Erwin Engelbrecht


Erwin Engelbrecht was a German military officer.

Career

In January 1939 Engelbrecht was promoted to General, in September 1942 to General of the Artillery. During 1939-1942 he was the commander of the 163rd Infantry Division ; later he was assigned to special forces.
On 9 April 1940, on board the German cruiser Blücher, he led the staff of the forces designated to occupy Oslo during the invasion of Norway. When the ship was sunk, he managed to swim ashore. Along with hundreds of other survivors, Engelbrecht was detained by Norwegian guardsmen at a farm near Drøbak for several hours before being abandoned by their captors.
In 1941 his division was allowed to cross Sweden to join Finnish forces in the Finnish invasion of East Karelia, the only such large scale transit at the time.
Engelbrecht took over the leadership of the Höheren Kommandos z.b.V. XXXIII in Trondheim on 15 June 1942, at the same time commander of Central Norway and was promoted to general of the artillery on 1 September 1942. On 23 January 1943 the Higher Command was renamed the XXXIII Army Corps and Engelbrecht remained in command. On 25 December 1943 he was forced to hand over his command to Lieutenant General Ludwig Wolff and was transferred to the Army's Führer Reserve. It was not until 13 September 1944 that he was re-called as leader of the newly formed Higher Command of Saarpfalz, which, however, included only fortification and construction troops.
Engelbrecht surrendered to the American troops in April 1945 and was released from captivity in 1947.
Engelbrecht was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Awards and decorations