Date of birth:

February 12th, 1899 (Frankfurt am Main/Hesse, Germany)

Date of death:

November 27th, 1959 (Bonn/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)

Nationality:

German

Irnfried Krafft Alexander Freiherr von Wechmar

Promotions:
10.08.1914 Fähnrich (A17a)
24.12.1914 Leutnant, without Patent
12.02.1916 Patent
31.08.1922 Charakter als Oberleutnant a.D.
01.07.1922 RDA 12.02.1916
01.10.1933 char. Oberleutnant a.D. RDA 01.12.1928 (4)
01.05.1934 Hauptmann RDA 01.01.1933 (68)
01.01.1938 Major (52)
01.03.1941 Oberstleutnant (40)
17.12.1941 new. RDA 01.02.1940 (14a)
01.03.1942 Oberst (204)

When the war broke out in 1914, Irnfried Freiherr von Wechmar, not yet 16 years old, joined the Guard Foot Artillery Regiment as an ensign. At the end of the war he was a lieutenant and battery leader.
Taken over by the Reichswehr, he left in 1922 to become a journalist.
In 1933 he was reactivated as captain and at the outbreak of war he was the commander of Panzer Reconnaissance Division 3, which he led in Poland and France.
Under his leadership, the division landed in Africa and took Benghasi and Bardia. For these achievements he was one of the first Africa fighters to be awarded the Knight's Cross on April 13, 1941.
After his return from Africa he became department head in the OKW for the Wehrmacht propaganda.
He then became commander of the 147th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and was in command of the Esbjerg-Fanö defense area in Denmark at the end of the war.
After the end of the war, Wechmar went to the Bundeswehr in 1956, where he served as Oberst der Reserve.

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• Photo 1:
• - KUROWSKI, F., Knight's Cross Holders of the Afrikakorps, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, United States, 1996.
  - Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002
  - Patzwall K., Scherzer V., Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Geschichte und Inhaber Band II, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001
  - http://www.ritterkreuztraeger.info/rk/w/W093Wechmar.pdf