Number of German Generals in WWII.

There are no specifics, just a table which didn't come out right when I posted it.

 

Hi LJ, Vinny.M/

The stats are still nice to have and I can place names to it but it wouldn't be near complete. I don't have easy access to he stuff i have or I would be glad to start placing names here.

What is needed in this case? is a book like one that jason found, that was abou Russian Generals who were killed in Action in WWII. I'd love that book myself-even though I never tried collecting Russian Generals names like I did for the Germans.

 

I have the book Die Generale des Heeres und die Sanitatsoffiziere im Generalsrang by Wolf Kellig which lists data on.. "all approx 2,600 officers of General rank including medical officers". It doesn't just list the front line Generals but also the Veterinary, Ingenieur, Transport etc Generals as well. It was published in 1983 but it doesn't include Luftwaffe Generals.

As for General rank casualties a good book is Quiet Flows The Rhine by French Maclean..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Flows...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265714157&sr=1-1
...which breaks down the General rank casualties into type of death (i.e. accident, Partisans, air attack etc), the Western Front, Eastern front etc and at the back has the names in lists both alphabetically and chronological.

A good website for finding General rank officers is the Axis Biographical Research site which while probably incomplete is quite comprehensive...
http://www.geocities.com/orion47.geo

 

well done hucks,good links,ray..

 

I KNEW youd come and give some more great input on this. Thanks for the names of books which I will be adding to my Reference library as soon as possible.

I forgot to mention that the LW had over 500 Generals during the war. I don't remember the exact number but it was less than 600.

I couldn't ya but repped ya instead. THIS helps a bunch, and would be great at filling in any holes in the names I have. I almost feel like I discovered the Holy Grail, in getting this info ;-))

 

Happy to help. The ISBN for the Wolg Keilig book is 3-7909-0202-0 but while copies come up for sale it isn't cheap. I paid £60 for mine and the next one on the list (I used Abebooks.co.uk) was for £120.

 

serious money hucks,you get what you pay for is the argument though, and this is certainly worthy...

 

what do you make of this a-z carl.. Generale nach Namen - Lexikon der Wehrmacht

 

There is also :Rangliste der Generale der Deutschen Luftwaffe nach dem Stand vom 20 april 1945,including a casualty list

 

Just using some common logic we could take the ratio of the wehrmacht and compare the ratio with US army generals, and other army-general ratios and come up with a descent estimation? However for a war of that scale there should be higher, since in big wars chain of command needs to be flexible, even for the disciplined wehrmacht which was around 20,000,000 personel excluding the waffen SS, SA, SS or Gestapo...

 

From 'Quite Flows The Rhine'

 

In the second table have they counted the 'missing' as simply vanished, or is it in terms of the Germans saying they are missing? If it is the latter that would mean they would (with exceptions) have been captured by the allies and then probably trialled, so doesn't that give that number an extra 30 odd to the total amount?

 

The book says over 2000 Officers reached the rank of General Officer 1933-45

19 Generalfeldmarschall
38 Generaloberst
334 Generale
795 Generalleutnant
1158 Generalmajor

The Chapter on 'Unknowns' is not very clear. It seems that in some cases those Generals who were found dead with gunshot wounds might possibly have shot themselves before capture and thus this category is blurred.
There is a list of General deaths at the back of the book where over 50 of the cause of death is left blank and around a dozen deaths are listed as unknown.
It needs a longer look!

 

