Friebe, Helmut, born 01-11-1894 in Droschlau, Silesia, entered the Army service on 22-03-1914, age 20, as a Fähnrich in the Schlesisches Füsilier-Regiment “General Feldmarschall Graf Moltke” Nr. 38.
He went to the front as a Leutnant and was soon severely wounded and earns both the Iron Crosses . He is allowed in the new Reichswehr and with the outbreak of World War II as an Adjutant of the Generalkommando XXI. Armeekorps under command of Generaloberst Nikolaus von Falkenhorst , he is involved in the invasion of Poland . He again is soon wounded in hospital and recovered assigned as commander of the 1st Infantry Replacement Regiment in Konigsberg, later Fortress Konigsberg, defended by General der Infanterie, Defender of “Festung Königsberg”, Otto Lasch
, in 1945. End of Mai 1940 he changes to the 64th Infantry Regiment and ordered to the Western Front. Promoted to Oberst he leads his 62nd Infantry Division in the Operation Barbarossa. He is again severely wounded on the Eastern Front and lost his command. On 13-08-1941 he received the Iron Cross and recovered from his wounds he landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know). He returns to the Russian Front as Commander of the 419th Infantry Regiment, attacking the Caucasus. Half December he again lands in the Reserve and assigned as commander of the 125th Infantry Division , nicknamed “Weasel Division” on the front in the South of Russia, he succeeded General Wilhelm Schneckenburger .Schneckenburger was killed on 14-10-1944, age 53, by fire from low flying aircraft. Promoted to Generalleutnant on 01-10-1943, Friebe lost the command of the 125th and for the third time in the Reserve. The youngest Generalleutnant in WWII with 36, was Theodor Tolsdorff. Friebe then became commander of the 22nd Infantry Division , he succeeded Heinrich Kreipe, who later was kidnapped by a British team on Crete. Withdrawn to the mainland in autumn 1944, the 22nd Infanterie-Division spent the rest of the war in anti-partisan operations in southeastern Europe, was renamed 22. Volksgrenadier-Division in March 1945, and surrendered to Yugoslav forces at the end of the war in May. In March 1945 he got the command of the 22nd Volks Grenadier Division and half April the command of the Generalkommando LXIV Army Corps. He is in captivity from 08-05-1945 until 1947 and lives in Fischbach, near Friedrichshafen, the aircraft designer Claude Dornier lived there.
Death and burial ground of Friebe, Helmut.
Helmut Friebe died at the age of 75, on 14-01-1970 and is buried with his wife Elisabeth, born Görs, who died old age 87 in 1994, on the small cemetery of Fischbach.
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