Otto von Below

Otto von Below
Birth name	Otto Ernst Vinzent Leo von Below
Birth date	18 January 1857(1857-01-18)
Place of birth	Danzig, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation
Death date	9 March 1944 (aged 87)
Place of death	Besenhausen, Municipality Friedland, Kreis Göttingen, Lower Saxony, German Reich
Resting place	Ehrenfriedhof (honorary cemetery) in Göttingen
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army Vorläufige Reichswehr
Years of service	1875–1919
Rank	General der Infanterie
Commands held	19th (2nd Posen) Infantry 43rd Infantry Brigade 2nd Infantry Division I Reserve Corps 8th Army Army of the Niemen Heeresgruppe Below 6th Army 14th Army 17th Army 1st Army Home Defense Forces West
Battles/wars	World War I Eastern Front Gumbinnen Tannenberg 1st Masurian Lakes 2nd Masurian Lakes Macedonian Front Monastir Offensive Italian Campaign Battle of Caporetto Western Front Operation Michael
Awards	Pour le Mérite with Oakleaves Black Eagle Order

Otto Ernst Vinzent Leo von Below (18 January 1857 – 9 March 1944) was a German officer of the Prussian Army, the Imperial German Army and the preliminary Reichswehr, finally General of the Infantry and Knight of the Order "Pour le Mérite" with Oak Leaves during World War I. Von Below was a member of the Pan-German Association (Alldeutscher Verband) and the German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei). He was active in patriotic veterans associations of North Germany, which he temporarily headed. The ardent nationalist never came to terms with the Weimar Republic. He is sometimes confused with General Fritz Theodor Karl von Below.

Military career

A Vivatband is a band painted or printed with verses, badges, portraits, military trophies, tokens of victory and glory, allegorical figures, and others. It was worn on clothing on private and state commemorations from the 18th to the 20th century.

Von Below achieved his most important deployment and greatest military success in 1917 as commander-in-chief of the 14th Army, newly composed of 9 Austro-Hungarian and 6 German divisions, in the Battle of Karfreit (Italian Caporetto) in October and November 1917 against the Italian army under the command of General Luigi Cadorna. The battle ended in a catastrophic defeat for the Italians, who lost more than 300,000 men (including some 270,000 prisoners of war) and half their heavy artillery. On 21 April 1917, von Below left the army group, he was followed on 23 April 1917 as commander-in-chief by General of Artillery Friedrich von Scholtz, new Chief of Staff became Lieutenant Colonel (finally Generalmajor, later Court Marshal of Kaiser Wilhelm II at Haus Doorn) Wilhelm Moritz Detlof Graf von Schwerin on 15 August 1917.

Left picture: Ernst von Below; right picture: Kaiser Wilhelm II (right) is shaking hands with Otto von Below (left), the leader of the successful German troops in Italy, at the entrance of Castle Passariano (Veneto), 14 November 1917. This scene is often wrongly described as the Kaiser with Fritz von Below.

