Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
General Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, at Berlin, in 1944
Nickname(s)	The Butcher of Crete
Born	29 August 1897 Barmen, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire now Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Died	20 May 1947 (aged 49) Athens, Central Greece, Greece
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918)  Weimar Republic (to 1933)  Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1915–45
Rank	General der Infanterie
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Dodecanese Campaign
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords

Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller (29 August 1897 – 20 May 1947) was a general in the German Army. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, awarded by Nazi Germany to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Müller was notorious for having been a most brutal commander of occupied Crete. The infamy earned him the nickname of "The Butcher of Crete." After the war, he was tried by a Greek military court for war crimes, convicted and executed.

Pre-war and early war

In 1915 Müller joined the German 2nd Infantry Regiment. He was commissioned a second lieutenant into the 266th Regiment. In 1936 he became a major in the German army, and by 1940 was a lieutenant-colonel and commander of the 105th Infantry Regiment. He was awarded the Knight's Cross in 1941 and received oak leaves in 1942 for operations in the Soviet Union.

Crete

In August 1942 General Müller took command of the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division, which was transferred from the Eastern Front to garrison occupied Crete. In Crete, Müller became notorious for his brutality, and he was responsible for many of the atrocities committed on the island (e.g. the holocaust of Viannos, the destruction of Anogia and the Kedros villages of Amari, the execution of civilians in Damasta, etc.). Viannos is a mountainous area in the southeastern part of Heraklion regional unit, stretching between the feet of Mount Dikti in the north and the Libyan Sea in the south coast of Crete. Following the Battle of Crete in 1941 during which the island fell to the Axis, Viannos and the nearby Lasithi were part of the Italian occupation zone. Until the end of 1942, the Italians had hardly any presence in the area, hence facilitating the set up and activation of several resistance groups. Among them was one of the largest guerrilla bands in Crete led by Manolis Bandouvas (also spelled as 'Pantouwas'). In early 1943, the increasing activity of guerrillas combined with rumours swirling that the Allies had plans to invade; the Italians planned to start the construction of coastal fortifications to install permanent garrisons in the region. Since 1942 the Nazis had intended to station forces of their own in the coastal villages of Tsoutsouros and Arvi. In May 1943, they established an outpost with three men in Kato Simi that were in charge of collecting potatoes for the provisioning of occupation troops and for keeping the surroundings under surveillance.

The Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 was followed by the Italian armistice announced on September 8. Smuggling of the Italian commander of eastern Crete Angelico Carta to Egypt, reinforced the rumours that an Allied operation against Crete was imminent. Prompted by this misapprehension, Bandouvas ordered an attack against the German outpost in Kato Simi. According to British sources, he acted without consulting them; anticipating that the Allies would soon land, and hoped that he would emerge as a national hero when they did so.[2] Bandouvas later claimed that he had instructed his men to capture the Germans alive, conforming to orders from Cairo. Nevertheless, the claims were denied by SOE agents Patrick Leigh Fermor and Thomas James Dunbabin. Another theory for Bandouvas’ motives suggests that he naively fell into a provocative trap treacherously set by the British who, preparing for the post-war era, aimed to wipe out the increasingly popular local units of pro-communist EAM/ELAS.[4] In any case, on September 10 Bandouvas' partisans killed the two soldiers present at the German outpost at the time of the attack and threw their bodies down a crevice. Soon after their death, the bodies of the two German soldiers stationed in Kato Simi were discovered and news of the incident reached their superiors, which ordered an infantry company to move to the village and investigate their fate. In the meantime, Bandouvas had realized that the village was in danger and so was left with no other option but to defend it. Thus, he set an ambush with 40 of his men in a valley near the entrance of Kato Simi and waited for the Germans. They appeared on the morning of September 12 and were assaulted with running fire. Despite their initial surprise, the Germans managed to retreat and a fierce battle began that lasted until the late afternoon. In the end, the Germans were defeated, having suffered heavy losses (various sources estimated their dead between 40 and 200) whereas many were wounded and 12 were captured alive. Bandouvas’ partisans lost only one man and withdrew to the mountains. On the day following the elimination of the German company in Kato Simi, a large force numbering more than 2000 men started to gather in Viannos. Exasperated by the loss of his men and wanting to set an example for fleeing Italians who were considering joining with the partisans, the commander of Heraklion Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller ordered troops of the 65th regiment of the 22nd Air Landing Infantry Division garrison unit to destroy Viannos and promptly execute all males beyond the age of sixteen as well as everyone who was arrested in the countryside, irrespective of gender or age. Hence, a plan for the systematic destruction of Viannos was put into place starting on September 13. Separated into smaller groups, forces from the Grenadier-Regiment 65 surrounded the region, invading it simultaneously from various directions. At the beginning, they reassured the locals that their intentions were peaceful, persuading many of the men who had fled to the mountains to return to their homes. On the following day (September 14), they went in for indiscriminate mass executions, impromptu shootings, torture, arrests, lootings, arsons, vandalisms and demolitions.

