Alois Windisch

Alois Windisch
Birth name	Alois Joseph Windisch
Birth date	3 February 1892
Place of birth	Fischau am Steinfeld, Administrative District of Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary
Death date	28 December 1958 (aged 66)
Place of death	Wiener Neustadt south of Vienna, Republic of Austria
Allegiance	Austria-Hungary Republic of German-Austria First Austrian Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Austro-Hungarian Army Deutschösterreichische Volkswehr Austrian Bundesheer Heer
Years of service	1913–45
Rank	Major General
Commands held	Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 139 Croatian Infantry Regiment 383 285. Sicherungs-Division 281. Sicherungs-Division 264th Infantry Division
Battles/wars	World War I Liberation of the Sudetenland World War II Poland Campaign Norwegian Campaign Battles of Narvik Operation Barbarossa Operation Silver Fox Operation Platinum Fox
Awards	Military Merit Cross (Austria-Hungary) Military Order of Maria Theresa Iron Cross (both classes) Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Alois Joseph Windisch (later also written Josef; 3 February 1892 – 28 December 1958) was a German officer of Austria and the German Reich, finally Major General of the Wehrmacht in World War II. Windisch and Friedrich Franek were the only officers to be awarded both the Military Order of Maria Theresa and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Life

Alois was born on 3 February and baptized on 11 February 1892 by Catholic priest Josef Kreiner. He was the son of senior teacher (Oberlehrer) Alois Windisch (d. 1934) and his wife (∞ Schwarzenbach 16 November 1889) Maria, née Gruber. He attended elementary school from 1898 to 1903 and middle school (Realschule) in Wiener Neustadt from 1903 to 1907. From 1 October 1907, he attended the infantry cadet school in Vienna and then from 15 September 1910 the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. He spoke English and French well, but also somewhat Polish. On 18 August 1913, he was accepted into the Imperial and Royal (k.u.k.) Army as a commissioned officer and assigned as platoon leader to the 9th company of the Imperial and Royal Upper Austrian Infantry Regiment "Ernst Ludwig Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine" No. 14 in Linz. After WWI, he served as a company commander with the Deutschösterreichische Volkswehr (German-Austrian People's Militia), was taken-over by the Bundesheer on 31 August 1920 as a platoon leader, served with the Burgenland border guard from 10 September 1921 to 9 July 1922, then served in different positions, became a staff officer, was a tactics instructor at the army school, served four years with the Federal Ministry of Defence and was taken-over by the Wehrmacht on 15 March 1938 and sworn-in.

Alois Windisch was born on the 3rd February 1892 at Fischau am Steinfeld in Lower Austria. At the age of fifteen he entered the Maria Theresia Military Academy in Wiener-Neustadt from which he graduated on the 18th August 1913 as a Leutnant and was assigned as a platoon commander in the 9th Company of the Linz based Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 14. At the outbreak of the war he deployed to Galicia as the Adjutant of the Regiment's First March Battalion and assumed command of 9./IR 14 in late September. Wounded three times throughout the war, Windisch remained with IR 14 for the entire duration of the conflict. Promoted to Oberleutnant on the 1st May 1915 he had assumed command of the machine-gun company of X./IR 14 on the 15th January 1917 which was then serving on the Italian front. In November 1917 X./IR 14 was deployed in the area between Primolano and Asiago in the Siebengemeinde or seven communities area under the command of Feldmarschalleutnant Ernst von Kletter's Group. The group had taken up positions North of the range of mountains - Mt. Castelgomberto-Mt. Tondarecar-Mt. Badelecche with the battalion facing Mt. Castelgomberto. The general situation and especially the oncoming winter weather necessitated the improvement of the then prevailing untenable conditions through the removal of the protruding Mt. Meletta massif to the South. For this attack X./IR 14 was shifted to the area North of Mt. Tondarecar and the assault was fixed for the 4th December. The operational objectives for the day were the taking of the line Mt. Tondarecar (1668m)-Mt. Badelecche (1464m), the line of hills which with Mt. Castelgomberto (1778m) and the massif of Mt. Meletta (1824m) formed a half-circle which connected to form the principal enemy defence in the area between Asiago and Brentatale. The rocky bastion like Northward protruding massif of Mt. Castelgomberto was also be eliminated. Additionally the enemy held positions on the Mt. Miela (1788m) massif between Mt. Tondarecar and Mt. Meletta.

