Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a Generaloberst of Nazi Germany who commanded Waffen-SS forces during World War II. Dietrich was well-known for his role in the Battle of the Bulge as commander of the 6th Panzer Army, as well as for his commands of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the I SS Panzer Corps.
Biography[]
Josef Dietrich was born on 28 May 1892 in Hawangen, Kingdom of Bavaria, in the German Empire (present-day Germany). In 1911 he joined the Imperial German Army and served in the Bavarian 4th Field Artillery Regiment, and served in World War II. He led the Freikorps Oberland against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and worked in a variety of jobs between the Bavarian Civil War and World War II. In 1928 he joined the Nazi Party and became the commander of Adolf Hitler's SS bodyguards. When Hitler took over in Germany and founded Nazi Germany, he became a general of the Waffen-SS and the leader of Hitler's personal bodyguards, Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. He commanded the Leibstandarte in the invasion of France, Greece, and Yugoslavia early in World War II from 1940 to 1941. He later became commander of the I SS Panzer Corps in Army Group Center in the fighting with the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, and he commanded his panzerkorps during the Battle of Normandy. Later, he became leader of the new 6th Panzer Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and northern France in late 1944, and he spearheaded Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945 against the Soviets near Budapest. He defended Vienna until 13 April 1945, and on 9 May he surrendered to the US 36th Infantry Division at St. Polten in Austria. He was tried for war crimes after the war and was arrested and rearrested until 1958. He died in 1966 at the age of 73 of a heart attack.