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General Schörner

Ferdinand Schörner is now a general.

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Ferdinand Schörner's military career started in World War 1 where he joined the officer reserve of the Bavarian army and within three months he was promoted to lieutenant, he was known as an extremely brave soldier, and he earned the Pour Le Merit (the highest award in the imperial German army) during the 12th battle of the Isonzo where he and his company broke through and captured hill 1114 the German high command had been preparing for a long siege, Ferdinand Schörner was the only Bavarian infantry lieutenant to earn the Pour Le Merit

After World War 1 Schörner fought in the Freikorps Epp in the liberation of Munich against the communist revolution.
afterward he attended classes at a military collage and was the command assistant in Munich in 1926 he was promoted to captain, in 1934 he was promoted to major, and a year later was made a group leader in Department 3 of the Army General Staff. in 1937 he was promoted to Lieutenant colonel and placed in charge of the 98th mountain infantry division

During the invasion of Poland, Schörner, now a Colonel distinguished himself, especially in the encirclement and capture of Lvov (Lemburg). after the conquest of France which Schörner did not take part in, he stood ready to take part in the invasion of England, but that would never happen. Promoted to Major general in 1940 Ferdinand Schörner took part in the campaign against Greece and inflicted losses on the English forces, he was thus awarded the knights cross on April 20 1941, one week later he raised the German war flag on the acropolis.

During Operation Barbarossa Ferdinand Schörner to Generalleutnant after the death of general Dietl. and put in Command of the XIX Army Corps and charged with holding the valuable nickel mines, which he did incredibly, even beating back the elite soviet mountain units sent to take the area. during this time Schörner gained a reputation of always leading form the front and having his command post located in the midst of his troops. he soon earned the nickname "Wild Ferdinand"

In 1943 Ferdinand Schörner assumed command of Army Group Nikopol in the southern Ukraine he left his former command not handing over a single meter to the soviets. Schörner's command of Army Group Nikopol was excellent, holding of all soviets attacks until the neighboring XXX Army Corps broke and he had to retreat to not be encircled, he was known for directly disobeying Hitlers orders when he knew Hitler was wrong, doing this he saved many of his men form destruction. in February 1944 he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross for his amazing command of the army group and saving it multiple times from certain destruction. he was then promoted to Colonel General and took command of Army Group Ukraine where he interlocked Romanian and German divisions so that the Romanians could not retreat.

After the disaster of Operation Bagration Schörner was sent north to salvage the situation he was able to pull back and consolidate in Curland where he withheld 6 major Soviet offensives and built a line that would hold for the rest of the war. after this success Schörner was given the diamonds to his Knights cross. and was promoted to Field Marshal the highest rank in the German army, and was now put in command of Army Group Center in 1945 he would fight hard in these last months destroying a soviet tank corps in the virtually unknown Battle of Lauben, and Joseph Goebbels would even visit the town and shake hands with Schörner and congratulate him for his victory. but as Berlin front collapsed Schörner defeated the Soviets again at the Battle of Bautzen, but Berlin was captured none the less, it is also important to note that his defense allowed 1.6 million German civilians to escape soviet claws. in Hitler's will he promoted Schörner to Commander in Chief of the German Army a position he would only hold for a few days before being captured by the Americans.

Hitler: "On the entire front only one man has shown himself to be a true general and that is Schörner. his services cannot be rated highly enough. if we had had more such officers"

his desertion has become widely known but may not be shown correctly

Schörner: "Since the route of flight necessary to take over the alpine front led over the region of the Czech uprisings and the area of the known Austrian red-white-red resistance movement, and because a forced or emergency landing was possible at any time, it was appropriate safety measure to carry out the flight, not in a field Marshall's uniform, but in civilian clothes, so as to be able to get through in case of emergency.

during the interrogation of Schörner by the soviets they said "we know that you weren't taking a walk in the alps. you were commander in chief of the alpine fortress that is a point which interest us greatly"
at about 3 in the morning on may 9 Schörner flew south in his storch. the machine landed near mittersil in tirol, where General Guderian was supposed to be located with his staff and elements of the Army high Command, however they had been captured on their way there. Schörner realized it was hopeless and surrendered to the Americans.

Schörner was then imprisoned in the Soviet Union and was sent around being tortured repeatedly. he was only able to survive with donations from his former soldiers. The soviets sentenced him to 50 years imprisonment for putting down the communist revolution in Munich in 1920!! the soviets offered to let him out if he were to help them establish the east German army but he refused all their offers. in west Germany Schörner was turned into a horror figure who shot thousands of dogs demoted men at will and killed children. The trash journalists made him into a horror figure in uniform . in reality the whole thing wasn't so much about Schörner the person. the truth is the campaign was begun at a time when the new west German army was being talked about, planned and in its formative stage. the specially aimed attacks on Schörner were actually directed at the German rearmament. Schörner was only seen as a tool with which to whip up feeling against the forces in favor of Germany retaining its army.

Schörner's release from the soviets took him by surprise, he returned to Germany to find his wife and son had died, but he wasn't free yet he was charged with manslaughter and taken to court by the German government some of the claims against him were ridiculous an officer who was said to be hung by Schörner was still alive. Schörner said "I have nothing to be afraid of and will hide from no one. i want nothing more than to be treated fairly. my enemies are the Bolsheviks" he then added "I stand completely responsible for everything i have done. i have only served my fatherland and done everything to hold the front against the onrushing Bolsheviks"

so that was the story of Ferdinand Schörner the main source i used was historian Günter Fraschka who in his Book "Knights of the Reich" recounts the story of every German soldier to earn the knights cross with oak leaves swords and diamonds. while working on the book he did many interviews with people who knew these men. and i consider it an excellent source for information on Ferdinand Schörner