Generalleutnant Kurt Pflieger

SOME OF THE PRISONERS HELD AT
SPECIAL CAMP 11

This profile is based on a copy of Generalleutnant Pflieger’s microfilmed service record housed at the United States National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

NAME: Generalleutnant Kurt Pflieger

PW NO:          560336
RANK:            Generalleutnant
CAPTURED:   Klein Krankow, Germany
DATE:             3rd May 1945

PERSONAL
DATE OF BIRTH: 18 May 1890

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wiesbaden

DATE OF DEATH: 15 September 1958

PLACE OF DEATH: Hamburg

NATIONALITY: German

RELIGION: Evangelical

OCCUPATION: Regular Soldier

HEIGHT: 5'7"

WEIGHT: 171lbs

HAIR COLOUR: Grey

EYE COLOUR: Grey Blue

NEXT OF KIN: Ina-Helene Pfleiger, (British Zone)

Parents: Generalmajor a.D. Karl and Clara (née Bartels) Pflieger, died 18 July 1931 in Berlin-Lichterfelde and 2 May 1932 in Schwerin respectively.

Wife: Married Helena Hillmann (born 19 October 1899) on 22 June 1920 in Reidendorf – two sons.

Promotions:

Fähnrich: 13 March 1909
Leutnant: 27 January 1910 (Patent 19 June 1908)
Oberleutnant: 25 February 1915
Hauptmann: 18 August 1917
Polizei-Hauptmann: 5 November 1919
Polizei-Major: 4 May 1920
Polizei-Oberstleutnant: 1 April 1934
Major: 15 October 1934 (RDA 1 August 1933; later changed to 1 March 1931)
Oberstleutnant: 1 July 1935 (RDA 1 July 1934)
Oberst: 1 October 1936
Generalmajor: 1 October 1940
Generalleutnant: 1 October 1942

Commands & Assignments:

