Ferdinand Schaal

Infobox Military Person
name= Ferdinand Friedrich Schaal
lived=birth date|1889|2|7|df=y — death date and age|1962|10|9|1889|2|7|df=y
placeofbirth=Brunswick, Lower Saxony
placeofdeath=


caption=
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|German Empire German Empire (to 1918)
flagicon|Germany Weimar Republic (to 1933)
flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (to 1944)
branch=Heer
serviceyears=1908-1944
rank=General der Panzertruppen
commands=10th Panzer Division
LVI Panzer Corps
Wermacht commander, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
unit=
battles=
World War II
*Siege of Calais
*Invasion of Poland
*Operation Barbarossa
awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
laterwork=

Ferdinand Friedrich Schaal (7 February 1889 — 9 October 1962) was a German career military officer and panzer commander in World War II. He commanded the 10th Panzer Division in the 1939 Invasion of Poland and directed the successful Siege of Calais in 1940. Later, he became involved in the unsuccessful July 20 plot against Adolf Hitler and the implementation of Operation Walküre that was to follow. For this, he was imprisoned until the end of the war.

In 1908, at the age of 19, Schaal joined the military as an officer in a regiment of dragoons. After World War I, he became a captain of cavalry in the Reichswehr. In April 1939, as part of the lead-up to the invasion of Poland, Schaal was tapped to lead the new 10th Panzer Division. He continued to command that unit through the invasions of Poland, France, and the USSR. On 16 March 1942, as the 10th Panzer Division returned to France from its bloody tour of the Eastern Front, Schaal was given the command of LVI Panzer Corps, which was also stationed in the Soviet Union. He served in that capacity until 1 August 1943, when he became Wehrmacht commander in the military district of Bohemia and Moravia. His rôle in Operation Walküre was to involve subduing the Nazi party and establishing military control over Bohemia and Moravia. On the evening of 20 July 1944, Schaal waited for clarification on how to proceed from General Friedrich Fromm, a co-conspirator in Berlin. None came, however, as the assassination attempt had failed and Fromm had decided to betray the other plotters. Schaal was arrested the next day on the orders of Heinrich Himmler and imprisoned. Unlike many of his compatriots in the German resistance, Schaal avoided execution and survived the war.

References

Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer. "Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945". Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, 2000. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.