General der Infanterie Erich Abraham (1895-1971), born on 27 March 1895 in Marienburg, East Prussia, in the German Empire as Erich Gottfried Abraham, volunteered for service in the German Army at the outbreak of World War I and was commissioned Leutnant der Reserve on 11 July 1915, earning the Eisernes Kreuz (1914) 2. Klasse on 2 September 1915 for bravery in action, followed by the Österreichisches Militärverdienstkreuz III. Klasse mit Kriegsdekoration on 20 March 1917 and the Eisernes Kreuz (1914) 1. Klasse on 27 June 1917, before demobilization in 1920 as an honorary Oberleutnant and subsequent service in the police force of the Weimar Republic where he rose to Major der Polizei by 1934. Rejoining the Wehrmacht in 1935 as Major, he commanded an infantry battalion in Infanterie-Regiment 105 from 1936 until 1939, then transferred to Infanterie-Regiment 266 and later assumed command of Infanterie-Regiment 230 of the 76. Infanterie-Division, advancing to Oberstleutnant in 1938 and Oberst on 1 September 1941 while receiving the 1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 March 1940 as Bataillons-Kommandeur of II. Bataillon, Infanterie-Regiment 266 in the 72. Infanterie-Division and the 1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 1. Klasse on 21 June 1940 as Regiments-Führer of Infanterie-Regiment 230, along with the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 7 March 1942 for his leadership during the encirclement battle at Kalatsch. As Oberst and Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 230 in the 76. Infanterie-Division with VIII. Armeekorps of 6. Armee during the intense defensive fighting north of Stalingrad in late 1942, Abraham and his regiment held blocking positions against repeated Soviet assaults with numerically superior forces and tanks, personally rallying his staff in close combat on 18 and 23 September to launch immediate counterthrusts that restored the line and prevented breakthroughs critical to the overall situation, actions that earned him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 13 November 1942 as the 1311th recipient. Appointed Kommandeur of the rebuilt 76. Infanterie-Division on 17 February 1943 and promoted Generalmajor on 1 June 1943, he led the formation initially to Italy before its transfer to Army Group South on the Eastern Front for winter 1943–44 operations, advancing to Generalleutnant on 1 January 1944 and guiding the division through heavy combat and the withdrawal amid the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive until October 1944, distinguishing himself particularly in early April 1944 by establishing and holding a bridgehead over the eastern bank of the Latka river northwest of Odessa to cover retreating German forces, for which he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 26 June 1944 as the 516th recipient while commanding the reinforced 76. Infanterie-Division with XXIX. Armeekorps of Heeresgruppe Südukraine. Later in 1944 he assumed command of LXIII. Armeekorps, was promoted General der Infanterie on 1 March 1945, and was captured at the end of the war, released from captivity in August 1947 before residing in Wiesbaden, West Germany, until his death on 7 March 1971 at age 75.
Generaloberst Eduard Dietl (1890-1944). Born on 21 July 1890 in Bad Aibling in the Kingdom of Bavaria within the German Empire, Eduard Wohlrat Christian Dietl entered the Bavarian Army on 1 October 1909 as a Fahnenjunker in the 5. Infanterie-Regiment „Großherzog Ernst Ludwig von Hessen“ and went on to serve with distinction on the Western Front during the First World War where he was wounded twice earning among other decorations the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse and 1. Klasse the Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber and the Bayerischer Militär-Verdienstorden 4. Klasse mit Schwertern before joining the Freikorps Epp and the precursor to the NSDAP in the turbulent postwar years while continuing his professional military career through the Reichswehr era rising to Generalmajor and assisting in the organization of the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. At the outbreak of the Second World War he took command of the 3. Gebirgs-Division and led it with legendary resolve during the German invasion of Norway in April 1940 landing his mountain troops at Narvik via destroyer convoy after which the loss of all ten supporting vessels in the First and Second Battles of Narvik left his outnumbered force isolated in the hills yet through masterful improvisation using salvaged naval personnel ammunition and supplies he held and ultimately retook the town against combined Norwegian British French and Polish opposition thereby earning the enduring nickname Hero of Narvik the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes as Generalleutnant on 9 May 1940 and on 19 July 1940 the very first Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz as Kommandierender General of the Gebirgs-Korps Norwegen along with the Zerstörer-Kriegsabzeichen and the Narvikschild. Elevated further to Generaloberst he assumed command of the 20. Gebirgs-Armee on the northern sector of the Eastern Front conducting arduous Arctic operations in northern Finland and Norway where despite challenging terrain and Soviet pressure he maintained a tenacious defense until his life was cut short on 23 June 1944 when the Ju 52 transport aircraft carrying him General der Infanterie Thomas-Emil von Wickede General der Gebirgstruppe Karl Eglseer and others crashed near Rettenegg in Styria with no survivors prompting a state funeral and posthumous award of the Schwerter to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub on 1 July 1944 as Oberbefehlshaber of the 20. Gebirgs-Armee while throughout his career he accumulated an array of additional honors including the Gemeinsames Flugzeugführer-Beobachter Abzeichen mit Brillianten the Finnish Orden der Freiheitskreuz 1. Klasse mit Stern Eichenlaub und Schwertern and the Großkreuz des Ordens der Weißen Rose Finnlands mit Schwertern cementing his status as one of the Wehrmacht’s most decorated mountain warfare specialists and a favored commander of Adolf Hitler.
