Ritterkreuzträger of 56. Infanterie-Division

The 56. Infanterie-Division) nicknamed "Gekreuzte Säbel" (Crossed Sabres) after its divisional symbol, was a second-wave Wehrmacht unit formed on 26 August 1939 in Dresden from Saxon reservists in Wehrkreis IV, incorporating Infantry Regiments 171, 192, and 234 along with Artillery Regiment 156. It first saw action during the invasion of Poland in 1939 with the 14th Army, primarily handling mopping-up operations and collecting stragglers before shifting westward. In the 1940 Battle of France, it advanced through the southern Netherlands and Belgium, engaging in fierce fighting around Turnhout, the Albert Canal, Mechelen, Ghent, and Furnes near Dunkirk, then served in occupation duties in Belgium and near Paris. Transferred back to Poland in late 1940 (where it contributed cadres to other divisions), it joined Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 with Army Group South and XVII Corps, advancing through Volhynia and Ukraine to participate in the massive encirclement Battle of Kiev; it later transferred to Army Group Center for rear-area security near Bryansk, defensive actions during the Soviet winter counteroffensive, and attritional fighting around Orel. The division endured heavy combat in the Battle of Moscow and especially at Kursk in 1943, suffering severe losses that led to its dissolution in late 1943, with remnants forming Corps Detachment D (which was largely destroyed west of Vitebsk during the Soviet Operation Bagration in June 1944). Reformed in East Prussia on 10 September 1944 under Generalleutnant Edmund Blaurock from Korps-Abteilung D, the division fought desperate defensive battles in the East Prussian Offensive starting January 1945, including actions around the Willuhner See, Insterburg, and Wehlau, before being encircled and largely annihilated in the Heiligenbeil Pocket in March 1945; only about 250 men escaped westward, with the staff helping form the Ulrich von Hutten Division for the final battles like Halbe. Its commanders included figures such as Karl Kriebel, Paul von Hase (later executed for involvement in the 20 July plot), Karl von Oven, and others, reflecting the division's trajectory from mobile campaigns in the West to the grinding attrition and ultimate destruction on the Eastern Front.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RITTERKREUZTRÄGER


General der Infanterie Ludwig Wolff (1893-1968), born on 3 April 1893 in Chemnitz in the Kingdom of Saxony and died on 9 November 1968 in Mannheim, was a German army officer whose career extended from the Imperial German Army through the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, where he ultimately rose to command the XXXIII. Armeekorps. Entering military service in 1912 as a one-year volunteer in the Infanterie-Regiment Kronprinz (5. Königlich Sächsisches) Nr. 104, he was commissioned Leutnant in 1913 and served with distinction in the First World War, earning both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz as well as the Ritterkreuz of the Militär-St.-Heinrichs-Orden. Retained in the postwar Reichswehr, he advanced through instructional and command roles, including as commander of Infanterie-Regiment 192 of the 56. Infanterie-Division at the start of the Second World War. During the 1940 invasion of the Low Countries, as Oberst he personally led his regiment in forcing the first crossings of the Schelde and Lys rivers near Nevele with inflatable rafts, an action that proved decisive to the German advance, secured thousands of prisoners, and earned him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 26 May 1940, the same day he suffered severe facial wounds that cost him an eye and required extensive surgery before his return to duty. Promoted to Generalmajor, he took command of the 22. Infanterie-Division (Luftlande) in late 1941, guiding it through the breakthrough at the Perekop Isthmus onto the Crimea and, in June 1942, achieving the first German penetration to the Severnaya Bay at Sevastopol while storming Fort Stalin on 13 June, feats that brought him the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold in February 1942 and the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (as the 100th recipient) on 22 June 1942. Later serving as Befehlshaber Mittelnorwegen and commander of the XXXIII. Armeekorps with promotion to General der Infanterie in 1944, followed by staff and inspector positions including oversight of Hungarian formations, Wolff was captured by American forces in May 1945 and released from captivity in June 1947, thereafter living in retirement until his death.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)

Ritterkreuzträger of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (NJG 3)

Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (NJG 3) was a Luftwaffe night-fighter wing formed on 29 September 1941 at Stade from the Stab of Zerstörergeschwader 26 and placed initially under the 1. Nachtjagddivision (later the 2. Jagddivision), operating primarily in the defence of the Reich over northern Germany, Denmark and the North Sea approaches with the Geschwaderkennung first L1 and later D5. Its Stab remained based at Stade for most of the war under successive Kommodore Major Johann Schalk (until 1 August 1943), Oberst Helmut Lent (1 August 1943 until his death on 7 October 1944) and finally Oberst Günther Radusch (from 12 November 1944), while its four Gruppen were raised from various Zerstörer and night-fighter elements: I. Gruppe (formed earlier as V.(Z)/Lehrgeschwader 1 at Vechta in October 1940) flew mainly from Vechta, Schleswig and Grove; II. Gruppe was established at Schleswig in September 1941; III. Gruppe was created at Stade in November 1941 from II./Zerstörergeschwader 76; and IV. Gruppe was formed at Grove in November 1942, later exchanging designations with elements of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2. Initially equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 110s (and some Dornier Do 217s from mid-1942), the wing progressively converted to Junkers Ju 88C night fighters from mid-1943 and Ju 88G models from mid-1944, with limited use of the Heinkel He 219, conducting both defensive night interceptions against RAF Bomber Command raids and occasional day operations; detachments operated briefly in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Smolensk area early in the war, while later bases included Plantlünne, Gütersloh, Westerland, Jever and various Danish airfields such as Grove (Karup), Kastrup and Skrydstrup. Pilots of NJG 3 claimed approximately 820 aerial victories by day and night before the unit was progressively reduced in strength in early 1945, with several Staffeln disbanded or redesignated by late March, remaining operational until the German surrender on 8 May 1945; two of its aircraft—a Bf 110 G-4 and a Ju 88 R-1—survive today at the RAF Museum in London.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BRILLANTENTRÄGER


Oberst Helmut Lent (1918-1944) was born on 13 June 1918 in Pyrehne, Landsberg an der Warthe, into a devoutly Lutheran family as the fifth child of a minister; after primary schooling and private tutoring he passed his Abitur in December 1935, completed Reichsarbeitsdienst, and against his father’s wishes entered the Luftwaffe as a Fahnenjunker on 1 April 1936, training at Luftkriegsschule 2 Gatow where he earned his wings and was commissioned Leutnant on 1 March 1938 before converting to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 with I./Zerstörergeschwader 76. He claimed his first victories during the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and further successes over the North Sea, including two confirmed Wellingtons in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight on 18 December 1939, then flew ground-support missions during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, force-landing at Fornebu after engine damage while helping secure the airfield. Transferred to the newly formed Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, he scored his first nocturnal victory on 12 May 1941 and, as Staffelkapitän of 6./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 with 8 day and 14 night victories, received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 August 1941. Promoted Hauptmann and appointed Kommandeur of II./Nachtjagdgeschwader 2, he continued to accumulate night victories against RAF bombers and was awarded the Eichenlaub on 6 June 1942 after 35 nocturnal kills; later as Kommandeur of IV./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 he received the Schwerter on 2 August 1943 after 66 night victories. On the night of 15–16 June 1944, by then Oberstleutnant and Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, he became the first night-fighter pilot to claim his 100th nocturnal victory, for which he was awarded the Brillanten on 31 July 1944; overall he was credited with 110 aerial victories (102 at night, including 61 four-engined bombers) in 507 sorties. On 5 October 1944, while flying a Junkers Ju 88 on a routine transit flight from Stade to Nordborchen near Paderborn, an engine failed on approach and the aircraft struck power lines; Lent succumbed to his injuries two days later on 7 October 1944 and was posthumously promoted to Oberst.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtjagdgeschwader_3

