Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma

Wilhelm Josef Ritter von Thoma (11 September 1891 – 30 April 1948) was a German army officer who served in World War I, in the Spanish Civil War, and as a general in World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma
Born(1891-09-11)11 September 1891
Dachau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died30 April 1948(1948-04-30) (aged 56)
Dachau, Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
Allegiance German Empire (to 1918)
 Weimar Republic (to 1933)
 Nazi Germany
Service/branchCondor Legion
Heer
Years of service1912–42
Rank General der Panzertruppe
Unit20. Panzer-Division
Battles/warsWorld War I
Spanish Civil War
World War II
AwardsKnight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph
Spanish Cross In Gold with Swords and Diamonds
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Thoma is known for his indiscretion while a POW in British captivity, when he unwittingly revealed the existence of the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 weapons programmes. He was subject to surveillance by British intelligence and while speaking to another German officer, was recorded discussing rockets that were being tested at Kummersdorf West, which he had observed while on a visit that also included Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. British reconnaissance flights over Peenemünde Army Research Center in May and June 1943 brought back unmistakable images of rockets at the facility; the subsequent bombing of the site severely disrupted the programme.

Military career

Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma was born in Dachau in 1891. He was the son of a Bavarian tax official and became a career officer with the Bavarian Army. Thoma took part in the first World War with 3rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment (part of 2nd, then, from 1915, 11th Bavarian Infantry Division) on the Western (1914/15/16/17/18) and Eastern Front (1915/16), the Serbian Campaign (1915) and the Romanian Front in 1916/17. During the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918 he was captured by French-American forces and became a prisoner of war until September, 1919. He was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order, the highest military decoration for bravery in the Bavarian Army and was awarded the noble title of Ritter.

After the war, Thoma remained in the new German army, the Reichswehr.[1] During the Spanish Civil War, and now a colonel, he commanded the ground element of the Condor Legion, following the German intervention on the side of the Nationalists under by Francisco Franco.[2] He became an advisor on tank warfare to Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch. He commanded tanks in the field during the Battle of France and was intended to hold a senior role in Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Britain.[3]

During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Thoma led the 17th Panzer Division. He then commanded the 20th Panzer Division in the Battle of Moscow and after. In December 1941, Thoma received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

In September 1942, he was transferred to North Africa to take over command of the Afrika Korps, replacing Walther Nehring, who had been wounded. When Panzer Army Africa commander Stumme died on 24 October during the Second Battle of El Alamein, Thoma took command until Rommel returned on 26 October. On 4 November, Thoma was captured at Tel-el-Mapsra as the Allies pursued the retreating Axis forces.[3]

"I saw it once with Feldmarschall Brauchitsch, there is a special ground near Kunersdorf [sic] ... they've got these huge things which they've brought up here. ... They've always said they would go 15 km into the stratosphere and then. ... You only aim at an area. ... If one was to ... every few days ... frightful. ... The major there was full of hope--he said 'Wait until next year and the fun will start!"

translation of Thoma speaking to Ludwig Crüwell while prisoners of war, 22 March 1943.[4][5][lower-alpha 1][4][lower-alpha 2]

Under British surveillance as POW

After his capture, Thoma was taken directly to Trent Park,[3] known as the "Cockfosters Cage", a Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre prisoner of war facility for senior officers operated by MI19 and equipped with an "M Room" listening facility to secretly record and translate the conversations of the inmates.[8]

Trent Park held high-ranking enemy officers prisoner in comfortable, but secretly monitored, conditions. While there Thoma was recorded speaking to another POW, General Ludwig Crüwell discussing rockets that were being tested at Kummersdorf West, which he had observed while on a visit that also included Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and other technical programme details.[9]

Following his indiscretion, further British reconnaissance flights over Peenemünde in May and June 1943 brought back unmistakable images of rockets at the facility which was developing guided missiles and long-range ballistic missiles better known as the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 ballistic missile. When reconnaissance and intelligence information regarding the V-2 became convincing, Churchill's War Cabinet directed the first planned raid (Operation Hydra), the attack of Peenemünde in August 1943, as part of Operation Crossbow, the Anglo-American campaign against the Vergeltungswaffe, the German long-range weapons programme.[10]

