They Fought for Europe

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116. PANZER-DIVISION 'WINDHUND'

This excellent division was formed from 16th Panzer-Grenadier Division 'Windhund' which had suffered very heavy losses on the Eastern Front. It was reformed and upgraded into a Panzer Division, re-designated as 116th Panzer-Division 'Windhund,' (since there already was a 16th Panzer Division) and kept its division emblem Wappenschild 'Windhund.' This division had the distinction of having Kalmücken-Kavallerie-Korps, a unit of about 5,000 Kalmyk volunteers who chose to join the German Armed Forces in 1942 and fought with distinction.

AWARDS (16. Panzer-Grenadier Division & 116. Panzer-Division combined)

✠ Knight's Cross (42)
✠ German Cross in Gold (141)
✠ German Cross in Silver (5)
✠ Close Combat Clasp in Gold (14)
✠ Army Honor Roll Clasp (22)
✠ Certificate of Recognition From Adolf Hitler For Outstanding Achievement on the Battlefield (10)

✠ Hans-Karl Bunzel (29-04-1915 - 12-11-1995)

Panzer-Abteilung 116 / 116. Panzer-Division 'Windhund'

Destroyed 95 tanks. His gravestone at the cemetery in Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut was removed in 2019 to prevent it from being a "Nazi Shrine," and cleanse Germany from "Traces of Evil."

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Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 277 - Wappenschild - 'The Tasmanian Devil'

✠ Günter Chrzonsz (15 October 1914 – 31 October 2003)

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 277

During a battle in October 1943 Chrzonsz found himself alone against a force of about 50 T-34 tanks, he destroyed 10 of these before a T-34 rammed his Sturmgeschütz and lifted it up sideways. The two vehicles became wedged together, and as the T-34 reversed it tore away the left track of Chrzonsz’s Sturmgeschütz. However as the Soviet tank pulled back to an approximately 30 metre range it fell into the gunsight of the German vehicle by chance and was promptly destroyed. Chrzonsz then drove his gun slowly into the contested village on his own initiative. Covered by the houses, he proceeded to destroy another 7 enemy tanks. This combined with the close-combat kills by the nearby Grenadiers forced the remaining Soviet armour to retreat. At the end of the day Chrzonsz had destroyed 18 tanks and achieved a major local victory raising his total of destroyed tanks to 23. For this action he received the Knight's Cross. Combat records are missing as to his total tank kills for the war.

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205. INFANTERIE-DIVISION – Pilz-Division

"The Mushroom Division" -Wappenschild

They fought until the final surrender in May 1945 in the Kurland Pocket. Nearly all of these men were held in Soviet captivity for several years after the war.

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✠ Eduard Lindinger ✠ 17.01.1915 - 01.09.2004

Served with Kampfgeschwader 1 "Hindenburg" - a Luftwaffe bomber unit with Heinkel He 111 and later the famous 'Tigers in the Sky' Heinkel He 177 bombers ( the first aircraft in history with radio controlled guided missiles ).

The unit was assigned the Hindenburg family crest as its emblem.

Eduard Lindinger flew a total of 322 sorties in WWII, including a few as a night-fighter pilot. He is credited with destroying an aircraft engine factory at Rybinsk, a rubber-producing collective facility at Yaroslavl, 8 tanks, 3 locomotives, 3 freight trains, over 100 trucks and other transport, a minesweeper and 2 auxiliary war ships. He was awarded:

✠ Knight's Cross (9 December 1942)
✠ German Cross in Gold (18 May 1942)
✠ Luftwaffe Honor Goblet (13 February 1942)
✠ Iron Cross I. Class (4 August 1941)
✠ Iron Cross II. Class (26 May 1941)
✠ Front Flying Clasp in Gold with Pendant (13 October 1942)
✠ Front Flying Clasp in Gold (16 November 1941)
✠ Front Flying Clasp in Silver (15 September 1941)
✠ Front Flying Clasp in Bronze (12 July 1941)
✠ Wound Badge in Black (13 August 1942)
✠ Eastern Front Medal (16 July 1942)
✠ Pilot’s Badge (15 February 1940)

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✠ Bodo Spranz ✠ 1 January 1920 – 1 September 2007

✠ StuG ACE and PANZERKNACKER ✠ Destroyed over 76 tanks.