Casualties of Luftwaffe generals
03-12-1940:Wolf von Stutterheim (honorary major general ):died of wounds
15-05-1941:Colonel general Grauert :KIA
28-07-1941:general der Flakartillerie von Schroeder :aircraft accident
31-O8-1941:major general Schuez:missing on a flight from Africa to Sicily
17-11-1941:colonel general Udet :suicide
20-11-1941:general der Flieger Wilberg:aircraft accident
12-O5-1942:major general Heling:MIA,declared dead the same day
05-08-1942:general der flieger von der Lieth-Thomsen:sickness
21-08-1942:major general Freiherr von Gablenz:aircraft accident
17-05-1943:general der Flieger Hoffmann von Waldau :KIA
12-08-1943:major general von Chamier-Glisczinski :KIA
19-08-1943:colonel general Jeschonnek :suicide
14-05-1944:major general Hintz:accident
26-05-1944:lieutenant general Schultheiss:accident
22-07-1944:colonel general KortenOW after the attempt on Hitler
27-12-1944:lieutenant general Mueller :sickness
05-01-1945:major general Wadehn:KIA
24-01-1945:lieutenant general Kressmann:accident
30-01-1945:lieutenant general Mertitsch :died in hospital after an operation
06-02-1945:general der Flieger Waber :executed for corruption
06-02-1945:lieutenant general Becker:executed for corruption
17-02-1945:major general Riesch:KIA
21-02-1945:major general Schoergi :KIA
17-03-1945:major general Cranz :aircraft accident
18-03-1945:general der Flieger Wenninger:?
27-03-1945:major general Deutsch:KIA
11-04-1945:general der Flieger Burchard :suicide
13-04-1945:lieutenant general von Rudloff:KIA
17-04-1945 :major general Erhard :suicide
24-04-1945:major general (retired ) Rueter:KIA
28-04-1945:lieutenant general Mueller :KIA
04-05-1945:general der Flieger Kastner-Kirdorf :suicide
to continue

 

Some great info on Nrs of German Generals and of men of Gen Offz rank (Kriegsmarine) but the numbers stil fall way short. For instance, in the KM alone, they had around 100 or so to reach Gen Offz rank. LW had over 500, WSS about the same as the KM, the Army -quite a bit more than the "book" claims. This also does not list SA Gens, Allgemeine SS Gens, Police Gens etc.

 

lieutenant general Ziegler :MIA in 1945,declared dead on 31-12-1945
11-05-1945:major-general Kraemer cause ?
24-05-1945:fieldmarshall von Greim :suicide
02-06-1945:major general Schrott OW
12-07-1945:fieldmarshall Freiherr von Richthoven :sickness
22-02-1946:general der flieger (retired)Kuehl :in Russian captivity
10-03-1946:general der Flieger (retired) Haehneit:in Russian captivity
14-05-1946:major general Fricke :in US captivity
21-05-1946:major general Vorbrugg :by accident in British captivity
end june or beginning july 1946:major general (retired) Baron von Loewenstern :in Russian captivity
19-09-1946:major general Boettge :in British captivity
15-10-1946 :Reichsmarshall Goering :suicide
02-11-1946:lieutenant general von Rantzau:in US captivity
26-11-1946:major general Stephan :in British captivity
03-02-1947:general der flieger(retired) Zander :in Russian captivity
11-02-1947:major general Kohlbach :in British captivity
16-02-1947:colonel general Lohr :executed in Yougoslavia
12-03-1947:lieutenant general Hofmann:in US captivity
20-04-1947:major general Gnamm:in US captivity
21-04-1947:general der Flieger Boenicke:suicide in British captivity
20-05-1947:general der Falschirmtruppe Brauer :executed in Greece
30-10-1947:general der flieger(retired)Danckelmann:executed in Yougoslavia
?-11-1947:general der flieger Fiebig :executed in Yougoslavia
?-?-1947 :lieutenant general von Wuehlisch :suicide in Dutch captivity
?-?-1947 :major general Walther :in Russian captivity
07-07-1951:major general (retired)Busch:in Russian captivity
?-?-1951:major general Niehuus:in Russian captivity
24-03-1952:lieutenant general Maelzer:in British captivity
?-03-1953 :major general Freiherr von Stein-Liebebenstein :in Russian captivity
30-11-1955:lieutenant general Stahel:in Russian captivity
? :Honorary general der Flieger(retired) Karlewski :in Russian captivity

I did not mention Volkmann,von Stuelpnagel and von Roques,because they originally belonged to the army,received an appointment in the Luftwaffe and returned to the army .

 

Andris Kursietis (The Wehrmacht at war ) gives 323 generale

 

But that book, while a good reference work, doesn't include every officer of General rank, it ony covers a select few in the lists at the back. Wolf Keilig's book as mentioned previoulsy lists approx 2,600 (and that is just Heer General rank officers) which shows how selective The Wehrmacht At War is.

 

I mean full generals(with 4 stars),he is not giving lieutenant generals and major generals .
Of course,Wolf Keilig is much better,but ...MONEY alas

 

The 20 million (to high ) was including Waffen SS :Sa and Algemeine SS were mobilised during the war,about the Gestapo:the strength was some 40000.
The 20 million was the total numlber serving in the Wehrmacht,but I guess the maximum strength was some 10 million .