Rudolf Becker
Date of Birth: 07.01.1923 - Königsborn bei Magdeburg, Sachsen (Germany)
Date of Death: 13.10.1944 - northwest Püspökladány, Hajdú-Bihar County (Hungary)
Buried: German-Hungarian War Cemetery Budaörs (Hungary)
Battles and Campaigns: Operation Barbarossa (1941), Battle of the Caucasus (1942), Lower Dnieper Offensive (1943), Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive (1943-1944), Cherkassy Pocket (1944), and Jassy–Kishinev Offensive (1944)
Promotions:
00.00.1940 Rekrut
00.00.1941 Fähnrich
30.05.1942 Leutnant
08.12.1943 Oberleutnant
01.10.1944 Hauptmann (posthumously)
Career:
25.10.1940 Soldat in 1.Kompanie / Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 66 (motorisiert)
02.05.1941 Gruppenführer in 3.Kompanie / Lehr-Infanterie-Regiment 66 (motorisiert)
28.05.1941 Gruppenführer in 3.Kompanie / Schützen-Regiment 66
09.07.1941 Lazarett
00.00.1941 stellvertretender Gruppenführer Genesenden-Kompanie / Schützen-Ersatz-Bataillon 66
07.12.1941 Gruppenführer Genesenden-Kompanie / Schützen-Ersatz-Bataillon 66
00.00.194? Zugführer in 1.Kompanie / Schützen-Ersatz-Bataillon 66
25.02.1942 9. Offiziers-Anwärter-Lehrgang
01.06.1942 Rekruten-Offizier/Zugführer
02.07.1942 Führer-Reserve Heeresgruppe A
02.09.1942 Ordonnanz-Offizier, Kommandant des Rückwärtigen Armeegebiets 531
02.10.1942 Adjutant Feldkommandantur 679
04.11.1942 Ordonnanz-Offizier I.Bataillon / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66
03.12.1942 Zugführer in 3.Kompanie / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66
26.01.1943 Zugführer in 1.Kompanie / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66
30.08.1943 Führer 1.Kompanie / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66
00.00.194? Chef 1.Kompanie / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66
Awards and Decorations:
00.00.1941 Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (awarded for a wound received on 09.07.1941)
00.00.1942 Medaille "Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42" (Ostmedaille)
00.00.194_ Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber
00.00.194_ Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen
20.01.1943 Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
08.03.1943 Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse
26.06.1943 Panzerkampfabzeichen in Bronze
07.08.1943 Anerkennungsurkunde des Oberbefehlshabers des Heeres
07.08.1943 Ehrenblattspange des Heeres und Waffen-SS
01.10.1943 Nahkampfspange in Bronze
29.10.1943 Deutsches Kreuz in Gold
01.11.1943 Nahkampfspange in Silber
13.11.1943 Verwundetenabzeichen in Gold
15.02.1944 Nahkampfspange in Gold
23.02.1944 Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, as Oberleutnant and Chef 1.Kompanie / I.Bataillon / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66 / 13.Panzer-Division
00.00.1944 Kubanschild (posthumously)
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“One Year to Get the Close Combat Clasp in Gold!”
Rudolf Becker was born on 7 January 1923 in Königsberg in the vicinity of Magdeburg. He grew up there under comfortable middle-class conditions.
When the war started he was still too young to wear a uniform, but he entered the military facilities of Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 66 when he turned 18 in October 1940. After his basic training, he was sent directly to the 13. Panzer-Division. This division had initially gathered its combat experiences in Poland and France as an infantry division but was reorganized as an armored division after those campaigns. In June 1941, it also entered the war against the Soviet Union.
The division’s Schützen-Brigade 13 was employed in the Lemberg Bend, where it scored its initial victories at Irpen and along the Uman. The brigade was commanded by Oberst Traugott Herr, who would later also gain renown as a highly decorated officer. By this time, Becker was an Obergefreiter and serving as a squad leader in the 3./Schützen-Regiment 66. On 8 July, he was wounded, however, and had to be evacuated to a hospital.
After convalescing at the replacement battalion of the regiment, Becker was able to transform his long-time desire to become an officer into action: He received permission to attend the necessary courses of instruction as an officer candidate.
He was promoted to Leutnant on 30 May 1942. After long utilization in headquarters in the rear, he returned to his old company—redesignated as the 3./Panzergrenadier- Regiment 66 in the meantime—in the fall of 1942. He was given a platoon, where the young go-getter sure under the served tutelage of his company commander, Hauptmann Brux, a Knight’s Cross recipient. Brux would continue to make a name for himself as the war progressed, eventually earning the Oakleaves. He would go on to serve in the Bundeswehr, where he would eventually rise to the rank of Oberst.
By the fall of 1942, after long fighting in the Rostov sector, the German forces along the southern front had advanced far to the east and south deep into the Caucasus. The 13. Panzer-Division was an important asset to the Heeresgruppe and was constantly being employed in the hot spots of the fighting. After weeks of hard fighting, the German forces had advanced as far as the Terek River, where they were within binocular range of the Soviet oil fields. At that point, however, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive that forced the German forces to pull back. The division was occasionally threatened with being cut off. Due to the high casualties, Leutnant Becker was given acting command of the 1./Panzergrenadier-Regiment 66. For his steady hand in commanding his newly entrusted men, Leutnant Becker was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class in January 1943. Becker’s new battalion commander, Hauptmann Waldemar von Gazen, who was a tremendous example to the young officer, was awarded the Oakleaves for the bravery of his battalion at the same time.