Sturmgeschütz, or 'StuG' was a dual purpose assault gun / tank destroyer that were 'fire brigades' that were attached to most Infanterie-Divisionen.

They were surprisingly effective as tank killers but only in the hands of a skilled ace who could handle the skid-steer tactic and take advantage of the StuG's speed and low profile to zoom in close enough and hit an enemy tank in the right spot (usually the side or rear armor). Panzer Ace Michael Wittmann began his career as a StuG Ace. Bodo Spranz was one of the more successful StuG Aces. He survived the war and All-Lied captivity to become quite a scholar and wrote a number of books about Meso-American civilizations, and was the respected Director of the Geschichte des Freiburger Instituts für Ethnologie for many years. He was awarded:

✠ Knight's Cross on 3 October 1943 as Oberleutnant in Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 237. In six days of battle near the end of August/start of September 1943 his company destroyed 61 enemy tanks.

✠ Oak Leaves on 3 October 1943 as Oberleutnant in Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 237. Awarded for the continued count of tanks destroyed by himself and his company. In the middle of September he and his company crushed a fierce Soviet tank attack, knocking out 27 tanks in this one engagement alone. By 17 September 1943 Spranz had raised his individual total of tanks destroyed to 76, and also destroyed 4 in individual close combat with a hand held device when his StuG was shot out. On this same day he was wounded for the ninth time.

Bodo Spranz was awarded:

✠ Knights Cross (3 October 1943)
✠ Oak Leaves (3 October 1943)
✠ German Cross in Gold (6 May 1943)
✠ Iron Cross II Class (23 June 1940)
✠ Iron Cross I Class (2 July 1941)
✠ Wound Badge in Black (4 September 1941)
✠ Wound Badge

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✠ Wilhelm Weber ✠ 19 March 1918 – 2 March 1980

✠ PANZERKNACKER Destroyed 13 tanks ✠ won the Knights cross. Wounded six times in combat, spent most of his service in the Heer (German Army) until he was transferred to the SS 'Charlemagne' Division because of his knowledge of the French language. Fought in the last desperate days with the French SS "Charlemagne' Division in the Battle for Berlin. His known Awards:

✠ Knights Cross (29 April 1945)
✠ German Cross in Gold (21 October 1943)
✠ Iron Cross I Class
✠ Iron Cross II Class
✠ Individual Tank Destruction Badge (13 times)
✠ Gold Wound Badge
✠ Silver Wound Badge
✠ Black Wound Badge
✠ Wehrmacht Long Service IV Class
✠ Eastern Front Medal

[Farwell Kirk]

Those are pretty damn cool ! What website did you get them from?

[alex revision]

Originally Posted by Farwell Kirk

Those are pretty damn cool ! What website did you get them from?

On VK:

https://vk.com/eric52

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http://www.luftwaffe.cz/rall.html



Theodor Weissenberger, Heinrich Ehrler and Rudolf Müller

German ace Heinrich Ehrler

Heinrich Ehrler - Wikipedia





Horst Ademeit achieved a total of 166 victories. He achieved 146 victories on the Eastern Front. On 7 August 1944, Ademeit, flying a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5, pursued a Russian Il-2 Sturmovik aircraft eastwards over Russian lines near Dünaburg, He failed to return from this mission and is considered missing in action since.

(Note: recent archive discoveries have confirmed 14 more victories on the Eastern front, and 6 more as yet unconfirmed).



Max-Hellmuth Ostermann (11 December 1917 – 9 August 1942). He is credited with 102 enemy aircraft shot down. The majority of his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front with eight claims over the Western Front. Shortly before he was killed in action he had went home on leave to get married. On the way to his wedding he was arrested and jailed until his identity was confirmed. It was believed because of his short stature and boyish appearance that he was a schoolboy illegally wearing a well decorated Luftwaffe officer's uniform.