Ritterkreuzträger of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (NJG 2)

Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (NJG 2) was a Luftwaffe night-fighter and night-intruder wing active from 1 September 1940 until 5 May 1945, formed initially when I./NJG 2 was created at Gilze-Rijen from elements of II./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 and other Zerstörer units, with Stab/NJG 2 established only on 1 November 1941 under Oberstleutnant Karl Hülshoff; uniquely among early night-fighter formations, I./NJG 2 specialised in long-range Fernnachtjagd intruder missions over Britain, operating modified Junkers Ju 88C and Dornier Do 17Z/Do 215 aircraft that could carry bombs as well as forward-firing armament, flying from bases in the Netherlands to intercept RAF bombers taking off or returning to their airfields in eastern England, claiming around 143 victories (with roughly 90 confirmed RAF losses) between October 1940 and October 1941 before Hitler ordered the cessation of such operations on 12 October 1941 in favour of destroying bombers over German territory. Thereafter the Geschwader expanded with II. and III. Gruppen (subject to several redesignations, including temporary absorption into NJG 1 and later re-formations from NJG 6 and NJG 7 elements), shifting to conventional Himmelbett and later free-lance night-fighting under the Kammhuber Line while also deploying detachments to the Mediterranean—Sicily, North Africa and Crete—from late 1941 onward for defence of Axis shipping and airfields; equipped primarily with Ju 88C/G variants (later also Bf 110, Do 217 and briefly the Ju 388J), NJG 2 claimed approximately 800 aerial victories overall, producing notable aces such as Paul Semrau, Heinz Strüning and Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, and in July 1944 one of its Ju 88G-1s accidentally landed intact at RAF Woodbridge, giving the Allies their first detailed examination of the Lichtenstein SN-2 radar and Flensburg detector. In the final months the wing defended the Ruhr and other industrial regions from bases in western Germany, receiving limited numbers of the advanced Ju 388 before fuel shortages and overwhelming Allied air superiority ended operations in May 1945.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Oberst Helmut Lent (1918-1944) was born on 13 June 1918 in Pyrehne, Landsberg an der Warthe, into a devoutly Lutheran family as the fifth child of a minister; after primary schooling and private tutoring he passed his Abitur in December 1935, completed Reichsarbeitsdienst, and against his father’s wishes entered the Luftwaffe as a Fahnenjunker on 1 April 1936, training at Luftkriegsschule 2 Gatow where he earned his wings and was commissioned Leutnant on 1 March 1938 before converting to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 with I./Zerstörergeschwader 76. He claimed his first victories during the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and further successes over the North Sea, including two confirmed Wellingtons in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight on 18 December 1939, then flew ground-support missions during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, force-landing at Fornebu after engine damage while helping secure the airfield. Transferred to the newly formed Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, he scored his first nocturnal victory on 12 May 1941 and, as Staffelkapitän of 6./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 with 8 day and 14 night victories, received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 August 1941. Promoted Hauptmann and appointed Kommandeur of II./Nachtjagdgeschwader 2, he continued to accumulate night victories against RAF bombers and was awarded the Eichenlaub on 6 June 1942 after 35 nocturnal kills; later as Kommandeur of IV./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 he received the Schwerter on 2 August 1943 after 66 night victories. On the night of 15–16 June 1944, by then Oberstleutnant and Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, he became the first night-fighter pilot to claim his 100th nocturnal victory, for which he was awarded the Brillanten on 31 July 1944; overall he was credited with 110 aerial victories (102 at night, including 61 four-engined bombers) in 507 sorties. On 5 October 1944, while flying a Junkers Ju 88 on a routine transit flight from Stade to Nordborchen near Paderborn, an engine failed on approach and the aircraft struck power lines; Lent succumbed to his injuries two days later on 7 October 1944 and was posthumously promoted to Oberst.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtjagdgeschwader_2

Ritterkreuzträger of Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (NJG 1)

Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (NJG 1) was the first and most successful German Luftwaffe night-fighter wing of the Second World War, formed on 22 June 1940 at the direction of Hermann Göring under the command of Oberst Wolfgang Falck (who remained Geschwaderkommodore until 30 June 1943) as an air-defence unit for the Defence of the Reich against RAF Bomber Command night raids, initially organised from elements of I./Zerstörergeschwader 1, IV./Zerstörergeschwader 26, IV.(N)/Jagdgeschwader 2 and other Zerstörer units and based primarily at Deelen-Arnhem, Venlo, Düsseldorf, St. Trond, Twente and Leeuwarden; it eventually comprised four Gruppen equipped successively with the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Dornier Do 17, Messerschmitt Bf 110 (its mainstay), Junkers Ju 88, Dornier Do 217 and the advanced Heinkel He 219 Uhu, operating under the evolving Kammhuber Line system of Himmelbett controlled interceptions that combined Freya and Würzburg ground radars, searchlights and, from 1941–42, airborne Lichtenstein radar. Early experimental intercepts in July 1940 yielded the wing’s first claims (including an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley by Werner Streib), and by the end of 1941 pilots such as Streib, Paul Gildner and Helmut Lent had become leading night aces; the wing played a central role in the battles over the Ruhr, Hamburg and Berlin, introducing innovative attack tactics (notably Ludwig Becker’s underside approach) and producing the highest-scoring night-fighter pilot in history, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (121 victories), who later commanded IV./NJG 1. Command passed to Oberst Werner Streib in July 1943 and then to Oberstleutnant Hans-Joachim Jabs in March 1944; despite mounting losses from improved Allied electronic countermeasures, Mosquito night fighters and overwhelming numbers, NJG 1 claimed approximately 2,311 victories by day and night for the loss of some 676 aircrew killed, remaining operational until the final collapse in May 1945 when its remnants withdrew to Husum and other northern bases before the German surrender on 8 May.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SCHWERTERTRÄGER


Oberst Helmut Lent (1918-1944) was born on 13 June 1918 in Pyrehne, Landsberg an der Warthe, into a devoutly Lutheran family as the fifth child of a minister; after primary schooling and private tutoring he passed his Abitur in December 1935, completed Reichsarbeitsdienst, and against his father’s wishes entered the Luftwaffe as a Fahnenjunker on 1 April 1936, training at Luftkriegsschule 2 Gatow where he earned his wings and was commissioned Leutnant on 1 March 1938 before converting to the Messerschmitt Bf 110 with I./Zerstörergeschwader 76. He claimed his first victories during the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and further successes over the North Sea, including two confirmed Wellingtons in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight on 18 December 1939, then flew ground-support missions during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, force-landing at Fornebu after engine damage while helping secure the airfield. Transferred to the newly formed Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, he scored his first nocturnal victory on 12 May 1941 and, as Staffelkapitän of 6./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 with 8 day and 14 night victories, received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 August 1941. Promoted Hauptmann and appointed Kommandeur of II./Nachtjagdgeschwader 2, he continued to accumulate night victories against RAF bombers and was awarded the Eichenlaub on 6 June 1942 after 35 nocturnal kills; later as Kommandeur of IV./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 he received the Schwerter on 2 August 1943 after 66 night victories. On the night of 15–16 June 1944, by then Oberstleutnant and Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, he became the first night-fighter pilot to claim his 100th nocturnal victory, for which he was awarded the Brillanten on 31 July 1944; overall he was credited with 110 aerial victories (102 at night, including 61 four-engined bombers) in 507 sorties. On 5 October 1944, while flying a Junkers Ju 88 on a routine transit flight from Stade to Nordborchen near Paderborn, an engine failed on approach and the aircraft struck power lines; Lent succumbed to his injuries two days later on 7 October 1944 and was posthumously promoted to Oberst.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtjagdgeschwader_1

