Alfred Gerstenberg (6 April 1893-1 January 1959) was a Lieutenant-General of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Biography[]
Alfred Gerstenberg was born on 6 April 1893 in Grainau, Bavaria, German Empire. He served in a cavalry unit of the Imperial German Army on the Russian front of World War I, and he served in the air force under Manfred von Richthofen in 1916, and in 1938 he served in the embassies to Warsaw and Bucharest as a representative of the Luftwaffe. From 15 February 1942 to 27 August 1944, he commanded the Luftwaffe in Romania during World War II, and he created an effective anti-air defense system around the Ploesti oil fields to ward off Allied Powers bombers. Gerstenberg was in command of 25,000 Wehrmacht troops in Ploesti and 11,000 troops near Bucharest, and on 23 August 1944 he led 4,000 troops to occupy key points in Bucharest after Romania defected to the Soviet Union. His troops were encircled by the Red Army despite Brandenburgers being brought in to help them, and on 28 August he was forced to surrender during the Jassy-Kishinev Offensive. He was imprisoned by the USSR until 1955, and he died in 1959.