Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen (24 November 1862 – 21 February 1953) was a Bavarian Army general in World War I. He served as Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Bavarian Army before World War I and commanded the elite Alpenkorps, the Imperial German Army's mountain division formed in 1915. Early life Krafft von Dellmensingen was born into a lower-ranking Bavarian noble family in Laufen, Upper Bavaria. His father was a royal notary. Konrad entered the Royal Bavarian Army as an officer candidate in August 1881 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in December 1883. After attending the Bavarian War Academy, he served as a general staff officer in various units. In 1902 he married Helene Zöhrer in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. They had two sons and one daughter. Through the prewar years, Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen proceeded up the ranks, generally alternating command and general staff assignments, until October 1, 1912, when he became Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Bavarian Army, a position he would hold until the mobilization for war in August 1914. World War I On mobilization in 1914, Generalmajor Krafft von Dellmensingen became chief of the general staff of the German 6th Army, and served with that command in the Battle of the Frontiers and the Race to the Sea. On May 27, 1915, shortly after his promotion to Generalleutnant, he took command of the newly formed Alpenkorps, a provisional mountain division. He would lead the division until the end of February 1917, through fighting on the Italian Front, at Verdun, and in the invasions of Serbia and Romania (see Battle of Sălătrucu). He received the Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest military honor, on September 13, 1916, and oak leaves to the Pour le Mérite on December 11, 1916, as well as honors from Bavaria, other German states, and their Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman allies. On March 1, 1917, Krafft von Dellmensingen became chief of staff of Army Group Duke Albrecht of Württemberg, where he served until September 9, 1917. On September 11, 1917, he received the Commander's Cross of the Württemberg Military Merit Order, Württemberg's highest military decoration. He then became chief of staff of the 14th Army under Otto von Below, and helped plan the operation that would become the successful Battle of Caporetto. On October 24, 1917, he received the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's highest military