Eduard Dietl (21 July 1890 – 23 June 1944) was a Colonel-General of the German Wehrmacht who commanded the 20th Mountain Army during World War II.
Biography[]
Eduard Dietl was born on 21 July 1890 in Bad Aibling, Bavaria, German Empire. Dietl served in the Imperial German Army from 1909 to 1918, serving in World War I, and he would enlist in Franz Ritter von Epp's Freikorps in 1919. Dietl also joined the fascist Nazi Party, but his company decided not to intervene in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. By 1936, he was a Generalmajor of the German Wehrmacht, and he led the German 3rd Mountain Division during the invasion of Norway in 1940. His troops captured Narvik from the British Army after heavy resistance, and he was given command of the newly-created 20th Mountain Army in January 1942. Dietl quickly became one of Adolf Hitler's favorite generals, and he was popular among his men and allied troops from Finland while he was stationed in Lapland. Dietl's army would take part in Operation Silver Fox, a failed attempt to capture the Soviet port of Murmansk in June–November 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. In 1944, Dietl died in a plane crash over Rettenegg, Styria, Austria.