Hans Von Seeckt - First World War

First World War

At the outbreak of the First World War, Seeckt held the rank of colonel and served as chief of staff in the German III Army Corps. Seeckt marched with the Corps in the German offensive, and "distinguished himself" in fighting near Soissons, then in March 1915, he became chief of staff to General August von Mackensen of the German Eleventh Army. With the Eleventh Army, Seeckt fought in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, where he was credited with engineering Mackensen's breakthrough, and received the Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest military honor.

In June 1915, Seeckt was promoted to the rank of Generalmajor, and in September he followed von Mackensen to Temesvar, where he joined the campaign against Serbia. In June 1916 he became chief of staff for the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army in Galicia. Seeckt spent the last years of World War I serving in the Ottoman Empire.