Trent Park also intercepted, when he stated that "every bomb, every piece of material and every human life that is still wasted in this senseless war, (is) too bad (zu schade). The only gain, that war brings us, is that... the ten-year gangstergovernment comes to an end". Later he continued: "It would be a shame if one of them got shot. They should be made to forced labor until they peg out(verrecken)."[11]

The British intelligence files describe von Thoma as; "very intelligent and exceedingly well-read... a striking personality and is violently anti-Nazi".[3] He led the anti-Nazi faction at Trent Park and was appointed "camp leader" by the British following the departure of Crüwell to a camp in Canada in the summer of 1944.[12]

In late 1945, Waffen-SS commander Kurt Meyer, captured in Belgium in September 1944 while commanding the 12th SS-Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend", arrived at Trent Park and noted that Thoma, the German camp leader, was "...highly thought of by the English. Relations between him and the guards is excellent".[13]

Post war

In 1946 Thoma's leg was amputated while he was still in British captivity. He was repatriated later that year.[14] Thoma lived in his hometown of Dachau until his death of a heart attack in 1948.

Reception

British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart, who interviewed him after the war, said that Thoma was "the most famous of the original German tank leaders next to Guderian":

A tough but likeable type, he is obviously a born enthusiast who lives in a world of tanks, loves fighting for the zest of it, but would fight without ill-feeling, respecting any worthy opponent. In the Middle Ages he would have been perfectly happy as a knight-errant, challenging all comers at any cross-road for the honour of crossing spears with them. The advent of the tank in warfare was a godsend to such a man, giving him a chance to re-live the part of the mail-clad knight.[15]

Churchill's high regard for Thoma is evident from his many later quotations of Thoma's opinions on strategic matters, especially in his book about the war. After Montgomery invited Thoma to dine with him in his private trailer, Churchill remarked: "I sympathize with General von Thoma: Defeated, in captivity and... (long pause for dramatic effect) dinner with Montgomery".[16]

Awards

(First World War)

(Spanish Civil War)

(Second World War)

Notes
    1. By the middle of 1937, the Peenemünde rocket facility was nearly complete.
    2. In the summer of 1936, Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel had started to think of a much larger rocket than the A1 & A2 models,[6][7]

    References

    Citations
    1. Mitcham, p. 155
    2. Klietmann 1981, p. 101.
    3. Fry 2019, p. 100
    4. Jones 1978, p. 333.
    5. Secrets of The Dead, Bugging Hitler's Soldiers, Full Episode, PBS (YouTube). PBS. 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
    6. Ordway & Sharpe 1979, p. 32.
    7. WGBH Educational Foundation (1988). NOVA: Hitler's Secret Weapon (The V-2 Rocket at Peenemunde) (documentary--VHS video 5273). VESTRON Video. Event occurs at 20:00-22:00. ISBN 0-8051-0631-6.
    8. Fry 2019, pp. 22-23
    9. "Secrets of the Dead," Episode "Bugging Hitler's Soldiers " transcript, archived from the original on 8 August 2014
    10. Neufeld, Michael J. (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780029228951.
    11. Sönke Neitzel: Deutsche Generäle in britischer Gefangenschaft 1942–1945. Eine Auswahledition der Abhörprotokolle des Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre UK. In:Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 2, 2004, S. 300, 316-317 (PDF; 2,8 MB)
    12. Fry 2019, p. 194
    13. Meyer 2005, p. 344.
    14. Sönke Neitzel: Abgehört. Deutsche Generäle in britischer Kriegsgefangenschaft 1942–1945. Propyläen, Berlin and Munich, 2005. p. 473.
    15. B.H. Liddell Hart, The Other Side of the Hill, p.95, Cassell and Co., 1948.
    16. Hayward 1998, p. 105.
    17. Scherzer 2007, p. 743.

    Bibliography
    • Fry, Helen (2020) [2019]. The Walls Have Ears. New Haven CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300254853.
    • Hayward, Steven F. (2010) [1998]. Churchill on Leadership: Executive success in the face of adversity. New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0307774521.
    • Jones, R. V. (1978). Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89746-7 – via archive.org.
    • Klietmann, Kurt-Gerhard (1981). Auszeichnungen des Deutschen Reiches. 1936–1945 (in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch. ISBN 3-87943-689-4.
    • Mitcham, Samuel W. (2000). The Panzer Legions. United States: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3353-3.
    • Meyer, Kurt (2005). Grenadiers. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole. ISBN 9780811731973.
    • 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 Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
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