Johann Mickl (18 April 1893 – 10 April 1945) was an Austrian-born army officer and division commander who served Nazi Germany during World War II. Reaching the rank of general (Generalleutnant), he was one of only 882 recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. He was commissioned shortly before the outbreak of World War I, and served with Austro-Hungarian forces on the Eastern and Italian Fronts as a junior officer in the Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops. During World War I he was decorated several times for bravery and leadership and was wounded on four occasions.
Immediately after the war, Mikl served in the Volkswehr militia which was formed to resist the incorporation of his home town of Radkersburg into the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He served with the Austrian Army from 1920 until the Anschluss in 1938, when it was absorbed by the Wehrmacht, and he transferred to the German Army as an Oberstleutnant. He commanded an anti-tank battalion during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France. Mickl was then transferred to North African theatre of operations to command a rifle regiment. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his leadership of a battle group during the British Operation Crusader.
He briefly commanded the 90th Light Division in late 1941 before being wounded. After he recovered he was sent to the Eastern Front. Mickl commanded the 12th Rifle Brigade of the 12th Panzer Division in the east, taking over the 25th Panzergrenadier Regiment when his brigade headquarters was disestablished. Transferred to the Führerreserve, he was promoted to Generalmajor, and received the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his leadership during the Soviet 1942–1943 winter offensives, as part of the Battles of Rzhev. He then commanded the 11th Panzer Division during the Battle of Kursk. Later in 1943, he was appointed to train and command the 392nd (Croatian) Infantry Division, and led it in fighting against the Yugoslav Partisans before dying of wounds inflicted in the last month of the war. In 1967, the Austrian Armed Forces barracks in Bad Radkersburg was named after him.
Early life and education Mickl was born Johann Mikl in Zelting, Radkersburg, which was part of the Duchy of Styria within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father Mathias was a German farmer from Terbegofzen, and his mother Maria (née Dervarič), was from Zelting, and of at least partially Slovene heritage. Mikl had a twin brother, Alois, who was killed in action in 1915 in Galicia near Lemberg, present-day Lviv in Ukraine. As a child, Mikl spoke German, Slovene and Hungarian, and remained fluent in all three throughout his life.
After entering a cadet school in Vienna in the Imperial-Royal Landwehr in 1908, he was accepted at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt in 1911. Described as slim, muscular, and tall, Mikl graduated on 1 August 1914 and was posted to the recently mobilised 4th Imperial-Royal Landwehr Infantry Regiment (LIR 4), which formed part of the Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops.
World War I
LIR 4 was a purely Carinthian regiment, and wore the mountain cap () and the Edelweiss badge. As part of the 22nd Rifle Division of the III Corps, Mikl's unit arrived at the area of Zolochiv, Galicia to take up a position on the Zolota Lypa River. Mikl was wounded in the first battle, on 26 August 1914; he was shot in the chest. He spent time in a military hospital and was then employed in the regimental replacement battalion as an instructor until 15 April 1915. On 2 June 1915, LIR 4 received orders to join the fighting in the Kolomyia region, where the Russian army launched an offensive and the Austrians suffered serious reverses. Mikl's company formed the regimental rear guard during the withdrawal from the Pruth river on 3 June. For his actions and "demonstrated personal bravery", Mikl was awarded the Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with War Decoration ().
By late September 1915, LIR 4 had been transferred to the Bovec valley in the Julian Alps on the Southern Front, and Mikl had been promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) and placed in command of the 2nd Company. A fairly quiet winter followed, during which the Austrians undertook reconnaissance of the Royal Italian Army positions. In August 1915, Italian Alpini troops had captured an advanced position about southwest of the Rombongipfels peak, on a rocky outcrop called Cuklahöhe. From this position the Italians overlooked the positions of the 44th Rifle Division and its rear areas, which made movement almost impossible. Mikl's company was among the two companies tasked with capturing the Cuklahöhe, which the two units accomplished. For his leadership of the assault on the Cuklahöhe, Mikl was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd Class.
In April 1916, Mikl's regiment was deployed to South Tyrol to take part in the Austrian spring offensive, during which he was awarded the bronze Military Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Bravery Medal with War Decoration, for leading a successful attack on an Italian position on Monte Cengio. At the end of June, the parent regiment was transferred back to Galicia to reinforce the Austro-Hungarian forces being hard-pressed by the Russian Brusilov Offensive, and then returned to the Southern Front where it remained until the late autumn 1917, fighting in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Battles of the Isonzo. During the Eighth Battle of the Isonzo on 10 October 1916, Mikl was wounded and hospitalised. When he recovered, he was assigned to the regimental replacement battalion until spring 1917 and later was employed as an instructor at an officer's school. In January 1917, he was awarded the silver Military Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Bravery Medal with War Decoration. In August 1917, Mikl was appointed to command a machine gun company, and served in the Battle of Caporetto and the subsequent advance to the Piave river. For his leadership in an assault river crossing, Mikl was awarded a bar to his silver Military Merit Medal. On 15 May 1918, Mikl began a preparatory course for future attendance at the War College in Vienna, and when the war ended he was posted to the 54th Rifle Division in Galicia.