Ritterkreuzträger with SS Runen Abzeichen (SS Rune Breast Badge)

The SS Runen Abzeichen, also known as the SS Runes Breast Badge or Sig-Runen Brustabzeichen, was a distinctive cloth insignia of the Schutzstaffel consisting of the double lightning-bolt Sig runes (the iconic “SS” symbol derived from the ancient Germanic Sowilo rune) embroidered in silver or aluminum thread on a black wool or felt backing, typically measuring a few centimetres in height and worn centred on the lower left breast pocket of the tunic; introduced by a formal order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler dated 16 January 1937 and originally designated simply as “die Sig-Runen,” it was first authorised for members of the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) who simultaneously held SS membership or who had left the Allgemeine-SS under honourable circumstances, thereby visually affirming their dual affiliation while they continued to wear standard police uniforms. In July 1943 the right to wear the badge was extended to full SS personnel serving in certain foreign-volunteer or ethnically mixed Waffen-SS formations—most notably the 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division, 7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division “Prinz Eugen,” 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division “Nordland,” and 13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS “Handschar”—whose collar patches carried national or unit emblems rather than the SS runes themselves, allowing these men to display their membership in the broader SS order. Officer versions were usually finely hand-embroidered, while enlisted and NCO examples were machine-woven or embroidered; the badge appeared on black service tunics, black panzer jackets, white summer uniforms, and occasionally on tropical or field-grey garments, and its presence on a uniform remains one of the clearer visual indicators that the wearer belonged to the SS organisation even when other SS-specific collar insignia were absent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SS-Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg (1891-1963) was born on 20 July 1891 in Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, in the German Empire, and entered military service on 25 February 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the Infanterie-Regiment „Vogel von Falckenstein“ (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 of the Prussian Army; during the First World War he served as a Kompaniechef, was wounded on both the Western and Eastern fronts, trained as a pilot from June 1916, and flew as an Aufklärungsflieger with Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 47 from August 1917, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 February 1915 and 1. Klasse on 9 September 1915 along with other decorations including the Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen and the Ritter des Königlicher Preussischer Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern. After the war he briefly served with Grenzschutz Ost and a Freikorps in Oberschlesien before joining the Preußische Schutzpolizei as a Polizei-Oberleutnant in September 1920, rising through various police commands and training roles in Essen, Potsdam-Eiche, Krefeld, Köln, Charlottenburg, Hindenburg, Beuthen, Gleiwitz, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and Mannheim, joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 (Mitgliedsnummer 2.222.600) and the SS (SS-Nr. 405.898), and by December 1938 serving on the staff of the Inspekteur der Ordnungspolizei in Stuttgart. On 2 October 1939 he became Kommandeur of Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 3 of the Polizei-Division (later SS-Polizei-Division) with the rank of SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei, participating in the Western campaign of 1940 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; for his leadership in the Luga sector—particularly his personal bravery on 11 August 1941 in capturing the hills at Stojanowschtschina (taking seventeen enemy tanks and numerous heavy bunkers), his advance on 23 August to seize Ssyrez, the hills west of it, and the heights at Turowo that enabled the capture of Luga, and his regiment’s breakthrough of the outer defensive lines of Leningrad on 13 September by securing bridges and key positions while advancing toward Pushkin via the Ishora position—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 15 November 1941 as SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schupo. He assumed command of the SS-Polizei-Division on 15 December 1941, and for his successful leadership of the division at the Volkhov, where he closed the ring around the Volkhov pocket by attacking through extremely swampy terrain to achieve surprise against an enemy expecting an advance along the road, he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz (91st award) on 23 April 1942 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. Promoted further to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei in July 1942 and then to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei in July 1943, he briefly commanded the IV. SS-Panzer-Korps from 10 June 1943 until 31 August 1943, after which he succeeded Kurt Daluege as Chef des Hauptamtes der Ordnungspolizei, a post he held until the end of the war (and briefly as Chef der Deutschen Polizei in the final days); he fled via the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg, was interned as a POW in Dachau in 1946, released in 1947, and died on 30 December 1963 in Krefeld, West Germany.

Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2014/01/ss-runen-abzeichen-ss-runes-breast.html

Ritterkreuzträger with Imperial Pilot Awards

KÖNIGLICH PREUSSISCHES FLUGZEUGBEOBACHTER-ABZEICHEN

The Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen, officially designated the Abzeichen für Beobachtungsoffiziere aus Flugzeugen, was instituted on 27 January 1914 by Kaiser Wilhelm II as a qualification badge for observation officers of the Imperial German Fliegertruppe and was awarded by the General-Inspektion des Militär-Verkehrswesens to personnel who had completed a minimum of 1,000 kilometres of flight as an observer, passed the required technical aircraft-assistance examination (or its refresher), conducted successful reconnaissance missions, and obtained the formal Befähigungszeugnis as a Beobachtungsoffizier; the high-oval badge measured approximately 71 mm in height and 45 mm in width and was manufactured in silver or silver-plated non-ferrous metal, featuring at its centre a red-enamelled square containing a smaller black-and-white chequered square (the traditional General Staff emblem) set against a rayed background, the whole enclosed by a closed wreath of laurel leaves on the left and oak leaves on the right that met in a bow at the base and were surmounted by the Imperial Crown, with the reverse usually showing a vertical pin and the maker’s mark of C.E. Juncker of Berlin; worn as a Steckabzeichen on the left breast of the uniform, it remained in use throughout the First World War as the principal recognition of qualified aerial observers in the Prussian contingent of the German air service until the collapse of the monarchy in 1918.



SS-Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg (1891-1963) was born on 20 July 1891 in Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, in the German Empire, and entered military service on 25 February 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the Infanterie-Regiment „Vogel von Falckenstein“ (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 of the Prussian Army; during the First World War he served as a Kompaniechef, was wounded on both the Western and Eastern fronts, trained as a pilot from June 1916, and flew as an Aufklärungsflieger with Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 47 from August 1917, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 February 1915 and 1. Klasse on 9 September 1915 along with other decorations including the Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen and the Ritter des Königlicher Preussischer Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern. After the war he briefly served with Grenzschutz Ost and a Freikorps in Oberschlesien before joining the Preußische Schutzpolizei as a Polizei-Oberleutnant in September 1920, rising through various police commands and training roles in Essen, Potsdam-Eiche, Krefeld, Köln, Charlottenburg, Hindenburg, Beuthen, Gleiwitz, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and Mannheim, joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 (Mitgliedsnummer 2.222.600) and the SS (SS-Nr. 405.898), and by December 1938 serving on the staff of the Inspekteur der Ordnungspolizei in Stuttgart. On 2 October 1939 he became Kommandeur of Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 3 of the Polizei-Division (later SS-Polizei-Division) with the rank of SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei, participating in the Western campaign of 1940 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; for his leadership in the Luga sector—particularly his personal bravery on 11 August 1941 in capturing the hills at Stojanowschtschina (taking seventeen enemy tanks and numerous heavy bunkers), his advance on 23 August to seize Ssyrez, the hills west of it, and the heights at Turowo that enabled the capture of Luga, and his regiment’s breakthrough of the outer defensive lines of Leningrad on 13 September by securing bridges and key positions while advancing toward Pushkin via the Ishora position—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 15 November 1941 as SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schupo. He assumed command of the SS-Polizei-Division on 15 December 1941, and for his successful leadership of the division at the Volkhov, where he closed the ring around the Volkhov pocket by attacking through extremely swampy terrain to achieve surprise against an enemy expecting an advance along the road, he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz (91st award) on 23 April 1942 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. Promoted further to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei in July 1942 and then to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei in July 1943, he briefly commanded the IV. SS-Panzer-Korps from 10 June 1943 until 31 August 1943, after which he succeeded Kurt Daluege as Chef des Hauptamtes der Ordnungspolizei, a post he held until the end of the war (and briefly as Chef der Deutschen Polizei in the final days); he fled via the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg, was interned as a POW in Dachau in 1946, released in 1947, and died on 30 December 1963 in Krefeld, West Germany.

Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2014/03/album-foto-tokoh-third-reich-peraih.html

Ritterkreuzträger in Polizei Uniform

In the transitional years of 1933–1934, immediately following the Nazi seizure of power, the uniforms of the German Polizei remained largely those of the decentralized Weimar-era state and municipal forces rather than a single national pattern, with the various Landespolizei, Schutzpolizei, and Gendarmerie units continuing to wear predominantly dark-blue or blue-grey tunics, trousers, and greatcoats that had been standard since the early 1920s, often featuring high standing collars, external patch pockets, and traditional rank insignia on shoulder boards and collar patches that still reflected pre-1933 state designs; headgear typically consisted of the distinctive rigid police shako (Tschako) with a metal state-coat-of-arms badge or a peaked visor cap (Schirmmütze), while footwear was black leather boots or shoes and the belt was usually black or brown leather with a simple rectangular buckle. As Nazi control tightened—particularly after Hermann Göring’s decrees in Prussia prioritizing SA and SS members for police appointments and Kurt Daluege’s ideological indoctrination measures—Nazi political symbols began to appear on these otherwise traditional garments, including the early addition of a swastika armband or a small metal eagle-and-swastika badge on the left breast or cap, though the full standardization of the distinctive “Grüne Polizei” (green police) uniform with brown collars and cuffs, the wreathed Polizeiadler sleeve eagle, and branch-specific Truppenfarbe piping would not be introduced until the complete nationalization under Heinrich Himmler in June 1936. Officers of higher rank often retained more elaborate parade versions with silver or gold embroidery, while rank-and-file policemen wore simpler service dress suited to urban or rural duties; overall, the 1933–1934 period thus represented a hybrid phase in which the old blue state-police appearance coexisted with the gradual visual Nazification of the force, setting the stage for the fully militarized and centralized green Ordnungspolizei uniform that followed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WAFFEN-SS


SS-Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg (1891-1963) was born on 20 July 1891 in Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, in the German Empire, and entered military service on 25 February 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the Infanterie-Regiment „Vogel von Falckenstein“ (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 of the Prussian Army; during the First World War he served as a Kompaniechef, was wounded on both the Western and Eastern fronts, trained as a pilot from June 1916, and flew as an Aufklärungsflieger with Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 47 from August 1917, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 February 1915 and 1. Klasse on 9 September 1915 along with other decorations including the Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen and the Ritter des Königlicher Preussischer Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern. After the war he briefly served with Grenzschutz Ost and a Freikorps in Oberschlesien before joining the Preußische Schutzpolizei as a Polizei-Oberleutnant in September 1920, rising through various police commands and training roles in Essen, Potsdam-Eiche, Krefeld, Köln, Charlottenburg, Hindenburg, Beuthen, Gleiwitz, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and Mannheim, joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 (Mitgliedsnummer 2.222.600) and the SS (SS-Nr. 405.898), and by December 1938 serving on the staff of the Inspekteur der Ordnungspolizei in Stuttgart. On 2 October 1939 he became Kommandeur of Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 3 of the Polizei-Division (later SS-Polizei-Division) with the rank of SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei, participating in the Western campaign of 1940 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; for his leadership in the Luga sector—particularly his personal bravery on 11 August 1941 in capturing the hills at Stojanowschtschina (taking seventeen enemy tanks and numerous heavy bunkers), his advance on 23 August to seize Ssyrez, the hills west of it, and the heights at Turowo that enabled the capture of Luga, and his regiment’s breakthrough of the outer defensive lines of Leningrad on 13 September by securing bridges and key positions while advancing toward Pushkin via the Ishora position—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 15 November 1941 as SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schupo. He assumed command of the SS-Polizei-Division on 15 December 1941, and for his successful leadership of the division at the Volkhov, where he closed the ring around the Volkhov pocket by attacking through extremely swampy terrain to achieve surprise against an enemy expecting an advance along the road, he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz (91st award) on 23 April 1942 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. Promoted further to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei in July 1942 and then to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei in July 1943, he briefly commanded the IV. SS-Panzer-Korps from 10 June 1943 until 31 August 1943, after which he succeeded Kurt Daluege as Chef des Hauptamtes der Ordnungspolizei, a post he held until the end of the war (and briefly as Chef der Deutschen Polizei in the final days); he fled via the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg, was interned as a POW in Dachau in 1946, released in 1947, and died on 30 December 1963 in Krefeld, West Germany.

Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2014/11/foto-tokoh-third-reich-dengan-seragam.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranks_and_insignia_of_the_Ordnungspolizei

Ritterkreuzträger with Romanian Medals

 BREVET DE PILOT / OBSERVATOR MILITAR

The Royal Romanian Air Force Military Pilot / Aeronautical Observer Badge (Brevet de Pilot / Observator Militar), also known as the pilot’s or observer’s wing of the Aeronautica Regală Română, was the principal qualification insignia awarded to trained military aviators and aerial observers of the Kingdom of Romania from the early years of organised military aviation through the interwar period and the Second World War, evolving in design with successive reigns while retaining a consistent winged form that reflected both national heraldry and contemporary European aviation traditions; the earliest versions under King Carol I took the shape of a Blériot-style monoplane worn on the collar, but after the reign of King Ferdinand I (1914–1927) the standard pattern emerged as a pair of outstretched wings surmounted by a royal crown and bearing the inverted monogram (cipher) of the sovereign—double “F” for Ferdinand—set above a central device, with the pilot’s badge typically larger (approximately 44 mm wide by 57 mm high) and featuring a full eagle standing on a globe or sphere, while the observer’s badge was slightly smaller (around 40 mm by 49 mm) and consisted of the crowned cipher alone with upraised wings; during the reign of King Carol II (1930–1940) a new design instituted by royal decree in June 1931 replaced the Ferdinand cipher with a crowned blue-enamelled double “C” monogram of Carol, often combined with a propeller-blade sword, and was manufactured in silvered bronze with a horizontal pin fastening, measuring roughly 66 mm by 36 mm; after Carol’s abdication in 1940 and the return of King Michael I, the badge again changed, substituting the royal monogram with the Romanian national coat of arms (or later a cross under crown) while retaining the winged outline, produced in both silver and bronze, and worn on the upper right breast of the service tunic; these badges, awarded upon successful completion of pilot or observer training and serving as official proof of aeronautical qualification, remained in use until the abolition of the monarchy in 1947, after which communist-era versions replaced the crown and royal symbols with a red star while preserving the essential winged silhouette.



