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terje439 -> RE: OT - WWII quiz (1/9/2009 8:42:01 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: brian brian
thanks man! for bonus points, let's figure out what command von Tresckow had....
his name does come back to me now. don't know his command though.
Here is one I do know the answer, courtesy of the movie...
where was Colonel von Stauffenberg wounded before his transfer to duties in Berlin, and what command did he hold?
from JGN
Although he initially sympathized with the Nazis due to their opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, Tresckow condemned the 1934 Night of the Long Knives, in which many loyal Nazis were executed on Hitler's orders. After studies at the Kriegsakademie, he graduated as the best of the class of 1936, and was appointed to the German General Staff's 1st Department. Studying the possible scenarios of war, he recognized the risks and weaknesses in Hitler's desire to prepare for war in 1940.
There is a Memorial plaque for Erich Hoepner and Henning von Tresckow in the Bundeshaus, Berlin.
The 1938 Blomberg-Fritsch Affair alienated Tresckow and others from Hitler. As a result, he sought out civilians and soldiers who opposed Hitler, such as Erwin von Witzleben.
Tresckow opposed Germany's involvement in having started World War II, but in the spring of 1939, he served as an infantry division chief of staff in the invasion of Poland. Later in 1939 and into 1940, he served as a general staff officer under Gerd von Rundstedt and Erich von Manstein in Army Group A, culminating in the invasion of France in the spring of 1940. From 1941-1943, he served under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, his uncle, and Field Marshal Günther von Kluge as chief operations officer of the German Army Group Center in the Soviet Union. Subsequently, he served in combat as the commanding officer of an infantry regiment defending the western bank of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. At the time of his death, he was serving as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army, in areas that are now Belarus and eastern Poland. During his World War II service, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold and other decorations. When the mass shootings behind the lines were extended towards Jewish women and children, Treskow started to resume his resistance activities.
Tresckow planned several assassination plots against Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, but all failed. On March 13, 1943 for example, after the Führer visited troops on the Eastern Front, Tresckow concealed explosives on Hitler's Condor plane in a package that purportedly contained bottles of cognac. Tresckow asked Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt who was traveling with Hitler to take the package to another officer named Helmuth Stieff at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia, to pay up for a lost bet. After news was received that Hitler had returned safely to his East Prussian base, it was obvious that the bomb had failed to detonate (probably due to the extremely low temperature in the unheated luggage compartment, thereby preventing the fuse from working). Tresckow's cousin and military aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorff, retrieved the package to prevent discovery of the plot.
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