Tapping Hitler's Generals

Born Dortmund, 20.3.1892. Prot. Entered Army 6.3.1911. WWI: Service at front and Staff; 1918 Oberleutnant. Reichswehr: Mainly Staff appointments; 1.3.1936 Oberst. WWII: 23.10.1939 Senior QM, 16.Armee; 1.12.1939 Generalmajor; 1.8.1940–15.8.1941 CO, 11.Pz.Div.; 14.5.1941 awarded Knight’s Cross; 1.9.1941 awarded Oak Leaves, Generalleutnant and Cmmdg Gen, Deutsches Afrika Korps; 17.12.1941 General der Panzertruppen; 29.5.1942 shot down on reconnaissance flight west of Tobruk, PoW; 22.8.1942–16.6.1944 Trent Park, then Clinton Camp, USA. Repatriated April 1947. In the 1950s was considered a likely prospect for the post of General-Inspekteur der Bundeswehr but declined on grounds of ill-health (see Meyer, Heusinger, p. 556 and letter from Adolf Heusinger to Berndt Crüwell, 27.9.1958). Died Essen, 25.9.1958.

His superiors considered him to be outstandingly positive. General Werner Kempf wrote of him on 28 October 1941: ‘Outstanding person. Exemplary, brave. Great tactical knowledge and ability, very prudent, very fast to make decisions, tirelessly active. Led outstandingly and achieved great successes.’ In his opinion of 12 April 1942 Rommel concurred with the foregoing.

CSDIC (UK) opinion: He headed the ‘Nazi clique’, and was a follower and admirer of Hitler, whom he had met twice. An ‘ignorant, stupid, sentimental, narrow-minded, conceited, vain and self-satisfied type of Prussian senior officer. He seems to regard himself as a second Frederick the Great. He never tires of boasting about his capture of Belgrade five days after the invasion of Yugoslavia, and the fact that he was promoted full General over the heads of 130 Lieutenant-generals.’ (see e.g. SRX 1153, 9.10.1942, TNA WO208/4161). Otherwise, his only interest besides military affairs were horse-riding and his four young children. The British do not appear to have been aware of his avid interest in reading history.

GENERALLEUTNANT WILHELM DASER

Born Germersheim/Pfalz, 31.8.1884. RC. Entered Army 6.7.1903. WWI: 15, 18 and 30.Bav.Res.Reg. longest period as Regimental Adjutant, finally Hauptmann and Battalion Cdr. Reichswehr: Comp. and Battalion Cdr. WWII: 26.8.1939 Oberst, as CO, Inf.Reg.388 attached to 3.Gebirgsdivision at Murmansk; physical breakdown, 22.9.1941 reported sick; 1942/43 Feldkommandant, France, 15.12.1942–10.6.1943 Oberfeldkommandant, 670 Lille, then Feldkommandant, 454 southern sector Eastern Front; from 15.5.1944 CO, 70.Inf.Div. (composed of walking sick/stomach/intestinal problems) Walcheren Is., Holland; 6.11.1944 PoW Walcheren; 9.11.1944 Trent Park; May 1945 transferred USA. Repatriated 10.12.1949. Died Ingolstadt, 14.7.1968.

Assessed positively as regimental commander. Last assessment 24.10.1943 also good: ‘Has proved himself as Feld Kommandant (district commander of occupation troops) particularly in clearance and evacuation tasks… stands on the ground of the National Socialist worldview.’

GENERALLEUTNANT KURT DITTMAR

Born Magdeburg, 5.1.1891. Prot. Entered Army 6.3.1909. WWI: Mainly Pionierbataillon.4; 1918 Hauptmann and Battalion Cdr, III.Inf.Reg.165. Reichswehr: Pioneer officer, field and Staff. WWII: Oberst, CO, Pionier-Schule II; 15.3.1940 Pionierführer, 1.Armee; 1.4.1940 Generalmajor; 20.2.1941–11.10.1941 CO, 169.Inf.Div.; from 1.4.1942 General, zbV, OKH radio broadcaster explaining Army reports; 25.4.1945 PoW; 18.5.1945 Trent Park. Repatriated 15.5.1948. Died Stadtoldenburg, 26.4.1959.

Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz, C-in-C, 1.Armee, summed up Dittmar on 26 February 1941 as: ‘Mentally and physically active personality with good soldierly and human qualities. Fighting with 1.Armee he was extraordinarily prudent and independent. Filled the post of Army Engineer-Leader 1 especially well.’

Dittmar’s radio commentaries were comparatively realistic assessments of the military situation. Goebbels considered him clever and praised his reporting skills but brought him to heel in July 1944 for speaking too pessimistically in his latest programme and having ‘fallen in love with the truth’. Goebbels, Tagebücher, Vol. II, 14.1.1944, p. 88 and Vol. 13, 14.7.1944, p. 112.

No detailed CSDIC (UK) opinion available but was considered by Allied interrogators to be a long-winded bore whose image of himself was as the ideal Prussian officer and gentleman. His offer of collaboration was rejected as pure opportunism.

GENERAL DER PANZERTRUPPE HEINRICH EBERBACH