(The photo above is of Helfrid von Studnitz as a Major in 1944 - from his Soldbuch)

  Helfrid von Studnitz was born on 2 May 1911 in Wilhelmshaven, son of an Imperial Naval officer who during World War I became captain of the cruiser SMS Muenchen.
  Though initially wishing to enter the Cavalry, upon the advice of his cousin Bogislav von Studnitz, a general staff officer who during World War IIbecame a lieutenant general, in October 1932 he applied for and became one of the four, out of 220, successful candidates to become an officer candidate in the newly set upmotorized forces.
  Assigned to the 2nd Motorized Unit in Stettin, he completed NCO's school in Wuensdorf near Berlin, and the Infantry school in Dresden, and on 1 September 1934became a senior officer candidate.
  Due to the rapid expansion of the military forces in the III Reich he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant a month later, and assigned as recruit trainer of the 1stcompany of the Motorized Unit in Schwerin, commanded by Major Werner, who during the French campaign received the Knight's Cross.
  After hospitalization due to severe injuries sustained during an auto accident in May 1935, Studnitz was assigned to the 3rd Company of the 20th Panzerjaeger unit in Hamburg commanded by Count Hoffmannsegg.
  When the new 30th Panzerjaeger unit was set up in Luebeck he was assigned as it's first adjutant, and soon thereafter commander of it's 2nd company. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant on 1 October 1937, he led this company into Poland on 1 September 1939. His company had four other lieutenants, and during the war two were killed in action and two severely wounded, with only Studnitz being left unwounded.
  In Poland, Studnitz was involved in the heavy fighting at Shitomir, Kalisch, Lodz, and the battle of Kutno, during which a third of his company was killed or wounded. He was awarded the Iron Cross II Class on 5 September 1939, and on 15 September was transferred with his company to the Western Front.
   Transferred to the IX Army Corps as 1st Ordnance officer for General Staff training on 2 March 1940, and promoted to Captain on 1 September 1940, he was again given a battle command as chief of the 3rd Company of the 113th Panzerjaeger unit on 14 December 1940. This new unit was set up to a large degree with motorized vehicles taken from the British after Dunkirk, which Studnitz said had the liability of making it difficult to get replacement parts when necessary.
  Studnitz' unit was assigned occupation duty in Poland for a few months, and then was involved in the invasion of Russia.
Until mid-August 1941 he led his company in action in the central part of the Front, when he was named adjutant of the 7th Panzer division. With his division he took part in it's severe battles, such as around Wjasana.
  Between the last days of November 1941 and 6 December of that year his division reached the Moscow-Volga Canal, which was the easternmost point of Studnitz' campaign. Studnitz told of seeing the lights of Moscow on the horizion, and that the temperature during this time fell to -45 degrees celsius. Studnitz told of the terrible conditions of the retreat that began thereafter, with the killing cold and the need for speed that made the troops leave almost all of their material behind, though he added the motorized troops suffered much less than the infantry. Studnitz also spoke of the devotion of the Russian cossack troops which allied themselves to the Germans, guarding Axis troop trains in the freezing cold.
  Receiving the War Merit Cross II Class with Swords on 20 September 1942, and I Class with Swords 30 January 1943, he was made commander of the 42nd Panzerjaeger unit within the 7th Panzer division on 10 February, followed by promotion to Major on 1 March and award of the Iron Cross I Class on 9 April.
  Due to the heavy losses among tank and infantry officers he was named commander of the 1st battalion of the 6th Panzer Grenadier Regiment of his division on 1 June, after 7 of his predessesors in that position were killed within a few weeks. After some time in this position he was sent to a unit commander's school in Paris, where he had studied law at the Sorbonne before the war. There he was often the guest of the émigré Prince Dadiani, whose daughter Salome asked him not to come in uniform, as she and her family were involved with the Resistance and often had British officers they were hiding, which he thought astounding as the city was filled with German military and security forces.
  On 10 November 1943 Studnitz was transferred to Italy as commander of the 190th Panzerjaeger unit within the so-called "Sardines and Malaria division", a nickname precipitated by the many cases of malaria this division had on Sardinia.
  After a rather quiet and peaceful time guarding the Adriatic coast between Triest and Rimini against an amphibian attack that never materialized, Studnitz was involved in the heavy fighting at Monte Cassino. Studnitz recalled that at the point he was defending with some 80 troops, only he and a sergeant were left whole, all the others having been killed or at least wounded.
  At the recommendation of his division commander General Baade, Studnitz was awarded the German Cross in Gold following this engagement. While in Rome Studnitz had an audience with the Pope, an event that Hitler usually forbade for German officers, but which was allowed based on Studnitz' saying he knew the Pope from his Berlin days.
  After leaving Rome with the last German troops while the Allies had already reached the city's outskirts, on 1 July 1944 he was assigned by the Army to be transferred to the Waffen SS as adjutant of the to be set up XIII Waffen SS Army Corps. His attempt to have this transfer reversed through his influential friend General Linnarz at the Fuehrer's headquarters was refused with the comment that any officer not willing to serve in the SS would no longer have a place in the Army either.
  Studnitz' refusal to resign resulted in the finalization of his transfer to the Waffen SS, where he was regarded with considerable suspicion. Charged with setting up the staff of the new army corps in Breslau, Studnitz worked with the difficulty that the SS wanted politically loyal officers put into leading positions, while the availability of such with the necessary military qualifications was lacking. This resulted in the majority of the officers as well as troops also being forcibly transferred from the regular Army.
  The attempt of the army corps to stem the tide of German retreat at Saarbruecken failed due to the incredible material advantage the Allied troops had, and it gradually was pushed back through southern Germany. During these last months of the war in 1945 Studnitz was made a regimental commander within the Corps, and received the German Cross in Silver, having been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 30 January.
  The Corp's last headquarters before it's surrender was St. Johann at the Chiemsee.
  Shortly after the surrender Studnitz was named Chief Liasion to the Allies for the 1st Army, where he worked with the Americans in the Grand Hotel at Kitzbuehel in the surrender of Reichsmarshal Goering as well as Field Marshal Schoerner, who had left his troops in the lurch in civilian clothes and offered his services to the Allies.
   After the German disarmament Studnitz returned to civilian life, though he became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves when the West German Army was set up in the 1950's, finally retiring in the 1970's.
  After retiring from a career as an executive with Volkswagen, he died in Hamburg on 8 May 1994.

