Theodor Wanke
Theodor
Wanke was born on the 25th of September 1887 in Iglau. In 1905 he entered the
second term at the Infantry Cadet School in Vienna from which he graduated with
the rank of Kadettoffizierstellvertreter on the 18th of August 1908 with an assignment
to the Prague based Infanterieregiment Potiorek
Nr.102. He was commissioned as a Leutnant on the 1st of May 1911. Promoted to
Oberleutnant on the 1st of August 1914, Wanke went into action with his regiment
against Serbia as part of the 9th Infantry Division under Feldmarschalleutnant
Victor von Scheuchenstuel where he was
wounded. He was awarded the Bronze Military Merit Medal (Signum Ludis) with War
Decoration on the 25th of November 1914 and following his recovery he rejoined the regiment and with it was deployed to
the southern sector of the Isonzo front as the commander of the 9th company.
In October 1916, Infanterieregiment Nr. 102 under command of the
17th Infantry Brigade, 9th Infantry Division of Gruppe FML. Schenk
was holding a sector on the Carso just to the west of the town of Jamiano.
Wanke's 9th Company along with the rest of the battalion was in positions
on the eastern slopes of hill 144 facing elements of the Italian 16th Division.
On the 10th of the month, the Italian's after days of heavy artillery
preparation initiated the 8th Battle of the Isonzo with infantry assaults
Despite intense enemy pressure on both flanks of his position,
Oberleutnant Wanke was determined to hold and even with both the battalion and
regimental* headquarters ready to withdraw, he initiated a counter-attack on his
own initiative and compelled an infantry battalion of the advancing Italian 16th
Division to pull back in panic. Wanke then took hold of the badly shaken 10th
Company to his north (at pistol point) and carried out a further attack to the
west and accompanied by just 17 other soldiers captured some 100 enemy
infantrymen and freed a group of Austrian officers captured earlier in the day.
In so doing. the intrepid Oberleutnant had not only held the positions on hill
144 but had also restored the situation along the southern Carso front and
thwarted the Italian attempts to break through to the strategically vital port
of Trieste.
He was rewarded for his gallantry at hill 144 by being awarded the Silver Military Merit
Medal (Signum Laudis) with War Decoration and Swords on the 31st of December
1916 and the the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd Class with War Decoration
and Swords on the 12th of March 1917. Oberleutnant Wanke remained with Infanterieregiment Nr. 102 for
the remainder of the war and was promoted to Hauptmann on the 1st of August
1918. Following the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in November 1918, Wanke became a
citizen of the newly formed Czechoslovakian State and a captain in the new army.
Promotion prospects in the army of Czechoslovakia were however not good for
former Austro-Hungarian officers and he soon resigned his commission. He was
awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresia at the 186th Promotion on the 10th
of March 1921.
Following the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany
proper in the autumn of 1938, Wanke assumed German citizenship and on account of
his high award was granted the brevet or charakter rank of Major in the
German army on the 27th of August 1939, the 25th anniversary of the battle of
Tannenberg. Following the campaign in Poland in 1939 he was employed as a
battalion commander of a Guard Battalion in the General Government of occupied
Poland. Later transferred to the Balkans, Major Theodor Wanke was killed in
action on the 9th of August 1944 2 kilometres north of Kostajnica in Croatia.
*
Regimental commander: Oberst Ferdinand Schenk
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