Branch: Kaiserliche Heer / Reichswehr Heer / Wehrmacht
Heer
Born: 28 September 1888 in Berlin, Germany
Died: 30 March 1954 in Göttingen, Saxony, Germany
Ranks:
General der Panzertruppe 4
June 1941
General der Artillerie 1 August
1940
Generalleutnant 1 April 1939
Generalmajor 1 April 1937
Oberst 1 April 1934
Oberstleutnant 1 November
1931
Major 1 November 1927
Hauptmann 18 August 1916
Oberleutnant 24 December 1914
Leutnant 19 November 1908
Fähnrich 27 January 1908
Decorations:
Iron Cross 1914
2nd Class 21 September 1914
1st Class 5 December 1916
Hanseatic Cross 14 April 1917
Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with
Swords 30 October 1918
Cross of Honor
Sudetenland Medal with Prague Castle Bar
Iron Cross 1939
2nd Class 21 September 1939
1st Class 30 September 1939
Wound Badge 1939
in Black 14 June 1942
Eastern Front Medal 1 August 1942
Panzer Badge in Silver 13 January 1942
German Cross in Gold 15 July 1942
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Knight's Cross 27 July 1941
Oak Leaves 7 September 1943
Commands:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Joachim Hermann August Lemelsen was born on 28 September 1888
and became a General der Panzertruppe during World War II.
Joachim Lemelsen was also a receiver of the Knight's Cross
of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the
Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves. Joachim Lemelsen
was born in Berlin, Germany as the son of a German career
military officer, Joachim Lemelsen joined the Kaiserliche
Heer in 1907. During the First World War Joachim Lemelsen
served as an artillery officer until 1916, Joachim Lemelsen
was transferred to the staff of the 52nd infantry division.
In 1917 Joachim Lemelsen was transferred to the staff of the
commanding officer of the German sea coast,
Josias
von Heeringen, commanded a battalion and was sent to the
staff of the VI Reserve Corps. Joachim Lemelsen finished the
war as a Hauptmann with the Iron Cross First and Second class
and the House Order of Hohenzollern.
Joachim Lemelsen and the 29th infantry division served in
the Polish campaign the 29th infantry division was embroiled
in the Massacre in Ciepielów on 8 September 1939 and
the early stages of the Battle of France. Joachim Lemelsen
was given command of the on 28 May 1940 5th Panzer Division
with which he took part in the Dunkirk campaign.
Joachim Lemelsen was given command of the new XLVII Motorised
Corps on 25 November 1940, which Joachim Lemelsen commanded
in the capture of Smolensk and the battle for Kiev and Bryansk.
The Corps was designated a Panzer Corps in June 1942 and took
part as such in anti-partisan operations and in the Battle
of Kursk. Joachim Lemelsen made a firm but ineffectual protest
to the Wehrmacht High Command against the shooting of unarmed
Russian captives during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.
Whilst having commanded the XLVII Panzer Corps in Russian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, Joachim Lemelsen was
placed in the Army Leadership Reserve and temporarily commanded
the 10th Army in Italy in 1943. Joachim Lemelsen was given
command of the 1st Army, based near the Atlantic coast in
France in May 1944. But one calendar month later, when the
Allies' captured Rome, and the Normandy landings began, Joachim
Lemelsen was shifted to command the 14. Armee, which he fought
in Italy from June 1944 till its capitulation near the Alps
in May 1945.
Incarcerated by British Armed Forces after the war, Joachim
Lemelsen in 1947 bore witness on behalf of his former commandant,
Generalfeldmarschall
Albert
Kesselring, during
Albert
Kesselring's war crimes trial before a British military
court convened at Venice, Italy. Shortly after, Joachim Lemelsen
was released from imprisonment.
Albert
Kesselring, nevertheless, incurred the death sentence,
instantly commuted to life imprisonment. Joachim Lemelsen's
previous commandant was nonetheless discharged from prison
5 years later on health grounds.
Joachim Lemelsen released from imprisonment in 1947, General
der Panzertruppen Joachim Hermann August Lemelsen passed away
in Göttingen in 1954.
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