Helmut Lent is officially credited with 110 victories. The total includes 103 victories at night, during which he destroyed 59 four-engine bombers and one Mosquito, among other types. Lent is remembered as a night fighter pilot, but he was also a decorated night bomber pilot. Lent's victories as a fighter pilot were the second highest in night aviation history, for which he became one of only 27 men in the entire German armed forces to receive the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords & Diamonds. He was married to a Russian woman in 1941. They had 2 daughters, the last child born the day before Lent died from injuries in an airplane accident. Lent's awards were auctioned at Sotheby's, London, on 18 July 1966. The items were bought in one lot by an anonymous bidder for the total sum of £500. The purchaser turned out to be none other than Luftwaffe Ace Adolf Galland, who donated Lent's medals to the modern German military. A barracks is now named in Lent's memory.



Peter "Bonifazius" Düttmann (23 May 1923 – 9 January 2001) was a Luftwaffe flying ace who achieved 158 kills, scoring his first victory on 21 May 1943. Recent research discovered in the German Federal Archives has revealed another 45 further unconfirmed as yet claims.



A fascinating story of triumph and tragedy, and how one of the Luftwaffe's most noble men has been dishonored.

In 1934 Mölders applied for flight training with the Luftwaffe, passing all but one test - the centrifugal spin chair which made him dizzy and caused him to vomit. A doctor then recommended that Mölders was unfit to become a pilot. Mölders was determined though, and practiced with the chair until he passed. Flying sickness would continue with Mölders during the early part of his career, but in the end he would overcome the problem with determination and an iron will to succeed. Mölders opened his World War II account by scoring in the opening weeks of the French campaign when he had become the first Luftwaffe pilot to reach 20 victories. Mölders scoring tactic was to hit enemy airplanes hard from close range. When a captured French aviator was sentenced to death by the Germans for beating Mölders, Mölders approached Hermann Göring and requested clemency, which was granted. Mölders demanded that all Allied aviators captured by those under his command be treated civilly, and often would invite captured pilots to dine with him. Mölders career was tragically cut short when a plane he was a passenger had an accident and crashed, killing him instantly.

On April 13, 1968, a Destroyer of the Federal German Navy was christened "Mölders". It was in Service between 1969 and 2003. On November 9, 1972 a base of a Battalion of the 34th Signal Regiment of the Federal German Army received the name "Mölders". Most notably, the Fighter Squadron 74 (Jagdgeschwader (JG) 74), stationed in Neuburg on Danube received the name "Mölders" in 1973. However, the cowardly Jewish controlled German government in 2005 decided to remove all designations with the name "Mölders" from its military, citing that the name Mölders ... " should not be honored any more."



He was known as “The Night Ghost of St Trond.” Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer is the highest scoring Night Fighter Ace in aviation history. Schnaufer’s greatest one-off success came on 21 February 1945, when he destroyed 9 RAF heavy bombers in the course of one day, two in the early hours of the morning and a further seven in the evening. For this outstanding feat he received the Goblet for Outstanding Achievements in Aerial Warfare (post-war research documents that in fact his total that day was 10, one claim not having been acknowledged). At the end of the war Schnaufer’s official tally stood at 121, which now is amended to 122.



The Luftwaffe left a remarkable legacy of military aviation records, starting with the highest-scoring ace of all time. Among the less remembered but equally remarkable records were those set by Emil Lang, including the most enemy planes downed in a single day. Lang outdid himself—and every other fighter pilot in the world. During a morning patrol near Kiev he attacked a formation of Il-2 Shturmoviks and their Yak-7 fighter escorts at 9:31 a.m., and by 9:42 he had accounted for four of the armored Il-2s and three Yaks. Around 1 p.m. he downed an La-5, followed by an unidentified Soviet plane in a third sortie. During his fourth mission he had a series of encounters starting at 2:16 p.m. that by 2:49 had doubled the day’s bag, with two La-5s, two Yak-9s and five Il-2s. As he returned to his airfield, his face blackened with gunpowder and grime, a grinning Bully Lang thrust his fist in the air in triumph. He had brought the day’s total to 18, edging out the 17-victory record set over North Africa by JG.27’s famous Me-109 virtuoso, Hans Joachim Marseille !!

