Stange, Otto, born 30-03-1890 in Ottenhausen, Thuringia, entered the Army of the Reichswehr
on 12-10-1910, age 20, in the Troop Service. He climbed up the ranks to Oberstleutnant on 01-04-1939 as advisor in the Army Flak Weapons Office until 30-09-1939. Department Chief in the Army Flak Weapons Office to 05-07-1940 and commander of the 102nd Flak Regiment
until 04-07-1942, as an Oberst now. Flak Equipment and Munitions Inspector with the General in the Flak Army, RLM until 08-03-1944 and Higher Commander of the Field Flak Artillery Schools, until 30-11-1944. Inspector for Heavy Flak and Radar Equipment with the Flak School Division,
until 01-04-1945. Commander of 3rd Flak Division, appointed to Generalmajor on 20-10-1945 and in British captivity on 08-05-1945. Stange was on 01-05-1944 succeeded bij Generalleutant Alwin Wolz (22-09-1897 – 15-09-1978)
was a Generalleutnant in the Hermann Wilhelm Göring‘s
Luftwaffe
of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 3. Flak Division. He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. Wolz was appointed combat commander of Hamburg on 15 April 1945. He surrendered the city to the British 7th Armoured Division, nickname The Desert Rats
under command of Major-General Lewis Lyne
on 03-05-1945. Lyne became Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin on 06-07-1945, a position he held while still retaining command of the 7th Armoured Division. He was made Director of Staff Duties at the War Office in 1946 in 1949; he retired from the army due to ill health in early 1949, aged just 49. Never marrying, he died in Kersey, Suffolk, on 04-11-1970, age 71. Although he remains largely unknown, Lyne was a highly competent and experienced battlefield commander, gaining respect from both his superiors, most notably Montgomery and Dempsey, and subordinates alike.
Major General Lewis Lyne, GOC 7th Armoured Division, with Brigadier J. W. K. Spurling, commanding the 131st Brigade, taking the salute during the entry of British forces into Berlin, 1945. The 131st Infantry Brigade, originally the Surrey Brigade was an infantry formation of Britain’s Territorial Army that saw service during both the First and the Second World Wars. In the First World War the brigade was in British India for most of the war and did not see service as a complete unit but many of its battalions would see service in the Middle East.
Death and burial ground of Stange, Otto.

Otto Stange was released on 08-05-1947 and retired in Schopfheim, where he at the very old age of 90 died, on 15-10-1980. Stange is buried with his wife Kätelore, born Stelzner, who died age 83, in 1967, on the Stadtfriedhof of Schopfheim. Section Field 14-Grave 899/900


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