Albert Praun

General  Albert Praun (11 December 1894, Bad Staffelstein – 3 March 1975) was a General in the German army who became the Chief Signals Officer of the Wehrmacht during World War II.

Career
He joined the Bavarian Telegraph Battalion in 1913 as an officer cadet and served as a leutnant in Imperial German Army during World War I. He was retained in the Reichswehr and appointed the head of the telegraph force at Königsberg in 1933. In 1935 he was appointed commander of the 38th Signals Battalion.

In 1940 he was appointed Commanding Officer of the 396th Signals Regiment with the rank of Oberst. He was then appointed Chief Signals Officer of Panzer Group Hoth and Panzer Group Guderian in France where he was Chief Signals Officer at Military District C from 1940 to 1941. He was then posted to the Eastern Front where he served as Chief Signals Officer of the 2nd Panzer Group and was promoted to Generalmajor on 1 August 1942. He was the commanding officer of the 482nd and 486th Regiments and the 4th Panzer Grenadier Brigade. He was then appointed the commander of the 18th Panzer Division in February 1943 with the rank of Generalleutnant and the 129th Division and he served as the Chief Signals Officer of Army Group Centre and commander of the 277th Division.

When General Erich Fellgiebel and then his deputy Fritz Thiele were arrested and subsequently executed for their roles in the July 20 plot, Praun was appointed to succeed them on 1 November 1944 as Chief Signals Officer at the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and Oberkommando des Heeres and was promoted to General der Nachrichtentruppe. Following his appointment he requested to Ernst Kaltenbrunner at the RSHA that no further signals officers be arrested as it would damage the operational effectiveness of the signals service and he acceded to the request.

At the end of the war in May 1945 Praun was taken into captivity by the western allies and interrogated in France about his activities when serving there. At the end of August 1945 he was moved to prison camps at Neustadt, Hesse and Bad Hersfeld and he was released from captivity in June 1947. In 1950 France requested Praun's extradition for war crimes committed when he served there, but the request was refused by the Americans on grounds of lack of evidence. He lived in Munich until his death aged 80. In describing his military service, he wrote: Soldat in der Telegraphen- un Nachrichtentruppe.

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class
 * 1st Class
 * Wound Badge (1914)
 * in Black
 * Cross of Honor
 * Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung 4th to 1st Class
 * Anschluss Medal
 * Sudetenland Medal with Prague Castle Bar
 * Iron Cross
 * 2nd Class
 * 1st Class
 * Eastern Front Medal
 * German Cross in Gold (7 February 1943)
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 October 1943 as Generalleutnant and commander of 129. Infanterie-Division