Kossmann, Karl Richard.

Kossmann, Karl Richard, born 28-03-1899 in Ulzen, joined the Army as a war volunteer in 1917, age 18, with the 73^rd Fusiliers Regiment. After the war he joined a Freikorps  and entered the new Reichswehr, in the 16^th Infantry Regiment, soon after. He was promoted to Major on 01-06-1938 and on 10-11-1938 assigned as teacher at the War Academy. At the beginning of World War II he came in the Staff of General Quartermaster of the OKH. He came to the Staff as an Oberstleutnant of the 15^th Infantry Division  from 15-01-1941, under commander Lieutenant General der Infanterie, Friedrich Chappuis.

On 05-05-1945 the 15^th Infantry Division surrendered to the Red Army at Brod. Appointed as Chief of Staff of the VII Army Corps under command of General der Artillerie Ernst-Eberhard Hell ,, he succeeded then Oberst der Infanterie, Hans Krebs. He was awarded with the German Cross in Gold on 14-04-1942 and in spring 1942 appointed as Chief of Staff with the High Commander France and on 01-06-1942 promoted to Oberst. He became the commander of the 74^th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and lost this command in 1945 and took the command of the 10^th Panzer Grenadier Division , former commander Generalleutnant der Flakartillerie, August Schmidt

The 10th Panzer Division was formed in Prague in March 1939, and served in the Army Group North reserve during the invasion of Poland of the same year. The division participated in the Battle of France in 1940, including the Siege of Calais, and in Operation Barbarossa attached to Army Group Center in 1941.

After taking heavy casualties on the Eastern Front it was sent back to France for rehabilitation and to serve as a strategic reserve against potential Allied invasion. The division was rushed to Tunisia after Operation Torch (1942) and spent six months in that theatre, where it engaged both British and American forces. It caused severe losses to the “green” US Army in some of their first encounters with the Germans under Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel at the Battle of Kasserine Pass (1943). It was later lost in the general Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943 and officially disbanded in June 1943. The division was never rebuilt.

Kossmann received the Iron Cross of the Iron Cross on 23-03-1945 and was promoted to Generalmajor on 20-04-1945. When Germany surrendered he landed in Soviet captivity and was first released in 1956, by the intervention of the new Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

Death and burial ground of Kossmann, Karl Richard.

Kossmann retired in Goslar as several other WWII personalities, died at the age of 60 on 13-01-1947 and is buried on the cemetery Hildesheimerstrasse in Goslar. Close neighbours are, Generaloberst, Oberbefehler B 2^nd Panzer Armee, Heinz Wilhelm Guderian and his sons.  Hauptmann with the 25^th Panzer Division, (see Kurt) and Major and Kommandeur 14^th Panzerbrigade, (see Heinz Günter). Some further away are the graves of the WWII Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Ersatz Division in Brünn, Gustav “Iron Gustav” Wagner, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur von Dniepropetrovsk, Ernst Adolph and Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Chef Heeresgruppe “Kurland”, Friedrich Foertsch.

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