Generaloberst Heinz Guderian (1888-1954). Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was born on 17 June 1888 in Kulm, West Prussia, as the son of a career soldier and died on 14 May 1954 in Schwangau, Allgäu, after a career that established him as one of the foremost pioneers of armored warfare and the Blitzkrieg doctrine; entering the German army in 1907 with the Hannoversche Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 10 under his father’s command, he was commissioned Leutnant in 1908, married Margarete Goerne in 1913, and during the First World War served in signals and staff roles across the Western Front including at Verdun and the Marne, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 17 September 1914, the Komtur II. Klasse zum Friedrichs-Orden mit Schwertern on 15 December 1915, and the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse on 8 November 1916 along with the Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer and other honors. Retained in the Reichswehr after 1918, he commanded motorized units, studied tank tactics in Sweden and the Soviet Union, instructed at Stettin, and by the early 1930s became the leading advocate for mechanized forces through articles and his seminal 1937 book Achtung – Panzer!, leading to his promotion to Generalmajor in 1936 as Inspector of Motorized Troops, command of the 2. Panzer-Division, and later the XVI. Armeekorps during the 1938 Anschluss and Sudetenland occupation before rising to General der Panzertruppe in November 1938 with responsibility for all armored recruitment and training. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the XIX. Armeekorps during the 1939 invasion of Poland, advancing 330 kilometers in ten days to capture Brest-Litovsk and earning the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 27 October 1939, then in the 1940 campaign against France and the Low Countries spearheaded the Ardennes breakthrough with seven mechanized divisions, reached the English Channel, and drove to the Swiss border to encircle the Maginot Line, after which he was promoted Generaloberst on 19 July 1940 and earned the nickname Schnelle Heinz. In Operation Barbarossa of 1941 he led Panzergruppe 2, later redesignated 2. Panzerarmee, closing the Minsk pocket and participating in the Kiev encirclement before pressing toward Moscow, for which he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 17 July 1941, though strategic disagreements with Hitler over the Moscow priority led to his dismissal on 25 December 1941. Reinstated in February 1943 as Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen after the Stalingrad disaster, he collaborated with Albert Speer to rebuild panzer formations and opposed the Kursk offensive as futile, then following the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt was appointed Acting Chief of the General Staff of the Army High Command until his final dismissal on 28 March 1945 after protesting Hitler’s troop reallocations for Operation Frühlingserwachen. Surrendering to American forces on 10 May 1945, he was interned until 1948 without facing charges at Nuremberg despite Soviet extradition requests, subsequently wrote his influential memoirs Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (published in English as Panzer Leader in 1952), and retired quietly until his death from heart disease, his theories on concentrated tank assaults, radio coordination, and rapid combined-arms maneuvers continuing to shape modern military doctrine despite later controversies surrounding his forces’ conduct.
Generaloberst Hermann Hoth (1885-1971), born on 12 April 1885 in Neuruppin as the son of a Prussian army medical officer, joined the German Army in 1904 after completing his cadet training at the Preußische Hauptkadettenanstalt and was commissioned as Leutnant before rising slowly through staff positions, serving primarily as a headquarters officer on the Eastern and Western Fronts during the First World War where he earned the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 20 September 1914, the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse on 2 August 1915, the Ritterkreuz des Königlichen Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern on 16 August 1918 along with the Hanseatenkreuz Hamburg, the Militärverdienstkreuz Österreich-Ungarn 3. Klasse mit Kriegsdekoration, the Eiserner Halbmond, and the Bulgarischer Militärverdienstorden IV. Klasse while witnessing the Battle of Tannenberg and developing a deep anti-communist stance that shaped his later career. Remaining in the Reichswehr through the Weimar years with promotions to Major in 1924 and Oberstleutnant in 1929 including secret cooperation in the Soviet Union, he embraced National Socialism after 1933 for its nationalist and military modernization policies, advancing to command the 18. Infanterie-Division by 1935, the XV. Armeekorps (mot.) from November 1938, and leading it with distinction in the 1939 Polish campaign where his rapid breakthroughs south of Tschenstochau and victories in the Radom pocket earned him the 1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 2. Klasse and 1. Klasse followed by the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 27 October 1939. Promoted to Generaloberst in July 1940 after spearheading the XV. Armeekorps through the Ardennes and Meuse crossings in the 1940 Battle of France with the 5. and 7. Panzer-Divisionen under his right-flank advance that contributed to the encirclements at Lille and Saint-Valéry-en-Caux, he assumed command of Panzergruppe 3 during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, achieving the massive Minsk and Smolensk encirclements that destroyed hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops and thousands of tanks, for which he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub on 17 July 1941 before transferring to lead the 17. Armee in Ukraine in October 1941 where he advocated a war of annihilation against Jewish-Bolshevik elements and partisans while maintaining close cooperation with Einsatzgruppen for rear-area security operations. Taking over the 4. Panzer-Armee in June 1942 for Fall Blau, he drove toward Voronezh and the Donbas before supporting the Stalingrad offensive and launching the failed relief effort Operation Wintergewitter in December 1942, then commanded the refitted 4. Panzer-Armee including the II. SS-Panzer-Korps in the Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943 and Operation Zitadelle at Kursk in July 1943 where his forces penetrated Soviet lines before stalling at Prokhorovka, earning the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern on 15 September 1943 for the skillful withdrawal to the Dnieper line amid heavy defensive fighting. Relieved of command in December 1943 by Hitler after Soviet recapture of Kiev and placed in the Führerreserve with minor late-war roles including defense of the Harz Mountains in April 1945 until surrender, Hoth was convicted in the 1948 High Command Trial at Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity including implementation of the Kommissarbefehl, mistreatment of prisoners of war, and complicity in civilian murders, receiving a 15-year sentence of which he served until parole in 1954 before retiring to Goslar where he authored works on armored warfare such as Panzer-Operationen and contributed to military journals promoting a professional Bundeswehr tank doctrine until his death on 25 January 1971.
Source :
https://www.walter-frentz-collection.de/fotoarchiv/personenarchiv-a-z/personen-a-b/
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