Eduard Dietl
| Eduard Dietl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
21 July 1890 Bad Aibling, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 23 June 1944 (aged 53) near Rettenegg, Reichsgau Steiermark, Nazi Germany |
| Buried at | Nordfriedhof (Munich) |
| Allegiance |
 German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany
|
| Years of service | 1910–44 |
| Rank | Generaloberst |
| Commands held | 20th Mountain Army |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
Eduard Dietl (21 July 1890 – 23 June 1944) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the 20th Mountain Army. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany.
Dietl was sent to Finland designated to be the "Hero in the snow" (to be a counterpart to Rommel who would be the "Hero in the sun", also given a secondary theater leaving the main stage to Hitler).
Born in 1890, Dietl joined the army in 1909 and fought during World War I. He joined the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei and the paramilitary group Freikorps of Franz Ritter von Epp in 1919. Dietl continued to serve in the German Army and, as a Generalmajor, he helped organise the 1936 Winter Olympics held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Dietl commanded the German 3rd Mountain Division that participated in the German invasion of Norway on 9 and 10 April 1940. Most of this division was landed at Narvik by a German naval force of ten destroyers, commanded by Commodore Friedrich Bonte, on 9 April 1940. British naval forces led by the battleship HMS Warspite destroyed all ten destroyers that had ferried Dietl's troops to Narvik and managed to recapture the town. Dietl's mountaineers withdrew into the hills and later retook the town when Britain abandoned her efforts to evict the Germans from Norway due to German success on the Western Front (the Franco-German border, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands).
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