Walter Stettner Ritter von Grabenhofen

General von Stettner came from a well-respected family of soldiers. He fought in World War I.
He started World War II as commander of a Gebirgsjäger-Regiment and fought in Poland, Norway, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union, where his unit advanced into the Caucasus. On 17 December 1942, he replaced Hubert Lanz as commander of the 1st Mountain Division, when the Division was retreating to the Kuban Bridgehead. The bridgehead held out until September 1943, but the 1st Mountain Division was transferred before in April to Yugoslavia for anti-partisan operations.

Under Stettner's command, the 1st Mountain Division committed several war crimes in Yugoslavia and Greece, including the Massacres of Kommeno, Mousiotitsa, Lyngiades and the Massacre of the Acqui Division.

In October 1944, during the Soviet Belgrade Offensive, his unit was cut off and Stettner went missing in action, presumed killed on Mount Avala, near Belgrade.

He was described as a “small, meticulous man, who suffered a complex of inferiority and was driven by a tremendous sense of pride that led him to keep political opinions to himself. From his soldiers, he expected unwavering obedience to Hitler’s orders. He dismissed the role of the military chaplaincy in the 1st Mountain Division. In the guidelines released for Operation “Augustus”, Stettner required his soldiers to shoot on the spot any suspect who could potentially be connected to or suspected of partisan activities and to destroy all houses in their vicinity. This way of treating civilians in Epirus led to frequent frictions with his immediate superior, the devout Catholic General Hubert Lanz".[1]

• This is a translation of the article in the German Wikipedia, Walter Stettner Ritter von Grabenhofen.