Gerhard

Gerhard Franz, born 26-02-1902 in Bobeck, Thüringen, entered the Army on 15-10-1917, age 14, as a cadet on the Officer Preparatory School in Weilheim. General Franz Halder (see Halder) lived and died in Weilheim. Franz was allowed in the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 20, on 01-10-1920. Franz was Operation Officer of the 29^th Division with the outbreak of World War II and landed 25-04-1942 in the Führer Reserve,(see Adolf Hitler) (did you know). Assigned on 10-05-1942 as Chief of Staff of the XXXX Army Corps on the Eastern Front. He landed again in the Reserve and was detached to the Staff of the Africa Corps, commander Erwin Rommel (see Rommel), on 20-11-1942. He became Chief of the General Staff until his sick leave on 10-02-1943 and in the Reserve again. From 01-08-1943 he left Africa as Chief of the General Staff of the XXXXII Army Corps, under General Gerhard Matzky,  on the Eastern Front.  Matzky  died old age 89, on 09-06-1983, in Bonn. On 01-08-1944 as an Oberst again in the Reserve and sent to a course of higher troop leadership. With the start of Operation Market Garden, 17-09-1944, he as commander of the 256^th Volksgrenadier Division was sent to the Netherlands, (see About) under General Friedrich Christiansen (see Christiansen), Obercommander of the Wehrmacht. Promoted to Major General, on 01-12-1944, he with the 256^th Division came on the Western Front in Alsace, France, “Operation Nordwind” and Germany until his captivity on 08-04-1945, by the Americans. Franz came to the Trent Park Camp 11, Generals prison and repatriated from Camp 186 on 12-05-1948. Franz retired in Bad Wildungen and died at the age of 73, on 24-12-1975 and is buried on the Stadtfriedhof of Bad Wildungen, only steps from the grave of General Hans Jurgen von Arnim (see Arnim), who was the successor of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as commander of the Africa Corps.