Terror in the Balkans (48 page)

Karton 3703. Feld-Artillerie Brigade 11. Brigadebefehle, 1916–1918.

Paul Hoffmann:
RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Paul Hoffmann; PERS 6, fi le on Paul Hoffmann. Personal-Nachweis; Hans Schöning,
Leib-Grenadier-Regiment König Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1. Brandenburgisches) Nr. 8 im Weltkrieg
(Oldenburg: Stalling, 1924), pp. 13–14,
passim
.

Fritz Neidholt:
RH7 Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Fritz Neidholt; PERS 6, fi le on Fritz Neidholt. Personal-Nachweis; United States War Department,
Histories of Two Hundred

and Fifty-One Divisions of the German Army Which Participated in the War (1914–1918)
, 59–61, 592–594.

Friedrich Stahl:
RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Friedrich Stahl; PERS 6, fi le on Friedrich Stahl. Personal-Nachweis. Dienstlaufbahn
.

Emil Zellner:
RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Emil Zellner; AdR Vienna, Bundesheer-Akten. Personnel fi le on Emil Zellner. Volkswehr Bataillon Bruck a./d. Leitha. Vormerk-

blatt für die Qualifi kationsbeschreibung; Glaise von Horstenau et al.,
Österreich-Ungarns
letzter Krieg,
order-of-battle entries for 11th Field Gun Regiment: Vol. I, pp. 62–91, Vol. II, Beilage 14; index entries for 11th Field Gun Regiment and 16th Field Artillery Regiment, and commanding formations: Vols. I–VII.

y u g o s l av i a - b a s e d r e g i m e n ta l c o m m a n d e r s :

Nikolaus Boicetta:
PERS 6, fi le on Nikolaus Boicetta. Personal-Nachweis; AdR Vienna, Bundesheer-Akten. Personnel fi le on Nikolaus Boicetta. [Bundesheer offi cer personnel fi les are arranged alphabetically rather than under any numerical system.] Bericht zur Dienstbeschreibung et al.; Otto Tumliz,
Waffengänge des IR 6: Skizzen aus dem großen Kriege
(regimental press, published in the fi eld 1917); Glaise von Horstenau,
Österreich-Ungarns
letzter Krieg
, order-of-battle entries for 6th Infantry Regiment: Vol. I, pp. 62–91, Vol. II, Beilage 14; index entries for 6th Infantry Regiment, 6th Bosnian Rifl e Battalion, and commanding formations: Vols. I–IV.

Adalbert Lontschar:
RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Adalbert Lontschar; KA Vienna, Offi ziers-Belohnungsanträge. Karton 55, Nr. 63.331. Adalbert Lontschar; AdR Vienna,

Bundesheer-Akten. Personnel fi le on Adalbert Lontschar. Bericht zur Dienstbeschreibung;
Appendix A
261

Glaise von Horstenau et al.,
Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg,
order-of-battle entries for 24th Infantry Regiment: Vol. I, pp. 62–91, Vol. II, Beilage 14; index entries for 24th Infantry Regiment and commanding formations: Vols. I–VII.

Alois Windisch:
RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Alois Windisch; KA Vienna, Nachlaß, Alois Windisch. Lebenslauf; AdR Vienna, Bundesheer-Akten. Personnel fi le on Alois

Windisch. Personalblatt; Maximilian Ehnl,
Das X. Bataillon des oberösterreichischen k.

u. k. Infanterie-Regimentes “Ernst Ludwig Großherzog von Hessen und bei Rhein” Nr. 14

im Weltkrieg
(Linz, 1932); Glaise von Horstenau et al.,
Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg,
order-of-battle entries for 1st Infantry Regiment: Vol. I, pp. 62–91, Vol. II, Beilage 14; index entries for 14th Infantry Regiment and commanding formations: Vols. I–VII.

Joachim Wüst:
Lebenslauf. PERS 6, fi le on Joachim Wüst. Lebenslauf.

Rudolf Wutte:
AdR Vienna, Bundesheer-Akten. Personnel fi le on Rudolf Wutte. Bericht zur Dienstbeschreibung; Glaise von Horstenau et al.,
Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg
, index entries for SMS Novara: Vol. III.

s o v i e t u n i o n - b a s e d d i v i s i o n a l c o m m a n d e r s :

Gottfried Barton:
BA-MA, MSg 9. File on Gottfried Barton; Glaise von Horstenau et al.,
Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg,
vols. 1–7 (Vienna: Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, 1930–1938), order-of-battle entries for 6th Lancer Regiment: Vol. I, pp.

