Josef Moll | |
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Born |
Laupertshausen, Württemberg, German Empire |
5 September 1908
Died | 7 January 1989 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
(aged 80)
Allegiance |
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Service/branch |
|
Years of service |
1935–1945 |
Rank |
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Commands held | 10th Panzer Division |
Awards | Grand Cross of Merit with Star |
1935–1945
Lieutenant-General Josef Moll (5 September 1908 – 7 January 1989) was an officer of the German Army in the Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr who served from 1966 to 1968 as Inspector of the Army.
Moll was born on 5 September 1908 in Laupertshausen in the Kingdom of Württemberg (today in Landkreis Biberach, Baden-Württemberg). He took his Abitur in 1926, and entered the state police of Württemberg, and in 1933 became a police lieutenant.
On the formation of the Wehrmacht in 1935 following the takeover of power by the Nazi Party, Moll volunteered to serve as a first lieutenant (Oberleutnant) in the Army. He was assigned to Infantry Regiment 15, in which he served as a regimental adjutant and company commander. In 1940, Moll graduated from a higher military academy and promoted to captain (Hauptmann), and in 1941 he was appointed the second staff officer (supply) of the 20th Panzer Division.
In 1942, was promoted to major and assigned as the second staff officer of the 3rd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front, under Georg-Hans Reinhardt. This was followed by a transfer to XIV Panzer Corps, where Moll was the first general staff officer (chief of staff). He was then assigned to Army Group Africa as the third general staff officer, in charge of the enemy situation, a post which he continued to hold as the remnants of Army Group Africa were re-formed as Army Group B and then XIV Panzer Corps in Italy.