The assault by the battalion on Mt. Tondarecar on 4th December was systematically executed. After the preparatory artillery fire and the blowing of the enemy obstacles, the assault patrols penetrated into the enemy positions at about 1020 hours. With supporting machine gun fire in support just behind, the forward detachments rapidly crippled the resistance of the Italians on the peak of Mt. Tondarecar and the sector was occupied according to instructions. At this stage Oberleutnant Windisch realised that Mt. Miela in the direction of attack was only lightly held as opposed to the strongly occupied Northwest corner of Mt. Castelgomberto. He therefore received the approval of the battalion commander to immediately take Mt. Miela with the machine gun company and another company. The assault group advanced up Mt. Miela in close touch with patrols of the Southerly advancing Kaiserschützen-Regiment III and at a distance more friendly forces could be viewed advancing towards the Southeast slope of the mountain. Windisch now had the knowledge that the Kaiserschützen's attack on Mt. Badelecche had been successful. Windisch's assault group reached the peak of Mt. Miela without encountering any enemy but received heavy enemy machine gun fire from their right flank on Mt. Castelgomberto and fire from two guns South of that place. These however were soon silenced by friendly machine gun fire. Despite a severe snowfall, Windisch thought he could discern through the temporary break in the cloud cover that the positions on Mt. Meletta were only weakly held and he immediately decided to attack.

Although he had been unable to secure the permission for this venture from his battalion commander, he thought that in view of the success of the Kaiserschützen to the South he would attempt to take Mt. Meletta. He shifted his assault group to the Southern slope of Mt. Miela in order to be able to provide some cover from the fire from Mt. Castelgomberto and moved off towards the east under the fire support of the machine guns. His group advanced through breaches in the enemy obstacles and surprised the enemy and by 1600 hours the entire enemy position on Mt. Meletta was in Austrian hands. Through the elimination of this mountain and the system of trenches branching from it, an Italian general had been killed and about 100 enemy officers and a further 3000 NCOs and men plus three guns were captured. During the attack, Windisch was wounded in the ankle but remained with his group until success had been secured before being evacuated to the dressing station. For his success on 4th December 1917, Oberleutnant Windisch would be awarded the Knights' Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa at the 192nd Promotion on the 11th of December 1925. After recovering from his wound he assumed command of the machine gun company in I./IR 14 until the war's end. He remained in the new Austrian army - the Bundesheer and was promoted to Hauptmann on the 1st of January 1921, Stabshauptmann on the 1st of June 1924, Major on the 19th of July 1928 (seniority from 20th of July) and Oberstleutnant on the 8th of September 1932. By the time of the Anschluß he was a colonel (24th June 1936) and an instructor in tactics on the senior officers' course. Transferring into the Wehrmacht he was awarded the Knights' cross of the Iron Cross on the 20th June 1940 for his command of Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 139 in Norway. Following further regimental and divisional commands he was captured by the Americans in May 1945 having been promoted to major general on the 10th of August 1943. Handed over to the Russians by the Americans in July 1945, he was further extradited to Yugoslavia in May 1946 where he remained as a prisoner until the 30th of June 1952.

Wounds

• 2 December 1914 Upper arm and chest gunshot wound (through-and-through wound)
• 4 December 1917 Thigh gunshot wound (through-and-through wound)
• 30 June 1918 Shrapnel in upper arm

POW

In March 1945, he headed the special staff of Army Group F (leader of the Croatian division). At the end of the war, he was taken prisoner by the Americans and then, in July 1945 and contrary to international law, illegally handed over to the Russians. In May 1946, also illegally, he was handed over to the Bolshevik terrorists of Yugoslavia and interned in the Sremska Mitrovica prison. The Austrian military historian Walter A. Schwarz reported in his 1996 book, Major General (Ret.) Alois Windisch: A Soldier's Life (1892–1958), that Windisch was subjected to the worst torture and deprivation. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison in a show trial without charges. After his appeal, things got even worse: he was sentenced to death by firing squad. He was kept in chains day and night, his handcuffs removed only for personal hygiene. Unlike many other prisoners in Tito's Yugoslavia, Windisch's death sentence was never carried out, reportedly due to the intervention of one of his former soldiers from the First World War, now a high-ranking partisan officer, who had cherished the memory of his humane and caring commander. Windisch remained on death row under harsher conditions. On 30 June 1952, following interventions by his family, former comrades, and Austrian Federal President Theodor Körner, he was one of the last prisoners of war released from Tito's Yugoslavia and was ceremoniously received at Rosenbach train station in Carinthia by Ferdinand Graf, who would later become Austria's first Minister of Defense.

