Maximilian Von Weichs

Born Nov. 12, 1881; died 1954. Fascist German field marshal (1943). Born in Dessau.

Weichs was in the army from 1900, served in the cavalry, took part in World War I, and was later in the Reichswehr. Beginning in 1933 he commanded a cavalry division (from 1935, a panzer division), and from 1937 he commanded the XIII Army Corps. From October 1939 he commanded the Second Army and took part in the French and Balkan campaigns and in the war against the USSR. From July 1942 he commanded Army Group B and from August 1943, Army Group F and the German troops of the Southeast (Balkans). He made much use of antiaircraft artillery in ground battles and for this reason received the nickname “the antiaircraft general.” In March 1945 he joined the reserves headquarters. From 1945 to 1948 he was imprisoned for war crimes in an American prison.