Fascinating German Officer at Gallipoli

[bob lembke]

I have resumed writing my military biography of my father and grandfather. Have come across a fascinating German

officer who fought at Gallipoli, in the volunteer Pionier company that my father served in there. He wrote a book that

describes his service there, which is valuable, as there is so little info of that sort on the German effort at Gallipoli, 

especially on the part of the Pionier company.

 

Vincenz Mueller (Umlaut) was a Bavarian Pionier officer who had experience with mining warfare on the Western Front,

who for this reason was ordered to join the forces in Turkey. The Turkish combat engineers had poor technical training

and really needed this help. He was wounded by a British hand grenade. I believe that after the Allies evacuated Gallipoli

he  helped train the Turks and then returned to the West Front. Interestingly (to me), in mid-1918 he joined my father's

flamethrower unit (Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer) ) and he may have met my father at that time, 

as my father was disabled from a wound at Verdun and was training new flame-thrower troops at Berlin, where Mueller

must have received training.

 

Have to halt, will resume.

[bob lembke]

Mueller was an officer in the Wehrmacht in WW II, a general, I believe (I read his book several

years ago, and am only now entering my notes into my time-lines and book draft text, so all of

his career is not fresh in my mind), and then, interestingly, became an officer in the East German

Army, retiring as a Generalleutnant a. D. (DDR). He wrote a book about his career and life. 

 

Mueller, Generalleutnant a. D. Vincenz; Ich fand das wahre Vaterland, (Herausgegeben von

Klaus Mammach), Deutscher Militaerverlag, Berlin, 1963, 493 pages.

 

In his book, Mueller presents himself as a proletarian, and an anti-aristocrat, proud that his

family were Bavarian tanners, although he only served in the units of other German states.

It is unlikely that I will ever find out if my father ever met Mueller, either at Gallipoli in 1915 

or in Berlin in 1918. (I have not read all of Mueller's book yet, I believe I have the rest of it

scanned in my files, and will finish it.)  There were other special qualifications that the officers

that served in the volunteer company had; at least one took an advanced course in "Oriental

languages" in 1914 (presumably Turkish), and another was not a Pionier officer, but an officer

in the heavy artillery, presumably because one of their duties at Gallipoli would be to design

and construct emplacements for heavy artillery, perhaps coastal defense artillery, perhaps to

improve the Turkish defensive fortifications in the Narrows and at other points.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Edited 20 June , 2017 by bob lembke
improve formatting

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Bob,

Here is a picture of Vinzenz Müller, taken on 14 July 1942 in Russia (Gorlowka), where he met the up-and-coming staff officer Hans Speidel.

Müller's Gallipoli experience is interesting - not to mention the later Flammenwerfer operations in 1918.

The high-ranking Vinzenz Müller was taken PoW by the Russians in 1944, and embraced their ideology. He committed suicide in East Berlin on 12 May 1961...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[bob lembke]

Kim;

 

Thanks for the additional info. and the picture. Could it be out of his book? It seems familiar. I didn't finish his long book by the time I had to

return it but I scanned the rest of it so I should dig the scans out and finish it.

 

My father got to Gallipoli late as a replacement, about the time Mueller received a British grenade fragment and lay in a Turkish field hospital for

four weeks, so it is unlikely that they met there, Additionally, my father served at the ANZAC bridgehead, while I think Mueller was at the southern

bridgehead. But it would be fairly likely that they met at Berlin. A bad wound at Verdun kept my father first in hospital and then at the training school

at Berlin for 18 months. His Militaer=Pass has the medical rating "fit for combat, but not flamethrowers" written in it. He tricked his way to the Front 

late in 1918 to see more combat and was wounded twice again for his efforts. "No good deed goes unpunished."

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Bob,

Thanks for that.

The picture of Vinzenz Müller is from the book "Aus unserer Zeit" (Ullstein, 1977) by Hans Speidel.

It was cropped to include Müller only: the full picture shows Müller with generals and a staff officer (Speidel), and is off-GWF topic. I could re-scan it and beam it to you via Message, if you would like.

The book itself is an apologia by Speidel: again, off-topic, bar his Great War experiences (see attached pictures: Speidel as Landser; Ltn., far right after Langemarck; and second from left, being inspected by the King of Wuerrttemberg

 

 

). 

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[The Prussian]

Hello!

Speidel was an intersting man. He served in ww1, ww2 and as a general in the NATO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Speidel

What´s upon the helmet in #5, photo 2????

[alantwo]

I think the first photograph in Kim's post has been reversed, or handed if you like. The overlap to the buttons is to the left, where as male coats overlap to the right (see the other photographs). If this is so the helmet number will perhaps be 12*.

 

Regards

Alan

[The Prussian]

3 minutes ago, alantwo said:

I think the first photograph in Kim's post has been reversed, or handed if you like. The overlap to the buttons is to the left, where as male coats overlap to the right (see the other photographs). If this is so the helmet number will perhaps be 12*.

 

Regards

Alan

Hello Allen!

If Speidel mentioned Müller in his book, he probably served with Gren.Rgt.123, Speidel´s unit

[GreyC]

Hello Andy,

it´s the number 123 in reverse.

GreyC

[bob lembke]

Happy I sparked an interesting discussion. The career shifts, like from WW I are interesting to me. Imperial Army

to Weimar to Nazi era to DDR or NATO. Mueller's book, published after his retirement from the DDR Army,

positions him as a egalitarian who commented critically on the Prussian caste system. I take him at his word,

I think that he mentioned coming from 500 years of Bavarian tanners, not a profession high on the social pecking order.

 

As to the kind offer of a picture, my photos have almost no organization and are a shocking mess. (My books and

written material are quite different.) So I will pass on the offer, but I have to develop a system for photos.

 

There was a German WW I officer who became a high-ranking officer in the communist effort in Spain, with an

interesting book. The name Renn emerges from the swamp of my memory; I think he may have had a couple of 

names. He may have been a nobleman posing as a commoner, or something like that.

  

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Alan,

You are right: I failed to notice that it was reversed in the book.

The caption was: 'December 1914, in the uniform of the Grenadier Regiment König Karl.'

Dear Prussian,

Yes, there is something stuck to Ltn Speidel's helmet, but what? It seems to have disappeared by the time they were inspected by König (King) Wilhelm II of Württemberg (not to be confused with the Kaiser - also Wilhelm II.) 

Dear Bob,

I found a reference to a book about Vincenz Müller: "General bei Hitler und Ulbricht. Vincenz Müller. Eine deutsche Karriere" by P. J. Lapp (2003).

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[alantwo]

Hi Kim

 

I hope you don't mind but I thought it might help if I flipped the photograph. The number 123, which I couldn't read, is a bit more obvious now.

 

Regards

Alan

 

[trajan]

Na ja, nun alles in ordnung!

[The Prussian]

The helmet sign looks like a skullhead, isn´t it?

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Alan,

On the contrary: thanks for doing that! I had been looking askance at the fouled-up illustration in the book.

Now I can insert a copy of your print - und alles ist wieder Gut!

Dear Prussian,

You might be right; it would not surprise me. 

Dear trajan,

Keep on collecting!

Kindest regards,

Kim.

 

[bob lembke]

Kim; 

 

Thanks for the lead. It is actually a journal article; my wife's library has it online, but their computer system is down for five days for major system work. 

 

It it is useful to have a wife who has worked at a major research library for 40 years. She can put most books that exist in US libraries in my hands in 2-3 days. 

[RaySearching]

Vincenz Müller Wikipedia