Boeckh-Behrens, Hans Karl August.

Back to all people

- Medals

 
germanyWehrmachtGeneralleutnant

Boeckh-Behrens, Hans, born 22-11-1898 in Wenigerode, the son of Oberst Karl Boeckh (1843–1927) and his wife Elisabeth “Else”, born of Sichart (1868–1961). Oberleutnant Boeckh married his fiancée Elfriede Auguste Klara Haenicke on 09-09-1929, the daughter of the later infantry General Siegfried Haenicke. The marriage gave birth to four children: Hans (born 1930), Gerlinde Else Klara (born 31-01-1932 in Berlin-Tempelhof; later well-known biochemist in Windhoek and mother of eight), Elke (born 1936) and Wend-Uwe (born 1943), who built up an education in health and fitness at the University of Bayreuth as early as 1983, worked as a management consultant for fitness and leisure facilities and was most recently Academic Director at the Institute for Sports Science at the University of Bayreuth until 2008.

 

Hans Karl joined the Army Service, age 15, as a Fähnrich in the I. Ersatz-Bataillon des Magdeburg, Füsilier-Regiments “Generalfeldmarschall Graf Blumenthal” Nr. 36. He was on the battlefields of the first war with this battalion. He is wounded of shrapnel in the back on 05-05-1917, near Aisne and lands in French captivity until 19-02-1920. He is allowed in the new 10 divisions Reichswehr 8 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions and becomes a Tactic Teacher in the Reichswehr Ministry and transferred to the Staff of the General Staff of the XXVI Army Corps and participate in the Poland invasion. As an officer in the in the General Staff of the 16th Army,  under Field Marshal, Ernst Busch

, he is on the Western Front on 23-10-1939 and later in Operation Barbarossa.  The 91.000 German POWs taken at Stalingrad, 27.000 died within weeks and only 5-6,000 returned to Germany by 1955. The remainder of the POWs died in Soviet captivity. On 02-02-1943, the organized resistance of Axis troops in Stalingrad ceased. Out of the 91.000 prisoners taken by the Soviets, 3.000 were Romanian. These were the survivors of the 20th Infantry Division,  1st Cavalry Division and “Colonel Voicu” Detachment. According to archival figures, the Red Army suffered a total of 1.129.619 total casualties; 478.741 men killed or missing and 650.878 wounded. These numbers are for the whole Don region; in the city itself 750.000 were killed, captured, or wounded. Anywhere from 25.000 to 40.000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of aerial bombing by Luftflotte 4 as the German 4th Panzer and 6th Armies approached the city; the total number of civilians killed in the regions outside the city is unknown. In all, the battle resulted in an estimated total of 1.7-2 million Axis and Soviet casualties. Boeckh Behrens is appointed to Chief of the General Staff of the Army and landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know). As an Oberstleutnant he was the adjutant of Generaloberst der Infanterie, Head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September, 1942,  Franz Halder  on 15-09-1943 he becomes the command of the 32th Infantry Division  From 24-09-1943 he takes the temporary command of the L Army Corps. He was involved in heavy retreating fighting’s in the area of Skrunda and Bunki and the Russian lost many soldiers. He was nominated for the Iron Cross but didn’t get one then. He was in Russian captivity on 08-05-1945 near the peninsula of Hela and came in the camps 453, 27 and 48, aswel in the Moscow prisons 1 and 2.

Around 400 German, Japanese, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian and Austrian officers were spent in the General camp Woikowo.

On 03-07-1943, the first Generals captured during the Battle of Stalingrad were taken to the camp. The highest ranking among them was Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. After the defeats of the Wehrmacht in Kursk (enterprise citadel), the Baltic (Baltic operation) and in Belarus (Operation Bagration) came between 1944 and 1945 more and more German Generals in Soviet captivity and were transferred to the camp.

After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on 07-05-1945, 185 other German Wehrmacht Generals were interned here.

Death and burial ground of Boeckh-Behrens, Hans Karl August.

thumb_Generalleutnant_Hans_Traut Condemned to 25 years imprison, but Boeckh-Behrens died at the age of 56 of a heart attack, on 13-02-1955, shortly before he could be released back home as a late returnee and is buried on the special General cemetery of Cherntsy, Row 1-Grave 23. Together with several other as General der Infanterie, Kommandeur 145th Infanterie Regiment, Karl Specht, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Kommandeur of Warschau, Rainer Stahel, Generalmajor der Artillerie, Kommandeur IV Heeresgruppe, Max Pfeffer, Generalmajor, Commander 290tsth Infantery Division , Hans Joachim Baurmeister,

  Generalmajor der Wehrmacht, Grenadier Regiment 70, Louis Tronnier, Generalmajor and commander of the 570th Infantry Regiment. Erwin Hans Barends, Generalleutnant and Commander of the 431st Landesschützen Division, Heinrich Heinz Thoma, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Commander of the 44th Infanterie Division, Heinrich Deboi and Generalmajor der Wehrmacht, Pioneer Commander, Wilhelm Runge.

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

 

Share on :

end

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *