Gustav-Adolf von Zangen

Gustav-Adolf von Zangen
File:VonZangenGustav.jpg
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service / branch	Heer
Rank	General der Infanterie
Commands	15th Army 17th Infantry Division
Battles / wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Gustav-Adolf von Zangen (7 November 1892 – 1 May 1964) was a German general and the commander of the German 15th Army in the Netherlands in 1944 during World War II.

Zangen was born in Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. He was a veteran of World War I, receiving the honour of the Iron Cross and reached the rank of first lieutenant by the end of the “Great War”. He had earlier in the war commanded 17th Infantry Division in Russia, a Corps in France in 1943 and an Army detachment in Italy before being appointed to command the 15th Army on the Western Front. Having occupied the Pas de Calais during the 1944 campaign in France, Zangen was forced to evacuate his army, together with remnants of other divisions, across the Scheldt to the island of Walcheren and South Beveland before deploying his force against the Allied advance into Holland. During the Ardennes offensive, his 15th Army was tasked with fixing the British and US forces north of the Bulge.

• 1938 - 1941 : Commanding Officer 88th Regiment
• 1941 - 1943 : General Officer Commanding 17th Division
• 1943 : General Officer Commanding LXXXIV Corps
• 1943 : General Officer Commanding LXXXVII Corps
• 1943 : General Officer Commanding Army Detachment von Zangen, Italy
• 1943 - 1944 :General Officer Commanding Lower Alps Zone, Italy
• 1944 : General Officer Commanding 15th Army, the Netherlands

He died in 1964 in Hanau.

See also

• Battle of the Bulge
• Battle of the Scheldt
• Operation Market Garden
• Operation Blackcock

Awards

• Eisernes Kreuz 2. and 1. Klasse
• Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub
  • Ritterkreuz (15 Jan 1942)
  • 647. Eichenlaub (5 November 1944)

References

1. Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (2000), Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5