During the autumn of 1943, he led the German forces in their victory over the Italian-British forces in the Dodecanese Campaign. On the 6th of October, on the island of Kos, under his orders, German forces killed and buried in mass graves over one hundred Italian army officers captured at the end of the battle for the island, who would not side with the former allies.^[1] On 1 July 1944 he replaced Bruno Brauer as Commander on Crete. By 1945, Müller commanded the German 4th Army on the Eastern Front. The 4th Army had already been decimated by fighting in the Heiligenbeil Pocket by the time he assumed command. Müller ended the war in East Prussia and was captured by the Soviets.

In 1946, Müller was tried by a Greek court in Athens for the massacres of hostages for reprisals. He was sentenced to death on 9 December 1946 and executed by firing squad on 20 May 1947,^[2] along with former General Bruno Bräuer, on the anniversary of the German invasion of Crete.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 1st Class (25 May 1916)^[3]
  • 2nd Class (29 August 1916)^[3]
• Prussian Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords
• Wound Badge in Silver
• Infantry Assault Badge
• "Crimea" Shield
• Bulgarian Military Order of Merit
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
  • 1st Class (22 December 1939)^[3]
  • 2nd Class (12 June 1940)^[3]
• German Cross in Gold on 18 June 1943 as Generalleutnant and commander of the 22. Infanterie-Division^[4]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 22 September 1941 as Oberstleutnant and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 105^[5][6][7]
  • 86th Oak Leaves on 8 April 1942 as Oberst and commander of Infanterie-Regiment 105^[5][8][9]
  • 128th Swords on 27 January 1945 as General der Infanterie and commanding general of the LXVIII. Armeekorps^[5][10][11]
• Mentioned four times in the Wehrmachtbericht (19 January 1942, 18 November 1943, 10 March 1945 and 30 March 1945)

References

Citations

1. Isabella Insolvibile, Kos 1943-1948. La strage, la storia, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane (31 dicembre 2012)
2. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/warcrimgenrls.htm
3. Thomas 1998, p. 104.
4. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 318.
5. Scherzer 2007, p. 555.
6. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 317.
7. Von Seemen 1976, p. 246.
8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 59.
9. Von Seemen 1976, p. 28.
10. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 47.
11. Von Seemen 1976, p. 19.

Bibliography

• Berger, Florian (1999). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges [With Oak Leaves and Swords. The Highest Decorated Soldiers of the Second World War] (in German). Vienna, Austria: Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 978-3-9501307-0-6.
• Beevor, Antony (1991). Crete: The Battle and the Resistance.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9.
• Von Seemen, Gerhard (1976). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 : die Ritterkreuzträger sämtlicher Wehrmachtteile, Brillanten-, Schwerter- und Eichenlaubträger in der Reihenfolge der Verleihung : Anhang mit Verleihungsbestimmungen und weiteren Angaben [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 : The Knight's Cross Bearers of All the Armed Services, Diamonds, Swords and Oak Leaves Bearers in the Order of Presentation: Appendix with Further Information and Presentation Requirements] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7909-0051-4.
• Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 2, 1. Januar 1942 bis 31. Dezember 1943 [The Wehrmacht Reports 1939–1945 Volume 2, 1 January 1942 to 31 December 1943] (in German). München, Germany: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. 1985. ISBN 978-3-423-05944-2.
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