German military casualty reporting system broke down during the war and that losses were understated. Hello Baron Lornito Mahinay, thanks for joining us, "Es mejor morir de pie que vivir de rodillas! Soviet sources claimed that "In 1945 the German Army lost more than 1,000,000 men killed on the Soviet-German front alone."[34]. WebWW2 Mysteries. According to Krivosheev "The figures in the Wehrmacht documents relating to Germany's war losses are therefore contradictory and unreliable. Nothing will happen to you! Below is a list of American general officers and flag officers who have been killed in - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958 pp.45-6, Percy Schramm Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht: 1940 - 1945: 8 Bde. Comrades, surrender! WebI start with World War II because more (individual) records are available and I assume people are more interested in it. (German government Statistical Office), Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. The total haul of German POWs held by the Western Allies by April 30, 1945, in all theatres of war was over 3,150,000, rising in NW Europe to 7,614,790 after the end of the war. [66] The SS report about the fight mentioned five wounded SS soldiers. Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius is where the Czechoslovak paratroopers died after being cornered, and the memorial there is for those killed by the SS in retaliation for Operation Anthropoid. [167], James Bacque, a Canadian author with no previous historical research experience, has written a book Other Losses in which he claims that the United States are responsible for the deaths of 800,000 to 1,000,000 German POW. The Russian NKVD tortured a great The gap in vital statistics between the middle of 1944 and the end of 1945 was estimated. They planned to pull a cable across the road that would stop Heydrich's car, but after waiting several hours, their commander, Lt. Adolf Oplka (from the group Out Distance), came to bring them back to Prague. [13][12] The German Historical Museum puts the figure at 600,000 dead; they maintain the figure of 2 million expulsion deaths cannot be supported. Like his father, Gerhardt pursued a career as an army officer, graduating in the West Point class of 1917. Generalleutnant Friedrich Zickwolff was also wounded due to 'partisan' activity in Brittany and died as a consequence. The Daily Telegraph Story of the War Vol. Figures exclude Austria and conscripted ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe[119], A demographic analysis of the population balance by the West German government in 1960 put the total military losses of the Wehrmacht at 4,440,000; 3,760,000 for Germany (1937 borders); 430,000 conscripted ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and 250,000 from Austria.[120]. [4], According to the records of the western Allies 2.8 million German soldiers surrendered on the Western Front between D-day and the end of April 1945; 1.3 million between D-day and March 31, 1945,;[50] and 1.5 million of them in the month of April. [121] However, estimates from other sources tend to be lower, ranging from 305,000 to 500,000 persons killed by Allied bombing of German cities. -Germans remaining in Poland in October 1946 were 1,750,000, but by 1950 the number had been reduced to 1,100,000 because of expulsions after October 1946. During the cold war in West Germany there were claims that one million German prisoners of war were held in secret by the USSR. Note: This category is intended solely for those members of the German armed forces killed as a result of their military service and not those executed during internal purges, or those who died in Allied custody post-war. [38] A Dr. Slanina packed the chest wound, while Dr. Walter Diek, the Sudeten German chief of surgery at the hospital, tried to remove the shrapnel splinters. The oldest memorial is a plaque on Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Resslova Street, Prague. -POW still held by Allies- 1,750,000 POW from Germany within in the 1937 borders were still held by the allies in October 1946. [39][43] An autopsy concluded he died of sepsis. For his actions, Bishop Gorazd was later glorified as a martyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church. . Overall, Overmans estimates losses for the entire war on the Eastern front at 4 million and in the West 1 million. 73 anti-tank grenade used in the attack had been modified to contain the toxin. by tigre 13 Feb 2008, 22:47, Post Source of figures: Gregory Frumkin. In Prague, the pair contacted several families and Czechoslovak resistance organisations who helped them during the preparations for the assassination. [48] Based on his research, Rdiger Overmans believes that the deaths of 459,000 dead POWs can be confirmed in the files of Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)(including 363,000 in the USSR). information on burial sites and memorials of both wars. The Hahn's believe that the official German figure of 2 million deaths is a historical myth that lacks foundation. [122] The civilian deaths in the air raids on eastern Front after 1/31/1945 are also included with the figures of the losses during the Flight and expulsion of Germans (194450)[123], (1) Hans Sperling, Die Luftkriegsverluste whrend des zweiten Weltkriegs in Deutschland, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. For instance, in the battle of the Ruhr Pocket, there were about 10,000 fatalities on the German side (including prisoners of war in German captivity, foreign forced laborers, Volkssturm militia and unarmed civilians),[67] whereas about 317,000 Germans surrendered. Presse- und Informationsamt. Jan Hrub, who died in the fight with German troops in the crypt of the Church of Saint Cyril and Methodius, Memorial in the crypt of the Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}5074N 