1. Walther Wenck was the youngest General of the branch in the German Army and a staff officer during World War II.
18 Facts About Walther Wenck
1. 2.
Walther Wenck was asked to become Inspector General of the Bundeswehr as West Germany was re-arming in 1957, but declined to take the post when conditions he set were not met, such as the Inspector General being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, not just an administrative leader.
3.
The third son of officer Maximilian Wenck, Walther was born in Wittenberg, Germany in 1900.
4.
Walther Wenck joined a paramilitary group in 1919 and then the Army of the Weimar Republic in 1920.
5.
From 1939 to 1942, Walther Wenck was Chief of Operations for the 1st Panzer Division.
6.
From 1943 to 1944, Walther Wenck served in the same capacity in the 1st Panzer Army.
7.
Walther Wenck's attack was initially successful, but Hitler requested him to attend daily Fuhrer's briefings which forced him to make a daily round trip of 320 kilometres.
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Alfred Jodl 8.
On February 17,1945, an extremely tired Walther Wenck took the driving wheel from his driver Dorn who had collapsed.
9.
Walther Wenck then fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car off the road.
10.
On 10 April 1945, Walther Wenck was appointed commander of the German Twelfth Army located to the west of Berlin to guard against the advancing American and British forces.
11.
Walther Wenck took great pains to provide food and lodging for these refugees.
12.
Under suggestion of Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, Walther Wenck was ordered to disengage the Americans to his west and, attacking to the east, link up with the Ninth Army of General der Infanterie Theodor Busse.
13.
Walther Wenck's forces attacked towards Berlin, but they were halted outside of Potsdam by strong Soviet resistance.
14.
Walther Wenck brought his army, remnants of the Ninth Army, and many civilian refugees across the Elbe and into territory occupied by the US Army.
15.
Walther Wenck's leadership struck a powerful chord, even if the reactions varied between those who believed in a humanitarian operation and those keener to surrender to the Western allies instead of the Russians.
16.
Walther Wenck was released in 1947, and then began a second career as an industrialist.
17.
On 1 May 1982, Walther Wenck died while on a trip to Austria, when his car collided with a tree.
18.
Walther Wenck was buried in his hometown of Bad Rothenfelde in Lower Saxony a few days later.