Oberst Hermann Graf (1912-1988) was born on 24 October 1912 in Engen, Baden, the youngest of three sons of a farmer who had served as an artilleryman in the First World War, and after completing Volksschule he worked first as a locksmith’s apprentice and later as a clerk at the Engen town hall while pursuing his dual passions for football (as a goalkeeper coached by future World Cup-winning manager Sepp Herberger until a thumb injury ended his hopes of a professional career) and gliding; accepted into the Luftwaffe in 1936, he completed A- and B-level pilot training before being posted in May 1939 as an Unteroffizier to 2. Staffel of I./Jagdgeschwader 51, flying uneventful patrols on the Franco-German border during the Phoney War and later serving as a flight instructor with the Luftwaffenmission Rumänien training Romanian pilots, participating in limited ground-support missions over Crete in May 1941. Transferred with III./Jagdgeschwader 52 to the Eastern Front after the start of Operation Barbarossa, he scored his first aerial victory on 4 August 1941 near Kiev while flying a Bf 109, rapidly increasing his tally amid the intense fighting over Ukraine and the Crimea to reach 42 victories by the end of the year, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 24 January 1942 as Leutnant der Reserve and Flugzeugführer of 9. Staffel, III. Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 52; promoted to Staffelkapitän of 9./JG 52 in March 1942, his scoring rate exploded during the summer campaign of 1942, culminating in the award of the Eichenlaub (93rd recipient) on 17 May 1942 after 104 victories, the Schwerter (11th recipient) only two days later on 19 May after 106 victories, and finally the Brillanten (5th recipient) on 16 September 1942 after 172 victories, making him the first fighter pilot in history to claim 200 aerial victories when he downed three more aircraft over the Pitomnik airfield near Stalingrad on 26 September 1942. Withdrawn from front-line combat as a national hero and promoted through the ranks to Major and later Oberst, he commanded the high-altitude Jagdgeschwader 50 formed to intercept Mosquitoes, then served as Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 11 on the Western Front where he claimed ten four-engine bombers before being severely wounded on 29 March 1944 after ramming a P-51, and finally took command of Jagdgeschwader 52 in late 1944, surrendering with the unit to American forces on 8 May 1945 only to be handed over to the Soviets and held in captivity until 1949; after the war he worked as an electronic-sales manager, married three times (including a brief wartime marriage to actress Jola Jobst), and died of Parkinson’s disease in his hometown of Engen on 4 November 1988, having flown approximately 830 combat missions and been officially credited with 212 aerial victories, nearly all on the Eastern Front.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORDINUL VIRTUTEA AERONAUTICÂ

The Order of Aeronautical Virtue (Ordinul "Virtutea Aeronautică") is a Romanian decoration instituted by King Carol II through Royal Decree No. 2895 on 31 July 1930 as the world’s first military order specifically dedicated to aviators, created in recognition of the airmen of the 2nd Aviation Flotilla who had helped him return to Romania and reclaim the throne by flying him across the border in defiance of restrictions; originally comprising four ranks—Golden Cross (the lowest), Knight, Officer, and Commander—the first two of which could be awarded up to three times with a metal bar added to the ribbon for each subsequent bestowal, the order was conferred on both military and civilian personnel for distinguished service, acts of bravery, or contributions to aeronautics in peace or war, and featured a distinctive cross whose longer vertical arm formed a trefoil while the shorter horizontal arms were shaped as stylized wings, bearing on the obverse a white-enamelled shield with the Romanian eagle and the royal cypher of Carol II (later changed to that of Michael I in 1940) and the year “1930” on the reverse, with Officer and Commander grades distinguished by a green-enamelled laurel wreath between the arms and a wartime version adding crossed swords. A related Medal of Aeronautical Virtue was established on 24 February 1931 for ground personnel, and in December 1938 both the order and medal received wartime variants with gold-edged ribbons and swords; after briefly shifting places in the order of precedence, the decoration ranked among Romania’s highest honours during the Second World War, when it was awarded to numerous Romanian and allied airmen, before becoming obsolete with the abolition of the monarchy in 1947. Reinstituted after the fall of communism, the modern Order of Aeronautical Virtue retains the ranks of Knight, Officer, Commander, and Grand Officer (no longer permitting consecutive awards of the lower grades) and continues to be conferred by the President of Romania on military and civilian aviators for outstanding achievements in aviation, preserving the essential design of the original 1930 insignia while adapting it to the republican era.



Hauptmann Wolf-Dietrich Huy (1917-2003), who rose to the rank of Hauptmann in the Luftwaffe, served primarily as Staffelkapitän of the 7. Staffel of III. Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 77, and was a fighter ace credited with 40 aerial victories (including 38 on the Eastern Front) in over 500 operational sorties; he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 5 July 1941 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of 7./Jagdgeschwader 77 principally for his successful fighter-bomber attacks during operations in the Balkans and the Battle of Crete, where after nine aerial victories he sank approximately 34,000 GRT of Allied shipping including the freighter Hellas of 22,000 GRT and scored direct hits on the battleship Warspite, the cruiser Fiji and a destroyer, and he later received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub as the 83rd recipient on 17 March 1942 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of 7./Jagdgeschwader 77 after accumulating 32 aerial victories (reaching his 38th claim around that time while operating with III./Jagdgeschwader 77 in the Crimea), before being shot down over Tanyet Harun on 29 October 1942 and spending the remainder of the war as a prisoner.

Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/09/daftar-para-anggota-wehrmacht-yang.html

Ritterkreuzträger with Beards

In the German military during the Second World War, facial hair was strictly regulated across the Wehrmacht, with the Heer, Luftwaffe, and Waffen-SS generally requiring soldiers and officers to remain clean-shaven or to wear only a small, neatly trimmed moustache that did not extend beyond the corners of the mouth, a standard rooted in the need for a proper seal on gas masks, maintenance of a disciplined martial appearance, and the practical demands of hygiene in barracks and on the march; these rules were formally outlined in service regulations and were enforced rigorously in rear areas and during inspections, though they were frequently relaxed under prolonged field conditions, particularly on the Eastern Front during the harsh winters of 1941–1943, where limited access to hot water, soap, and razors, combined with the extreme cold that made shaving painful or impractical, led many ordinary soldiers, Gebirgsjäger mountain troops, and even some officers such as Generalmajor Theodor Scherer during the 105-day Cholm Pocket siege to grow full beards or heavy stubble as a matter of necessity rather than preference. In the Kriegsmarine the approach was more permissive, especially among U-boat crews, who routinely grew thick, full beards during extended Atlantic or Arctic patrols because fresh water was rationed primarily for drinking and cooking, shaving was considered a wasteful luxury in the cramped, damp conditions of a Type VII or Type IX boat, and the resulting facial hair became an unofficial badge of endurance and camaraderie that was almost invariably shaved off upon return to port in order to restore the regulation clean-shaven or lightly moustached appearance expected of sailors and officers ashore; surface-ship personnel followed stricter standards closer to those of the army, though longer deployments could still produce temporary beards. Overall, while photographs occasionally capture bearded German troops in isolated combat zones or after prolonged encirclements, the overwhelming visual record of the period shows clean-shaven faces as the norm for the vast majority of soldiers, airmen, and naval personnel, reflecting both institutional discipline and the technological requirements of modern warfare.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEER


Generalleutnant Theodor Scherer (1889-1951) was born on 17 September 1889 in Höchstädt an der Donau, Bavaria, and began his military career on 14 July 1908 as a Fahnenjunker in the 12. Infanterie-Regiment „Prinz Arnulf“ of the Bayerische Armee, receiving his commission as Leutnant in 1910; during the First World War he served on the Western Front, was captured by the British in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, later interned in the Netherlands, and released after the armistice, thereafter leaving the army on 30 August 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and joining the Bavarian Landespolizei, rising to Oberstleutnant der Polizei by 1935 before re-entering the Wehrmacht that November in the same rank and serving as Bataillonskommandeur and later Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 56, then as Oberst and Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 507 during the Western campaign of 1940, where he led an assault across the Marne and earned the Spange to both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz. Promoted to Generalmajor in November 1940, he briefly commanded Adolf Hitler’s headquarters at the OKH in Zossen from March to September 1941 before assuming command of the 281. Sicherungs-Division on 1 October 1941 for rear-area security duties against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union; in January 1942, when Soviet forces and partisans attacked and encircled German units at Kholm (Cholm), Scherer took charge of the ad-hoc Kampfgruppe Scherer, initially some 3,500 men drawn from elements of his division, police companies, and other stragglers that later grew to around 5,000–6,000, organizing improvised defenses without heavy artillery or adequate supplies amid severe winter conditions, repeatedly repelling superior Soviet assaults, coordinating limited aerial resupply and wounded evacuations, and holding the pocket for 105 days until relief forces linked up on 5 May 1942. For his leadership during the first month of the siege he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 February 1942 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 281. Sicherungs-Division, and following the successful relief he received the Eichenlaub (92nd award) on 5 May 1942, along with a mention in the Wehrmachtbericht and the newly created Cholmschild for the survivors; subsequently promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 November 1942, he commanded the 34. Infanterie-Division and then the 83. Infanterie-Division (which suffered heavy losses at Velikiye Luki), later served as Inspekteur des Küstenschutzes for the Eastern Front, and at the war’s end directed field-gendarmerie units in the Elbe sector before entering captivity, dying in a car accident near Ludwigsburg on 17 May 1951.

Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/06/album-foto-jenggot-dan-cambang-nazi.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=5192

Ritterkreuzträger of 281. Sicherungs-Division

The 281. Sicherungs-Division was formed on 15 March 1941 at the Truppenübungsplatz Groß-Born in Wehrkreis II from elements of the 207. Infanterie-Division as a rear-area security formation of the Wehrmacht specifically organized for occupation duties, initially comprising the verstärktes Infanterie-Regiment 368 with three battalions, Wach-Bataillon 707, II./Artillerie-Regiment 207, Landesschützen-Regiment 107 (later the basis for Sicherungs-Regiment 107), and various Divisionstruppen 368, and after completing its reorganization in April–May 1941 it advanced through Lithuania and Latvia into the rear area of Heeresgruppe Nord following the launch of Unternehmen Barbarossa, where it performed security tasks against partisans, Red Army stragglers, and civilians under the Befehlshaber des rückwärtigen Heeresgebietes, often reinforced by units such as Reserve-Polizei-Bataillon 2 and later Ost-Reiter-Abteilung 281 and Divisions-Nachrichten-Abteilung 822; its early operations included a December 1941 anti-partisan sweep in which it reported shooting 317 partisans, burning 23 villages, and destroying camps and hospitals, while its personnel were reminded in August 1941 not to discuss mass shootings, and the division as a whole participated extensively in the war of annihilation through shootings of Roma (128 in May 1942), forced labor, and collective punishments. Under Generalmajor Theodor Scherer from October 1941, elements of the division and ad-hoc forces forming Kampfgruppe Scherer became trapped in the Kholm (Cholm) Pocket from late January 1942, holding the town with roughly 3,500–5,500 men against superior Soviet assaults for over three months with only limited aerial resupply until relief on 5 May 1942; thereafter the division continued rear-area security and anti-partisan operations in northern Russia, lending Infanterie-Regiment 368 to front-line duties around the Demjansk Pocket and Staraja Russa, participating in Operation Frühjahrsbestellung in April 1943, and later fighting near Polozk, Newel, and the Peipussee under various corps of the 16. and 18. Armee. In late 1944 it withdrew into the Kurland Pocket, where on 11 November 1944 it was redesignated and reorganized as the 281. Infanterie-Division with a more standard infantry structure including Grenadier-Regimenter 322, 368 and 418, Artillerie-Regiment 281, and supporting units; the reconstituted division was evacuated by sea in early 1945 to Heeresgruppe Weichsel, fought in Pomerania and on the Oder front under the 3. Panzerarmee and XXXII. Armeekorps during the Stettin-Rostock operation, and its remnants surrendered in May 1945 near Waren after linking with other units such as Infanterie-Division Schlageter.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Generalleutnant Theodor Scherer (1889-1951) was born on 17 September 1889 in Höchstädt an der Donau, Bavaria, and began his military career on 14 July 1908 as a Fahnenjunker in the 12. Infanterie-Regiment „Prinz Arnulf“ of the Bayerische Armee, receiving his commission as Leutnant in 1910; during the First World War he served on the Western Front, was captured by the British in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, later interned in the Netherlands, and released after the armistice, thereafter leaving the army on 30 August 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and joining the Bavarian Landespolizei, rising to Oberstleutnant der Polizei by 1935 before re-entering the Wehrmacht that November in the same rank and serving as Bataillonskommandeur and later Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 56, then as Oberst and Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 507 during the Western campaign of 1940, where he led an assault across the Marne and earned the Spange to both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz. Promoted to Generalmajor in November 1940, he briefly commanded Adolf Hitler’s headquarters at the OKH in Zossen from March to September 1941 before assuming command of the 281. Sicherungs-Division on 1 October 1941 for rear-area security duties against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union; in January 1942, when Soviet forces and partisans attacked and encircled German units at Kholm (Cholm), Scherer took charge of the ad-hoc Kampfgruppe Scherer, initially some 3,500 men drawn from elements of his division, police companies, and other stragglers that later grew to around 5,000–6,000, organizing improvised defenses without heavy artillery or adequate supplies amid severe winter conditions, repeatedly repelling superior Soviet assaults, coordinating limited aerial resupply and wounded evacuations, and holding the pocket for 105 days until relief forces linked up on 5 May 1942. For his leadership during the first month of the siege he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 February 1942 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 281. Sicherungs-Division, and following the successful relief he received the Eichenlaub (92nd award) on 5 May 1942, along with a mention in the Wehrmachtbericht and the newly created Cholmschild for the survivors; subsequently promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 November 1942, he commanded the 34. Infanterie-Division and then the 83. Infanterie-Division (which suffered heavy losses at Velikiye Luki), later served as Inspekteur des Küstenschutzes for the Eastern Front, and at the war’s end directed field-gendarmerie units in the Elbe sector before entering captivity, dying in a car accident near Ludwigsburg on 17 May 1951.

Source :
https://www.balsi.de/Weltkrieg/Einheiten/Heer/Divisionen/Sicherungs-Divisionen/281-SD-Startseite.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/281st_Security_Division_(Wehrmacht)
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/SichDiv/281SichDiv-R.htm

Ritterkreuzträger of Kampfgruppe (Battlegroup)