JG.26’s commander, Lt. Col. Josef “Pips” Priller, requested Captain Lang to replace his transferred II Gruppe commander. His wider responsibilities notwithstanding, Bully showed no inclination of leading from behind a desk, and his ebullience re-energized morale among the group’s pilots. Priller's request for Lang’s promotion best summed it: “Captain Lang is a fully motivated character, serious and calm in his demeanor, yet definitive and energetic when strength was needed. Very good attitude as an officer. Demands of himself first. He understands how to reach the men under his command correctly. Captain Lang possesses an exemplary concept of service, has initiative and talent for improvisation to a large degree, well rooted in National Socialist ideas.” His total tally includes 144 air victories on the Eastern Front and 29 on the Western Front. Of those 29, 28 occurred on the Normandy Invasion Front, more than any other German Fighter Ace of that campaign. Beyond his 173 air victories, he sunk one Soviet torpedo boat. On September 3, 1944, while having mechanical problems with his aircraft, he was surprised by a group of P-51 Mustangs and shot down, his plane exploding when it crashed into the ground near Overhespen. Emil was killed on impact.



His accomplishments were extraordinary considering his short career. On 20 May 1944, Wolfrum shot down 6 aircraft, an "ace-in-a-day" achievement. He became a double "ace-in-a-day" following 11 aircraft shot down on 30 May 1944. The next day, he again shot down 6 aircraft, again making him an "ace-in-a-day." On 1 June 1944, Wolfrum was credited with his 100th aerial victory. He was the 74th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. On 16 July, Wolfrum again became a double "ace-in-a-day" when he shot down 10 aircraft in combat near Kamionka, northeast of Lviv. Following his 10th victory, he was severely wounded requiring a lengthy period of convalescence, during which time he was promoted to Staff position in September 1944 as Wing Commander of Jagdgeschwader 52. At the end of the war, Wolfrum surrendered most of his unit to the US 90th Infantry Division.

After the war he became a successful aerobatics pilot, winning the German Championship in 1962 and taking second place in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966.




Wilhelm Crinius joined the Luftwaffe in January 1940 and underwent fighter pilot training. In February 1942, Crinius was posted to JG 53 based in Sicily. Gefreiter Crinius was assigned to 3./JG 53. Between mid-March and the end of April, he flew 60 missions over Malta. On 1 April, he received promotion to the rank of Unteroffizier. In May 1942, I./JG 53 was relocated to the Eastern front. Operating from Kursk, Crinius achieved his first victories on 9 June when he shot down two Russian Il-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft. On 8 July, Crinius shot down two Russian Boston twin-engined bombers attacking a bridge west of Voronezh. During the engagement his aircraft was hit by Russian anti-aircraft fire. He belly-landed his Bf 109 F-4 between the lines where he was rescued by a German army patrol and returned to his unit. In late July 1942, I./JG 53 was relocated to the southern sector of the Eastern front. Crinius claimed his 15th victory on 1 August. He shot down three Russian aircraft on 12 August to record his 25th through 27th victories. Crinius recorded his 49th victory on 27 August which was also the 1,000th victory for I./JG 53. He recorded his 55th victory on 1 September and was promoted to the rank of Feldwebel. Flying with Wolfgang Tonne (122 victories, RK-EL, killed in action 20 April 1943) and Friedrich-Karl “Tutti” Müller (140 victories, RK-EL, killed in flying accident 29 May 1944) in I./JG 53, Crinius was particularly successful, recording 40 victories in August and 46 victories between 1 and 22 September, including 100th victory on 22 September. He was awarded the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub on 23 September and promoted to the rank of Leutnant. In November 1942, Crinius transferred with I./JG 53 to Tunisia. Here he was to record 14 victories, including his only four-engined bomber on 26 December and his 110th victory on 4 January 1943. On 13 January 1943, in aerial combat with RAF Spitfire fighters near La Calle, Crinius’ aircraft was hit and he was wounded in the thigh. Breaking off combat , he headed for his base but his engine then caught fire. He ditched his stricken Bf 109 G-2 in the sea. He spent 24 hours in the water before being rescued by French sailors and Arabs. After hospitalization for his wounds, Crinius became a prisoner of war.

Wilhelm Crinius was credited with 114 victories in approximately 400 missions. He recorded 100 victories over the Eastern front. Of his 14 victories recorded over the Western front, one was a four-engined bomber.

