the Division deployed in Italy on 9 June 1944 on an increasingly precarious front, however Niedermayer by this time was no longer its Commander, having been replaced on 21 May 1944 on the orders of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, who had few weeks before in a written personal assessment of Niedermayer reported: “His education is above average... It is, however, more of a scholastic nature than of use in a practical fighting command application. in decision-making he is hesitant, and his command leadership style is too slow in reaction." (Cited in: Charles W. Seidler:Ritter Oskar Niedermayer of the Second World War, in: Researchers brigadeRundschau, 4, 1970, S.203) Niedermayer now became the commander of voluntary associations by the Supreme Commander of Weststaggered. The details of his work there are not known. However, in August 1944, he had come to a view which was disparaging of Hitler's Ostpolitik. Two officers of his staff reported this to the Nazi Authorities and Niedermayer was arrested and charged with advocating defeatism against Nazi Germany. He was Court Martialed at Torgau. Numerous friends and associates, including Heinrich Himmler, provided character references during the hearing stating Niedermayer's merits and history of service to Germany, but he was jailed and not released from Torgau prison until end of the war. After the capitulation of Germany on May 9, 1945 whilst attempting to return to his hometown of Regensburg, at Carlsbad the Red Army arrested him, and he was deported to the U.S.S.R, and a Moscow prison, where he contracted tuberculosis. A Russian court martial sentenced him to 25 years in prison, which he was sentenced to serve in the prison of Vladimir (German: Wladimir), where he died on 25 September 1948 in the prison's hospital. Works My return from Afghanistan, Munich 1918. The inland basins of the Iranian high country,' Munich 1918. Afghanistan, Leipzig 1924. Under the scorching sun: Iran war experiences of the German expedition to Persia and Afghanistan, Dachau 1925. Brigade Geographical consideration of the Soviet Union, Berlin 1933. Soviet Russia - A geopolitical problem, Berlin 1934. Brigade Policy -- An introduction and definition, Leipzig 1939. Geographic Atlas of France, Berlin 1939. Soldiering and Science, Hamburg 1940. Brigade Geographic Atlas of Great Britain, Berlin 1940. War and Science, in: The Kingdom 21 / 1941. Brigade Geographic Atlas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Berlin 1941. Geography Department, Berlin 1942. References . Peter March:The first World