Death

General Alois Windisch died on 28 December 1958 in Wiener Neustadt as a result of the physical and mental exhaustion caused by his inhumane imprisonment.

Promotions

• 18 August 1913 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant)
• 1 May 1915 Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant)
• 15 June 1921 Hauptmann (Captain)
• 1 June 1924 Titular Stabshauptmann (Brevet Staff Captain or Captain 1st Class)
• 20 July 1928 Major
• 8 September 1932 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
  • received Wehrmacht Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 January 1938 (66d)
• 24 June 1936 Oberst (Colonel)

Wehrmacht

• 13 March 1938 Oberst (Colonel)
  • 27 August 1939 received Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 August 1939 (37)
• 10 August 1943 Generalmajor (Major General) with effect and RDA from 1 September 1943

Awards, decorations and honours

• Military Merit Cross (Austria-Hungary), 3rd Class with the War Decoration (ÖM3K)
  • When the "swords" were introduced to the war decoration on 13 December 1916, he was subsequently awarded this distinction (ÖM3K⚔).
• Hessian Bravery Medal (Hessische Tapferkeitsmedaille; HT)
• Austro-Hungarian Military Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) in Bronze on the ribbon of the Military Merit Cross (ribbon for wartime merit)
  • When the "swords" were introduced on 13 December 1916, he was subsequently awarded this distinction.
• Austro-Hungarian Military Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) in Silver on the ribbon of the Military Merit Cross (ribbon for wartime merit)
  • When the "swords" were introduced on 13 December 1916, he was subsequently awarded this distinction.
• Austro-Hungarian Karl Troop Cross
• Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, Knight III. Class with War Decoration and Swords (ÖEK3K⚔)
• Military Merit Cross (Austria-Hungary), 3rd Class with the War Decoration and Swords (ÖM3K⚔); 2nd time awarded
• Austro-Hungarian Wound Medal with three center stripes
  • after the Anschluss in 1938 exchanged for the German Wound Badge (1918) in Silver
• Military Order of Maria Theresa, Knight's Cross awarded retrospectively for his achievements on 4 December 1917 on the Dolomite front at Monte Tondarecar and Monte Miela between Primolano and Asiago
  • The confirmed eligibility was only granted on 11 December 1925 by the 192nd Chapter of the Military Order of Maria Theresa. Had this conferral occurred during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Windisch would have automatically received the Austrian title of nobility (von Windisch) and would also have been entitled to apply for elevation to the rank of Freiherr without paying the usual fees. However, this was not the case.
• Hungarian World War Commemorative Medal (Ungarische Kriegs-Erinnerungs-Medaille) with Swords and Helmet
• Austrian War Commemorative Medal with Swords
• Austrian Order of Merit (1934), Knight's Cross on 13 March 1935
• Military Merit Cross (Federal State of Austria), III. Class
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class (25-year Service Cross)
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords
• Sudetenland Medal
• Iron Cross (1939), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 30 March 1940
  • 1st Class on 9 May 1940
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 20 June 1940 for Operation Weserübung in Norway
• General Assault Badge
• Narvik Shield
• Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finnisches Freiheitskreuz), 2nd Class with Swords on 12 December 1941
• Winter Battle in the East 1941–42 Medal
• Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir

Honours

• Alois Windisch Street in Bad Fischau-Brunn (the former Fischau am Steinfeld)
• The Windisch Barracks of the Jäger, since 2023 the Georg Goess Barracks, in Klagenfurt was named after him in 1967.

Writings

• Typescript of Windisch's account of his time as a prisoner of war in Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1952
• Typescript: Narvik Volume 1, Text (= fair copy of a report written by Major General Windisch while a prisoner of war in Yugoslavia concerning the deployment of the 139th Mountain Infantry Regiment of the German Wehrmacht in Narvik in 1940)
• Also, typescript: Narvik Volume 2: Appendices; Carinthian Infantry General Windisch – Curriculum Vitae, pages 119 to 265, both from 1989

Gallery

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Sources

• German Federal Archives (Military Section): BArch PERS 6/2064 and PERS 6/301354

Further reading

• Oberst i. R. Herbert Staudigl: Geschichten und Anekdoten um Oberst Windisch, St. Pölten, October 1992