Oberstleutnant i.G. Otto-Wilhelm Kurt von Menges

Born : 9 januari 1908 – Rastatt - Germany

Killed in action on 2 February 1943 – Stalingrad - Russia

Buried : Battlefield of Stalingrad (Tractor Factory) - Russia

Mother : Luise Bornhausen

Father : Georg Gustav von Menges (Polizei-oberst)

Wife : Renate Plamböck

Children : 2

Ia (operations officer) of the 24.Panzer Division

Fieldpostnumber in the Stalingrad encirlement :

Kdo. 24. Pz. Div. : 03173

Oberstleutnant i.G. Otto-Wilhelm Kurt von Menges was a cavalry officer who could speak English. He promoted Hauptmann in 1937. On 5 October 1937 he entered the war academy for a three year course.

Attached to the General Staff on 1 August 1939. On 26 August 1939 attached to

1. Kavallerie Brigade in Insterburg as O1. Ib of the Division from 5 to 20 November 1939. On 20 April 1940 again assigned to the General Staff.

Operation Tannenbaum.

Germany started planning the invasion of Switzerland on 25 June 1940, the day France surrendered. Operation Tannenbaum was the third of several detailed invasion plans drawn up for the German General Staff after France collapsed. Otto-Wilhelm Kurt von Menges took a major part in the setting up of this operation.OKH - Op. Abt. - Hptm. i. G. Otto von Menges, Operationsplan, Teil 1: Der deutsche Angriff gegen die Schweiz, 12.08.1940 However Hitler never gave the go-ahead.

On 20 November 1941 he became Ia of the 1. Kavallerie-Division. He retained this position when the Division was converted to 24. Panzer Division.

Stalingrad

He won the German Cross in Gold on 14 October 1942. He was wounded on 31 October 1942 but stayed with the troops in Stalingrad. Surrounded at Stalingrad. Promoted Oberstleutnant on 1 December 1942.

Oberstleutnant i.G. Otto-Wilhelm Kurt von Menges died on 2 February 1943 shortly before the last German troops surrendered to the Russians.

It is not exactly know how he died. One source says that he committed suiced, shooting himself when Russian parliamentaries arrived. A Russian medic in the parliamentary group was called to give aid but he was already dead.

Two sources say that he was struck in the chest by shrapnel while leaving his division command post but that is were the similarities end. One of them says that his dying words were“do not let me

go in Russian captivity” and then died shortly after. The other says that after he was wounded a Russian doctor tried to save him but it was too late. Oberstleutnant i.G. Otto-Wilhelm Kurt von Menges was buried in the ruins of the Tractor Factory in Stalingrad.

The battle for Stalingrad ended when the remants of General der Infanterie Karl Strecker's XI. Armeekorps, including the 24. Panzer Division, surrendered to the Russians later that day.

Sources :

Death of the Leaping Horseman: "24. Panzer-Division in Stalingrad" by Jason Mark.

www.stalingrad.net by Geert Rottiers.

Three scenes of Barbarossa - The Cast - by Ronald M.A. Hirst.

von Menges family.

Please respect the copyright.

Research :

Geert Rottiers

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