Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte Dr . jur . Dr . rer . pol . Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte ( 30 March 1907 – 7 July 1994 ) was a German Luftwaffe officer who served with the Fallschirmjäger during World War II , reaching the rank of Oberstleutnant . After the war , he served in the Bundeswehr , reaching the rank of " Brigadegeneral der Reserve " . Early life . Von der Heydte was born to a noble family in Munich , Bavaria . His father , a Freiherr ( roughly equivalent to a baron ) had enjoyed a successful career with the Royal Bavarian Army , serving with distinction during World War I . His mother immigrated from France . The Von der Heydtes were stout Roman Catholics , and Friedrich attended a Munich Catholic school , achieving excellent grades . He was also a wartime associate of Claus von Stauffenberg , although not directly related . After completion of his schooling , Friedrich followed his father ' s path and joined the Reichswehr . After an unsuccessful application to join the cavalry , Friedrich was posted to " Infanterie - Regiment Nr . 19 " on 1 April 1925 . He did not give up on his goal of joining the cavalry , and soon secured a posting as an officer cadet in " Kavallerie - Regiment Nr . 18 " . In 1927 , Von der Heydte was released from military service to attend Innsbruck University , studying Law and Economics . During this time , he became a private tutor to pay his university fees , as despite their noble status , his family was in dire financial troubles . He received a degree in Economics at Innsbruck University . In 1927 , Von der Heydte was awarded his degree in law at Graz University , and traveled to Berlin to continue his studies . Late in the year , he secured a posting to a diplomatic school in Vienna . During his college years , the young Von der Heydte developed decidedly liberal views . This however did not hinder him from joining NSDAP May 1st 1933 , obtaining membership number 2 . 134 . 193 . He also entered the SA the same year . By 1934 , Von der Heydte obtained Austrian citizenship while also maintaining German / Bavarian citizenship . During this period he received a stipend from the Carnegie Institute for Peace . In early 1935 he re - joined the Reichswehr , and was transferred to " Kavallerie - Regiment Nr . 15 " in Paderborn and promoted to Lieutenant within the Wehrmacht . He again secured his temporary release from the military for study , and traveled to the Netherlands where he furthered his education at The Hague . Late in 1935 , Von der Heydte ' s company of the regiment was transformed from a cavalry unit to an anti - tank company belonging to Panzerabwehr - Abteilung 6 in Herford . After studying for over two years in The Hague , he returned to the military , where he attended a General Staff Officer ' s course over the winter of 1938 - 39 . In August 1939 , he was recalled to his company in preparation for the planned Invasion of Poland , Fall Weiß . War career . France . During the spring offensive against France in 1940 , von der Heydte served as an aide - de - champ ( Ordonnanzoffizier ) in the divisional HQ of the 246th Infantry Division . In mid May 1940 , he was promoted Captain and at the same time transferred to Luftwaffe and its parachute arm . Here he joined the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment as one of its company commanders . Crete . Von der Heydte commanded the 1st battalion of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment during the Battle of Crete in May 1941 . His battalion was the first to enter Canea , for which he was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . North Africa . In July 1942 Von der Heydte , now promoted Major , was sent from his posting in Russia to Libya as commander of the elite Fallschirm - Lehrbataillon . This battalion was an integral part of Fallschirmjäger - Brigade Ramcke , that became famous for its daring escape from the German disaster at El Alamein in captured British trucks . In his memoirs he stated that he watched an Italian tank division be destroyed while the Germans withdrew after the Second Battle of El Alamein . Von der Heydte kept his position as an officer in the " Ramcke " Brigade in North Africa until February 1943 when he and several other Fallschirmjäger - officers were transferred to France to form the nucleus of the newly raised 2 . Fallschirmjäger Division under command of Major - general H . B . Ramcke . Here , he was posted as " 1a " ( senior operations officer ) in the divisional HQ . Italy . After the fall of Sicily during the summer of 1943 , the Germans grew more and more suspicious of an Italian defection to the Allies . To counter this event the 2 . Fallschirmjäger Division was August 6th transferred from France to Rome . Here , von der Heydte gained audience with Pope Pius XII . As a devout Catholic , von der Heydte had visited Rome before the war . Here he had also befriended the Pope ' s " Throne Assistant " , the Theologian Alois Hudal , who would later become a key person in helping Nazi war criminals evade the courts of justice during the post - war war - crime trials . September 8th 1943 the Kingdom of Italy decided to break its alliance with Nazi - Germany and join the Allies . This caused the Germans to rapidly execute " Fall Achse " with the purpose of disarming and disbanding all units of the Royal Italian Army , Navy and Air force . The 2 . Fallschirmjäger Division was given orders to capture all key positions in Rome . By September 11th the whole of Rome was under German control . The day after , Von der Heydte was sent on a mission that required him to use an aircraft . Unfortunately the aircraft crashed on the island of Elba and Von der Heydte suffered some severe injuries . France and Normandy . After his recovery , Von der Heydte was January 15th 1944 given command of the newly formed 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment of the 2 . Fallschirmjäger Division . The unit was formed from veteran paratroopers and Luftwaffe ground personnel in early 1944 at Köln - Wahn . The Regiment had an average age of 17½ , with a combined strength of 3457 men as of May 19 , and around 4500 men by June 6 , 1944 . By the time of Operation Overlord , the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment had been detached as a third regiment to the newly reformed 91 . Luftlande Infanterie Division and deployed in the Carentan area of the Cotentin Peninsula . The dispositions of its three battalions on June 6th , 1944 were as follows : 1st battalion advancing towards Sainte - Marie - du - Mont to relieve the strongpoint W5 and reinforce the defense of Utah Beach ; 2nd battalion advancing towards Sainte - Mère - Église and attempt to make contact with 795 Ost battalion ( Georgian ) ; 3rd battalion remaining southwest of Carentan to provide flank security . On D - Day , about 500 US paratroopers dropped southwest of Carentan . Skirmishing between airborne troops of both sides went on throughout the night . The 1st battalion managed to reach Sainte - Marie - du - Mont , only 6 kilometers from strongpoint W5 ; but finding the town held by the elements of 101st Airborne , the battalion dug in among the hedgerows outside the town . On June 7 , after fighting a combined assault of US paratroopers and tanks most of the day , the battalion was destroyed in a fighting withdrawal towards Carentan . About 300 men surrendered . Only 25 reached Carentan . The 2nd battalion found Sainte - Mère - Église held by the 507th Infantry Regiment ( United States ) , fought until its ammunition ran low and withdrew towards St . Come - du - Mont . From the town ' s church tower ( and artillery observation post ) Von der Heydte saw the vast Allied invasion armada 11 kilometers away . After heavy fighting on June 7 , the 2nd and 3rd battalions were withdrawn into Carentan . Von der Heydte was ordered by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to defend Carentan to the last man , since it was the critical junction between Utah Beach and Omaha Beach Starting around the night of June 10 , US troops entered the outskirts of Carentan , and by morning of June 11 fierce fighting went from house to house . To illustrate the intensity : a US battalion ( 3rd of 502nd PIR ) had 700 men entering Carentan and after two days ' fighting only 132 men were left . By dusk on June 11 , Von der Heydte withdrew what remained of his men out of Carentan to avoid encirclement . The commander of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division was furious and wanted to arrest Von der Heydte , only intervention from Von der Heydte ' s higher ranking brethren saved the situation . A counter - attack on June 12 failed to retake the town . For their battle at Carentan , the German paratroopers earned the nickname " Lions of Carentan " from the US paratroopers . Von der Heydte ' s regiment was subsequently involved in the intense hedgerow fighting ( also known as the battle of the Bocage ) defending every inch of ground that was characteristic of the Normandy campaign . On July 22 , Von der Heydte ' s 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment was mentioned in a Wehrmacht communique when 32 of his men made a daring raid at St . Germain - sur - Seves on an entire American battalion ( the 1st battalion of 358th Regiment , US 90th Infantry Division ) , capturing 265 men , including 11 officers . St . Germain - sur - Seves is located between Carentan and Perier . " Oberfeldwebel " Alexander Uhlig leading the raid was awarded the Knight ' s Cross . On August 6 , Von der Heydte ' s regiment participated in Operation Lüttich , the disastrous Mortain counterattack attempting to cut off the Allies ' advance at the Avranches bridgehead . The German Seventh Army was subsequently encircled at Falaise Pocket , the final and epic battle of the Normandy campaign . In September 1944 his regiment was involved in defending the German lines in North Brabant ( The Netherlands ) against the Allied Forces attacking in the Operation Market Garden . Operation Stößer . On December 16 , 1944 , during the Ardennes Offensive Von der Heydte led his unit of 1200 men , Kampfgruppe Von der Heydte in the last large - scale German airborne drop of the war , Operation Stößer . The unit was tasked with dropping at night onto a strategic road junction 11 kilometers north of Malmédy and to hold it for approximately twenty - four hours until relieved by the 12th SS Panzer Division , with the aim of hampering the flow of Allied reinforcements and supplies . However , due to a combination of factors , including lack of reconnaissance of the drop zone and the Luftwaffe pilots ' lack of training in dropping paratroopers at night , the Fallschirmjäger were widely dispersed - some landing behind the German frontlines . Initially , only 125 men made it to the correct landing zone , with no heavy weapons . Eventually , 300 men were gathered from the surrounding woods , but without sufficient forces , the task of capturing the crossroads to delay the American re - enforcements was abandoned . In any case , the 12th SS Panzer Division was unable to defeat the Americans at Elsenborn Ridge , and so failed to relieve the Fallschirmjäger . However , because of the dispersal of the drop , Fallschirmjäger were reported all over the Ardennes , and the Allies believed a division - sized jump had taken place . This caused much confusion and convinced them to allocate men to secure the rear instead of facing the main German thrust at the front . Cut off , without supplies and hunted by forces including a regiment of the U . S . 1st Infantry Division and a combat command of the U . S . 