[alex revision]

The Men - U-boat Commanders




Joachim Schepke



Joachim Schepke giving a speech in Berliner Sportpalast, February 1941 (six weeks prior to his death).

Kapitanleutnant Joachim Schepke - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine - uboat.net



Kapitanleutnant Joachim Schepke - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine - uboat.net



Fregattenkapitan Erich Topp - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine - uboat.net








Wilhelm Max Rollmann joined the Reichsmarine in in April 1926. After serving on several ships, including the light cruiser Karlsruhe, in May 1937 he transferred to the U-boat force. After a thorough pre-war training he took over command of the type VIIA U-boat U-34 in October 1938. Two of his more notable successes were the sinking of the British destroyer HMS Whirlwind and the British submarine Spearfish.On 20 February 1943 he commissioned the large type IXD2 U-848. The boat was sunk with all hands on her first patrol by US aircraft southwest of Ascension Island, in the South Atlantic on 5 November 1943. Conning tower photo of U-34 is an example of the effort U-Boat crews put into their artwork.



Jürgen Oesten joined the Reichsmarine in April 1933. Following standard training he spent more than a year on the battleships Admiral Graf Spee and Karlsruhe. In May 1937 he transferred to the U-boat arm, receiving a thorough pre-war training. In October 1937 he became a Watch Officer on U-20. On 12 August 1939 he commissioned U-61. After his eighth patrol he left U-61, and one month later commissioned the much larger type IXB U-106. Oesten received his Knights Cross on his second patrol in African waters, where he sank eight ships totalling 44,820 tons. His attack on one vessel during the battle against a convoy was unintended but effective: he aimed at the shadow of a ship in bad light conditions and did not realize that the torpedo had hit the British Battleship HMS Malaya. Oesten left U-106 in October 1941 to become commander of the 9th Flotilla at Brest in France. In March 1942 Jürgen Oesten became Commander of U-Boats Northern Waters. In July 1943 he left Norway and on 2 September, 1943 commissioned the type IXD2 U-861. U-861 left Kiel on 20 April 1944 and first operated in Brazilian waters, sinking two ships. The U-861 found her next victim south of Madagascar before she reached Penang on 23 September 1944, and sank another ship off Somalia. On the return journey the boat struck an iceberg south of Greenland, but Oesten, through good seamanship, reached Trondheim, Norway on 19 April 1945.Jürgen Oesten died peacefully on 5 Aug 2010 and was buried at sea. Ruhe in Frieden Jürgen.



Erwin Rostin began his naval career in October 1932. After serving on the WWI battleship Schlesien, he commanded the minesweepers M-98 and M-21 1940-41. In March 1941 he transferred to the U-boat force. Following standard training, but without any previous combat experience, he commissioned the large type IXC U-boat U-158 on 25 Sep 1941. After four months of working up the boat and crew, he took U-158 out for the first war patrol, off the US east coast, during which he sank five ships with a total of over 38,000 tons. One month after her return, U-158 left for the second war patrol, this time in the Gulf of Mexico, on 4 May 1942. This turned out to be one of the most successful patrols of the war in terms of tonnage, with 12 ships totaling 62,536 tons sunk. Its outcome was not successful for the boat and her crew, however. U-158 was sunk by depth charges from US aircraft on 30 June 1942 and went down with all hands. Erwin Rostin had been awarded the Knights Cross via radio two days before his death.



Hans Jenisch joined the Kriegsmarine in April 1933 and after a year on the cruiser Deutschland transferred to the U-boat force in May 1937. After training he became the first watch officer on U-32 in January 1938. Two years later he took over this U-Boat as Commander. Hans Jenish claim to fame was the sinking of the largest warship by any German U-Boat, the 42,348 ton Emress of Britain.

On October 30th 1940 during the 6th combat patrol, U 32 came under depth charge attack by two British Destroyers (HMS Harvester en HMS Highlander) and got sunk Northwest of Ireland with the loss of nine man. Hans Jenisch and 32 man managed to escape the sinking ship and became prisoners of war. Jenish spent nearly 7 years in All Lied captivity before finally being released in 1947.



