General der Gebirgstruppe Eduard Dietl

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heinz kling
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General der Gebirgstruppe Eduard Dietl

#1

Post by heinz kling » 23 Apr 2003, 11:39

Why was he highly rated by Hitler, as most of the time he was serving on an inactive front with the 20. Gebirgsarmee in Norway/Finland?

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Juha Hujanen
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#2

Post by Juha Hujanen » 23 Apr 2003, 17:46

Most likely for his actions in Narvik in 40.He was first one who was awarded with Eichenlaub.

/Juha


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Stauffenberg II
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#3

Post by Stauffenberg II » 23 Apr 2003, 18:19

I think Dietl was quite a political general:

This text is from
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/DietlEduard/
1919
Durch Vermittlung von Ernst Röhm wird er etwa zeitgleich mit Adolf Hitler Mitglied in der Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (DAP), aus der ein Jahr später die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) hervorgeht.

1921
Aufgrund des Verbots der politischen Betätigung für Armeeangehörige muß er aus der NSDAP austreten. Dietl bleibt der Partei und Hitler jedoch eng verbunden. Er ist maßgeblich am Aufbau der Münchner Sturmabteilung (SA) beteiligt.
Translation: 1919 joined DAP (later NSDAP) before AH joined. Had to leave the NSDAP in 1921 (no political activities for soldiers) but left good friend to AH and the NSDAP. Worked to build the Munich-SA.

This text is from
http://www.friedenskooperative.de/ff/ff98/1-17.htm
... als Rassist von Reichsleiter Bormann besonders belobigt. Holte im Juni 1919 Hitler als Redner in die Reichswehr, weshalb ihn dieser 1941 zum "eigentlichen Geburtshelfer des Dritten Reiches" ausrief. Dietl war eines der ersten NSDAP-Mitglieder (Mitgliedsnr. 24 der NSDAP-Vorläuferin DAP, sein Name steht noch vor Hitlers in der Mitgliedsliste). Übernahm mit der Reichswehr den Schutz von NSDAP-Veranstaltungen. 1942 war Dietl Chef der sogenannten Landser-KZ. Die seiner 20. Gebirgsdivision unterstellten Strafsoldaten mußten einen 531 km langen Todesmarsch von Finnland nach Nordnorwegen mitmachen. Dietl: "Wer nicht mitkommt, der fällt." Von 340 Abmarschierenden kamen nur 28 lebendig ans Ziel. Dietl gratulierte nach Goebbels Rede von Februar 1943 zum "totalen Krieg" und hielt antisemitische Reden und Durchhaltereden. Hitler ehrte am 1. Juli 1944 den tödlich verunglückten "Helden von Narvik", Dietl sei, so Hitler, sein bester Kamerad gewesen.
Translation: ... Bormann mentioned him as a racist. Asked AH to speak in front of Reichswehr-units. AH called him therefore "the real obstetrician of the Third Reich". One of the first NSDAP-Members (DAP-No. 24), his name is ranked before AH´s. He led the Landser-KZ in 1942. The soldiers in a penalty unit had to make a march of 531 km from Finland to North-Norway. Dietl: Those, who don´t manage, will fall. Only 28 of 340 survived. Dietl congratulated after Goebbel´s proclamation of the "total war". AH called him "AH´s best comrade" after his death.

The Dietl-barracks in Füssen was therefore renamed in 1995.

But: His military bio is just great and he proved to be a great military leader in my opinion.

Similiar political generals were Blomberg, Hengl, Reichenau and Schörner.

Regards,
Stauffenberg II

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Harri
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#4

Post by Harri » 24 Apr 2003, 10:38

Actually to be racist Dietl was very liked among Finns. I have never heard anything negative on him from any of the Finns who worked with Germans. Also Marshal Mannerheim (C-in-C of Finnish Army) who was an aristocratic leader liked Dietl a lot (that was not the case with nearly all Germans, including AH...).

Luftwaffe officer Konrad Knabe don't say anything bad on Dietl in his book "Das Auge Dietls" (this book also reveals the weird sense of humour of Gen. Schörner). Also Kurt Herrmann's and Gerda-Louise Dietl's book "General Dietl" gives no hint on his "darker side" which is understandable.

Dietl's successor in 1944, Gen.Obst Rendulic, was more typical Prussian style officer (although he was Austrian) and was not popular among Finns.

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Stauffenberg II
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#5

Post by Stauffenberg II » 24 Apr 2003, 11:06

Rendulic was a favorite general of AH, too.

The high qualified Austrian General Staff Officer Dr. Lothar Rendulic had to leave the Austrian Army, because an Austrian General Staff Officer (Obst. i. G. Dr. Oskar Regele) denounced him to be a german nationalist.

Rendulic was therefore one of the few Austrian Officers already in a high Army-position after the Anschluss. Regele was therefore not accepted in the German Army.

Rendulic was able to find the right words when talking to AH. AH had a feeling of trust regarding Rendulic (Guderian Heinz, Erinnerungen eines Soldaten, p. 364).

Regards,
Stauffenberg II

I received the scan from Glenn2438. One of the signees was the later Eichenlaub-Träger Obstlt. Dr. Josef-Franz Eckinger (Thanks Glenn).
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Juha Hujanen
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#6

Post by Juha Hujanen » 25 Apr 2003, 11:20

Harri has a point.Dietl was very popular among Finnish civilians and military.And with Germans too.He seems to quite informal character.