3rd Armored Division , Von der Heydte ordered his men to break through Allied lines and reach the German front . Von der Heydte arrived in Monschau on the evening of December 21st , with a broken arm . On December 23 , he had a school teacher ' s son send a surrender note to the Allies . He was held as a prisoner of war in England until July 12 , 1947 . Operation Walküre . Von der Heydte was a cousin of Colonel Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg , who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb July 20th 1944 , and he was loosely connected to the ring of officers who tried to organize the resistance against Hitler . Post - war career . After his release as a POW , Von der Heydte returned to his academic career . From 1947 to 1950 , Von der Heydte developed his inaugural dissertation , entitled " Die Geburtsstunde des souveränen Staates " ( The birth of the Sovereign State . " ) His work began to critically examine the ratified constitution . He became in 1951 professor of constitutional and international law at the University of Mainz . He was also a judge at the Administrative Court of Rhineland - Palatinate . From 1953 to 1954 he was a visiting professor at the University of Saarland . From 1954 he served as Professor of International Law , General Administrative Law , German and Bavarian State Law and Political Science at the University of Würzburg . He also headed the Institute for Military Law at University of Würzburg . From 1956 to 1971 he was an associate and a later regular member of the Institute de Droit International . He also served from 1961 to 1965 as a member of the board of the German Society for International Law . Parallel to his academic career , Von der Heydte also continued with a post - war military career with the Bundeswehr at the rank of Colonel . In 1962 , he was promoted to Brigadier General in the Reserves of the Bundeswehr , one of only two to receive that rank . Post - war religious and political commitments . In 1947 Von der Heydte joined the Christian Social Union ( CSU ) , where he was chairman of the Christian Democratic Higher Education Association . Between November 20th 1966 and November 22nd 1970 he was one of 20 CSU Members of the constituency for Lower Franconia at the Bavarian Parliament . He was also a member of the Committee on Cultural Policy issues and in 1967 , he joined the Bavarian State Office for Political Education and the State Compensation Office . As a lawyer he was a supporter of the theological ideas of natural law and as a conservative Christian he supported the Catholic church ' principles of justice . He was involved in the Catholic Academic Association from 1948 to 1958 and was a member of the Central Committee of German Catholics . He was succeed Franz Prince of Salm - Dyck Reifferscheidt as governor of the German Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy grave in Jerusalem between 1958 and 1965 . Von der Heydte was a member and later board member of conservative - clerical Western Academy . The organization urged Christian values , Western civilization unity and federalism . The Flick Affair . In 1958 Von der Heydte Heydte became one of the central figures in the Flick Affair . This was serious party - funding scandal where Von der Heydte allegedly had , as the director for many years of the Würzburg Institute of Political Science and Policy Association , helped with laundering money for political donations to the CDU / CSU and FDP . He had to appear before the Federal Constitutional Court on the issue of party funding through tax - deferred contributions . The " Spiegel " Affair . Both as head of the Institute for Military Law at University of Würzburg and as a Colonel in the Reserve , von der Heydte challenged in 1962 the weekly magazine " Der Spiegel " when it wrote an article about the scandalous state of affairs within the Bundeswehr . He accused the editors of high treason because they had revealed the military weaknesses of the newly formed Bundeswehr to the public ( and thereby to the Soviets ) . Because of this accusation and von der Heydte ' s position as an expert in Military Law , the issue was brought to a federal court , triggering what was to be known as the " Spiegel " - Affäre with numerous arrests of journalists and others connected to that publication . The police raid on " Der Spiegel " was forcefully led by Theo Saevecke , the Kriminalrat at Sicherungsgruppe Bonn . It soon emerged that Saevecke was a not only a former SS - Hauptsturmführer with the SS - Sicherheitsdienst in Libya and Tunisia 1942 - 43 but also a member of SS - Einsatzgruppe IV in Poland 1939 - 40 and the head of the Gestapo and the Italian fascist police in Milano between 1943 – 45 and as such a potential war criminal . Von der Heydte ' s and Saevecke ' s conduct in the " Spiegel " - Affäre caused a public outcry followed by demonstrations and public debates . The " Spiegel " Affair can be said to be the first sign of a change in the popular beliefs in West Germany - and the progenitor of all the protest later in that decade against all former Nazi German officials still in office . Von der Heydte was heavily criticised for his actions by several prominent West - German politicians and in 1965 a court cleared the editors of " Der Spiegel " on all charges . Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte died in Aham , Landshut , in 1994 after a long illness . Quote . Regarding the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia , Von der Heydte said , " Half a million people have been put to death there for certain . I know that all the Jews from Bavaria were taken there . Yet the camp never became over - crowded . They gassed mental defectives , too . " " What would you do in my place ? " - - - on June 10th , 1944 , replying to a request of surrender by American paratroopers " The battle for Crete was to prove the overture to the great tragedy which reached its climax at El Alamein and Stalingrad . For the first time there had stood against us a brave and relentless opponent on a battleground which favoured him . "