A German Kampfgruppe (plural Kampfgruppen, abbreviated KG or KGr) in the Second World War was an ad-hoc, temporary combined-arms battlegroup formed by the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, or other German forces from available infantry, panzer, artillery, pioneer, reconnaissance, and support elements—often drawn from different divisions, corps, or even services such as the Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine—to accomplish a specific tactical or operational mission, ranging from a few days to several months; rooted in late First World War Sturmtruppen tactics and formalized in interwar doctrine that emphasized flexibility and mission-oriented command (Auftragstaktik), these formations varied widely in size from company- or battalion-level groups of a few hundred men to brigade- or even division-sized forces of several thousand, and were typically named after their commander (e.g., Kampfgruppe Peiper under SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper during the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944, or Kampfgruppe Scherer that held the Kholm Pocket for 105 days in early 1942). Employed extensively on every front, they enabled rapid local breakthroughs, counterattacks, defensive stands, or anti-partisan operations when formal units were depleted, overstretched, or fragmented—examples include the motorized Kampfgruppen that spearheaded advances during the 1940 Western Campaign and Operation Barbarossa, the improvised groups that sealed the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket or fought at Kharkov, the Kampfgruppe Das Reich reconstituted from remnants of the 2. SS-Panzer-Division, and the mixed formations such as Kampfgruppe Spindler that helped contain the British airborne bridgehead at Arnhem in September 1944. Their strength lay in the German army’s ability to improvise cohesive fighting units under experienced officers who coordinated armor, infantry, and supporting arms on the fly, often achieving disproportionate results despite shortages of men, fuel, or heavy equipment in the later war years; however, the same improvisational nature sometimes led to logistical strain, uneven quality, or involvement in war crimes (as with elements of Kampfgruppe Peiper at Malmedy), and by 1944–45 hundreds of such groups were documented as the Wehrmacht increasingly relied on them to plug gaps, conduct delaying actions, and prolong resistance amid collapsing fronts until final surrender.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KAMPFGRUPPE SCHERER (1942)


Generalleutnant Theodor Scherer (1889-1951) was born on 17 September 1889 in Höchstädt an der Donau, Bavaria, and began his military career on 14 July 1908 as a Fahnenjunker in the 12. Infanterie-Regiment „Prinz Arnulf“ of the Bayerische Armee, receiving his commission as Leutnant in 1910; during the First World War he served on the Western Front, was captured by the British in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, later interned in the Netherlands, and released after the armistice, thereafter leaving the army on 30 August 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and joining the Bavarian Landespolizei, rising to Oberstleutnant der Polizei by 1935 before re-entering the Wehrmacht that November in the same rank and serving as Bataillonskommandeur and later Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 56, then as Oberst and Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 507 during the Western campaign of 1940, where he led an assault across the Marne and earned the Spange to both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz. Promoted to Generalmajor in November 1940, he briefly commanded Adolf Hitler’s headquarters at the OKH in Zossen from March to September 1941 before assuming command of the 281. Sicherungs-Division on 1 October 1941 for rear-area security duties against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union; in January 1942, when Soviet forces and partisans attacked and encircled German units at Kholm (Cholm), Scherer took charge of the ad-hoc Kampfgruppe Scherer, initially some 3,500 men drawn from elements of his division, police companies, and other stragglers that later grew to around 5,000–6,000, organizing improvised defenses without heavy artillery or adequate supplies amid severe winter conditions, repeatedly repelling superior Soviet assaults, coordinating limited aerial resupply and wounded evacuations, and holding the pocket for 105 days until relief forces linked up on 5 May 1942. For his leadership during the first month of the siege he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 February 1942 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 281. Sicherungs-Division, and following the successful relief he received the Eichenlaub (92nd award) on 5 May 1942, along with a mention in the Wehrmachtbericht and the newly created Cholmschild for the survivors; subsequently promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 November 1942, he commanded the 34. Infanterie-Division and then the 83. Infanterie-Division (which suffered heavy losses at Velikiye Luki), later served as Inspekteur des Küstenschutzes for the Eastern Front, and at the war’s end directed field-gendarmerie units in the Elbe sector before entering captivity, dying in a car accident near Ludwigsburg on 17 May 1951.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfgruppe

Ritterkreuzträger of 4. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Polizei"

The 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division, originally formed in October 1939 at Truppenübungsplatz Wandern as the Polizei-Division from thousands of drafted members of the Ordnungspolizei who retained their police ranks and insignia rather than fully joining the SS, was created under Generalleutnant der Polizei Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch to circumvent Wehrmacht recruitment limits on the SS while allowing policemen to fulfill military obligations; equipped mainly with captured Czech material and trained as a horse-drawn infantry formation, it first saw combat in June 1940 during the Battle of France under Army Group C, crossing the Aisne River and Ardennes Canal before fighting in the Argonne Forest. Transferred to Army Group North for Operation Barbarossa in 1941, it engaged in heavy combat near Luga in August, suffering over 2,000 casualties including the death of commander Arthur Mülverstadt amid swampy terrain assaults that ultimately helped encircle Soviet forces, then moved to the Volkhov River sector where, after formal transfer to the Waffen-SS on 24 February 1942 (becoming the SS-Polizei-Division with personnel adopting SS insignia), it contributed to the destruction of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army in the Battle of Lyuban and spent the remainder of the year on the Leningrad front. In early 1943, after further fighting south of Lake Ladoga and a successful defense at Kolpino, portions of the division were withdrawn westward for conversion to a motorized Panzergrenadier formation (with Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Regimenter redesignated as SS-Panzergrenadier-Regimenter 7 and 8), leaving a Kampfgruppe on the Eastern Front until mid-1944 while the main body, now designated 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division, was sent to Greece under Heeresgruppe E for anti-partisan operations; there it committed numerous war crimes, including the Distomo massacre of 10 June 1944 in which troops under Fritz Lautenbach killed 214 civilians, the Kleisoura massacre, and further atrocities during Operation Kreuzotter that destroyed villages and killed hundreds. Recalled in August–September 1944 to face the Red Army near Belgrade and in Hungary, the division suffered severe losses during the Budapest Offensive, fighting retreats through Szolnok, Hatvan, and into Slovakia with strength reduced to mere hundreds of men and few operational guns, before being shifted north to Pomerania in early 1945 for the planned Army Detachment Steiner relief of Berlin (which never materialized), becoming encircled at Danzig, evacuated via the Hela Peninsula to Swinemünde, and finally fighting across the Elbe to surrender to American forces near Wittenberge-Lenzen in May 1945.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


SS-Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg (1891-1963) was born on 20 July 1891 in Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, in the German Empire, and entered military service on 25 February 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the Infanterie-Regiment „Vogel von Falckenstein“ (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 of the Prussian Army; during the First World War he served as a Kompaniechef, was wounded on both the Western and Eastern fronts, trained as a pilot from June 1916, and flew as an Aufklärungsflieger with Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 47 from August 1917, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 February 1915 and 1. Klasse on 9 September 1915 along with other decorations including the Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen and the Ritter des Königlicher Preussischer Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern. After the war he briefly served with Grenzschutz Ost and a Freikorps in Oberschlesien before joining the Preußische Schutzpolizei as a Polizei-Oberleutnant in September 1920, rising through various police commands and training roles in Essen, Potsdam-Eiche, Krefeld, Köln, Charlottenburg, Hindenburg, Beuthen, Gleiwitz, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and Mannheim, joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 (Mitgliedsnummer 2.222.600) and the SS (SS-Nr. 405.898), and by December 1938 serving on the staff of the Inspekteur der Ordnungspolizei in Stuttgart. On 2 October 1939 he became Kommandeur of Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 3 of the Polizei-Division (later SS-Polizei-Division) with the rank of SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei, participating in the Western campaign of 1940 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; for his leadership in the Luga sector—particularly his personal bravery on 11 August 1941 in capturing the hills at Stojanowschtschina (taking seventeen enemy tanks and numerous heavy bunkers), his advance on 23 August to seize Ssyrez, the hills west of it, and the heights at Turowo that enabled the capture of Luga, and his regiment’s breakthrough of the outer defensive lines of Leningrad on 13 September by securing bridges and key positions while advancing toward Pushkin via the Ishora position—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 15 November 1941 as SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schupo. He assumed command of the SS-Polizei-Division on 15 December 1941, and for his successful leadership of the division at the Volkhov, where he closed the ring around the Volkhov pocket by attacking through extremely swampy terrain to achieve surprise against an enemy expecting an advance along the road, he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz (91st award) on 23 April 1942 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. Promoted further to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei in July 1942 and then to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei in July 1943, he briefly commanded the IV. SS-Panzer-Korps from 10 June 1943 until 31 August 1943, after which he succeeded Kurt Daluege as Chef des Hauptamtes der Ordnungspolizei, a post he held until the end of the war (and briefly as Chef der Deutschen Polizei in the final days); he fled via the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg, was interned as a POW in Dachau in 1946, released in 1947, and died on 30 December 1963 in Krefeld, West Germany.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_SS_Polizei_Panzergrenadier_Division