62–91; for 8th Cavalry Division: Vol. II, Beilage 14, Vol. III, Beilage 2, Vol. IV, Beilage 2. Index entries for 6th Lancer Regiment, 8th Cavalry Division, and commanding formations: Vols. I–IV.

Hubert Lendle:
BA-MA RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Hubert Lendle; BA-MA Pers 6.

Personnel fi le on Hubert Lendle. Personal-Nachweis.

Johann Pfl ugbeil,
BA-MA RH7, Heeresgeneralkartei. File on Johann Pfl ugbeil; BA-MA, Pers 6. File on Johann Pfl ugbeil. Personal-Nachweis, Lebenslauf.

a p p e n d i x b

Note on the Primary Sources

Except where stated, the primary source material presented in this study is housed in

the Federal Military Archive (Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv or BA-MA) in Freiburg-

im-Breisgau. Endnote primary material belonging to the groupings RH, RW, or MSg was

accessed in the form of original documents. Most of the primary material was, however,

obtained from microfi lmed copies belonging to the archive’s MFB4 series. As BA-MA

researchers usually work with original documents, the author has produced a conversion

chart listing the MFB4 fi les against their designations as original document fi les. The chart is accessible via http://www.gcu.ac.uk/gsbs/staff/drbenshepherd/. MFB4 references are

presented in the endnotes in the following order: fi lm number, fi le number, frame number.

For example: MFB4/56159 (fi lm), 28326/16 (fi le), 442–443 (frame).

The study originally set out to examine what motivated German army offi cers serving in

Yugoslavia at divisional and regimental levels, including how offi cers’ behavior was shaped by infl uences and experiences earlier in their lives. Investigating this question involved examining both personal-level data and unit-level data.

Initially, personal-level data were collected for approximately forty offi cers, predominantly from various types of offi cer personnel fi le. Based on the author’s previous research experience, it was anticipated at the study’s outset that the main source types available—

personal-level sources on particular offi cers, and unit-level sources generated by divisions, regiments, and other formations—would be unlikely to state offi cers’ motivations explicitly.

It would therefore be necessary in most cases to infer individual motivations by examining biographical details alongside the way in which a particular offi cer subsequently behaved.

This approach distinguishes a divisional- or regimental-level study from studies focusing upon higher command levels, such as Johannes Hürter’s
Hitlers Heerführer
, which, thanks to the available sources, are much better placed to utilize material such as private letters
263

264
Appendix B

and diaries to provide a more explicit picture of the motivations of army-level and army group–level generals. Nevertheless, this author’s previous monograph,
War in the Wild
East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans
, had demonstrated the potential of a more inferential approach to studying offi cers at divisional and regimental levels. It was therefore anticipated that such an approach would be even more effective when applied to an offi cer sample considerably larger than that available for
War in the Wild East
.

In the event, the group of offi cers for whom data could be utilized meaningfully to

illustrate personal motivations proved considerably smaller than had been anticipated.

The main reason for this concerned the
quantity
and
quality
of divisional and regimental sources. The
quantity
of information will be compromised by a failure of any group to keep records or a willful destruction of those records by the group, enemy action, or other factors such as records being mislaid or lost. The
quality
of information is infl uenced by the extent to which offi cers were diligent, effective, and/or honest in recording their actions.

Quality can vary with regard to how offi cers were instructed to record information and the circumstances in which they produced records.

All these concerns were apparent during the research for
War in the Wild East
, and it was anticipated that a similar pattern would be in evidence in the present study. In the event, the magnitude of these concerns was greater than anticipated. This meant that

attempting to gather suffi cient data was more time-consuming than anticipated. In cases where inadequate information prevented a more accurate picture it was necessary to draw

more inferences from other available information.

A particular concern emerged in the case of regimental commanders. It was antici-

pated at the study’s outset that, while regimental-level sources would be considerably less extensive than division-level sources, there would nevertheless be suffi cient material to illuminate the individual motives of some regimental commanders. This was a reasonable

expectation based on the author’s experiences with the source material for
War in the Wild
East
. Eventually, however, it became clear that the source material available for the current study contained much less of interest in this respect.

