In our fourth Countdown to D-Day officer bio, Peter Margaritis provides a snapshot of Max-Josef Pemsel, an officer who after the war helped shape one of history’s greatest war films.
Generalmajor Max-Josef Pemsel, a Bavarian who turned 47 on January 15, 1944, was also a veteran of the Great War. When the Second World War broke out, Pemsel was Operations Officer for General der Gebirgstruppen Ludwig Kübler’s 1st Mountain Division, participating in the invasion of Poland and later, France. His division had been slated to take part in Sealion, but that invasion was cancelled after the Battle of Britain. In late 1940, Pemsel became chief of staff for General Eugene Beyer’s XVIII Mountain Corps. As such, he served in Finland before the unit participated in Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece. His corps broke through the Metaxas Line and eventually turned the ANZAC right flank, sealing the doom of the Allies in Greece. Pemsel took over the chief of staff duties for the Seventh Army in January of 1943 as a Generalleutnant.
Pemsel served as one of the German military consultants in the epic movie “The Longest Day.” Portrayed by Wolfgang Preiss, he became the focal point of the initial German reaction to the nighttime parachute drop and the subsequent landing at Normandy.
After D-Day, when the Americans broke through the German lines, Field Marshal von Kluge, now commanding Heeresgruppe B, relieved Pemsel of command (rather than the army’s commander SS General Hausser). Late in the war, after almost getting killed in an Italian partisan attack, he surrendered to the Americans. He later served as commander of the Munich military district in the West German Bundeswehr.
He died on June 30, 1985.
Max-Josef Pemsel and his role in the defence of the Atlantic Wall is explored in the new book, Countdown to D-Day, due to be released June 2019.
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