Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
Eduard Freiherr von Böhm-Ermolli (12 February 1856 – 9 December 1941) was an Austrian general during World War I who rose to the rank of field marshal in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He was the head of the Second Army and fought mainly on the front of Galicia during the entire conflict. On 30 October 1940, Böhm-Ermolli was made a German "Generalfeldmarschall". Biography. Early life. Eduard Böhm was born in the Italian city of Ancona where his father served with a small representative detachment of the Austrian army. His father, Georg Böhm (1813–1893), had as  a sergeant won a battlefield commission for bravery after the battle of Novara in 1849, been promoted to the rank of major upon his retirement in 1877. In June 1885, he received permission to attach his wife's (Maria Josepha Ermolli) maiden name to his family name. He was elevated to hereditary nobility in September 1885, and hence the family was known as "von Böhm-Ermolli". Böhm-Ermolli was trained at the cadet academy in St. Pölten and the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt and entered the service on 1 September 1875 as a lieutenant in the dragoons. He  served in a variety of line and staff positions, steadily rose through the ranks, being promoted to General of the Cavalry on 1 May 1912 and appointed commanding general of the 1st Army Corps in Kraków. Service during World War One. At the start of World War I, Böhm-Ermolli was given command of the Austrian 2nd Army, which was intended for action on the Serbian front. After the Russian Empire mobilised, the 2nd Army was diverted to the Russian front, where it reinforced the armies of Austria's German ally. In September 1915 he also became commander of the  Army Group Böhm-Ermolli which included the German South Army besides his own Second Army. Böhm-Ermolli was promoted to "Generaloberst" in May 1916 and to "Feldmarschall" in January 1918. In March 1918, his forces occupied Ukraine. His Army Group was dissolved at Odessa at the war's end. Later life. Böhm-Ermolli then settled in his home town of Troppau in Austrian Silesia, which became part of Czechoslovakia in 1919, and the government of Czechoslovakia paid him his pension and honored him as a General 1st Class in the reserve. In 1928 he became an "Army General" of Czechoslovakia , even though he never served in the Czechoslovak Army. When the Sudetenland, the predominantly German settled regions along the fringes of Czechoslovakia, was annexed to Nazi Germany in 1938, he became a German subject. On 31 October 1940 Böhm-Ermolli received an honorary promotion to "Generalfeldmarschall" of the German Army. In addition, he was appointed honorary colonel-in-chief of Infantry Regiment 28 in his hometown of Troppau (Opava). When he died in December 1941, he was accorded a state funeral with full military honors in Vienna. Military service and promotion record. Retired, December 1, 1918. Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli