Schroth, Walter.

Schroth, Walter, born 03-06-1882 in Glumbowitz, Wohlau, the son of a domain councilor, entered the Army on 27-02-1902, age 19, as a Fahnenjunker in the Kaiserlichen Armee . He was in the fields of the first war with the 46^th Infantery-Regiment. On 08-11-1914, Walter was promoted to Hauptman. On 18-02-1915 he was transferred to the General Staff. There he was then successively deployed to Stage Inspection C, the V Army Corps. He then joined the General Staffs of the 4th Infantry Division and the 34th Infantry Division as 1st General Staff Officer (Ia). On 22-03-1918, he was transferred to the General Staff of the 30th Infantry Division as Ia. Walter then came to the General Staff of AOK 2 before he was finally deployed as Ia in the General Staff of the 80th Reserve Division. In the First World War he was awarded two Iron Crosses and other awards. After the war, he was initially deployed in border protection with the II and V Army Corps. On 01-10-1919, he was accepted as a Hauptman in the Reich Army. On that day he was transferred to the General Staff of Reichswehr Group Command 3. In the 100,000-man transitional army in the spring of 1920, he was transferred as a General Staff officer to commander of the infantry of the Reichswehr Brigade 9. When the 100,000-man army of the Reichswehr was formed, he came to Stettin as a General Staff officer on the staff of the 2nd Division of the Reichswehr. On 01-10-1921, he was appointed General Staff officer to Artillery Leader II in Stettin. He was later transferred to the 6th Infantry Regiment in Flensburg. There he was promoted to Major as head of the 10th company on 01-04-1923. On 01-10-1925, he was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin. There he was deployed in the army training department (T 4) for the next few years. There he was promoted to Oberstleutnant on 01-02-1929. As such, on  01-03-1929, he was appointed commander of the 1st (Hanseatic) Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment in Bremen. On 01-04-1931, he was transferred to the infantry school in Dresden. There he was appointed head of the first course. On 01-10-1931 he was promoted to Oberst . As such, he was then appointed head of the II course at the Dresden Infantry School.

Reactivated in the Service he on 01-10-1933 as an Oberst was commandeur of the Infantery School in Döberitz.  Promoted to Generalmajor on 01-08-1935 with the command of the 1^st Infantry Regiment. He became a Generalleutnant on 01-04-1936 and General of the Infantry on 01-02-1938 and on 01-03-1938 Commanding General of the XII Army Corps and of the IV Army Replacement Corps on 30-04-1942.

Following Operation Bagration, the huge Soviet counter-attack in 1944, XII Corps were forced to retreat in bad condition and in July 1944 were finally destroyed in a pocket east of Minsk. Generalleutnant Vincenz Müller   was taken prisoner. The corps was reformed in April 1945 to defend the middle Rhine and Thuringia under General Herbert Osterkamp.   Generalleutnant Müller died on 15-05-1961, age 66, in somewhat controversial circumstances, as he fell from the balcony of his home on the day he was scheduled to return to hospital; it was rumoured that he had committed suicide when a police vehicle drew up outside. General Herbert Osterkamp survived the war and died age 75 on 17-03-1970 in Dortmund.

Schroth was also involved in the occupation of Chechie on 01-10-1938. He is awarded with the Knight’s Cross for his leading in the battles against the fortresses Brest-Litowsk.  He was appointed with the command of the Wehrkreis XII on 01-05-1943 and Commanding General of the XII Army Corps in Wiesbaden. On 04-08-1944 he was accepted in the Ehrenhof of the Wehrmacht, a group of Field Marshals and Generals who were still trusted by Adolf Hitler after the July 20^th bomb attack. Other members were Fieldmarshal, Gerd von Rundstedt,   Generaloberst der Panzer, Heinz Wilhelm Guderian

  and General der Infanterie, Karl Specht 

Schroth served on the “Court of Military Honour,” a drumhead court-martial that expelled many of the officers involved in the 20 July Plot, assassination attempt on Hitler, from the Army before handing them over to the People’s Court. A session of the People’s Court, trying the conspirators of the 20 July plot, 1944. From left: General of the Infantry Hermann Reinecke ; Roland Freisler, president of the court; Ernst Lautz, chief public prosecutor. Reinecke was sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reviewed by the “Peck Panel”. He was released in October 1954 and died 10-10-1973 (aged 85) in Hamburg, West Germany. Ernst Lautz was sentenced to ten years imprisonment at the trial.and died 21-01-1979, age 91 in Lübeck,

Death and burial ground of Schroth, Walter.

   Walter Schroth was killed in a car accident, on 03-06-194 at the age of 62 and the circumstances were not clear. He was seriously injured and suffered a fatal rupture of the main artery (aorta)..He is buried on the Old South cemetery of Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden apparently a popular place and you can find the graves of General der Infanterie, Commandeur der 76^th Infanterie Division , Erich Abraham,  Generalmajor der Artillerie, Kommandeur der 145^th Artillerie Division, Rudolf Henrici, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Director of Replacement Army Corps XII, Max von Basse, Generalmajor der Flieger, Kommandeur III Luftwaffe Ersatz Battalion, Wolf von Biedermann, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur der 7^th Infanterie Regiment, Eberhard Bohnstedt  , Generalleutnant der Panzertruppe, Kommandeur der LIX Armee Korps, Hellmuth von Chevallerie, Hauptsturmführer der Waffen SS, Kommandeur 10^th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg , Lothar Debes, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Kommandeur 153^th Feld Division, Karl Edelmann, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur der 560, Besancon, Paul von Felbert, Generalleutnant Inspekteur der Artillerie, Kommandeur 106^th Infanterie Division  , nicknamed ” Aufgehende Sonne (Rising Sun) , Werner Forst, the 106^th Infanterie Division  saw action in the Kursk offensive and  sustained a total of 3.277 casualties (566 KIA, 2.667 WIA, 44 MIA), while the total casualties to August 25^th were 147 officers and 5.933 men (while receiving 60 officers and 2.722 men). Also buried here, Generalmajor der Pioniere, Kommandeur der 87^th Grenadier Battalion, Hans Halke

  General der Infanterie, Kommandeur General VII AK, Ernst Hell, Generalmajor der Flieger, Kommandant Flughafen Bezirk 8/VI, Anton Heidenreich, Generalstabarzt der Wehrmacht, Dr. Walter Kittel, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Schule Infanterie /Kavallerie, Kurt Lindner, Generalleutnant der Flieger, Lufwaffe Ersatz Division, Franz Nowak, General der Polizei, Oskar Wantke and Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Kommandeur of Magdeburg, 1944, Hans Zanthier.

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