Engelbert Endraß began his naval career in April 1935. Like Prien and Metzler, he had previously spent some years in the merchant navy. After some months serving on the pocket battleship Deutschland and some escort vessels, he was assigned to the U-Boat force in October 1937. He joined U-47 in December 1938 and was 1WO when Günther Prien made his famous Scapa Flow attack and sank HMS Royal Oak. It was Endraß who painted the famous snorting bull emblem on U-47's conning tower before they returned. He stayed on U-47 until December 1939, and after some training courses took command of U-46, His first patrol with U-46 was very successful. Endraß sank five ships with a total of 35,347 tons, including the British 20,077 ton warship HMS Carinthia. Although hampered by a damaged main attack periscope, he repeated that success on his second patrol, sinking five ships, in total 27,038 tons, including the British 15,007 ton warship Dunvegan Castle. After returning from this patrol Endraß was awarded the Knights Cross. After the seventh patrol, the Oak Leaves were added. In September 1941 he left U-46 and a month later took over the new VIIC U-Boat U-567. Endraß was killed on 21 December 1941, when U-567 was sunk with all hands (47 men) by depth charges from the British HMS Deptford and the British HMS Samphire NE of the Azores.



Werner Hartmann spent the first years of his career as commander of the torpedo boats Seeadler and Albatros. In 1935 he transferred to the U-Boat arm and remained there through the end of World War II. With his first U-boat, U-26, he patrolled in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War in 1937-38. During the first months of the war Hartmann was Commander of U-37. After only three patrols Hartmann received the Knights Cross. In November 1940 he became the Commander of the 2nd ULD, and a year later took command of the 27th Flotilla in Gotenhafen. In November 1942 he took over one of the large type IXD2 boats and completed with U-198 the third longest (200 days) patrol ever undertaken.



Günther Müller-Stöckheim joined the Kriegsmarine in April 1934 and served on the battleship Schlesien. In July 1941 he took command of U-67, going on eight patrols in the North Atlantic and Caribbean. He had one patrol where he sank 8 ships, but was the center of controversy as he became enraged after returning shortly from another patrol when all the torpedoes fired struck several ships but were duds. Later, he eventually returned to action only to be killed in action when U-67 was sunk in the Sargasso Sea on 16 July 1943 by bombs from an Avenger aircraft from the escort carrier USS Core. Only three of her crew of 51 survived. Such was the triumph and the tragedy of many of our U-Boat Heroes who risked their lives in service to humanity against the All-Lied forces of darkness. Ruhe in Frieden Günther Müller-Stöckheim.



Moehle entered the navy in April 1930 at the age of 19 and spent his initial training aboard Schleswig-Holstein. He transferred to the U-Boat force in March 1936 took command of his first boat, U-20 on 1 October 1937. He made six patrols in U-20, operating in the North Sea. He was moderately successful, sinking eight allied ships. He left U-20 on 17 January 1940 and took command of U-123, where he went on to achieve a high rate of kills. His first patrol sank six merchants, including four on 19 October. His second patrol was also highly successful, when on the morning of 23 November he sank five ships over a period of five hours, for a combined total of 23,084 GRT. Moehle carried out another four patrols, sinking another five ships. On 26 February 1941 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He stepped down as commander of U-123 on 19 May 1941 and became the commander of 5th U-boat Flotilla.
After the surrender of Germany, Moehle, a very well decorated and unrepentant "Nazi," was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment, but was released in November 1949.



Wilhelm Schulz began his Kriegsmarine career in October 1933. On 27 September 1935 he joined the U-Boat force. In January 1939 he got his first command and commissioned U-64 on 16 Dec 1939. Her only patrol was in Norwegian waters: she was hit and sunk by a 350-pound bomb and raked with machine gun fire from a British Swordfish aircraft on 13 April 1940. Schultz was among the 38 survivors. Two months later Schulz commissioned U-124, another type type IXB U-boat. He achieved particularly notable success on his fourth patrol, during which he sank 11 ships with a total 52,379 tons and damaged two others. Schulz left the boat in September 1941. Schulz then took over command of the 6th and later the 25th Training Flotillas.

[alex revision]

He was an unknown soldier at the time, this is Johann Baichl tossing a stick grenade.This was to become a famous action photo.