What is interesting is that there seems to have been widespread belief among Germans in Lapland that Dietl death in flying accident was no accident.That he was murdered.Finnish officer Erkki Ansa,who was liason officer with Germans,says in article in Kansa Taisteli magazine(3/66) that everyone thought it was murder.For example chief of Wehrmacht film depot in Rovaniemi Musterer says that in his letter to home.In between lines ofcourse.

Also Knabe in his book strongly suggest that it was no accident.Dietl died when his Ju-52 crashed in Semmering 23.6.44.It has been claimed that pilot was inexperienced and weather conditions were difficult.Knabe claims that weather was not so bad that it could cause accident and pilot Oblt.Kowollik was one of most experienced pilots he knew and expert in "blind flying" and flying in mountains terrorioty.
Knabe have speak with 2 survivours of crash and they told that they heard an explosion before plane crashed.He also suggest that few weeks before his death Dietl had met an old friend,who had tried to recruit Dietl to resistance movement against Hitler.Dietl had said no.And after few days of Hitler assasination attempt Dietl crashed to his death.
Quite interesting.

Regards/Juha

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Stauffenberg II
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#7

Post by Stauffenberg II » 25 Apr 2003, 11:40

Interesting, never heard about it!

But don´t you think they would have done this in a way not killing three other generals (Gen. Eglseer, Gen. v. Wickede, Gen. Lt. Rossi).

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Stauffenberg II

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Juha Hujanen
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#8

Post by Juha Hujanen » 25 Apr 2003, 11:53

I'm also not a big fan of conspiracy theories.I'll guess truth is "out there" :lol:

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Stauffenberg II
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#9

Post by Stauffenberg II » 25 Apr 2003, 12:00

Your are right. But it is quite strange how many good soldiers died on aircraft accidents (Hube, Mölders, Süssmann, Höring, Gablenz, Wever, Grolig, Arnauld de la Periere and I guess some more ...) :(

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#10

Post by heinz kling » 27 Apr 2003, 11:06

I have this question about the Gebirgstruppe, which is supposed specially trained troops. Most of the time they were either serving in inactive fronts like Norway/Finland, or fighting partisans in the Balkans. The only time they were really contributing to the war effort was in the drive for the Baku oilfields and climbing Mount Elbrus ( in addition to their part in Kreta) in 42/43. Was that a waste of troops?

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Harri
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#11

Post by Harri » 27 Apr 2003, 18:32

Stauffenberg II wrote:But don´t you think they would have done this in a way not killing three other generals (Gen. Eglseer, Gen. v. Wickede, Gen. Lt. Rossi).
Perhaps no-one knew that other generals will be with Dietl? At least this excerpt suggests that (from the book "General Dietl" by Kurt Herrmann, Finnish shortened printing, page 235):

"Slightly after 7 (am) Austrian Generals Eglseer and Rossi appeared [arrived] to the airfield. They belonged to our army and had too partisipated in Sonthofen lecture day, and General Dietl had offered a return flight in his plane for them. Quite unexpectedly also Infantry General von Wickede, who had one of the AKs of Army Group North in his command, appeared to the field. He knew Dietl already in advance and had recanted his seat in the fast train from Salzburg to Königsberg and driven overnight by car from Graz to be able to travel together with our general [= Dietl] at least to Königsberg."

That was a fatal decision...

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Harri
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#12

Post by Harri » 27 Apr 2003, 19:07

heinz kling wrote:I have this question about the Gebirgstruppe, which is supposed specially trained troops.
Not only specially trained, also specially equipped. Many of these divisions were actually at least partly manned by Austrians and equipped with former Austrian gear. They also had more organic supply capacity than other divisions.

There were also other kinds of mountain troops: SS-Division "Nord" was originally intented to be a motorized infantry division which was "reorganized" as a Gebirgs-Division later in 1942. Originally these soldiers had very short SS-police training, so the renaming was done more in paper than in practise.
heinz kling wrote:Most of the time they were either serving in inactive fronts like Norway/Finland, or fighting partisans in the Balkans.
After the unsuccesful assault attempt towards Murmansk XIX Geb.-AK (earlier Gebirgs-Armee-Korps Norwegen) defended Kolosjoki nickel mines near Petsamo. That was not a "useless job" because about 75 - 80% of German nickel came from there.

I think mountain troops were the best possible German troops for chasing partisans in the mountains but in Finland Germans let these duties to more experienced and effective Finnish anti-partisan troops...
heinz kling wrote:The only time they were really contributing to the war effort was in the drive for the Baku oilfields and climbing Mount Elbrus ( in addition to their part in Kreta) in 42/43. Was that a waste of troops?
There were also other important duties. During the war mountain divisions were usually used like infantry divisions.

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Finski
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Dietl

#13

Post by Finski » 30 Mar 2006, 00:39

Dietl and other officers in Lappland
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talvijalkineet sakuilla mallia suomi.jpg
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Dietl, Lieutenant General Hjalmar Fridolf Siilavuo, Demelhuber
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Jeremy Dixon
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#14

Post by Jeremy Dixon » 30 Mar 2006, 20:26

Though I would share this photo of Dietl with you. A good one I think you will agree!?
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Winston Smith
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#15

Post by Winston Smith » 30 Mar 2006, 21:56

Just wanted to share a color photo of Dietl.

Source: Internet
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Eduard Dietl.jpg
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