Franz Bäke

Dr. med. dent. Franz Bäke
Franz Bäke, February 1944
Born	28 February 1898 Schwarzenfels, Sinntal, Province of Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	12 December 1978 (aged 80) Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Buried at	Waldfriedhof Loxbaum, Hagen U8—13A—13B
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918)  Weimar Republic (to 1933)  Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Heer
Years of service	1915–20, 1937–45
Rank	Generalmajor
Unit	6th Panzer Division
Commands held	Panzer-Regiment 11 106. Panzer-Brigade Panzerdivision Feldherrenhalle 2
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Invasion of Poland Battle of France Operation Barbarossa Eastern Front
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Other work	Dentist

Dr. med. dent. Franz Fritz August Bäke^{[Note 1]} (28 February 1898 – 12 December 1978) was a German Army officer and tank commander during World War II. 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. A reservist, Bäke was a dentist in civilian life, having received his doctorate in dental medicine in 1923.

Early life and interwar years

Bäke was born on 28 February 1898 in Schwarzenfels, present-day part of Sinntal, in the Province of Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, as part of the German Empire.^[1] He was the son of a bailiff and after graduating from the compulsory Volksschule aged 10, Bäke attended a Realgymnasium, a secondary school built on the mid-level Realschule to achieve the Abitur (university entry qualification), until 1915.^[2] In May 1915, Bäke volunteered for the German Army. He was posted to an infantry regiment, based in Köln.^{[Note 2]} Shortly after he was deployed on the Western Front, Bäke was severely injured in combat. Following a lengthy period in a hospital a convalescence he was posted to the Westfälisches Fußartillery-Regiment Nr. 7, a regiment of the 195. Division (195th Division). Fighting on the Western Front, Bäke earned the Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz zweiter Klasse) and was promoted to Gefreiter on 15 July 1916. On 25 January 1919 holding the rank of Vizefeldwebel and officer candidate, Bäke was discharged from military service.^[2]

From 1919 to 1921, Bäke served in the militia of Würzburg as part of the Freikorps Epp, a right-wing paramilitary unit named after Franz Ritter von Epp. In parallel (1919–1922), he studied medicine and dentistry at the University of Würzburg, University of Bonn and University of Münster and attained degree of Doctor of Medical Dentistry in 1923.^[3]

On 1 March 1933, Bäke joined the SA-Standarte 132 of the SA-Brigade 69 in Hagen. His final rank within the SA was SA-Standartenführer which he attained on 20 August 1944.^[2] Bäke established his own dentistry practice in Hagen. In 1937 he was accepted into the reserves and was posted to an Aufklärungsabteilung, a reconnaissance unit.^{[Note 3]} In 1938, he was mobilized for full-time service as an officer and took part in the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Second World War

During the Invasion of Poland, Bäke's unit was attached to 1st Light Division, and served under Panzer Division Kempf. In October 1939, the division was redesignated 6th Panzer Division. On 1 May 1940, Bäke was promoted to Hauptmann of the Reserves. Following the Battle of France, Bäke was awarded the Iron Cross first class.

With the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the 6th Panzer Division took part in Army Group North's strike towards Leningrad. On 1 August 1941, Bäke was promoted to Major of the Reserves. In October 1941, the division was transferred to Army Group Centre, where it formed a part of 3rd Panzer Group. The Panzer Group took part in the failed Operation Typhoon, an offensive aimed at Moscow.

After the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, 6th Panzer was attached to Army Group Don in Ukraine. The division arrived at the front in December 1942 and took part in the abortive attempt to relieve the 6th Army in Operation Wintergewitter. Bäke commanded a regiment during the withdrawal to Kharkov. On 11 January 1943, Bäke was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The division took part in the battle to retake Kharkov.

Battle of Kursk

Oak Leaves ceremony, from left to right: Adolf Hitler, Oberst Paul Schultz (hidden), Oberst Dr. med. dent. Walter Lange, Major Theodor Tolsdorff, Oberst Günther Pape, Major Dr. Franz Bäke

In June, 6th Panzer was attached to German Fourth Panzer Army, which formed the southern pincer of the attack on the Kursk salient during Operation Citadel. Bäke's unit fought near Belgorod. The offensive was cancelled on 13 August 1943, and Bäke's regiment saw heavy combat during the withdrawal to the Dniepr. For his actions during Operation Citadel, Bäke was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross.

