[1] Whilst commanding the 65th Infantry Division in Italy, von Ziehlberg ordered the illegal executions of four SAS men: Captain Patrick Dudgeon, Sergeant William Foster, Corporal James Shortall, and Gunner Bernard Brunt, between September and October 1943.

Instead of arresting him, von Ziehlberg told Kuhn to transfer his official duties and proceed to Berlin in order to clear things up.

Hitler, suspecting him of collaboration with Generaloberst Ludwig Beck, revoked his sentence and had von Ziehlberg re-arrested to face another trial.

On 21 November he was sentenced to death by the Reichskriegsgericht, dishonourably discharged, and stripped of all honors, ranks and titles.

Ziehlberg was executed on 2 February 1945 by a Wehrmacht firing squad at a proving ground near Olympic Stadium in the Charlottenburg (present-day Westend) district of Berlin.