Hellmich, Heinz.

Hellmich, Heinz, born 09-06-1890 in Karlsruhe, joined the military service in 1908, age 18. On 22-03-1910, while serving in 136^th Infantry Regiment, he became Leutnant. After World War I he served in various units and kept various commanding positions. His service was followed with the promotions: Oberstleutnant, on 01-02-1934, Oberst 01-01-1936, Generalmajor 01-10-1939 and Generalleutnant 01-09-1941. When World War II began he was on a duty as a Supply Officer in German 7^th Army. From 25-10-1939 he managed supplies in the Army Group B. As a commander of the 23^rd Infantry Division  , from 01-06-1940 to 17-01-1942, he took part in the French campaign, invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa  and in the bloody battles for Bialystok-Minsk, Brest, Smolensk, Vyazma and finally in the Battle of Moscow. 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 20^th Infantry Division  , 1^st 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 4^th Panzer and 6^th  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. After several months, on 01-04-1942, he became a commander of 141^st Reserve Division. On 10-01-1944, he was transferred to France and put in a command of 243^rd Infantry Division  , stationed in the Cotentin Peninsula. Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben  ,  commander of the 709th Infantry Division  reported  that the commander of the 922nd Grenadier Regiment, Oberstleutnant Franz Müller,  who had been assigned to the 243rd Infantry Division on the west coast, had been transferred by Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich with regimental troops of the 922nd Grenadier Regiment, the 3rd Battalion 922nd Grenadier Regiment, and one Battalion of the 920th Grenadier Regiment, and the engineer battalion of the 243rd Infantry Division to Montebourg by night march on June 6. Regiment Müller was to advance south with its left wing along Saint-Floxel-Fontenay-sur-Mer-Ravenoville road. The division was destroyed in the Battle of Normandy, with its last elements lost in the fall of Cherbourg

Death and burial ground of Hellmich, Heinz.

This coastal defense division protected the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula when the Allied invasion begun on 6 June 1944. Hellmich was killed while defending Cherbourg during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 17-06-1944, age 54. He tried to escape through the American lines but was attacked by an Allied air fighter

  and killed. Hellmich is buried on the large war cemetery of Orglandes in France. The Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Kommandeur der 77^th Infanterie Division , Rudolf Stegmann and Generalleutnant der Infanterie,Kommandeur der 91^st Infanterie Division. 1^st killed General on D-Day, Wilhelm Falley are also buried here.

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