Kadgien, Horst.

Kadgien, Horst, born 30-06-1897 in Gerschwillauken, East Prussia, joined the Army Service, age 17, on 03-08-1914 as a Fahnenjunker in the 1^st Foot Artillery Regiment and was in the fields of the first war. He was allowed in the new Reichswehr   and at the beginning of World War II he as an Oberstleutnant was commander of the Artillery Regiment Staff 627, until 15-05-1940. Appointed as commander of the Instruction Staff of the Office Cours at the Artillery School in Jüterborg to 01-10-1940. Commander of Experiment Staff of the Artillery School in Jüterborg, until 21-04-1943, meanwhile an Oberst. Assigned as Artillery Commander 35, to 01-01-1941, delegated with the leadership of the 35^th Infantry Division  to 18-01-1944 and severely wounded  in hospital from 18-01-1944 until 18-02-1944. The 35^th Infantry Division was raised in October 1936 in Germany’s re-militarization. It was used mostly used on the eastern front. In May 1940, the division was part of the German forces sent to invade France and Belgium, remaining as an occupational formation in the two nations until June the next year, when it took part 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 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. Between then and April 1945 the division would remain in the central and southern sectors before being forced back to East Prussia by the advancing Red Army. He landed in the Führer Reserve (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) and became the command of the Artillery School II, to 05-01-1945, meanwhile a Generalmajor. Kadgien was captured by the Americans and in prison until 16-06-1947,

Death and burial ground of Kadgien, Horst.

Retiring in Ansbach, he at the old age of 83 died, on 07-11-1980 and is buried with his wife Barbera, born Freytag von Loringhoven, who died very old age 97, on 25-02-2007, on the “Heilig Kreuz Friedhof”, ”Holy Cross Cemetery”, in Ansbach. Close by the grave of WWII Generalmajor der Infanterie, Chef Heeresgruppe Süd, Friedrich Kittel.

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