Following is a chronology of rank and unit changes for Helfrid von Studnitz.

· Leutnant 1 Oct. 1934, i. d. 1 Komp. d. Kraftfahrabt. Schwerin
· May 1935 zur 3 Komp, Panzerjägerabt. 20 (Hamburg), Adjutant d. Panzerjägerabt. 30 (Lübeck)
· Oberleutnant 1 Oct. 1937, Chef d. 2 Komp. d. Panzerjägerabt 30.
· 2 Mar 1940 als 1 Ordonanzoffizier zum GenStab d. IX Armeekorps
· Hauptmann 1 Sept. 1940.
· Dez 1940 Chef d. 3 Komp. d. Panzerjägerabt. 113.
· Aug. 1941 Adjutant d. 7 Panzer Division.
· 10 Feb 1943 Kmdr d. Pzjägerabt. 42 d. 7 Panzer Division.
· Major 1 Mar 1943.
· 1 June 1943 Kmdr d. 1 Batt. d. Panzer Grenadier Regiment 6 d. 7 Panzer Division
· Nov 1943 Kmdr d. Panzerjägerabt 190
· IIa d. XIII SS-Armee-Korps 1 Jul 1944 (als Waffen SS-Sturmbannführer)
· Oberstleutnant u. SS-Obersturmbannführer 30 Jan 1945.Regiments-Kommandeur i. d. XIII SS-Armee-Korps
· Mai 1945 Chefdolmetscher d. 1 Armee.
· später Oberstleutnant d. Reserve d. Bundesheeres

Footnote:  Many thanks again to Gilbert von Studnitz for his willingness to share this most interesting biography of his fathers military service in World War 2.
  If anyone reading this would like to provide their own reminiscences or know of a veteran who would be willing to do so then pleasecontact me at  phil@bphprint.co.nz