Otto von Below was a German General of the First World War who served in a senior capacity on four different fronts – in East Prussia, Macedonia, Italy and on the Western Front. He was considered to be one of the best German field officers, and on 7 November 1914 became the youngest general of his rank to command an army. He entered the army in 1875. After three years at the War Academy (1884-87), he was appointed to the General Staff (1889) with the rank of Captain. In 1897, he was given command of a battalion, and in 1905 was promoted to colonel and given command of the 19th infantry regiment. In 1910 he was promoted to major-general, and appointed to command the 43rd infantry brigade. In 1912, he rose to lieutenant-general, with command of 2nd Division, based at Insterburg in East Prussia. On 2 August 1914, as the July Crisis turned into the First World War, he was promoted to command the I Reserve Corps. At the start of the war the Russians launched a two pronged invasion of east Prussia. The First Army (Rennenkampf) attacked from the east, while the Second Army (Samsonov) took advantage of the Polish salient to attack from the south. The two armies were separated by the Masurian Lakes. The German plan called for an attack on whichever of these armies first came into range. In the event that was the First Army, and so after some indecision the Germans sent three corps east. The two armies clashed at Gumbinnen. I Reserve Corps made up the right wing of the German army at Gumbinnen (18-19 August). In the first phase of the battle von Below’s pushed the Russian left back a short distance, but the retreat of the German centre forced the entire army to withdraw. In the aftermath of that battle, the German commander in East Prussia, General Prittwitz (de), decided to retreat to the Vistula, but at the same time prepared to fight a second battle against the Russian Second Army. In mid-August only one corps (XX) was in place on the southern border of East Prussia. The three corps that had fought at Gumbinnen were moved west, I corps by rail to the right (west) of XX corps, XVII corps (August von Mackensen) and Below’s I Reserve Corps by road to their left (east). Having set this plan in motion, Prittwitz was then replaced by Hindenburg, who would (with Erich Ludendorff) gain most of the credit for the great victory that followed (battle of Tannenberg, 26-31 August 1914). That battle saw Samsonov attack the two corps already at Tannenberg, only to be attacked from his right by Below and Mackensen. The Russian Second Army was surrounded, and over 120,000 prisoners taken. The Germans then turned back north to deal with Rennenkampf, defeating his First Army in the first battle of the Masurian Lakes (9-14 September 1914). Although this was not such a dramatic victory as Tannenberg, the defeat of two Russian armies in two weeks ended the immediate Russian threat to East Prussia. Below was promoted to General of Infantry for his role in the three battles of August-September 1914. The Austrians had not fared so well. After the battles of Lemberg (23 August-12 September 1914), they had been forced back to the Carpathian Mountains. The Germans were forced to bail out the Austrians for the first time, sending troops from East Prussia to Silesia, from where they launched two invasions of Poland. Below remained in East Prussia. There he had to fight off a Russian counterattack. On 7 November 1914 Below was promoted to command the Eighth Army. The Germans and Austrians developed an ambitious plan for a gigantic pincer movement, with one attack in East Prussia and one from the Carpathians. The failure of the Austrian attack doomed the overall plan, but the attack from East Prussia resulted in the victory of the second battle of the Masurian Lakes (7-21 February 1915). Below’s Eighth Army formed the right wing of the German army which effectively destroyed the Russian Tenth Army, capturing 100,000 prisoners. Below was rewarded with the Pour le mérite for his part in the victory. The decisive battle in Poland would come at Gorlice-Tarnow (2-10 May 1915). This battle did not directly involve Hindenburg and Ludendorff in East Prussia, but they were ordered to launch a diversionary attack. On 27 April three cavalry and three infantry divisions invaded Courland and Lithuania, threatening the Russian railway from Warsaw to St. Petersburg. The Russians were forced to respond in force, and the fighting slowly expanded. On 26 May 1915 Below was transferred to command this new Niemen Army (Njemen-Armee), which slowly advanced east, until in mid August it had reached a line from Kovno to Riga. By the end of September the Russian retreat from Poland was over, and the new eastern front established, running south east from Riga before turning south to run for some four hundreds miles to the Romanian border. In December Below was returned to the Eighth Army, second in the line, and on the right of the Niemen Army. This was a generally quiet sector of the front – the main Russian offensives of 1916 happened to the south. On 10 October 1916 Below was transferred to the Balkans. Romania had declared war on the Central Powers on 27 August, and had almost immediately come under German attack. The Army of the Danube, under von Mackensen, attacked from Bulgaria. The only danger to this attack came from Salonika, where the British and French had maintained an armed camp since 1915. Below was given command of Army Group (Heeresgruppe) Below, made up of the German Eleventh and Bulgarian First Armies. There he held off an Allied offensive at Monastir for most of November. By the time the Allies had pushed Below out of Monastir, the Germans were on the verge of capturing Bucharest. Below had successfully defended the southern flank of the invasion. He repulsed a renewed Allied offensive in March 1917, before being transferred for the second time. This time he was moved to the Western Front. On 22 April 1917 he was appointed to command the Sixth Army, close to Arras. There he replaced General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, who had been in command when the Canadians seized Vimy Ridge on the first day of the second battle of Arras (9 April). The battle continued into May, but not at the same level of intensity. From June the British turned their attention north to Flanders, and the upcoming third battle of Ypres. On 9 September, von Below was moved for a third time. This time he was made commander-in-chief of the Austro-German 14th Army on the Italian Front. On 24 October, this army was at the spearhead of the attack at Caporetto that broke the Italian lines on the Isonzo and pushed the Italians back seventy miles to the Piave. At the start of 1918 Below was moved for the fourth and final time. On 1 February 1918, he took over the Seventeenth Army on the Arras-Cambrai front. This army made up the German right wing during the second battle of the Somme (March-4 April 1918), the first of Ludendorff’s series of great offensives during 1918. Below’s role was to attack the British defences around Arras, but this was one of the strongest sectors on the British lines, and Below’s attacks made little progress. The great British counterattack at Amiens (8 August) struck the German lines to the south of Below’s position. It was on the northern edge of the area attacked at the end of August (battle of Bapaume), and was forced to retreat back to the Siegfried line and then beyond that to Cambrai (battle of Cambrai-St. Quentin). Below was then transferred to the 1st Army (12 October), still holding on to part of the Hindenburg line on the Aisne. On 8 November, with armistice negotiations well under way, he was promoted to command Home Defence West (Oberbefehlshaber des Heimatschutzes West) in Kassel, partly in preparation for a possible Allied invasion if the negotiations failed. Instead Below found himself dealing with attempted left wing revolts. From January-June 1919 Otto von Below had command of the XVII corps at Danzig, but in June he was either dismissed or resigned after protesting about the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Below died on 9 March 1944.

