Gerhard Konopka with Knight’s Cross and Close Combat Clasp in Gold. He was never awarded the first two levels of the decoration.
Major der Reserve Gerhard Konopka
Born: 27 March 1911 in Tirschtiefel (Brandenburg )
Died: 29 January 1997 in Darmstadt (Hessia)
Born in the small Brandenburg community of Tirschtiefel on 27 March 1911, Gerhard Konopka trained to be an assistant forester as a youth. At the age of 23, he entered the Reich Labor Service. It was there that the goal-oriented young man rose to the officer rank of Oberarbeitsführer. At the age of 29, he was called into the Army as an officer candidate.
After his basic military training in the tradition-rich Infanterie-Regiment 8, he was commissioned as a reserve Leutnant and became a platoon leader. Konopka participated in the successful campaigns in Poland, Belgium and France. He was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class for the leadership he displayed in commanding his men and, in 1941, he went through the transition of his division, as it was restructured and redesignated from the 3. Infanterie-Division to a fully motorized formation.
Starting in the summer of 1941, Leutnant Konopka led his motorized infantrymen in fighting at Luga, Demjansk, Dünaburg and Smolensk, before participating in the fighting at Roslawl and outside of Moscow in the fall. By then, he had been awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. After the various setbacks, the recovery from a wound and renewed achievements in the Rshew Bend, the bravery and the leadership talent of the young officer was rewarded with transfer to an elite formation.
In the spring of 1942, Leutnant Konopka was designated as the platoon leader of the Engineer Platoon of the famous motorized infantry regiment, “Großdeutschland”, which was being expanded into first a motorized and then a mechanized infantry division (with a special table of organization and equipment, not dissimilar to the core SS divisions). During the fighting that lasted for weeks on end in the Rshew bridgehead west of Moscow, Konopka personally knocked out two Soviet armored vehicles with Teller mines and hand grenades. In the offensive against Woronesch that followed, Konopka led his engineers with both bravery and circumspection. By then he had already been wounded twice.
When the division was given the mission by the field-army group to be the main effort in the establishment of a bridgehead over the Don, the engineers, which had been expanded to a battalion, took their place among the lead elements. Equipped with assault boats and covered by artillery and machine guns, Konopka’s platoon and the others crossed the Don at Radskorskaja and established a beachhead. With the engineers turning back an enemy counterattack, the follow-on infantry and antitank personnel were able to firm up the position. In December 1942, Konopka, an Oberleutnant since 1 September, was awarded the German Cross in Gold for this action. Konopka then participated in the hard winter fighting at Woronesch and northwest of Stalingrad as commander of the 5./Pionier-Bataillon “Großdeutschland”, before he was able to enjoy a respite from the action.
As the results of him personally knocking out four enemy armored vehicles—1 September 1942, 22 September 1942, 23 September 1942 and 12 October 1942—as well as his vast experience in the leadership of assault sappers and in tank hunter/killer teams, Konopka was chosen to train soldiers at infantry schools and at courses right behind the front. He did not return to the fighting in the Soviet Union until the summer of 1943.
He was designated as the acting commander of the II./Grenadier-Regiment (mot.) “Großdeutschland” and experienced the intense fighting at Orel. Personally leading his companies, he stormed the so-called “Yellow Heights” at Alissowa and was able to render a strong system of fortifications, consisting of trenches and bunkers, combat ineffective. On the next day, the enemy’s new main line of resistance was pushed back in heavy, close combat. In the process, however, the acting battalion commander was badly wounded. He was submitted for the Knight’s Cross, which was presented to him in the hospital. By the end of the war, a total of 56 soldiers of Panzergrenadier- Division “Großdeutschland” received the Knight’s Cross.
What was previously overshadowed was the fact the Gerhard Konopka was the first person in the German armed forces to meet the award criteria for the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, which he was presented with on 25 June 1943.
Since the general public was still largely uninformed about this new military decoration at the time—as opposed to the Knight’s Cross—and because the war correspondents also paid little attention to it, it was not until 2003 that it was realized from his surviving Wehrpaß that he had achieved 50 days of close combat so early! Wounded for the seventh time, he insisted on returning to his battalion, where he was wounded once again in the fall of 1943. This time, Konopka, promoted to Hauptmann on 1 November, had such serious wounds to both of his upper thighs, that the military physicians would no longer allow the dyed-in-the-wool soldier to be sent back to the front.