Why the regimental-level source material utilized for
War in the Wild East
was fuller than the equivalent material for the present study is not entirely clear. One possible explanation is that particularly hard-line offi cers serving in the relatively quiet sectors that were the focus of
War in the Wild East
felt they needed to go to extra effort to impose their will upon their troops. Many units serving in Yugoslavia, by contrast, faced more dangerous or more pressing circumstances. In these circumstances, it was more likely for harsher directives to be issued at divisional level or above anyway. Hard-line regimental commanders

may therefore have felt no need to go to the extra effort of issuing such directives themselves.

It was also decided to exclude divisional operations offi cers (Ia offi cers) from the sample. This was because suffi cient data could not be found on a meaningfully large number of Ia offi cers drawn from the divisions on which the study focused. However, given divisional
commanders’
central importance, excluding Ia offi cers still enables the study to produce important fi ndings regarding infl uences on division-level behavior, and the importance of divisional commanders to that process.

In view of all these issues, it eventually became necessary to focus primary analysis on just nine offi cers, all of whom were divisional commanders serving in Yugoslavia. Nevertheless,
Appendix B
265

it has proved possible to make select comparisons with certain regimental commanders, and with certain divisional commanders who served in the Soviet Union, in order to aid analysis of the core group of Yugoslavia-based divisional commanders.

Despite this unavoidable reduction in the amount of wholly satisfactory information available, the results that emerged make a signifi cant contribution to incremental understanding of German army offi cers’ motivations at the middle command level. As such, these results provide a useful basis on which further case studies can build in the future. Historians working on similar studies in the future should take note both of the limitations and opportunities inherent in the archival sources and how they might best be utilized accordingly.

Abbreviations

Abt.

Abteilung (section)

AdR

Archiv der Republik, Vienna

AK

Armeekorps (army corps)

Anl.

Anlage (supplement)

AOK

Armeeoberkommando (army command)

AVNOJ Antifašisticˇko Vijecé Narodnog Oslobod¯enja Jugoslavije

(Anti-Fascist Council of the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia)

BA-MA

Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (Federal Military Archive),

Freiburg-im-Breisgau

Bayr. Bayerisch

(Bavarian)

Betr.

Betrifft (regarding)

Der bevollm. Kdr.

Der bevollmächtigte Kommandierende General in Serbien

Gen. in Serbien /

(Plenipotentiary Commanding General in Serbia)

BKG Serbien

Bf. dt. Tr. Kroatien

Befehlshaber der deutschen Truppen in Kroatien

(Croatia Command)

BfZ

Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte (Library of Contemporary History),

Stuttgart

BKA

Bayerisches Kriegsarchiv (Bavarian War Archive), Munich

KG Serbien

Befehlshaber und Kommandierende General in Serbien

(Serbia Command)

267

268
Abbreviations

Div.-Kmdo.-Abfert.

Divisionskommando-Abfertigung (divisional command dispatch)

EOK

Etappenoberkommando (rear area command

[Austro-Hungarian])

FABrig.

Feld-Artillerie-Brigade

Fmlt.

Feldmarschalleutnant (lieutenant general [Austro-Hungarian])

GM

Generalmajor (Brigadier General)

GR / Gren.-Rgt.

Grenadier-Regiment

ID / Inf.-Div.

Infanterie-Division

IR / Inf.-Rgt.

Infanterie-Regiment

IWM

Imperial War Museum, London

JD / Jäg.-Div.

Jäger-Division (light division)

JR / Jäg.-Rgt.

Jäger-Regiment (light regiment)

KA

Kriegsarchiv (War Archive, Vienna)

Kdr.

Kommandeur

Kp. / Komp.

Kompanie

Kpfgr.

Kampfgruppe (battle group)

Kpfw.

Kampfwagen (armored car)

KTB

Kriegstagebuch (war diary)

k. u. k. Heer

Das königliche und kaiserliche Heer ([Austro-Hungarian]

Royal-Imperial Army)

LSB

Landesschützen-Bataillon (territorial battalion)

Ltn.

Lieutenant

MVAC

Milizia Volontaria Anti Comunista (Anti-Communist

Volunteer Militia)

NARA