Adolf Vogt
Date of Birth: 31.08.1915 - Sindolsheim, Baden-Württemberg (German Empire)
Date of Death: 21.09.1992 - Sindolsheim, Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
Campaigns: Occupation of the Rhineland (1936), Battle of France (1940), Battle of Greece (1941), Operation Barbarossa (1941), Crimean Campaign (1941-1942), Operation Overlord (1944), Falaise pocket (1944)
Promotions:
00.00.1935 Gefreiter
00.00.193_ Unteroffizier
00.00.19__ Feldwebel
00.00.1940 Oberfeldwebel
00.00.1943 Leutnant
00.00.1944 Oberleutnant
01.01.1945 Hauptmann
Career:
00.00.1934 Entered the military in MG-Kompanie (schwere) / Infanterie-Regiment 15 in Gießen
00.00.1936 Soldat in 8.MG-Kompanie / Infanterie-Regiment 105
00.00.1940 Zugführer in 12.Kompanie / Infanterie-Regiment 105
00.01.1941 Mittelgebirgsausbildung in Colmar
00.02.1944 Chef 12.Kompanie / Grenadier-regiment 1054 / 85.Infanterie-Division
00.03.1945 Infanterie-Division Ulrich von Hutten
Awards and Decorations:
00.00.193_ HJ-Abzeichen
00.00.1938 Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. klasse (4 jahre)
00.05.1940 Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
00.00.1940 Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber
00.06.1941 Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse
00.00.1942 Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz
05.05.1942 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold
00.00.194_ Bulgarische "Soldatenkreuz des Tapferkeitsordens" II.Klasse
16.10.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, as Oberleutnant and Chef 12.Kompanie / III.Bataillon / Grenadier-regiment 1054 / 85.Infanterie-Division. Vogt's company was involved in the German retreat across France in mid-1944. Shortly after he had received an order to retreat, an Oberst from a Panzer Regiment asked that he hold his positions for two more days until his tanks had been evacuated across the Seine. He held his positions as requested and with his men was also able to destroy two tanks in close combat. But on the second day of fighting he was shot through the elbow and was paralyzed in the arm. That night he and his men also retreated across the Seine and Vogt was transferred to hospital. For his successful stand during this engagement he would shortly thereafter be awarded the Ritterkreuz.
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Adolf Vogt was born on August 31, 1915 in Sindolsheim and joined the Wehrmacht in 1934 in the heavy machine gun company of the 15th Infantry Regiment in Giessen. In the course of the occupation of the Rhineland, the regiment was sent to Worms in 1936, where Vogt was promoted to corporal and relocated to Trier together with the regiment.
The 72nd Infantry Division was set up there, to which Vogt was transferred as a soldier in the 8th MG Company in the 105th Infantry Regiment. Trier remained the regiment's peacetime garrison until 1940, where Vogt was promoted to sergeant.
On May 10th, 1940, the attack in the west begins for him via Luxembourg, Belgium and France. On the Marne, his sMG platoon succeeded in taking or eliminating an important French bunker and enabling the infantry to cross over. His train was the first to cross the river. That same evening, the regiment commander awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, to all the soldiers in his platoon.
The regiment then advanced further across the Seine to the Atlantic at Michel-Chef-Chef. Initially used for three weeks in coastal protection, the division was transferred to Paris as a guard troop as a distinction, where Vogt was promoted to Oberfeldwebel and set up the 12th company of the 105th Infantry Regiment together with Lieutenant Damm.
At the beginning of 1941 he was transferred to the Colmar area for low mountain training and was then transferred to Romania as part of the division as part of the training force, in order to protect the oil fields there, which were important to the war effort.