Between the wars The states that would succeed Austria-Hungary were approved by the Allies on 28 October 1918, and the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was dissolved three days later. Many new nation states emerged in the territory formerly belonging to the empire, as nationalist movements called for greater autonomy or full independence. The Duchy of Styria was divided between the new states of Republic of German-Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but the exact line of the new border was unclear. In November 1918, Mikl had returned to his hometown of Radkersburg, an important railway junction point, which was of economic importance to both sides. The Slovenes occupied the city on 1 December 1918. In 1919, Mikl served as adjutant in the 1st Battalion of the Volkswehr militia, which used arms provided by the provincial government of Carinthia to make an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Radkersburg from forces of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The provincial government of Styria, which had not supported these actions, subsequently issued a warrant ordering Mikl's arrest for treason. When the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed later in 1919, Radkersburg was retained within what became the First Austrian Republic.
In 1920, Mikl was accepted by the new Austrian Army (), joining the 11th Alpenjäger Regiment. During 1920–21 he was rapidly promoted to Hauptmann (captain), and on 20 October 1920 he was posted to the 5th Cyclist Battalion in Villach, Carinthia. In 1921, his battalion was deployed to Burgenland to assist in the transfer of that region from Hungary to Austria. In 1922, he changed his name to the more Germanised Mickl. On 2 May 1922, Mickl married Helene Zischka in Klagenfurt; their only child, Manfred, was born in 1923. That same year, he was promoted to the rank of Major.
In 1925, Mickl passed the examinations for the general staff. On 26 July 1930, Mickl was appointed an honorary citizen of the town of Radkersburg. After fifteen years with the 5th Cyclist Battalion, in 1934, Mickl briefly served on the military headquarters for Carinthia in Klagenfurt. In February of the following year, he was posted to the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade at Sankt Pölten. His promotion to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) followed in 1936. In the same year, Mickl's son Manfred entered the military cadet school at Enns. On 14 March 1938, following the Anschluss, Mickl was absorbed at his rank into the German Army, but as a troop officer, not a general staff officer. From 12 May to mid-August 1938, he attended training at the Panzertruppenschule II (Armoured Troops School No. 2) in Wünsdorf south of Berlin, before being given command of the 42nd Panzerjäger (Anti-tank) Battalion of the 2nd Light Division. Helene soon moved to Gera in Thuringia to join Mickl, leaving the 15-year-old Manfred at the cadet school until his graduation.
World War II
Invasions of Poland and France Mickl commanded the 42nd Panzerjäger Battalion of Generall Georg Stumme's 2nd Light Division during the September 1939 invasion of Poland, during which the division was involved in difficult fighting through Kielce and Radom in central Poland to Modlin on the Vistula. The following month, Mickl was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. During the winter of 1939/40, the 2nd Light Division was reclassified and converted into the 7th Panzer Division, in preparation for the invasion of France and the Low Countries. In February 1940, General Erwin Rommel arrived to take command of the division.
Mickl remained in charge of the 42nd Panzerjäger Battalion during the invasion. Mickl's battalion fought well but suffered serious casualties during the Battle of Arras on 21 May while trying to stop the heavily armoured tanks of the British 1st Army Tank Brigade with its 37 mm anti-tank guns. His soldiers derided their guns as Panzeranklopfgerät (tank-door knocker), due to their failure to penetrate the British Matilda I and Matilda II tanks. Mickl's battalion tried to protect the exposed flank of the division, but was overrun. The situation was saved by anti-aircraft guns and field artillery which were able to knock out the British tanks with direct fire.
On 1 June, Mickl was promoted to Oberst and on 21 June awarded him the Iron Cross 1st Class. After the French surrender, Mickl was attached to the division's 25th Panzer Regiment, and on 10 December 1940 was appointed to command the 7th Rifle Regiment of the division. Mickl remained in command of the 7th Rifle Regiment during occupation duties in southwestern France, redeployment to Germany, and during the division's preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union. In May 1941, Mickl was posted to a new role in Germany, raising the headquarters of the 155th Rifle Regiment for service in North Africa. The 155th Rifle Regiment was to be a motorised formation of three battalions, one drawn from each of the 106th, 112th and 113th Infantry Divisions.
North Africa