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Georg von Boeselager

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military People; World
War II

                          Georg Freiherr von Boeselager
   1915- 1944
    Place of birth  Kassel, Germany
    Place of death  Łomża, Poland
      Allegiance    Germany
   Years of service 1934- 1944
         Rank       Oberst der Kavallerie
         Unit       15th Cavalry
       Commands     "School for Shocktroops"
                    Third Cavalry Brigade
                    Cavalry Regiments Centre
     Battles/wars   Invasion of Poland
                    Battle of France
                    July 20 Plot
                    Eastern Front (World War II)
        Awards      Iron Cross Second Class
                    Iron Cross First Class
                    Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
                    Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
                    Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords

   Georg Freiherr von Boeselager (b. August 25, 1915 near Kassel - †
   August 27, 1944 near Łomża, Poland) was a German nobleman and officer
   of the Wehrmacht, who ultimately served as Colonel ( Oberst) of
   Cavalry.

   Born to a Roman Catholic family, he chose military service over the
   priesthood and enlisted with the German armed forces in 1934. In World
   War II, he served in the Heer with distinction in several notable
   offensives, including the 1939 Invasion of Poland, the 1940 Battle of
   France, and 1941's Operation Barbarossa, and was awarded the Iron Cross
   multiple times. He ultimately achieved the rank of Oberst and was made
   Instructor of Tactics at the "School for Shocktroops" in Krampintz.

   Along with his brother Philipp von Boeselager, he participated in the
   1944 July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Returning to the front
   after the failed plot, Boeselager was killed in action against a
   heavily fortified Russian position on August 27, 1944. On August 29, he
   was posthumously promoted to full colonel and awarded the Knight's
   Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

Vita

Education & early military career

   From his youth, Boeselager was trained as an apprentice cavalryman;
   known in German as Turnierreiter — something like "tournament rider":
   an equestrian competitor in the German Turner tradition. He also
   enjoyed hunting and other outdoor spoorts. His was an old military
   family, but also a devoutly Catholic one, and young Georg wavered
   before finally settling on the military over the priesthood. Before
   this decision was final, young Boeselager attended secondary school at
   Aloysius College in Bad Godesberg. Beginning on April 1, 1934, he
   trained with the 15th Cavalry Regiment in Paderborn. When he completed
   his basic training in 1936, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant;
   then in March, 1939, he was promoted to First Lieutenant.

   For his actions in the Invasion of Poland, Boeselager was awarded the
   Iron Cross, Second Class. His service on the Western Front in 1940 was
   similarly distinguished: for his actions in bridging the Seine near Les
   Andelys on June 13, 1940, he was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class;
   and in January 1941, he won the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. By
   July of that year, he had risen to the rank of Rittmeister, or Captain
   of Cavalry. An efficiency report praised von Boeselager as "...a
   spirited cavalry officer, who thinks boldly and surely in taking
   decisions, but who is modest and unassuming, the idol of his men..." ^

   In Operation Barbarossa, Boeselager again showed himself a courageous
   and exemplary officer. His unit performed reconnaisance for the
   double-pronged sweep around Brest-Litovsk to take Byalistok and Minsk,
   seized bridgheads over the Nema and Daugava rivers and participated in
   the Battle of Moscow. For accomplishing his duties with distinction, he
   was granted the Knight's Cross with Oak leaves on December 31, 1941.
   Afterwards, he was detached from his unit and made Instructor of
   Tactics at the "School for Shocktroops" in Krampintz. Boeselager was
   asked to instruct students in Panzer tactics, even though he preferred
   commanding traditional cavalry, which he felt still had a place on the
   modern battlefield. In his capacity as instructor, Boeselager made
   contacts among the military resistance, who had seen that things were
   not going well at the front.

The plot to kill Hitler

   Von Boeselager worked with Romanian troops of the Romanian Third Army,
   training them to fight alongside the German Sixth Army which at first
   advanced deep into the Soviet Union, but was destined to surrender at
   Stalingrad.

   After an audience with Field Marshall General Günther von Kluge, then
   the commander of Army Group Centre, Boeselager was assigned as Deputy
   Commander, Cavalry Regiments Centre, a freestanding cavalry unit
   fighting on the Eastern Front. Boeselager made frequent trips to confer
   with von Kluge, sometimes flying along with the field marshall's staff
   on his transport plane ^.