Then came the march through Bulgaria and the attack on Greece. On the heavily fortified Metaxas Line, a rifle company and Vogt's sMG platoon then managed to wade through a swamp that the Greeks considered impassable and conquer a 1,200m high mountain. On this were all the observation points of the Greek artillery. The enemy attacked continuously for the next three days. When the ammunition was almost gone, the Greek army surrendered. The Greek regiment commander provided the German soldiers with bread and tinned meat, since they had not received any supplies for three days. The opposing regiment rallied with weapons and marched to the nearest town. There the weapons were handed in and the soldiers released to go home.
The commander of the III. Battalion Captain Heinrich Nietsche received the Knight's Cross on June 13, 1941 and Vogt the Iron Cross 1st Class in Salonika.
Vogt continued the advance in Greece to Larissa before Athens. The return march took place through Romania, where they prepared themselves for the eastern campaign.
He followed the regiment through Bessarabia, where they took the city of Kishinev, broke through the Stalin Line, crossed the Dnieper and reached the Isthmus of Perekop in the Crimea. There he took part in the heavy fighting to take Crimea. During the first few months in Russia, Vogt distinguished himself repeatedly. For example, during a small shock troop operation, he managed to bring in two enemy field kitchens that were still warm, two supply vans and 10 prisoners. He was also used one day to secure the divisional command post. He observed movements in the nearby village. Vogt manned a Russian truck with two SMGs and advanced with the truck, covered by the other comrades. When entering the village, they were met by Russian soldiers. When one of the Germans indicated that at least 1,000 German soldiers would soon follow, the Russian soldiers surrendered and Vogt returned to the division's command post with 60 prisoners!
The regiment continued to advance to Simferopol, where he was badly wounded by a MG burst. He suffered a shot in the neck and lung fragments from explosive projectiles and lost three fingers on his right hand. For four weeks he lay, unable to be transported, in an old school near Perekop and was then transported across the Black Sea to Bucharest in a Ju-52. He spent almost a year in various military hospitals, then came to a convalescent home and then received a command at the infantry school.
In February 1944, the 85th Infantry Division was formed at the Döberitz military training area. Vogt was transferred to Grenadier Regiment 1054 as commander of the 12th company and then promoted to lieutenant.
The division is then transferred to the Calais area to repel the invasion, followed by heavy fighting in the Caen-Falaise-Rouen area.
For example, after Vogt had received an order to withdraw, a colonel of a tank regiment asked him to hold his positions for another two days until his tanks had crossed the Seine. Vogt held out and, together with his fellow, destroyed two more enemy tanks in close combat. On the second day, Vogt was wounded by a shot through his elbow and continued to suffer from radial paralysis. That night the company withdrew across the Seine and Vogt was transferred to a military hospital in Münster in Westphalia and then to a special clinic in Jena. For his service on the invasion front, Vogt received the Knight's Cross on October 16, 1944 as a lieutenant and commander of the 12th company in Grenadier Regiment 1054.
Towards the end of 1944, the "Ullrich von Hutten" division was set up in Potsdam, to which Vogt was transferred and promoted to captain. It is used primarily in the Harz mountains. After he was quickly surrounded by American formations there, he reported with his battle group to the divisional command post on the Brocken. The commander informed the soldiers about the end of the war and everyone could now fend for themselves. Vogt wanted to make his way to the hospital in Jena in seven night marches. It was successful and Vogt reached the doctor he knew at the Bismarck School, who was still able to accommodate the soldiers. When the Americans cleared Thuringia and handed it over to the Russians, all soldiers who could be transported were dismissed.
Not a day in captivity, Vogt reached his homeland in July 1945, where he volunteered in a car workshop. In 1950 he opened a rental car company with just one car. Two years later he bought his first bus. Up until his 70th birthday he drove another 3,000,000 kilometers.
Adolf Vogt died on September 21, 1992 in his native town of Sindolsheim.
Source :
Jim Haley photo collection
http://www.ritterkreuztraeger.info/rk/v.html
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/20025/Vogt-Adolf.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20111228125041fw_/http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Infanterie/V/Vo/Vogt-Adolf.htm
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