1905-1909: Cadet at the Gross Lichterfelde Senior Cadet Institute.
13 March 1909: Entered the Army as a Fähnrich in Holsteinisches Feld-Artillerie-Regiment Nr.24 after passing out from the Cadet Corps.
1 October 1911-28 February 1912: Detached to the Field Artillery Firing School at Jüterbog.
1 October 1913: Adjutant of the II. Battalion of Field Artillery Regiment 24.
15 March 1915: Regimental Adjutant of Field Artillery Regiment 24.
18 December 1915: Adjutant on the staff of the Artillery Leader of the 17th Infantry Division.
22 August 1916: Adjutant of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade.
2 February 1917-8 March 1918: Leader of the 7th Battery of Field Artillery Regiment 24.
9 March 1918: Adjutant of Artillery Leader 17 (previously the 17th Field Artillery Brigade).
11 February 1919: Returned to Field Artillery Regiment 24.
5 November 1919-15 October 1934: Served in the Ordnungspolizei [Order Police] after formally separating from the Army on 20 February 1920.
15 October 1934: Separated from the Police and returned to the Army with the rank of Major and assigned to Artillery Regiment “Schwerin.”
15 October 1934-14 December 1934: Detached to the Training Course for Artillery Officers at the Artillery School at Jüterbog.
20 January 1935: Commander of the I. Battalion of Artillery Regiment “Schwerin.”
15 October 1935: Commander of the I. Battalion of Artillery Regiment 12.
6 October 1936: Commander of Artillery Regiment 19 of the 19th Infantry Division. [Commanded by Generalleutnant Günther Schwantes, the 19th Infantry Division took part in the invasion of Poland in September 1939 as a component of the XI Army Corps (General der Artillerie Emil Leeb) of General der Artillerie Walter von Reichenau’s 10th Army. On 2 September 1939, untried elements of the 19th Infantry Division broke and ran at Albertow upon their first taste of combat; however, the division successfully seized a bridgehead on the Warthe River. After taking part in the Battle of Radom, the division bypassed Warsaw and advanced from a bridgehead on the Bzura River to the Vistula River. After the capture of Mlociny and the clearing of the Kampinoska Forest, the 19th Infantry Division, along with the rest of the XI Army Corps, transferred to the control of General der Infanterie Johannes Blaskowitz’s 8th Army for the final assault on Warsaw. Following a ferocious artillery and air bombardment, the 8th Army’s XI and XIII Army Corps, the latter commanded by General der Kavallerie Maximilian Freiherr von und zu Weichs an der Glon, began the assault against the encircled city’s main defense line on the 25th of September 1939. After a heroic defense, Polish General Juliusz Rommel surrendered Warsaw to General der Infanterie Blaskowitz on 27 September 1939 with effect on the following day.]
30 September 1939: Artillery Commander (Arko) 109; redesignated Mountain Artillery Commander (Gebirgs Arko) 109 circa 1 April 1940. [An Artillery Commander or Arko for short was the designation for the officer and his staff responsible for coordinating and controlling all artillery assets at the corps or higher level. As Mountain Arko 109, Kurt Pflieger and his staff transferred to Norway in 1940 where they served under General der Infanterie (later Generaloberst) Nikolaus von Falkenhorst’s Army Group XXI (redesignated Army High Command Norway on 19 December 1940).]
15 May 1941: Commander of the 337th Infantry Division in France.
20 March 1942: Army High Command Leader Reserve.
16 April 1942: Commander of the 31st Infantry Division on the Eastern Front. [During Generalleutnant Pflieger’s tenure of command, the division saw action at Luknov and Vyasma in central Russia while serving variously under the 4th Army and the 3rd Panzer Army in Army Group Center.]
15 May 1943: Army High Command Leader Reserve – duties determined by the Deputy Commanding General of the XI Army Corps and the Commander of Wehrkreis XI, Hannover.
1 July 1943-8 May 1945: Commander of the 416th Infantry Division in Denmark and on the Western Front. [Headquartered at Aalborg, the 416th Infantry Division garrisoned the northern end of the Jutland peninsula under control of the Armed Forces Commander Denmark (General der Infanterie Hermann von Hanneken). On 16 February 1944, Adolf Hitler ordered the preparation of contingency plans to occupy the Åland Islands and Suursaari to maintain naval control of the Baltic Sea in the event of a Finnish-Soviet armistice.[1] Generalleutnant Pflieger’s 416th Infantry Division and SS-Fallschirmjäger Battalion 500 commanded by SS-Hauptsturmführer Siegfried Milius were earmarked for Operation “Tanne West” (Fir West), the proposed German amphibious and airborne seizure of the Finnish Åland Islands. On 3 September 1944, Hitler, however, cancelled “Tanne West” so as not to provoke Sweden into halting the supply of vital iron ore and ball bearings to Germany. The 416th Infantry Division could not be released for the operation at any rate and was transferred from Denmark to the Western Front a month later. Seeing action in the Saarpfalz and Hunsrück regions of Germany as a component of the LXXXII Army Corps under the 1st and 7th Armies, the remnants of the division passed into American captivity near Traunstein, northwest of Berchtesgaden, at the end of the war.[2]]
3 May 1945-17 May 1948: Prisoner of war in American and, later, British captivity.
- 9th January 1946 transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 from Camp 1
- 20th November 1947 transferred to Camp 99 (to be trained as masseur)
- 1st April 1948 transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 from Camp 99
- 12th May 1948 transferred to Camp 186 for repatriation

Decorations & Awards (included):

Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross: 10 February 1945, Generalleutnant, Commander of the 416th Infantry Division.
German Cross in Gold: 28 November 1942, Generalleutnant, Commander of the 31st Infantry Division.
Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914)
Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (1914)
1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class: 25 October 1939.
1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class: 21 September 1939.
Cross of Honor for Combatants 1914-1918
Armed Forces Long Service Awards
Wound Badge in Black – World War II award: 4 September 1942.

[1] Suursaari was among the islands ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union under the Moscow Peace Treaty following the Winter War in 1939-1940. After recapturing Suursaari in March 1942, the Finns garrisoned the island which, due to its strategic location in Gulf of Finland, served as a natural point for blockading Leningrad. Although Hitler cancelled the plan to seize the Åland Islands, he ordered the capture of Suursaari, codenamed Operation “Tanne Ost” (Fir East), to commence on 15 September 1944. After the Germans landed about 1,400 Army and Navy troops from Fusilier Regiment 68 and Naval Artillery Battalion 531 respectively on Suursaari, fierce Finnish resistance backed by heavy Russian air support prevented the entire German assault force from landing. The approximate 1,200 German troops trapped on the island surrendered to the Finns who later turned them over to the Russians in accordance with the armistice terms. Under the Soviet-Finnish armistice, Suursaari reverted to Russian control. The island is known in Russian as Gogland and it appears as such on contemporary maps.

[2] For an account of the surrender of Generalleutnant Theodor Tolsdorff, the final commander of the LXXXII Army Corps, to “E” Company/506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (U.S. 101st Airborne Division) near Berchtesgaden, see Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose.

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