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4. End of the 11th Panzer Division; the "Werewolves," and Others
Von Wietersheim's 11th Panzer Division has been considered throughout this chronicle as the
symbol of the organized professional military resistance encountered by XII Corps. Almost to the last
day of the war it had maintain continuity of command. Almost to the last day of the war it retained its
integrity as a unit and fought throughout as a unit. Its combat was frequently characterized by a savage
effectiveness, as members of the 2nd Cavalry Group and other XII Corps units could testify. Now,
thanks to the excellent sense of timing of its commander, it was to surrender as a unit just before the
Russian and American front came together, and move as a unit with much of its organic transportation
into a state of captivity in which certain preferential advantages accrued to it by reason of this particular
action.
At least three of XII Corps' major units were involved in the surrender. The 2nd Cavalry Group
was in contact with the enemy division during the proceedings, and nothing could have been more
appropriate, in view of that group's perhaps longest and most unpleasant association of any XII Corps
outfit with the 11th Panzer Division. In the actual surrender negotiations the 90th Infantry Division
represented the Corps and all those of its components which had suffered at the hands of this crack
German unit. Some confusion resulted from the fact that while Von Wietersheim and the bulk of the
division had reached Klattau on a move to the Passau area, and was therefore in the 90th Infantry
Division zone of advance, the rest had gotten as far as Wellern, in this zone of the 26th Infantry
Division. Due to some very complicated monkey business concerning command of the enemy division,
which occurred during the last four weeks of the war, the nominal commanding general on 1 May 45
was one General Major Von Butlar, formerly of the OKW, and he was with the part of the division
facing our 26th Infantry Division. Nevertheless, on 2 May 45, Von Wietersheim decided to surrender the
whole division, as he had considered doing for over a month. "He called a meeting of his ranking
officers," says the Third Army interrogation report, previously cited, "and informed them of his
intention. When all present agreed with these plans, he again took charge of the division. The G4, Major
Vogtmann, was dispatched to the 90th US Infantry Division in order to negotiate. Firing ceased on 3
May 45 at 1400 hrs, and the first units of the division marched into the assembly area by 1700 hrs.
Butlar had been informed by messenger of the decision to surrender and his group had been included in
the terms. He and the 111th Panzer Grenadier Regiment surrendered two days later and joined the bulk
of the division in the assembly area around Koetzing" (in 2nd Cavalry Group area of occupation). Thus
the story of XII Corps' "war with the 11th Panzer Division," which began with bloody fighting at
Luneville by the 2nd Cavalry group away back there in France in September 1944, had come to an end.
The 2nd Cavalry Group "remained in possession of the field," with all these survivors of the enemy
division as their prisoners.
Von Wietersheim and von Butlar were only two in a growing parade of German High Brass.
Says a XII Corps press release of the period, with a certain smugness:
"In 24 hours one Field Marshall and seven Generals paid unauthorized visits to the headquarters
of the famous XII Corps, commanded by Major General S LeRoy Irwin. Six were prisoners, and the
other two, who were White (Fascist) Russians, sought terms of surrender. Included in the XII Corps
prisoner bag were: Field Marshall Ewald von Kleist, former commander of Army Group A in the
Northern Caucuses and Crimea; Lieutenant General Francis Farkas de Kisbarnack, former Commanding
Officer of the VIII Hungarian Corps; Major General Ritter von d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner-Horstig,
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