Johann Baichl (who passed into Glory in 1994) worked to help erect a monument to honor the sacrifice made by the warriors of the 33rd Panzergrenadier Regiment.




Friedrich Buck spent much of his service with 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division Florian Geyer. He is one of only 98 men to have received both the Close Combat Clasp in Gold & the Knight's Cross. It is one thing to shoot your enemy from a distance, but It is quite another thing to be successful in hand to hand combat facing a man, with the whites of his eyes, in a struggle to the death with your opponent.

The Infantry Assault Badge, whether attacking or defending, was a separate award, and did not necessarily involve hand to hand combat. If you could do this 50 separate days (doing this multiple times in one day still only counted as one day) you won the Gold (15 for Bronze, 25 for Silver).

Many of the 98 warriors who did this said their Gold Close Combat Clasp meant more to them than their Knight's Cross ! Of interest here, Friedrich Buck was equally proud of being the only German besides the very famous Hans Ulrich Rudel to be awarded the Hungarian Medal For Bravery (for his extreme combat bravery in the defense of Budapest in Hungary against the Soviets.

Buck was a tremendous GLADIATOR of old, wounded seven times and losing two fingers in hand to hand combat duels ! This proud warrior was not ashamed to wear his medals of valor all his days. He passed into the Feldherrnhalle, the Hall of of our Fallen Heroes in 2015.

RUHE IN FRIEDEN - REST IN PEACE.




SS-Sturmbannführer Ernst Haussler. Ernst Haussler, who won his Knight’s Cross on Aug.18.43 for successful actions at and after Unternehmen Zitadelle. He served as the commander of II.Abteilung/SS-Panzer-Regiment3 of 3.SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf”.

[alex revision]

Gunter Halm - Wikipedia





Brommann, Karl - TracesOfWar.com












Karl Auer served most of his career with the 8th SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment of the 4th SS-Polizei Panzergrenadier-Division. He is numbered among the 98 gladiators who won the Knight's Cross & the Close Combat Clasp in Gold for 50 different days of defeating an enemy in hand to hand combat. He also won the rare distinction of earning the Tank Destruction Badge for single handed destruction of an enemy tank with a hand held device ! Entered Feldherrnhalle in 1997.





This brave Panzergrenadier was one of few men in the entire German Wehrmacht to be awarded every single bravery medal. He was also the 4th member of the German armed forces to win the prestigious Close Combat Clasp in Gold, eventually recording over 60 "melee days" or days spent in savage close hand to hand combat. In July and August of 1943 alone, this warrior - gladiator recorded 20 days of melee, and remained undefeated looking death in the eyes more than a hundred times ! He was killed in action on 17 November 1944 when he was hit in the back by shrapnel.





Friedrich Holzer distinguished himself in combat numerous times, first in an Infantry Regiment of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. where he won many of his close combat points in hand to hand combat. Later he transferred to become a Panther Ace, destroying 28 Soviet T-34's from his Panther #101 in one day to stop a Soviet breakthrough in the German line, for which he won the Knight's Cross in December 1943.

[alex revision]

The name comes from the Franconian knight Florian Geyer (about 1490 to June 9, 1525). They battled outstandingly under Vjasma-Briansk-Rzev. Before 1943 the division was subjected to the 2nd Panzer Army. 23 men from this division received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross !





Formed in July 1944 mainly from Hungarians and various nationalities in the former Yugoslavia. These men fought well against the Soviets. On May 8, 1945 they moved towards Pilsen in Czech and surrendered to the US troops, who handed them over to Stalin's Jewish NKVD as part of Operation Keelhaul (turning all east Europeans over to Stalin) who then murdered the 4,000 men who were left of this division after the war was over.



It is amazing how so many Dutch volunteered to join the European Crusade against JEW BOLSHEVISM. They not only had 2 of their own Waffen SS Divisions, but Dutch volunteers were scattered in other Waffen SS divisions as well. This division was rounded out with a significant number of volunteers from Sweden and Switzerland. 20 men from the division received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross !






The name comes from the King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans Karl the Great's (April 2, 742 until January 28, 814) French name Charlemagne, during whose reign the Frank Empire was formed and it included nowadays' Italy, France and Germany. 4 men from this division received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.