Feller, Gustav.

Feller, Gustav, born 16-06-1896 in Stuttgart, joined the Army with the outbreak of World War I, at the age 18, on 08-08-1914, as a Fahnenjunker in the 125^th Infantry Regiment. Wounded  in hospital from 20-07-1915 until 09-08-1915, Gustav ended the war as a Ordinance Officer in the 125^th Infantry Regiment. Feller was also allowed in the new Reichswehr  and at the beginning of World War II he was adviser in the General Army Office OKH,  to 22-11-1940. He was detached to the Staff of the Panzer Group II, under Generaloberst der Panzertruppe, Heinz Guderian

     (Heinz Wilhelm) (Kurt) to 31-08-1941 and landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know), to 03-07-1942. Then detached to the Panzer Troop School and again in the Reserve from 10-04-1943 until 20-06-1943. Was commander of the 1^st Panzer Regiment to 15-12-1943 and for the third time in the Reserve, to 10-02-1944. Delegated with the leadership of the 71^st Infantry Regiment, until 06-04-1944 and again in the infamous Führer Reserve to 28-06-1944. Ordered to the Normandy Front as Commander of the Panzer Troops III, to 20-11-1944.

Death and burial ground of Feller, Gustav.

During his last command of the Panzer Troops IX, Feller is killed in action, age 48, on 13-04-1945.  The American V Corps under command of Major General Clarence Huebner, that though rapidly running out of space between the American/British and Canadian in the west and the Russians in the east, the German were using a variety of methods to evade capture in the Ruhr Pocket. V Corps warned that the Germans were using captured American trucks to carry there soldiers. Drivers and faux guards were dressed in American uniforms. To combat these tactics, roadblocks, checkpoints, outposts and foot and motorized patrols were used. As darkness came from 13-04-1945, a German car came from the west to a Cable Company checkpoint at a crossroad. Other cars have been stopping, but when the occupants of this car were challenged the car containing four occupants sped up and attempted to pass through and make a turn to the south. A Ranger Bar man opened fire and as the car made the righthand turn, other Rangers began to shoot with Thompsons submachine guns, Browning automatic rifles and M1 rifles. Pierced by a rain of bullets the car veered off the road into a ditch and crashed. All four of the occupants were killed. Thanking no changes the Rangers made a sieve of the car. One of the dead Germans was Generalmajor Gustav Fellers, commanding General of Panzer Corps Wehrkreis IX. The three other dead men were members of the General’s Staff including his youthful aide Count of Von Girsewald. General Feller was carrying maps and documents which were turned over to the intelligence. The pistols, wrist watches, insignia and opther useful items became Rangers souvenirs. The General’s body was sent of for a formal funeral. Two German soldiers who had passed themselves as civilians dug a comment grave for the other three men. These two men thought they were digging their own graves and there sweat was more fear then exerstion. Their relief was joyous when they were spared.

Gustav Feller is buried on the war cemetery of Breuna , as also General der Infanterie, Befehlshaber der Rheinbrückenköpfe der Heeresgruppe, Joachim Kortfleisch,

   490 German and 139 foreign dead have found their last resting place in Breuna.