| The Prussian Machine - Generals |
Otto von Below
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(18.1.1857 - 9.3.1944) place of birth: Danzig, Westpreußen (Gdansk, Poland) Prussian general of infantry who as one of Germany's best, was also the youngest to receive army command at the age of 57. During the war, he saw success on four different fronts, most notably during the Second Battle of Masurian Lakes in the East and his drive against the Italians at Caporetto. Von Below was also overwhelmingly successful on the Eastern Front as head of the Eighth Army (1914-16) with a brief period in 1915 when the Eighth was transformed to the Niemen Army and then back to the Eighth. As
commander of
Army Group
Below (1916-17) in Macedonia, he was charged with leading both
German and Bulgarian troops. In Italy as
commander of the twelve division-strong joint German-Austrian Fourteenth Army (1917-18),
he was able to drive the Italians back beyond the River Piave, inflicting over a half
million casualties. Finally, he was sent back to France to head the Seventeenth Army,
and then later the First Army (both in 1918). Shortly before war's end,
von Below was
involved in preparations for a possible final battle on German
territory. In addition to the Pour le Merite, von Below was
also awarded the Order of the Black Eagle on 1 November 1917. A post-war attempt by the Allies to try him as war criminal failed.
Otto's brother Hans was a lieutenant general who headed up
Generalkommando Nr. 51 during the last few months of the was; his father Hugo, who died prior to the Great
War, also served the Prussian Army as a lieutenant general. Otto
von Below died on 9 March 1944. |
| Assignments and Commands (pre-War) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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