Hans Oschmann (24 December 1894,

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Te ...

– 14 November 1944, at Faimbe) was a

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

()Mitcham, page 215 and signals officer, who was involved in the early command of the German

signal intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

organization () (German Defense Ministry) and would later become director of the cipher unit at the Reichswehrministerium Chiffrierabteilung, later the (

General der Nachrichtenaufklärung () was the signals intelligence agency of the German Army (1935-1945), Heer (German Army), before and during World War II. It was the successor to the former cipher bureau known as Inspectorate 7/VI in operation between 1940 and 1942, when it wa ...

) between 1932 and 1934. He was the son of

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

() Albert Oschmann, who was considered an expert of motor transportation and field transportation within the operational

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. During his command, Oschmann created three additional fixed intercept stations, bringing the number to ten. He also ran the Cipher and Monitoring service, (), that was created in 1921, to collect and decipher passive intelligence, that operated within and part of German Defense Ministry, (). Due to the number of ministerial cipher bureaus that were proliferating in the defense ministry, Oschmann saw a need for a central agency, independent from the

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

, that would collect and decipher operational intelligence and pushed for the new agency and achieve independence from the German Defense Ministry, which eventually came about. This new agency was called the Intercept Control Station (HLS) (German: Horchleitstelle) and was created sometime in 1933/34.I-78, Page 2 That organisation would eventually become the

Life

Oschmann married Ute Aschenborn on 1 December 1919 and had two children.

Military career

In 1913, Oschmann joined the Royal Prussian Army as an ensign, (). He was posted to the telegraph battalion No. 1 and was promoted to second lieutenant () on 6 August 1914. On 18 April 1918 he was promoted to first lieutenant (). On 1 October 1919, he joined the Army Signals Intelligence School (). In early 1920, he joined the Signals Intelligence Department 15 (). As part of the creation of the 100,000 man Transitional Army () of the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' (; ) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

, he joined the 3rd Prussian Signals Department (). On 1 April 1923, he was transferred to the 11th (Saxon) Infantry Regiment and was immediately sent to the

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...

in Charlottenburg (now

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

) for further training. From 1 October 1923, he was then registered for several years as a company officer in the 9th Company of the 6th Infantry Regiment in Flensburg. Between 1925 and 1926 he received the addition of the Dipl. Ing (

Diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

) in front of his name, in the original French called (), by undertaking an

academic degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into und ...

in engineering. On 1 October 1926, he was promoted to the rank of captain (). On 1 March 1927, he was then appointed chief of the 2nd (Hess.) Company of the 5th Signals Intelligence division of the 5th Infantry Division in

Bad Cannstatt Bad Cannstatt (), also called Cannstatt (until July 23, 1933) or Kannstadt (until 1900), is one of the outer Stadtbezirke, or city boroughs, of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Bad Cannstatt is the oldest and most populous of Stuttgart' ...

. On 1 February 1931 he was then transferred to the

Reichswehrministerium The Ministry of the Reichswehr () was the defence ministry of Germany from 1919 to 1938 during the Weimar Republic and early Nazi Germany periods. It was responsible for the ''Reichswehr'' under the leadership of the Minister of Defence and based ...

where he was employed in the departure office (Abw) until 1934, when he was promoted to major. On 1 October 1935, he was transferred to the staff of the

Prussian Military Academy The Prussian Staff College, also Prussian War College () was the highest military facility of the Kingdom of Prussia to educate, train, and develop general staff officers. Location It originated with the ''Akademie für junge Offiziere der I ...

. On 1 June 1936, he was transferred to the Army Intelligence School () as a teacher. On 1 March 1937, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel (). On 1 April 1937 he became commander of the Signals Department 7 () in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. On 1 April 1938, he was appointed to commander of Signals Group VII (). After the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was appointed commander of XIII Signals group () in

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. After giving up his command in mid-May during 1941, he was appointed commander of Intercept Group 666 (listening group) (). At the beginning of the summer of 1941, he joined in the eastern campaign to lean and attack on northern

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by as part of

Army Group North Army Group North () was the name of three separate army groups of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Its rear area operations were organized by the Army Group North Rear Area. The first Army Group North was deployed during the invasion of Pol ...

. He was promoted to colonel () on 1 February 1940, and later major general in March 1943. He assumed command of the 741st Grenadier Regiment on 31 March 1943 On 1 August 1943, he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Eastern Z.b.V. 704, ( Z.b.V.), the same time as successor to Major General Wilhelm White. On 1 November 1943, he gained leadership of the 286th Security Division () as successor to Lieutenant-General Johann-Georg Richert. On 1 February 1944, he was then appointed commander of the 286th Security Division. During

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...

General Oschmann was slightly wounded during an air attack near Byerazino on 30 June 1944. The unit was eventually subordinated to Lieutenant General Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt in August 1944. In September 1944, after a leave of absence in the

Führerreserve The (“Leaders Reserve” or "Reserve for Leaders") was set up in the German Armed Forces during World War II in 1939 as a pool of temporarily unoccupied high-ranking military officers awaiting new assignments. The various military branches ...

, he was appointed commander of the 338th Infantry Division in France, as successor to Lieutenant-General

René de l'Homme de Courbière René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminin ...

. On 14 November 1944, he was ambushed while investigating in a French position between Bretigney and Faimbe, while with Lieutenant-General Friedrich-August Schack, who escaped the position. He was posthumously promoted to lieutenant general on 1 November 1944.

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Life

Military career

Notes

References

Further reading