142751E / 50.11778N 14.46417E / 50.11778; 14.46417 (Assassination location in Prague). [15], Training was supervised by the nominated head of the Czech section, Major Alfgar Hesketh-Prichard, who turned to Cecil Clarke to develop the necessary weapon, light enough to throw but still be lethal to an armour-plated Mercedes. Bonn 1989, Germany reports. Figure includes deaths actually recorded from May 1939 until June 1944 and from January to October 1946. by tigre 18 Apr 2008, 21:53, Post He further argues (p.289) that about half of the 1,536,000 missing in the East between 1941 and 1945, according to his calculations, may well have died in Soviet captivity. pp. [15][131]:17 The German historian Rdiger Overmans maintains that there are more arguments for a lower figure of 500,000 rather than the higher figures of over 2.0 million. When Overmans conducted his research project during 1992 to 1994 he was an officer in the German Armed Forces. Klein, whose gun was still jammed, ran into the shop and collided with Gabk in the doorway. Two SS jackets that had been folded on the back seat of the car were whirled upwards by the blast and draped themselves over the trolley wire. 4-The figures for Army wounded add up to 4,219,211. In 1949 he published an article in the newspaper Die Zeit, in which he listed OKW Casualty Figures[21] these figures also appeared in a multi-volume edition of the OKW diaries. Toward Peace: War Responsibility, Postwar Compensation, and Peace Movements and Education in Japan. A zde stli Gabk s Kubiem", "Kulka pro Heydricha (TV film) (2013 TV movie) | Galerie", "Fifty Shades Star Jamie Dornan to Play Czech Soldier", "Assassination Operation Anthropoid, 19411942", Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror, Radio Prague: Exhibitions mark 60th anniversary of assassination of Nazi governor Heydrich, Exhibition on Operation Anthropoid at the Slovak Nation Museum, The Prague Daily Monitor: Experts find wartime paratroopers' grave, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assassination_of_Reinhard_Heydrich&oldid=1149609805, Military operations of World War II involving Germany, World War II operations and battles of Europe, People killed in United Kingdom intelligence operations, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018, Articles needing additional references from May 2019, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Heydrich succumbs to wounds on 4 June; Nazis order reprisals, Estimated 13,000 arrested and interrogated; estimated 5,000 executed, This page was last edited on 13 April 2023, at 09:06. Elisabeth Edwards 1/11/2023. [68], Two large funeral ceremonies were held for Heydrich as one of the most important Nazi leaders, first in Prague, where the way to Prague Castle was lined by thousands of SS men with torches, and then in Berlin attended by all high-ranking Nazi figures. The missing (697,319) does not include confirmed deaths in captivity, however on page 288 Overmans mentions 400,000 missing in the East in 1945 and states that this figure of missing was based on his finding that two thirds of deaths during the "final battles" occurred in the East of Germany. Oldenbourg 2000. [19] The groups, along with some supply containers, left the plane by parachute, in drops in three separate areas. Gubbins readily agreed to help mount the operation, although knowledge of it was restricted to a few of the headquarters and training staff of SOE. Figures do not include POW deaths of 363,000 in Soviet captivity; these losses were listed separately by Overmans. The West German government set up a unified body the Suchdienst (search service) of the German churches working in conjunction with the, In 1974, the West German Federal Archive (, In his 2000 study of German military casualties Rdiger Overmans found 344,000 additional military deaths of Germans from the, The German historians Hans Henning Hahn and Eva Hahn have published a detailed study of the flight and expulsions that is sharply critical of official German accounts of the cold war era. Overall Mller-Hillebrand estimated the total dead and missing at 4.0 million men. by tigre 17 Feb 2008, 14:34, Post According to Overmans there are no reliable figures to breakout the national origin for the figure of 900,000 men of German ancestry conscripted into the Waffen-SS[39] Overmans maintains that records of the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) surveyed only persons of German ancestry "deutsche nach Abstammung"[39] However Polish sources maintain that during the war the Germans forcibly conscripted ethnic Poles into the German military. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene des Zweiten Weltkriege. A 2005 report by the German Red Cross put the death toll due to strategic bombing at 500,000. She was executed by Nazis in Mauthausen). [70][71] On 5 August 1942, British foreign secretary Anthony Eden issued a declaration that Germany had destroyed the Munich Agreement. [42], Heydrich's condition appeared to be improving, until while sitting up eating a noon meal on 3 June, he suddenly collapsed and went into shock. [1][2] The German government reported that its records list 4.3 million dead and missing military personnel. [43] The statistics of the German High Command put casualties of the volunteer forces from the Soviet Union up until 1/31/1945 at: 83,307 dead; 57,258 missing and 118,127 wounded[44]. WebOn September 29-30, 1941, SS and German police units and their auxiliaries, under the jurisdiction of Einsatzgruppe C, murdered the Jewish population of Kiev at Babi Yar, a [14][4][15] According to the German government Suchdienste (Search Service) there were 300,000 German victims (including Jews) of Nazi racial, political and religious persecution. Japanese government figures from 2003 put their military war dead at 2.3 million.