Ritterkreuzträger of 3. SS-Panzer-Division "Totenkopf"

The SS-Division Totenkopf was one of the most notorious and combat-effective formations of the Waffen-SS during World War II, officially established in October 1939 under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke from the core of the SS-Totenkopfverbände concentration camp guard units, primarily the 1st SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Oberbayern, 2nd SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Brandenburg, and 3rd SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Thüringen, augmented by personnel from the SS-Heimwehr Danzig. Initially seeing action in the 1940 campaign in the West as part of the X. Armeekorps, the division earned a reputation for aggressive assaults and ruthlessness, notably during the fighting around Arras and in the vicinity of Dunkirk, where elements perpetrated the Le Paradis massacre of British prisoners of war from the 2nd Royal Norfolk Regiment; following the fall of France it remained in occupation duties before being transferred east for Operation Barbarossa in 1941 as part of Heeresgruppe Nord. In the Soviet Union the division participated in heavy defensive and offensive operations, suffering catastrophic losses while distinguishing itself in the encirclement battles around Lake Ilmen and later becoming trapped in the Demyansk pocket during the winter of 1941-1942, where it held its positions under extreme conditions of cold, supply shortages, and relentless Red Army attacks until its eventual breakout in early 1942, actions for which Eicke and several subordinates received high decorations including the Ritterkreuz. Rebuilt and refitted, the division fought in the summer 1942 offensives, took part in the recapture of Kharkov in 1943 as part of the II. SS-Panzerkorps alongside the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and Das Reich, and played a key role in the subsequent Third Battle of Kharkov counteroffensive before being heavily engaged in the Battle of Kursk as a Panzergrenadier division equipped with Panzer IV, StuG III, and Tiger I tanks in its attached schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503. Throughout its existence SS-Division Totenkopf was characterized by fanatical loyalty instilled by its concentration camp origins, high morale often referred to in terms of "Totenkopf spirit," and a record of both remarkable battlefield tenacity and numerous war crimes including the murder of civilians and prisoners on the Eastern Front; it was redesignated 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf in late 1943, continued fighting in defensive battles in Ukraine, Poland, and Hungary, and was finally destroyed in the encirclement at Halbe in April 1945 during the final Soviet offensive on Berlin, with only small remnants surrendering to American or Soviet forces.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke (1892-1943) was a German military officer who rose to prominence as a senior SS functionary and Waffen-SS commander, playing a pivotal role in shaping the Nazi concentration camp system before leading combat forces on the Eastern Front. Born in Hampont, Alsace-Lorraine, Eicke served in the Bavarian Army during World War I as a paymaster and infantryman, earning the Iron Cross 2nd Class, before joining the Nazi Party and the SS in the late 1920s; he became the second commandant of Dachau concentration camp in June 1933, reorganizing it with strict discipline, the iconic striped prisoner uniforms, and death's head insignia for guards, then expanded this model nationwide as Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager and commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, while also participating in the Night of the Long Knives by executing SA Chief Ernst Röhm alongside his adjutant Michael Lippert. In 1939, he assumed command of the newly formed SS-Division Totenkopf, leading it through the Battle of France—where the division committed war crimes such as the Le Paradis massacre—and into Operation Barbarossa, where it fought with noted ferocity and brutality. Eicke received the Ritterkreuz on 26 December 1941 as SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS for his division's determined defense and breakout actions amid the heavy fighting in the Demyansk pocket, where SS-Division Totenkopf under his leadership distinguished itself particularly at villages such as Kobylkino and Wassiljewschtina despite encirclement and extreme conditions; he was further awarded the 88th Eichenlaub on 20 April 1942 as SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS for the outstanding overall performance of his division in sustaining the pocket's defense. Eicke was killed in action on 26 February 1943 when his Fieseler Fi 156 Storch aircraft was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft fire near Lozova during the Third Battle of Kharkov.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_SS_Panzer_Division_Totenkopf
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Knight%27s_Cross_recipients_3rd_SS_Panzer_Division_Totenkopf

Ritterkreuzträger of Zerstörergeschwader 26 (ZG 26) "Horst Wessel"

Zerstörergeschwader 26 (ZG 26) “Horst Wessel,” a Luftwaffe heavy-fighter wing named after the SA Sturmführer Horst Wessel, was formed on 1 May 1939 in Dortmund, Werl and Lippstadt by redesignating the Stab and Gruppen of Zerstörergeschwader 142 (itself derived from Jagdgeschwader 134 “Horst Wessel”), initially flying Messerschmitt Bf 109D interceptors before converting to the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 that became its principal aircraft (later supplemented by the Me 410); carrying the Geschwaderkennung 3U and organized into a Geschwaderstab plus I., II. and III. Gruppen, the unit first saw action during the Phoney War defending the North Sea coast, then provided bomber escort and air-superiority cover throughout the 1940 Western campaign and the Battle of Britain, where it suffered severe losses to RAF single-seat fighters, before transferring to the Balkans in 1941 for the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece and the airborne assault on Crete, while its III. Gruppe operated in the Mediterranean and North Africa supporting the Afrika Korps and anti-shipping missions until the Tunisian collapse in 1943; simultaneously the Stab, I. and II. Gruppen spearheaded airfield attacks and close-support operations on the Eastern Front from the opening of Operation Barbarossa through the battles for Leningrad and Moscow, after which parts of the Geschwader were temporarily redesignated or absorbed into night-fighter and other units in late 1941–early 1942; reformed in October 1943 for the Defense of the Reich and re-equipped largely with Me 410s armed with heavy cannon and rockets, ZG 26 engaged the US Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in costly daylight interceptions during “Big Week” and subsequent raids over Germany until July–September 1944, when its remaining elements were redesignated as Jagdgeschwader 6 “Horst Wessel,” bringing the operational existence of the original Zerstörergeschwader to an end.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Major Wilhelm Spies (1913-1942), born in Rimpar, was a German Luftwaffe officer and Zerstörer pilot who began his military service in the Heer before transferring to the Luftwaffe in 1935, participating in the Spanish Civil War with the Legion Condor and later flying with Zerstörergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” through the campaigns in Poland, France, Britain, the Balkans, and the Eastern Front; as Oberleutnant and then Hauptmann he served as Staffelkapitän of the 1./Zerstörergeschwader 26, achieving ten aerial victories and destroying twenty aircraft on the ground by the early summer of 1941, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 14 June 1941 while still Staffelkapitän in the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26, after which he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26 and continued intensive ground-attack and fighter operations on the Eastern Front, accumulating a total of twenty aerial victories (ten in the West and ten in the East) together with more than three hundred Feindflüge before being shot down and killed by anti-aircraft fire during a low-level attack southwest of Suchinitschi on 27 January 1942; in recognition of those cumulative achievements he was posthumously promoted to Major and awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (the 85th recipient) on 5 April 1942 while listed as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerst%C3%B6rergeschwader_26