On 1 November 1943, Bäke was promoted to Oberstleutnant of the Reserves (lieutenant colonel) and appointed as a regimental commander. In December 1943, he was ordered to form an ad hoc reinforced tank regiment named Heavy Panzer Regiment Bäke. The regiment consisted of 46 Panther and 34 Tiger I tanks, supported by self-propelled artillery and a mechanized engineer battalion. In January 1944, Bäke commanded his regiment during the battles for the Balabonovka pocket. Bäke single-handedly destroyed three Soviet tanks during the battle with infantry weapons at close range, for which he received three Tank Destruction Badges.^[4]

Next, the regiment was part of a relief force tasked with extricating Gruppe Stemmermann, named after its commander Wilhelm Stemmermann, encircled in the Cherkassy Pocket. For his actions during these battles, Bäke received the Swords to the Knight's Cross on 14 February 1944, becoming the 49th Wehrmacht soldier to receive this commendation. In March, the regiment was trapped in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket along with the entire 1st Panzer Army. Bäke's regiment formed one of the spearheads moving west to break the encirclement, and effected a link up with II SS Panzer Corps.

Feldherrnhalle commands

On 1 May 1944, Bäke was promoted to Oberst of the Reserves.^[5] His regiment was on the defensive for rest of the month; it was disbanded and the component units sent back to their parent divisions. Bäke was ordered west to take command of Panzer Brigade Feldherrnhalle, which was forming in Mława.^[6]

Bäke's unit attacked the U.S. 90th Infantry Division near Aumetz on the night of 7–8 September 1944.^[7] Bäke's command found itself poorly deployed and under sustained counter-attack from American infantry. By the evening of 8 September, Bäke had lost thirty tanks, sixty half-tracks, and nearly a hundred other vehicles in the lopsided battle.^[8] His infantry losses were also heavy, with the unit reporting to OB West that it had only nine armored vehicles and that unit strength was down to 25 per cent of the authorized establishment.^[8]

On 28 February 1945, Bäke transferred from reserve to active duty.^[5] On 10 March he was appointed commander of Panzer Corps Feldherrnhalle, formally the 13th Panzer Division, and sent to Hungary. Bäke's division fought as part of the Panzer Corps Feldherrnhalle during the retreat through Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On 20 April, Bäke was promoted to Generalmajor and officially given command of the 13th Panzer Division/Panzer-Division Feldherrnhalle 2. On 8 May 1945 he surrendered to American forces.^[9]

Post-war

Bäke spent two years as a prisoner of war; he was released in 1947. He returned to Hagen and resumed his dental practice.^[10] Bäke died in a hospital at Bergmannsheil in Bochum of injuries sustained in a car accident on 12 December 1978.^[1]

In popular culture

Bäke is one of the supposed "panzer aces", a successful tank commander with many tank kills to his name, along with Kurt Knispel and Michael Wittmann. The concept of "panzer aces" is presented by the German author Franz Kurowski in one of his many "laudatory texts", the 1992 book Panzer Aces, describing the "exploits" of the German soldiers during World War II.^[11] Kurowski was a veteran of the Eastern front (as a member of a propaganda company). According to historians Ronald Smelser and Edward Davies, Kurowski is a "guru" among those who romanticise the German war effort on the Eastern Front. Smelser and Davies define gurus as "authors, [who] have picked up and disseminated the myths of the Wehrmacht in a wide variety of popular publications that romanticize the German struggle in Russia".^[12]

Panzer Aces book describes the "heroic actions" of Bäke in the Cherkassy Pocket. In Kurowski's retelling, after fighting unit after unit of the Red Army, Bäke was able to establish a corridor to the trapped German forces; Kurowski writes: "when the Soviets launched their expected attack, they were wiped out by the exhausted Panzer soldiers". In another of Kurowski's accounts, while attempting to relieve the 6th Army encircled in Stalingrad, Bäke destroys 32 enemy tanks in a single engagement.^[13]

The historian Sönke Neitzel questions the number of "tank kills" attributed to various tank commanders. According to Neitzel, numbers of successes by highly decorated soldiers should be read with caution as it is rarely possible to determine reliably in the heat of the battle how many tanks were destroyed and by whom.^[14]

Military historian Steven Zaloga uses the term "tank ace" in quotation marks in his 2015 work Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II. Zaloga points out that most of the supposed panzer aces operated the Tiger I heavy tank on the Eastern Front; having advantages both in firepower and in armor, Tiger I was "nearly invulnerable in a frontal engagement" against any of the Soviet tanks of that time. A crew operating a Tiger could thus engage its opponents from a safe distance.^[15]

Zaloga also discusses the "romantic nonsense" of the popular perception of a tank versus tank engagement as an "armoured joust" – two opponents facing each other, – with the "more valiant or better-armed [one] the eventual victor". Most of the successful tank commanders were indeed "bushwalkers", having a battlefield advantage rather than a technical one. Zaloga concludes: "Most of the 'tank aces' of World War II were simply lucky enough to have an invulnerable tank with a powerful gun". (quotations marks in the original).^[15]

