Taken prisoner by the Italians in November 1918, Angelis was not released until October 1919. He then held a variety of different billets in the Austrian Federal Army. Following the German absorption of Austria in March 1938, Angelis joined the German army. He was promoted to major general in April 1938.
Angelis commanded the 76th Infantry Division from September 1939 to January 1942. In June 1940, he was promoted to lieutenant general. Following the defeat of France, his division participated in the 1941 campaign in the Balkans and the invasion of the Soviet Union. In January 1942, Angelis took command of XLIV Army Corps. He was promoted to general of artillery in March 1942. As chief artillery officer on the Eastern Front, Angelis reported directly to the General Staff. Angelis fluctuated between command of the XLIV Army Corps and the Sixth Army until 1944.
In September 1944, Angelis took command of the Second Panzer Army, and he held this post until the end of the war. The Second Panzer Army fought Soviet forces at the Battle of Lake Balaton in Hungary in Operation spring-awakening. The operation was an attempt to cut off the Red Army and seize Budapest from the rear along with the rest of eastern Hungary. However, the plan failed, and German forces were progressively driven back after each counterattack as the war came to a close.
Taken prisoner by the Americans at the end of the war, Angelis was turned over to Yugoslavia in April 1946. There he was tried and sentenced to prison for 20 years followed by a double sentence of 25 years in prison upon transfer to the Soviet Union in March 1949. He was set free in 1955, and he settled in Graz, Austria, where he died on 6 December 1974. Keith L. Holman
Further Reading
Chant, William Fowler, Richard Humble, and Jenny Shaw. Hitler's Generals and Their Battles. New York: Chartwell, 1976.; United States, War Department. Handbook on German Military Forces. TM-E 30–451. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1945. Reprint: Gaithersburg, MD: Military Press, 1971.
