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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Bio of Panzer Ace Karl Brommann


Karl Brommann
SS-Untersturmführer
Born: 20.07.1920 in Neumünster/Holstein.
Died: 30.06.2011 in Dithmarschen/Schleswig-Holstein.
NSDAP-Nr.: [No indication of Party membership in his SS file]
SS-Nr.: 316.479 (Joined 15.06.1937)
HJ: 01.04.1933-15.06.1937

Promotions:
00.00.1937 SS-Mann
01.07.1938 SS-Sturmmann
01.01.1939 SS-Rottenführer
10.06.1940 SS-Unterscharführer
01.07.1943 SS-Oberscharführer
01.03.1944 SS-Standartenoberjunker
09.11.1944 SS-Untersturmführer

Decorations & Awards:
29.04.1945 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes as SS-Untersturmführer and Kp.-Fhr. 1. Kompanie/(schwere-)SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503, Eastern Front.
ca. 1942 1939 Eisernes Kreuz I. Klasse
01.12.1941 1939 Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse
20.04.1941 Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse mit Schwertern
24.02.1945 Panzerkampfabzeichen in Silber
31.12.1941 Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
03.04.1945 Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Gold
00.00.194_ Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Silber (?)
15.01.1942 Verwundetenabzeichen, 1939 in Schwarz
10.04.1945 Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht for his service as SS-Untersturmführer and Kp.-Fhr. 1. Kompanie/(schwere-)SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503, Eastern Front.
19.09.1939 Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
26.10.1939 Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
01.09.1941 Bravery Medal 1st Class (Finland)

Karl Brommann was born on 20 July 1920 in Neumiinster, Holstein. Before he was 17, Brommann volunteered for duty with 2.SS-Totenkopfverbände-Standarte “Brandenburg” in Oranienburg on 15 June 1937. Apparently his exact date of birth was “overlooked” by all parties concerned. He would later transfer to the 3.SS-T’V Standarte “Thüringia” in Weimar before joining the SS Totenkopf Artillery Regiment when it began forming at the Münich-Freimann Barracks in 1939.

He next served as a trainer with the SS Recruiting Regiment in Klagenfürt, Austria, before being made a platoon leader (although still an NCO) in the 7th Company of the independent SS Infantry Regiment 6. In 1941 the regiment was sent to Finland and along with SS IR 7 and some other odds and ends, much of it from the SS-TV, was assembled into SS-Kampfgruppe “Nord”, which would eventually become the 6. SS Mountain Division “Nord”.

In heavy fighting on the Finnish/Russian border, Karl Brommann was severely wounded on two separate occasions. The first time he received shell fragments to both legs and his hands. This was not enough to keep him out of action and after a short recovery he was back at the front. On the second time he was wounded he was shot through the lungs and the liver; now the situation was more serious, even life threatening. He would spend almost an entire year in the hospital recuperating from these injuries! Eventually, in late 1942 or early 1943, he was deemed “recovered” and was dispatched to “Nord” Division’s Training and Replacement Battalion 6 located in Trautenau and Hallein.

On 5 May 1943 Brommann was assigned to the newly established SS Panzer Abteilung 11 “Hermann von Salza”of the 11.SS-Frw.Pz.Gr.Div. “Nordland”. Later in October 1943, with the rank of SS-Oberscharführer, he was posted to SS Panzer Abteilung 103 (later renumbered 503), the independent tank battalion of the III. Germanic SS Panzer Korps. He would then serve with this formation until 27 March 1945 when he would be incapacitated by multiple battle wounds.

In early 1945, Brommann would command perhaps the most effective King Tiger Tank and crew of the detachment in the fighting around Arneswalde and Gotenhafen in Pomerania. In fact on 10 April
1945, the official Wehrmacht Communique contained the following announcement: “In the battle area around Gotenhafen, SS-Untersturmführer Karl Brommann, company commander in the Heavy SS Panzer Detachment 503, prominently distinguished himself. He has, with his tank crew, in the time period from 2 February 1945 until 18 March 1945, despite being wounded 3 times, destroyed 66 enemy tanks, 44 artillery pieces and 15 trucks.”

By the time SS-Pz.Abt.503 was in action around Danzig in March/April 1945, it had been reduced to 21 operational “King Tiger” tanks in four deployment groups that were utilized in the support of infantry divisions threatened by Soviet forces. Karl Brommann received his final group of battle wounds that took him out of the war on 27 March 1945. After having suffered burn wounds to his hands and head shortly before, (he chose to stay in action with bandaged head and hands), he now absorbed shell fragments to his skull, right ear and right eye and that did it for him.

After receiving the German Army Wound Badge in Gold, Brommann was evacuated by the German Navy to Hela and thence over the Baltic Sea to Swindemünde. On 29 April 1945, he learned that he had been awarded the Knight’s Cross for his deeds in the previous months. He was on his way to Flensburg, Holstein. when the German capitulation took place on 8 May 1945; after getting that piece of news, Karl Brommann changed course and simply went directly to his home in Neumünster, Schleswig-Holstein. However he was arrested by the British Army on 21 May 1945 and sent to a POW camp, but he would be among the earliest to be released in November 1945, probably due to the effects of his bad war wounds. In the desperate fight to stave off the Red onslaught against the German homeland in 1945 in particular, Karl Brommann proved to be one of the most effective soldiers in the Waffen-SS. His entire wartime career was one of continuing perseverance and achievement!





 

 

Source :
'Siegrunen 80' by Richard Landwehr
Michael D. Miller photo collection
https://www.facebook.com/groups/703371800589703/permalink/789533545306861

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