Promotions

• 1.9.1871 Kadett
  • Military cadet in Oranienstein
  • 1.5.1872 Military cadet in Berlin
• 15.4.1875 Sekondeleutnant (2nd Lieutenant) in the 1st Company/Hessisches Füsilier-Regiment Nr. 80
  • 1.3.-31.7.1881 commanded to the Central-Tumanstalt (Central Sports Gymnasium)
  • 1.10.1881 commanded to the Unteroffizierschule Marienwerder (teacher at the NCO school)
• 13.9.1884 Premierleutnant (1st Lieutenant) without patent (15.2.1885 received patent as Premierleutnant)
  • 1.10.1884 transferred to the 5th Company/Großherzoglich Mecklenburgisches Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 89 versetzt and commanded to the Royal Prussian War Academy (Kriegsakademie) until 20.7.1887
  • 21.7.-30.9.1887 commanded to the Eisenbahn-Regiment Nr. 1
  • 1.4.1889 commanded to the Great General Staff (Großer Generalstab) in Berlin
• 24.3.1890 Hauptmann (Captain)
  • 10.9.1890 Commander of the 8th Company/Großherzoglich Mecklenburgisches Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 89
  • 27.4.1894 transferred to the General Staff of the 27. Division (2. Königliche Württembergische)
• 12.9.1895 Major
  • 18.11.1897 Commander of the III. Bataillon/Füsilier-Regiment „Prinz Heinrich von Preußen“ (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 35 in Brandenburg a. H.
• 22.4.1902 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
  • transferred to the Staff of the Infanterie-Regiment „Markgraf Karl“ (7. Brandenburgisches) Nr. 60
• 16.3.1905 Oberst (Colonel)
  • 22.4.1905 Commander of the Infanterie-Regiment „von Courbiere“ (2. Posensches) Nr. 19
• 24.3.1909 Generalmajor
  • Commander of the 43. Infanterie-Brigade
• 2.4.1912 Generalleutnant
  • Commander of the 2. Division in Insterburg
  • 1.8.1914 Commanding General of the 1. Reservekorps
• 30.8.1914 General der Infanterie

Family

Otto was the son and oldest child of Generalleutnant z. D. Ludwig Hugo von Below (b. 27.10.1824 in Neumarkt, Provinz Schlesien; d. 21.6.1905 in Oberstdorf, Allgäu), finally Kommandant of Posen, and his wife Alexandra Ludowika Friederike, née von Lupinski (b. 30.9.1827 in Gnesen; d. 2.2.1898 in Berlin-Steglitz), daughter of Generalleutnant z. D. Vincent Louis Kajetan von Lupinski.

Siblings

Otto had five siblings, three sisters, Elsbeth Berta Pauline Charlotte (1860–1922), Gertrud Leontine Therese (1861–1937) and Anna Margarete Helene (1867–1947), as well as two brothers, both of them also officers:

• Hans Vinzent Stanislaus (b. 27 June 1862 in Graudenz; d. 6 August 1933 in Waynesville/USA), Generalleutnant
• Günther Friedrich Wilhelm (1868–1933), Oberst and Knight of Justice (Rechtsritter) of the Johanniterorden

Marriage

On 29 June 1897, Major von Below married in Stuttgart his fiancée Gerty Julie Ottilie Pfaff (b. 9.1.1874 in Straßburg, Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen; d. 21.5.1945 in Besenhausen). Their children were:

• 1.) Else Alexandra Karoline (b. 30.4.1898 in Brandenburg an der Havel; d. 9.6.1960 in Kassel), nurse of the diaconia in Magdeburg, later midwife (Hebamme)
• 2.) Hans Hugo Wilhelm (b. 28.3.1900 in Brandenburg an der Havel; d. 11.3.1981 in Bad Tölz), stud. jur. in Göttingen, officer and freight forwarder (Speditionskaufmann)
• 3.) Annemarie Gertrud Brunhilde (b. 27.6.1901 in Brandenburg an der Havel; d. 16.9.1993 in Rottach-Egern), student at the trade school (Gewerbeschule) in Potsdam; ∞ Kassel 3 October 1925 Hans Karl von Bornes (b. 18.7.1898 in Klein-Niendorf, Holstein), Major of the Wehrmacht, later merchant; they divorced on 13.9.1956 in Essen.