Summary of career

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class (15 July 1916)^[9][16]
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918^[9]
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (26 September 1939)^[9][16]
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 1st Class (1 June 1940)^[9][16]
• Wound Badge (1939)
  • in Silver (2 June 1940)^[9]
  • in Gold (14 July 1943)^[9]
• Panzer Badge
  • in Silver (7 June 1940)^[9]
  • in Silver 2nd Grade (1 August 1943)^[9]
  • in Silver 3rd Grade (16 August 1943)^[9]
  • in Silver 4th Grade (5 December 1943)^[5]
  • in Special Grade (100)^[5]
• Sudetenland Medal (10 September 1940)^[9]
• Eastern Front Medal (1 August 1942)^[9]
• 3 Tank Destruction Badges for Individual Combatants (17 July 1943)^[9]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 11 January 1943 as Major of the Reserves and commander of the II./Panzer-Regiment 11^[17][18][19]
  • 262nd Oak Leaves on 1 August 1943 as Major of the Reserves and commander of the II./Panzer-Regiment 11^[17][20][21]
  • 49th Swords on 21 February 1944 as Oberstleutnant of the Reserves and commander of Panzer-Regiment 11^[17][22][23]
• Mentioned three times in the Wehrmachtbericht

Wehrmachtbericht references

The daily Wehrmachtbericht (Wehrmacht propaganda report) noted the following:

Date	Original German Wehrmachtbericht wording	Direct English translation
31 January 1944	Die westfälische 16. Panzerdivision unter Führung des Generalmajors Back und ein unter der Führung des Oberstleutnants Bäke stehendes schweres Panzerregiment haben sich hier besonders bewährt.[24]	The westfalian 16th Panzer division under the leadership of Generalmajor Back and a heavy Panzer regiment under Oberstleutnant Bäke distinguished themselves here.
6 December 1944 (addendum)	In den Abwehrkämpfen im Unterelsaß hat sich die Panzerbrigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" unter Führung des mit dem Eichenlaub mit Schwertern zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes ausgezeichneten Oberst Baeke durch hervoragenden Angriffsgeist und besondere Standfestigkeit ausgezeichnet. Sie schoß in 3 Tagen 40 feindliche Panzer ab.[25]	The 106th Panzer Brigade "Feldherrenhalle" under the leadership of Oberst Baeke, who is decorated with the Oak Leaves with Swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, distinguished itself by showing attacking spirit and determined stableness in the defensive battles in the lower Alsace. It shot up 40 enemy tanks in 3 days.

Promotions

1 December 1937:	Leutnant (Second Lieutenant) of the Reserves[5]
1 January 1940:	Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant) of the Reserves, with a rank age of 1 November 1939[5]
1 May 1941:	Hauptmann (Captain) of the Reserves[5]
1 August 1942:	Major (Major) of the Reserves[5]
1 November 1943:	Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) of the Reserves[5]
1 May 1944:	Oberst (Colonel) of the Reserves[5]
28 February 1945:	Oberst, effective as 1 January 1945, with a rank age of 1 May 1944[5]
20 April 1945:	Generalmajor (Brigadier General)[5]

See also

• Waffen-SS in popular culture

Notes

1. In German a Doctor of Medical Dentistry is abbreviated as Dr. med. dent. (Doctor medicinae dentariae).
2. According to Wegmann, Bäke joined the 5. Westfälisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 53 in Köln. The Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 3, at the time, was referred to as Grenadier-Regiment König Friedrich Wilhelm I. (2. Ostpreußisches) Nr. 3, and was based in Königsberg.^[3]
3. To hide its existence at the time, Aufklärungs-Abteilung 6 was referred to as Kraftfahr-Abteilung Münster, motor vehicle detachment in Münster.^[3]

References

Citations

1. Wegmann 2004, p. 31.
2. Stockert 1997, p. 260.
3. Wegmann 2004, p. 32.
4. Nash 2002, p. 127.
5. Wegmann 2004, p. 34.
6. Stoves 1994, p. 321.
7. Cole 1950, p. 158.
8. Cole 1950, p. 159.
9. Wegmann 2004, p. 33.
10. Stockert 1997, p. 265.
11. Smelser & Davies 2008, pp. 175-176, 251.
12. Smelser & Davies 2008, pp. 5, 159.
13. Smelser & Davies 2008, pp. 176.
14. Neitzel 2002, p. 413.
15. Zaloga 2015, pp. 3-4.
16. Thomas 1997, p. 15.
17. Scherzer 2007, p. 199.
18. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 120.
19. Von Seemen 1976, p. 74.
20. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 70.
21. Von Seemen 1976, p. 36.
22. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 42.
23. Von Seemen 1976, p. 16.
24. Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Volume 3, p. 23.
25. Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Volume 3, p. 359.

Bibliography

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• Cole, Hugh M. (1950). The Lorraine Campaign. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. OCLC 1253758.
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