Gause, Alfred, born 14-12-1896 in Königsberg, Prussia, joined the Army Service, age 17, on 14-03-1914, as a Fahnenjunker in the Samländisches Pionier-Bataillon Nr. 18 . He was in the fields of the first war with this Regiment and wounded. Alfred was awarded with both the Iron Crosses . In the interwar years he was among the 4,000 officers selected to remain in the Reichswehr, the restricted sized German army. Adopted in the Reichswehr, he was active from 01-10-1919 as adjutant of the Reichswehr Pioneer Battalion 1. On 01-10-1921 Gause was transferred to the 1st (Prussian) Riders Regiment and commanded to a leaders course training for a staff position of the 1st Division. After a year, he was transferred back to the now renamed 1st (Prussian) Pioneer Battalion. On 01-11-1925 he was transferred to the 1st Battery of the 1st (Prussian) Artillery Regiment to Insterburg. For nine months he was commanded to Pioneer School Munich. On 01-02-1927, Gause became head of the 2nd Company of his pioneer battalion in Königsberg, where he was promoted to Hauptmann. On 01-10-1930, he came to the training squadron of the 16th Horseman Regiment to Hofgeismar. In 1931 he was transferred to the Reich Ministry of Defense, where he was employed in the “Troops Office”.On 01-10-1931 he came for six years to the staff of the 5th Division in Stuttgart, where he was promoted to Major in 1934. In the expansion of the Reichswehr on 01-10-1934 commander of the Wehrkreis V renamed and unmasked in the spring of 1935, this staff was the Generalkommando V. Army Corps, under command of General der Infanterie Hermann Geyer. Geyer retired in 1943 and committed suicide on 10-04-1946, age 63. Gause served primarily on the staff of the First Prussian Engineer battalion. With the outbreak of World War II he as a Oberst and commander of the X Army Corps was on the Western Front. In 1940 he landed in the Führer Reserve and on 01-10-1940 he was Chief of Staff of the XXXVIII Army Corps, under Generalfeldmarschall der Infanterie, Oberbefehlhaber Heeresgruppe Sud, Erich von Manstein
. He again landed in the Reserve, promoted to Generalmajor on 01-06-1941 and assigned as Communication Officer in the Italian High Command. Transferred to Africa, on 01-09-1941, as Chief of the General Staff of the Panzergruppe Africa, under Field Marshall of the Panzer Troops, Erwin Rommel.
He was awarded with the Ritterkreuz and in January 1942 Chief of the General Staff of the Africa Panzer Army . Casualties, Free French: 16.000 killed, wounded or captured. British Empire: 53.000 killed, wounded, or captured. United States: 2.715 killed, 8.978 wounded, 6.528 missing. Germany: 12.808 killed, Unknown wounded 101.784 + captured, Total Axis: 950.000 total casualties, 8.000 aircraft destroyed or captured, 6.200 guns destroyed or captured 2.500 tanks destroyed or captured. Gause landed again in the Reserve and assigned as Chief of the General Staff of Army Group Africa and promoted to Generalleutnant, on 01-04-1943. In Mai 1943 he was transferred to Europe and again temporary in the Reserve and becomes General Staff Officer with Erwin Rommel. Added to the Staff of the Army Group B, under Generalfeldmarschall der Kavallerie, Freiherr Maximillian von Weichs
released in April 1944, in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know). Half June 1944 he succeeded Generalmajor der Infanterie, Chef der ST Panzergruppe West, Ritter und Edler von Dawans as commander of the Panzer Group West and in August Chief of the General Staff of the 6th Army Corps under General der Infanterie, Commander XXX Armee Corps, Fretter Pico he died old age 92, on 04-04-1984. Gause lost his command and landed in the infamous Reserve and was sent to the course of commanding Generals. From 05-04-1945 he was commander of the Generalkommando II Armeekorps in Kurland. After the capitulation with his Army Corps, he was in Soviet captivity until Autumn of 1955, and released by intervention of the new chancellor Konrad Adenauer, here with Winston Churchill.
Death and burial ground of Gause, Alfred.
Living in Bonn after the war he at the age of 71 died, on 30-09-1967 and is buried with his wife Elisabeth, born Gerss, who died age 83, on 30-04-1988, on the cemetery Poppelsdorf a suburb of Bonn, close to the grave of WWII Generalmajor der Artillerie, Commander of the Catch Staff East with Air Region Command VII, Theodor Herbert.
Leave a Reply