Awards, decorations and honours

• Prussian Lifesaving Medal (PRM)
• Red Eagle Order (Roter Adlerorden), 4th Class
• Knight's Cross First Class of the Friedrich Order (WF3a)
• Prussian Centenary Medal 1897 (Zentenarmedaille)
• Prussian Long Service Cross for 25 years (Königlich Preußisches Dienstauszeichnungskreuz)
• Prussian Order of the Crown (Preußischer Kronenorden), 3rd Class
• Red Eagle Order, 3rd Class with the Bow
• Order of the Iron Crown (Austria), 2nd Class (ÖEK2)
• Prussian Order of the Crown, 2nd Class (neck order) on 17 January 1909
• Red Eagle Order, 2nd Class with Oak Leaves on 22 January 1911
• Star to his Prussian Order of the Crown 2nd Class on 9 August 1911
• Princely Waldeck Cross of Merit (Fürstlich Waldeck’sches Verdienstkreuz), 1st Class (WVK1)
• Star to his Red Eagle Order 2nd Class with Oak Leaves on 18 January 1914

WWI

• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
• Pour le Mérite with Oak Leaves
  • Pour le Mérite on 16 February 1915
  • Oak Leaves on 27 April 1917
• House Order of Hohenzollern, Commander's Star with Swords (Stern der Komture mit Schwertern) on 24 July 1915
• Schaumburg Lippe House Order, Officer Cross of Honor (SLHO)
• Order of Berthold the First (Orden Berthold des Ersten), Grand Cross with Swords (BdBI1⚔/BBI.1⚔/BZLBI⚔)
• Hamburg Hanseatic Cross (Hamburgisches Hanseatenkreuz; HH)
• Lübeck Hanseatic Cross (Lübeckisches Hanseatenkreuz; LübH/LüH)
• Bremen Hanseatic Cross (Bremisches Hanseatenkreuz; BremH/BH)
• Hessian Bravery Medal (Hessische Tapferkeitsmedaille; HT)
• Red Cross Medal (Prussia), 3rd Class
• Mecklenburg-Schwerin Military Merit Cross (Großherzoglich Mecklenburg-Schwerinsches Militärverdienstkreuz), 1st Class (MMV1/MK1)
• Austrian-Hungarian Imperial Order of Leopold, Grand Cross with the War Decoration (ÖL1K)
• Black Eagle Order on 1 November 1917
• Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph, Grand Cross (BMJ1) on 4 November 1917
• Military Order of St. Henry (Militär-St.-Heinrichs-Orden), Knight's Cross (SH3) and at the same time Commander's Cross 2nd Class (SH2b)
• Albrechts-Orden of Saxony, Grand Cross with Swords (SA1⚔)
• Princely Reuss Cross of Honor (Fürstlich Reußisches Ehrenkreuz), 1st Class with the Crown and Swords (REK1mKr⚔)
• Württemberg Order of the Crown, Grand Cross with Swords (WK1⚔)
• Order of the White Falcon (Hausorden vom Weißen Falken), Grand Cross with Swords (GSF1⚔)
• House Order of Hohenzollern, Grand Commander's Star with Swords (Stern der Großkomture mit Schwertern) on 22 March 1918
• Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown on 12 October 1918

Central Powers awards

• Picture of the Austrian Emperor in a gold frame with the monogram of Emperor Karl I in 1918
  • August von Mackensen received his after the capture of Bucharest on 6 December 1916
• Austria-Hungary Military Merit Cross, 1st Class with War Decoration (ÖM1K)
• Bulgarian Order of Saint Alexander, Grand Cross with Swords (BA1⚔)
• Gallipoli Star (Eiserner Halbmond; TH)
• Great Silver and Golden İmtiyaz Nişanı (Große Goldene Imtiyaz-Medaille; TJ1/TI1)
• Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class (TO1)

Post-WWI

• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords
• Hungarian World War Commemorative Medal (Ungarische Kriegs-Erinnerungs-Medaille) with Swords
• Bulgarian War Commemorative Medal 1915–1918 (Kriegserinnerungsmedaille 1915/1918) with Swords

Honours

• Named Regimentschef (Colonel-in-Chief) of the Lauenburgisches Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 9 by Kaiser Wilhelm II in his Hauptquartier on 18 October 1916