Fritz Bayerlein

Fritz Bayerlein (14 January 1899 – 30 January 1970) was a German panzer general during the Second World War. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves and Swords was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Early life and career
Fritz Bayerlein was born in Würzburg, Franconia, Germany. During World War I, Bayerlein was drafted into the 9th Bavarian Infantry in 1917 and fought on the Western front. He was wounded and received the Iron Cross when he was in the 4th infantry regiment. After the war Bayerlein was briefly a member of a volunteer battalion but was transferred to Regiment 45 in May 1919. He went through officer training in 1921 and was one of the officers who remained in the diminished Reichswehr. He had reached the rank of major.

World War II
At the beginning of World War II, Bayerlein served in the Invasion of Poland as the First General Staff Officer of General Heinz Guderian. He continued in this position during the invasion of France. Guderian's troops crossed the Meuse River near Sedan on May 14 and advanced until General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist ordered Guderian to halt and not attack the British fleeing from Dunkirk.

Operation Barbarossa
In Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, during June 1941, Bayerlein was assigned to General Guderian's Panzer Group 2, Headquarters, as the Ia Operations officer. (page 50, "Bayerlein, from Afrikakorps to Panzer Lehr"). After the Kiev operation, Oberstleutnant Bayerlein was transferred from the Russian front and from the support of General Guderian to Generaloberst Erwin Rommel. He was transferred to the Führerreserve in August 1942, then reassigned to the Afrika Korps as Chief of Staff. He served under the command of Generalmajor Walter Nehring beginning in March 1942 upon Nehring's transfer to Africa.

North Africa
Bayerlein's next assignment was in North Africa, in the Afrika Korps. In the battle of Alam Halfa Bayerlein took command when General Walther Nehring was incapacitated on 30 August 1942. Later he served under Erwin Rommel and Wilhelm von Thoma. He again assumed command when British troops captured von Thoma at El Alamein on 4 November. When Rommel left Tunisia in March 1943, after the failed attack at Medenine (Operation Capri), Bayerlein was appointed German liaison officer under the new commander, Giovanni Messe: in practice, Bayerlein acted as he saw fit, disregarding the Italian's orders. During the fighting Bayerlein developed muscular rheumatism and hepatitis. He was sent to Italy on sick leave before the German troops in Tunisia surrendered on 12 May 1943.

Eastern Front
Bayerlein was sent to the Eastern Front in October 1943, his second assignment to Russia, to lead the Berlin-Brandenburg 3rd Panzer Division. He broke out of a Soviet encirclement at Kirovograd against Hitler's orders. He was later assigned to command the Panzer Lehr Division. They moved to Budapest, Hungary to train in March 1944. Bayerlein aided the Archbishop of Hungary, Cardinal Serédi in Budapest, in his efforts to stop the deporting of Jews in the Panzer Lehr Division sector. Panzer Lehr Division left Hungary in May 1944 to prepare for the Allied invasion. Unfortunately, due to his Mass services, protesting the deportment of the Jews and condemnation of the racial policies, the Cardinal was murdered by the SD in October 1944. The Cardinal left notes in his diary praising Bayerlein for his humanitarianism.

Western front
Panzer Lehr Division moved up from LeMans to Normandy on June 7, and took a brutal pounding from Allied aircraft in the transit. The division suffered particularly in the loss of trucks and transport vehicles. The fighting in the heavy forested bocage country of Normandy at times placed his long barreled Panther tanks at a disadvantage, and Bayerlein is known to have stated his division would be more effective in Russia than Normandy. During the allied break out attempt allied carpet bombing near the French village of Saint-Lô decimated the division. Bayerlein and the division staff officers had to take cover in the woods from the bombing. The remnants of Panzer Lehr Division slipped out of the Falaise pocket and moved east toward Vire in August 1944. An effort was made to refit the division and bring it back up to strength prior to the German winter offensive in the west, "Wacht am Rhein" - the Ardennes Offensive. Bayerlein served under General Heinrich von Lüttwitz (XLVII Panzer Corps commander) and General Hasso von Manteuffel (commander 5th Panzer Army) for the Ardennes Offensive which began on 16 December 1944.

After the Ardennes Offensive Bayerlein took command of the 53rd corps (LIII Armee Korps - Korpsgruppe Bayerlein) in February 1945.

On 15 April 1945 General Bayerlein ordered his troops to surrender to the U.S. Army 7th Armored Division in the Ruhr Pocket. Bayerlein refused to comply with Hitler's scorched earth policy in the industrialized Ruhr valley. Bayerlein knew the war was lost, and had been since Africa. He arrested members of his staff who dissented with his plans to surrender the corps, and praised those that helped him. The surrender of the LIII Armee Korps in the Ruhr was the first large surrender of over 30,000 troops. This triggered the entire front to collapse and ended the fighting. Bayerlein surrendered to General Robert Hasbrouck, commanding general of the 7th Armored Division, on 19 April 1945. (ref: "Bayerlein")

After the war
Bayerlein was a prisoner of war from April 1945 through April 1947. During this time, with many other generals in Allied captivity, they wrote the European battle histories for the US Army Historical Division. Bayerlein cooperated with the Army historians. This, along with his surrender in the Ruhr, garnered him hostile threats from many of his fellow officers. (ref: "Bayerlein")

Bayerlein was released from captivity on 2 April 1947. After the war he wrote about military subjects and continued aiding the US Army Historical Division's efforts in documenting in the historical studies of World War II, European Theatre. During the 1960s, he was also a technical advisor to the Carl Foreman production of The Guns of Navarone. He died in his hometown Würzburg in 1970 from his illness in Africa. (ref: "Bayerlein")

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class (30 August 1918)
 * Wound Badge
 * in black - 1918
 * in silver - from Normandy Invasion, 1944
 * Panzer Badge in Silver
 * "Afrika" Cuffband
 * Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (13 September 1939)
 * Iron Cross (1939)
 * 1st Class (27 September 1939)
 * German Cross in Gold on 23 October 1942 as Oberst in the General Staff in the Deutsches Afrika-Korps
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
 * Knight's cross on 26 December 1941 as Oberstleutnant in the General Staff and Chief of the General Staff of the DAK
 * 258th Oak leaves on 6 July 1943 as Oberst in the General Staff and Chief of Staff of the 1st Italian Army
 * 81st Swords on 20 July 1944 as Generalleutnant and commander of the Panzer-Lehr-Division
 * Mentioned twice in the Wehrmachtbericht on 11 January 1944 and 26 June 1944.
 * Italian decorations from African Campaign:
 * Silver Medal of Military Valor(page 274, "Bayerlein: From Afrikakorps to Panzer Lehr...)
 * Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy
 * Wehrmacht Long Service Award IV to class II
 * Honour Roll Clasp of the Army on 5 March 1945 [1]