Veiel, Rudolf.

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Veiel, Rudolf
Veiel, Rudolf, born 10-12-1883 in Stuttgart,   joined, age 20, the Army Service, on 04-04-1904, as a Fahnenjunker in the Württembergische Armee, with the 1st Württembergisches Ulanen-Regiment „König Karl“ Nr. 19 . Already on 18-08-1905 he was promoted to Leutnant. With the outbreak of World War I he was the Eskadron-Chief in the Württembergischen Reserve-Dragoner-Regiment. Fighting on the Western Front he received both the Iron Crosses  and remained in the Reichswehr with the 18th Calvary Regiment as a Rittmeister. After the First World War he was a member of the Freikorps in Württemberg (1919). On 01-02-1938 he took the command of the 2nd Panzer Division, meanwhile a Generalmajor. After the Connection with Austria in 1938, his division was transferred to Vienna and was involved in the invasion of Poland. On 01-10-1939 he was promoted to  Generalleutnant and decorated for his bravery leading in Poland. Then the 2nd Panzer Division  took part in the Western Campaign and Veiel received the Iron Cross of the Iron Cross, on 03-06-1940. The Division was refreshed and again in battle for the Balkan invasion and in autumn 1941 for the campaign in the battle against Mid Russia. The battle of the Falaise Pocket  for the 2nd Panzer Division marked the closing phase of the Battle of Normandy with a decisive German defeat. Hitler’s personal involvement had been damaging from the first, with his insistence on hopelessly optimistic counter-offensives, his micro-management of his generals, and his refusal to countenance a withdrawal when his armies were threatened with annihilation. More than 40 German divisions were destroyed during the Battle of Normandy. No exact figures are available, but historians estimate that the battle cost the German forces a total of around 450.000 men, of whom 240.000 were killed or wounded. The Allies had achieved this blow at a cost of 209.672 casualties among the ground forces, including 36.976 killed and 19.221 missing. In addition, 16.714 Allied airmen were killed or went missing in direct connection with Operation Overlord. The final battle of Operation Overlord , the Liberation of Paris, followed on 25 August, and Overlord reached its end by 30 August with the retreat of the last German unit across the Seine. Veiel lost the command of the 2nd Panzer Division to Generalleutnant Hans-Karl Freiherr von Esebeck and appointed as commander of the XXXXVIII Motorized Army Corps, from 19-02-1942, where he succeeded General der Panzertruppe Werner Kempf 
. Esebeck had knowledge of and was sympathetic to the anti-Hitler conspiracy in the military. He was arrested on 21-07-1944 and spent the rest of the war in concentration camps. Liberated at the end of the war he lived the rest of his life in poverty and died, age 62, on 05-01-1955. Veiel became a General  of the Panzertruppen on 01-04-1942. He lost again his command and landed in the infamous Führer Reserve until 28-09-1942. Veiel became the Commanding General of Supply Staff Mid, on 10-06-1943, again released and in the Reserve. On 01-09-1943 he became the Commanding General  of the Replacement General Command of V. Armeekorps in Stuttgart. With this command he was also the High Commander of Wehrkreis V. As Veiel was suspected in the 20 July 1944 bomb plot, he was released and in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know). The 20 July threaten for Hitler at the Bendlerblock in Berlin was saved by Major Otto Ernst Remer
  commander of the Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland  who refused to arrest Josef Goebbels after talking to Hitler in the Wolfschanze by phone . Veiel wouldn’t get another command anymore and landed in American captivity until 12-05-1947.

Death and burial ground of Veiel, Rudolf.

   Living in Stuttgart, Veiel died age of 72, on 09-03-1956 and is buried with his wife Theodora, on the Prager cemetery in Stuttgart, were also are buried Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s, adjutant Generalmajor der Infanterie, Hans Speidel, Generalleutnant der Pioniere, Kommandeur Heeresgruppe Süd, Gustav Boehringer
  , General der Infanterie, Kommandeur der Wehrmachtwaffe, OKW, Walter Buhle, Generalmajor der Artillerie, Kommandeur Ersatz V Heergruppe, Kurt Adam, Generalleutnant der Pioniere, Kommandeur des Ersatzheeres, Hans Donat and the airship builder, Graf Ferdinand Zeppelin.
   

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com

 

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