Deeply disappointed, the experienced officer was given a new assignment to an infantry school. By then, his golden Close Combat Clasp was a guarantee for undivided attention when he presented instruction in sapper and antitank tactics.
The inadequate means of combating armor in the first few years of the war—hand grenades, mines, Molotov cocktails—had led to high casualties and the eventual introduction of the Panzerschreck, the German equivalent of the bazooka. By 1943 and 1944, however, there were finally adequate means for combating armor by soldiers on the ground: flamethrowers, magnetic charges and, of course, the very effective Panzerfaust. An individual soldier with the necessary courage could engage a T 34. In 1942, a special award was initiated—the Individual Tank Destruction Strip, which was worn on the right sleeve of the uniform—that recognized this courage. It is estimated that by the end of the war some 14,000 of these awards were presented!
Always trying to get transferred back to the front, Konopka succeeded in doing so in March 1945. Promoted to reserve Major on 1 April 1945, Konopka was given command of Grenadier-Regiment 1 of the hastily formed Reichsarbeits-Infanterie- Division “Friedrich-Ludwig Jahn”. This formation, which barely reached brigade strength, consisted of remnants of the former 251. Infanterie-Division and 7,000 men from the Reich Labor Service, as well as elements from the Volkssturm. It was hardly suited for employment against experienced Soviet forces. The following could be read in a German Armed Forces High Command report about the division: “…very poor training of the soldiers, almost no signals units, few transport vehicles available, as well as the lack, in some instances, of fundamental weapons.” The fighting morale was not too high, either.
Nevertheless, Konopka fought at the head of his hastily assembled formation and received orders from the acting division commander, the experienced Oakleaves recipient, Oberst Weller. They fought with the courage of desperation outside of Berlin and in the efforts to relieve the Halbe Pocket. Through careful planning and a bit of luck, Konopka was able to lead his regiment across the Elbe and to the American lines. His last wartime commander, Franz Weller, later became the first commandant of the new infantry school of the Bundeswehr.
Until he retired, Konopka worked after the war as a private businessman until he became responsible for training apprentices in a large concern. He died on 29 January 1997 in Darmstadt (Hessia).
Awards and Decorations:
18.01.1940 Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse
01.07.1941 Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse
25.07.1941 Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
23.02.1942 Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz
28.07.1942 Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber
01.09.1942 Sonderabzeichen für das Niederkämpfen von Panzerwagen
05.09.1942 Medaille Winterschlacht im Osten
09.12.1942 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold
12.10.1942 Sonderabzeichen für das Niederkämpfen von Panzerwagen
22.09.1942 Sonderabzeichen für das Niederkämpfen von Panzerwagen
23.09.1942 Sonderabzeichen für das Niederkämpfen von Panzerwagen
18.07.1943 Verwundetenabzeichen in Gold
25.06.1943 Nahkampfspange in Gold
29.08.1943 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes
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Hauptmann Gerhard Konopka, in addition to being awarded the Knight’s Cross, was the first member of the German armed forces to receive the Close Combat Clasp in Gold.
Gerhard Konopka of II./Grenadier-Regiment "Großdeutschland" explain the weakness of the T-34/76 during Spring 1943, shortly before Operation Zitadelle.
Training close to the front in the individual destruction of armored vehicles. Konopka was still assigned to the elite Panzergrenadier-Division ‘Großdeutschland” at the time, as indicated by his cuff title and the GD monograms on his shoulder boards.
Konopka meets with a delegation from the Reich Labor Service.
Konopka in his assignment as the commander of Grenadier-Regiment 1 of Reichsarbeits-Infanterie-Division “Friedrich-Ludwig Jahn”.
Konopka meets with Oberfeldwebel Franz Lechl, who was awarded the Knight’s Cross in 1943 as a Platoon Leader in Grenadier-Regiment 266.
Konopka at a social event in 1974.
Source :
"The Face of Courage: The 98 Men who Received the Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold" by Florian Berger
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=2310847#p2310847
