PW NO:          333422
RANK:            General der Artillerie
CAPTURED:   Ruhr, Germany
DATE:             16 April 1945

PERSONAL
DATE OF BIRTH:     5 March 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH:   Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH:    28 April 1950
PLACE OF DEATH: Werl (while held as a prisoner in British captivity)
NATIONALITY:       German
RELIGION:
OCCUPATION:        Regular Soldier
HEIGHT:
WEIGHT:
NEXT OF KIN:

• Fahnenjunker: 11 February 1910
• Fähnrich: 18 October 1910
• Leutnant: 18 August 1911 – Patent 20 August 1909
• Oberleutnant: 18 August 1915
• Hauptmann: 18 August 1918
• Hauptmann: 1 November 1936 – RDA 1 December 1933
• Major: 1 June 1938 – RDA later changed to 1 March 1937
• Oberstleutnant: 1 August 1940
• Oberst: 1 February 1942
• Generalmajor: 1 October 1944
• Generalleutnant: 27 February 1945 – RDA 1 December 1944
• General der Artillerie:  20 April 1945

• 11 February 1910: Entered the Army as a Fahnenjunker in the Niedersächsisches Feld-Artillerie-Regiment Nr.46. 
• 24 August 1914: Battery Leader in Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 11 November 1914: Adjutant of the II. Battalion of Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 25 February 195: Regimental Adjutant of Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 2 June 1917: Deputy Battery Leader in Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 4 July 1917: Regimental Adjutant of Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 21 September 1917: Company Leader in the 2. Hannoversches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.77.
• 20 November 1917: Regimental Adjutant of Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 24 November 1917: Officer of the Army and transferred to the General Command of the Flanders Naval Corps for employment as a General Staff Officer.
• 7 May 1918: Second General Staff Officer of the 35th Infantry Division.
• 28 November 1918: Returned to Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 11 December 1918: Battery Leader in Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 12 December 1918: Leader of the I. Battalion of Field Artillery Regiment 46.
• 30 April 1919: Separated from the Army.
• 1 August 1936: Supplemental Officer Candidate in the 1st Department of the Army General Staff.
• 1 October 1936: Called up as a Hauptmann of the Landwehr for provisional service in the 1st Department of the Army General Staff.
• 1 February 1937: Named a Supplemental Officer in the 1st Department of the Army General Staff with effect from 1 November 1936.
• 12 October 1937: Transferred to the 10th Department of the Army General Staff.
• 15 November 1938: Detached to the II. Battalion of Artillery Regiment 20 of the 20th Infantry Division.
• 1 April 1939: Battery Chief in Artillery Regiment 73 of the 1st Panzer Division. [Commanded by Generalleutnant Rudolf Schmidt, the 1st Panzer Division took part in the invasion of Poland in September 1939.]
• 1 February 1940: Commander of the II. Battalion of Artillery Regiment 78 of the 7th Panzer Division.[1] [Known as the “Ghost Division,” the famous 7th Panzer Division was commanded by Generalmajor Erwin Rommel from February 1940-February 1941. The division played a key role in the invasion of France in May-June 1940.]
• 10 May 1941: Commander of Artillery Regiment (Motorized) 33 of the 15th Panzer Division in North Africa.
• 26 May 1942-25 August 1942: At the same time, delegated with the leadership of the 15th Panzer Division in North Africa. [After Generalmajor Gustav von Vaerst was wounded during the Battle of Gazala in Libya, temporary leadership of the 15th Panzer Division passed to Oberst Crasemann. Following his recovery, von Vaerst resumed divisional command.[2]]
• 17 January 1943: Army High Command Leader Reserve.
• 20 April 1943: Commander of Panzer Artillery Regiment 116 of the 5th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front. [Commanded by Generalmajor Ernst Faeckenstedt, the 5th Panzer Division served in the area of Orel under Army Group Center. On 12 July 1943, the Soviet Western and Bryansk Fronts opened a counteroffensive against the Orel salient held by Army Group Center’s 9th Army and 2nd Panzer Army. Reacting to the offensive and Soviet buildups elsewhere along the front, Hitler cancelled Operation “Zitadelle” (Citadel) the following day.[3] In the meantime, the 9th Army and 2nd Panzer Army, both now under command of Generaloberst Walter Model, began a grudging withdrawal to the west. By 18 August 1943, Model’s forces, including the 5th Panzer Division, had pulled back to the recently fortified Hagen Position along the base of the Orel salient.]
• 1 September 1943: Artillery Commander (Arko) 143.
• 5 April 1944: Army High Command Leader Reserve.
• 1 May 1944-5 June 1944: At the same time, detached to the 11th Division Leader Course at Hirschberg/Silesia.
• 1 July 1944: At the same time, detached to the Army High Command.
• 6-18 July 1944: Delegated with the leadership of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy. [Succeeding Generalleutnant Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz, Crasemann briefly led the 26th Panzer Division before handing over command to Generalmajor Dr. rer. pol., Dr. jur. Hans Boelsen.]
• 27 August 1944: Commander of the 26th Panzer Division in Italy. [Succeeding Generalmajor Boelsen, Crasemann led the division, a component of the LXXVI Panzer Corps of the 10th Army, in fierce defensive combat against the British Eighth Army in the Adriatic sector.[4] Pulled from reserve in late August 1944, the 26th Panzer Division fought at the Coriano Ridge, west of Rimini, where it helped stem the initial British offensive against the Gothic Line. Resuming the attack on 12 September 1944, Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese’s British Eighth Army stormed the ridge and captured Rimini from the withdrawing Germans. After heavy defensive fighting against British forces advancing on Cesena, the LXXVI Panzer Corps abandoned the town and withdrew behind the Savio River. The corps continued to fight a delaying action across the Romagna Plain until establishing itself in the German winter positions southeast of Bologna. By late December 1944, the 26th Panzer Division had been pulled from the line and placed in 10th Army reserve for a much needed rest. Tapped to lead a corps on the Western Front, Crasemann relinquished command of the 26th Panzer Division to Oberst Alfred Kuhnert and departed Italy for his final assignment of the war.]
• 29 January 1945: Delegated with the leadership of the XII SS-Army Corps on the Western Front. [Upon assuming leadership of the corps from General der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt, Crasemann found his new command holding along the Roer River as the northern wing of General der Infanterie Gustav-Adolf von Zangen’s 15th Army.[5] On 23 February 1945, Lieutenant General William H. Simpson’s U.S. Ninth Army launched Operation Grenade to clear the northern Rhineland and linkup on the Rhine with Operation Veritable being executed by the Canadian First Army. Forced back across the Rhine in early March 1945 by the stunning American advance, Crasemann’s battered corps transferred to control of Generaloberst Josef Harpe’s 5th Panzer Army later in the month. The American seizure of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen on 7 March 1945, combined with the launch of Operation Plunder, the British assault crossing of the Rhine on March 24th, sealed the fate of the German armies in the west. Fanning out from their bridgeheads, the U.S. Ninth and First Armies completed the encirclement of Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model’s Army Group B in the Ruhr industrial region by 1 April 1945.[6] The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket effectively ended on 17 April 1945 when Model disbanded the remnants of his army group.[7]]
• 16 April 1945-28 April 1950: Prisoner of war; tried and imprisoned for war crimes. [In the spring of 1947, Crasemann was tried by a British War Crimes Tribunal in Padua for his complicity in the mass execution of 175 Italian civilians in the Fucecchio Marshes (Padule di Fucecchio) near Florence on 23 August 1944. Elements of Crasemann’s 26th Panzer Division had been involved in an anti-partisan sweep of the marshes at the time. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and died in Werl Prison. Rittmeister Josef Strauch, commander of the division’s 26th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, was later tried and also sentenced to a prison term for his involvement in the massacre.]
  • 17th October 1946 transferred from Island Farm Special Camp 11 to LDC (London District Cage)

• Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross: 26 December 1941, Oberstleutnant, Commander of Artillery Regiment (Motorized) 33.
• Oakleaves (No. 683): 18 December 1944, Generalmajor, Commander of the 26th Panzer Division.
• German Cross in Gold: 1 November 1943, Oberst, Commander of Panzer Artillery Regiment 116.
• Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914): 15 October 1915.
• Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (19141): 13 September 1914.
• 1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class: 1 June 1940.
• 1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class: 30 September 1939.
• Cross of Honor for Combatants 1914-1918
• Armed Forces Long Service Awards
• “AFRIKA” Campaign Cuff-Title
• Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht [Armed Forces Communiqué]: 24 November 1944.

• Bender, Roger James & Odegard, Warren W. Uniforms, Organization and History of the Panzertruppe. R. James Bender Publishing, San Jose, California, 1980 (1st Edition).
• Bradley, Dermot; Hildebrand, Karl-Friedrich; Rövekamp, Markus. Die Generale des Heeres, 1921-1945, Band 2 (v. Blanckensee-v. Czettritz und Neuhauß). Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, Germany, 1993.
• Fisher, Ernest F. Jr. Cassino to the Alps – The United States Army in World War II: The Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1989.
• Ford, Ken. Osprey Campaign 74: The Rhineland 1945 – The Last Killing Ground in the West. Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford, United Kingdom, 2000.
• Ziemke, Earl F. Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. Army Historical Series. Washington D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1968.
• German Army Kriegsgliederung (Order of Battle), 1 September 1939-30 April 1945.