Heygendorff von, Ralph.

Heygendorff von Ralph. born 15-08-1897, Dresden, the son of Alfred von Heygendorff who was 29 years old at birth (1868-1916), and he was married on 18-08-1924 in Leipzig, Sachsen, to Edith von Feilitzsch  (1899-1962), the couple had three children. Ralph joined the 1st Royal Bavarian Grenadier Regiment 100 on 22-08-1914 as Fahnanjunker. On 17-10-1914 he was commanded to Fahnenjunker-Course to Döberitz. On 02-03-1915 he was then sent to the regiment as a platoon commander and promoted to lieutenant on 16-04-1915. On 16-01-1916 he was transferred to the Infantry Regiment 193 and on 01-07-1916 adjutant and company commander at the Field Recruitment Depot of the 23rd Infantry Division. After further transfers Heygendorff was transferred to the 46th Landwehr Infantry Brigade and there Deputy Adjutant. Even after the war he remained with this unit, which was now 46th Volunteer Landwehr Infantry Brigade. On 01-07-1919 he was deported to Infanterie-Führer 28 and on 15-08-1919 for demobilization from Lithuania to the training area Zeithain. There he was then transferred to the Reichswehr and on 27-09-1919 Ordonnanz-Offizier at the Military District Command IV. On 21-11-1919 he was transferred to the Infantry Regiment 24 offset. On 20-10-1920 he was appointed Adjutant of the Battalion II in this regiment and on 01-01-1921 Adjutant of the Training Battalion of the 10th Infantry Regiment. On 01-10-1923, he was appointed to the Führer Mate Training Staff of the 4th Division and subsequent to the 2nd Division of the Artillery Regiment 4th After various positions in the Infantry Regiment 10 from 01-10-1925 he was transferred on 01-10-1930 in the Reich Ministry of Defense and 01-02 -1933 Regimental Adjutant in the Infantry Regiment 10. Commander of the Reichswehr Ministry again on 01-12-1935, he was promoted to Major on 01-03-1936 and Adjutant to the Generalkommando of the VIII. Army Corps on 06-10-1936 under command of Cavalry General (General der Kavallerie) Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist

  , Promoted to Oberstleutnant on 01-04-1939, Ralph von Heygendorff became the 1st Assistant to the Military Attaché in Moscow and from 15-08-1940 Adjutant to the General Command of the Deputy VII Army Corps. On 22-05-1941 he was transferred to the OKW as an Oberst in the foreign department and in the Führer Reserve of the OKH on 08-03-1942. From here he was on 05-05-1942 commanded  to battalion school leader in Mourmelon and on 16-07-1942 commander of the Infantry Regiment 181. On 21-09-1942 he became commander of the East Legion

and on 20-04-1943 commander of the der Freiwilligen-Stamm Division/ Volonteers Division. Ostlegionen (“eastern legions”), Ost-Bataillone (“eastern battalions”), Osttruppen (“eastern troops”), and Osteinheiten (“eastern units”) were units in the Army of Nazi Germany, during World War II that were made up of personnel from countries comprising the Soviet Union.Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel here with a Indian Battalion   They represented a major subset within a broader number of the Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts. Ost-Bataillone wore German uniforms and equipment and were integrated into larger German formations. They began as the private initiatives of individual military commanders, but eventually became formalized and by late 1943 they contained 427,000 personnel, a force equivalent to 30 German divisions. Most were utilized on the Eastern Front and in the Balkans.

On 01-06-1943 he was promoted to Generalmajor and on 01-02-1944 commander of the Volunteer Associations of the OKH. On 21-05-1944 he took command of the 162nd Turkmen infantry division. The 162nd Turkistan Division was formed in May 1943 and comprised five Azeri and six Turkistani artillery and infantry units. The soldiers were trained at Neuhammer. The division has been implicated in a number of war crimes in Italy between December 1943 and May 1945, two of those, in January 1945 in the Emilia-Romagna resulted in the execution of at least 20 civilians each.

On 01-07-1944, again transferred to the Fuhrer Reserver, he was on 05-07-1944 commander of the 237th Infantry Division and on 12-07-1944 again commander of the 162nd Turkmen infantry division. End January he was promoted to Generalleutnant.

Death and burial ground of Heygendorff von, Ralph.

On 04-05-1945 he was taken prisoner of war, from which he was released on 05-12-1947, age 50 in Remscheid. Heygendorff, Ralph survived the war and died age 56 on 10-12-1953, in Remscheid and is buried with his wife Edith, born Feilltzsch, who died age 90 in 1989, on the Trinitatisfriedhof/cemetery in Dresden, Stadtkreis Dresden, Saxony (Sachsen), Germany.

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