In the months that followed, Becker was officially designated as the company commander of his unit and continuously showed his capabilities during the fighting withdrawals and the accompanying positional warfare. He was always the master of the situation when surrounded by his grenadiers in dozens of defensive engagements. He was respected by all of his men, many of whom were much older than he. By March 1943, he had already received the Iron Cross, First Class.
During the fighting in the bitterly contested Krimshaya sector, Bataillon Gaza was able to turn back untold infantry and armor attacks. During this period, Leutnant Becker became somewhat of a specialist in leading combat patrols and conducting immediate counterattacks. He was continuously successful in those efforts and, by the fall, he had received the German Cross in Gold. He seemed to have a “nose” for picking the right routes in combat patrols, using the right tactics and discerning the enemy’s intentions.
After the division received a necessary battlefield reconstitution along the Mius River, it was again thrown back into the front, where it experienced many a hard month in the area around Melitopol. Using a lot of initiative, it was able to break out of an encirclement around Jefremowka, among other places. At Kirowograd, it was used in the hot spots to serve as a life preserver for the weakened infantry divisions. It was at Kirowograd that the regiment lost its dynamic commander, Major von Gazen, as a result of a shrapnel wound. Von Gazen had only just received the Swords to the Knight’s Cross; he would later return to the division as its Operations Officer.
In February 1944, the tanks and grenadiers of the combat-experienced division were sent to the area of the Tscherkassy Pocket, where they were part of the intended relief force. It was there that the ever-aggressive Becker, who had been promoted to Oberleutnant in the meantime, earned his Knight’s Cross. At the same time, his regimental commander was able to confirm his 50th day of close combat, meaning that Becker received the highest level of that award at almost the same time. This impressive number had been racked up by the young company commander—he had just turned 21—in the timeframe of a single year of combat at the front!
In the course of the offensive operations and defensive fighting in the Ukraine, the impressive officer had survived three different wounds, received the Army’s Recognition Certificate and had also earned a place on the Army’s Honor Roll!
After a well-earned leave for his brave service at the front, Becker turned down a duty position in the homeland in order to return to the head of his beloved company. He not only felt at home there, he was also the unquestioned commander due to his personality, his successes and his knowledge of people.
In August 1944, the division occupied a blocking position in the vicinity of Ermocilia and Leova for a lengthy period. The tankers and grenadiers then received a difficult mission: They had to cover the withdrawal of a battered corps across the Danube and into Hungary. Due to the heavy enemy pressure on both flanks, only elements of the division were able to save themselves by also crossing the river. Large portions of the division were either wiped out or went into Soviet captivity! Becker’s company— reduced by half—had succeeded in making it to the salvation of the western bank of the river, all the while under heavy enemy fire. There it was incorporated into the Restkampfgruppe 13. Panzer-Division, roughly: The 13th Armored Division Battle Group (Remnant).
The division formed part of the defenses of the Hungarian capital of Budapest along with other Army and Waffen-SS formations. Although there were innumerable defensive successes, in the long run, Budapest was lost.
A huge loss for the regiment was the loss of Rudolf Becker. He fell on 13 October 1944 during the defensive fighting around Püspök-Ladany, not far from Debrecen. The Knight’s Cross recipient was posthumously promoted to Hauptmann, as one of the youngest soldiers of the German Armed Forces to achieve that rank. He was buried at the military cemetery at Budaörs.
What was left of the division was lost in the final fighting of Budapest. Only small groups—often just individuals—were able to fight their way back to the German lines to the west.
The first award ceremony of Nahkampfspange in Gold for 14 Heer and Waffen-SS soldiers which was held on 27 August 1944 at the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg. Adolf Hitler (Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht) congratulates each recipients, while with him is Oberstleutnant Erik von Amsberg (Chefadjutant des Heeres beim Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht). The recipients are, from left to right: Oberleutnant Rudolf Becker (Ritterkreuzträger), SS-Obersturmführer Julius Weck, SS-Untersturmführer Wilhelm Schache, Oberfeldwebel Georg Aniol, Oberfeldwebel Franz Ingebrand, Feldwebel Kurt Buschbeck (on crutches), and Feldwebel Karl Hamberger (Ritterkreuzträger) . For the remaining recipients who are not visible in this photo - according to the row after Hamberger - they are as follow: Feldwebel Benno Paffrath, Feldwebel Franz Schmid, Unteroffizier Johann Friedberg, Unteroffizier Anton Hermann, Unteroffizier Fritz Willno*, Unteroffizier Oskar Menz*, and Obergefreiter Hans-Georg Rusdorf* (what is marked * means I don't know their position in the line).
Source :
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek photo archive (Image-No.: 50040906)
"Face of Courage: The 98 Men Who Received the Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold" by Florian Berger
http://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2011/11/daftar-peraih-nahkampfspange-in-gold.html
https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Becker,_Rudolf
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi9hoC_5MqBAxXRqWMGHTXMCnkQFnoECBYQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ritterkreuztraeger.info%2Frk%2Fb%2FB164Becker-Rudolf.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1KHd9rso52_KXWGaqFIOzs&opi=89978449
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Rudolf_Becker
http://www.ritterkreuztraeger.info/rk/b.html
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/1874/Becker-Rudolf.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20110105234801fw_/http://ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Infanterie/B/Becker-Rudolf.htm
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