   At a 1943 field conference the feasiblity of an assassination of Hitler
   was discussed among some of the officers present. Some suggested
   killing Hitler with a pistol, but no officer could be found who would
   dare attempt it. Many who would gladly give their lives in battle in
   the company of their comrades abhorred the idea of going alone
   assassinate an unarmed head of state. One year earlier, a Luftwaffe
   officer had lain in wait for Hitler while the Führer was out walking in
   the woods, but found he was unable to move his arms when the critical
   moment came. Von Boeselager confided to his new friend and future
   superior, Major General Henning von Tresckow, that he would likely
   freeze up as well.^ It was qualms about the method, not the fact of the
   killing itself, that perturbed von Boeselager. In fact, Boeselager had
   come to believe that he had a duty to God and his fellowmen to kill
   Hitler, who was the antithesis of all that his religious upbringing
   represented.^ Instead of a lone assassination , Boeselager envisioned a
   scenario where, in command of a cavalry honour guard, he would
   overwhelm Hitler's SS bodyguard and shoot the Führer in a fair fight;
   this course was rejected because von Kluge did not like the prospect of
   a large numbers of German soldiers fighting each other. Boeselager
   later offered to charge the Wolf's Lair with a full battalion of
   cavalry; this was rejected because of the extremely high casualties the
   unit would likely suffer and because it was impossible to transfer the
   unit from Prussia. Another suggestion was that a bomb be smuggled into
   Hitler's plane. This last idea was indeed attempted, with the bomb
   being placed by lawyer Fabian von Schlabrendorff, but the device failed
   to detonate. Rittmeister Boeselager, meanwhile, returned to the front.

   On June 1, 1943, Boeselager was promoted to Major. In a subsequent
   campaign of October 1943 he was wounded. On December 1, he was promoted
   to Oberstleutnant. After receiving another wound in February 1944,
   Boeselanger, still not fully recuperated in June, was assigned to a
   rear echelon squadron. There he began to plot a new attempt on Hitler
   in league with von Tresckow.

   Boeselager was dispatched by von Tresckow to urge his old commander,
   von Kluge, to change his strategy and to join the conspiracy against
   Hitler. Von Kluge was now Commander-in-Chief in the West; in the East,
   German lines were spread so thin that multiple Russian breakthroughs
   were inevitable. Tresckow wanted von Kluge to open the front in the
   West, begin negotiations with the British and Americans, and transfer
   assets to the Eastern Front to fight the " Bolsheviks", viewed as a
   much crueler and uncompromising enemy. Hitler and his cronies, all
   obstacles to sound military strategy and peacemaking, would be
   eliminated. In the plan that von Tresckow envisioned, Von Kluge would
   arrange for the former's transfer so that he could help consolidate the
   coup. However, Von Kluge felt that the Americans and British would be
   "opening up" his front for him soon no matter what he actions he took,
   did not trust most of his staff to keep silent about the conspiracy,
   and therefore declined to participate in the plot or any other
   planning. Von Boeselager returned to von Tresckow empty-handed, but he
   still had a contribution to make.^

   In support of the German resistance, von Boeselager would bide with the
   greater part of his brigade in the Prussian hinterlands, then advance
   to take Berlin and hold it. Von Boeselager also helped Wessel Freiherr
   von Freytag-Loringhoven in procuring the British Hexogen plastic
   explosive and other parts used in the bomb that would be used to kill
   Hitler - a fact that his friends who were tortured by Hitler's security
   services never revealed ^. At the appointed time, von Boeselager and
   his brother began marching their columns on Berlin. But before he and
   his men could reach Berlin, he was informed by about the unsuccessful
   bombing carried out on July 20 by Claus von Stauffenberg. Boeselager
   accordingly led his troops back to the front with great celerity and
   doing the utmost to camouflage the reason for the troop movement; thus,
   he and his brother Phillip were not implicated in the plot.
   Approximately 5,000 others were not so lucky, and were executed for
   their roles, however minor.

Death and legacy

   Although the brothers von Boeselager had escaped initial suspicion,
   investigators sent a message to one of Georg's old units in France
   requesting that "First Lieutenant von Boeselager" be detained for
   questioning; his old comrades replied (semi-truthfully, since
   Boeselager had long since been promoted) that they knew no such
   officer. Even though he was now a field-grade officer, Georg continued
   his hard-charging junior cavalryman's ways. Perhaps Georg was aware
   that his life was in danger and he wished to die a hero, reasoning that
   his family would be less liable to Nazi persecution, or else he was
   despondent about the failure of the plot and the future of Germany
   under Hitler or under Russian occupation. Unfortunately for historians,
   Oberst von Boeselager carried the knowledge of his motivations to the
   grave, falling in an assault against a heavily fortified Russian
   position near Łomża on the River Bug on August 27, 1944. On August 29,
   he was posthumously promoted to full colonel and awarded the Knight's
   Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords — one of only 159 German soldiers so
   decorated in the history of the award.

   The Bundeswehr's Freiherr von Boeselager Kaserne ("Baron von Boeselager
   Barracks") near Munich are named for him, as are the
   Georg-von-Boeselager-Strasse ("George von Boeselager Street") and the
   Georg-von-Boeselager-Schule ("George von Boeselager Primary School") in
   Bonn.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_von_Boeselager"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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