Ritterkreuzträger of Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 228

Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 228 was formed on 10 November 1942 in the Luckenwalde-Treuenbrietzen area near Berlin as a Heerestruppe with three Batterien equipped with Sturmgeschütze and was initially earmarked for transfer to North Africa. Due to the deteriorating situation on the Eastern Front the unit was instead dispatched eastward in early December 1942 and unloaded at the Salsk railway station before being subordinated to the 8. Armee for the final phase of the relief attempt toward Stalingrad. Thereafter the Abteilung conducted intensive defensive fighting in the Donets basin against repeated Soviet breakthrough attempts and later took part in the successful counter-offensive that recaptured Charkow in March 1943. During the summer of 1943 it served under III. Panzerkorps within Armee-Abteilung Kempf during the Battle of Kursk and subsequently fought delaying actions around Belgorod, Poltava and Krementschug while withdrawing toward the Dnieper. In early 1944 the unit was heavily engaged inside the Kessel von Tscherkassy. On 14 February 1944 it was redesignated Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 228. The brigade then operated in Romania, suffering catastrophic losses of nearly all its Sturmgeschütze during the Soviet Jassy-Kishinev offensive, before transferring to Hungary where it played a notable role in the defence of the Gran bridgehead near Szolnok. Continuous retreats followed through Slovakia toward the Brno area, with final combat actions conducted alongside the 15. Infanterie-Division in the Wirschau-Kralitz-Mehren sector under 8. Armee of Heeresgruppe Ostmark until the end of the war. Successive Kommandeure included Hauptmann Wilhelm von Malachowski from formation, followed by Friedrich Moraw, Hauptmann Rudolf Knüppel and finally Hauptmann Kurt Teschke.

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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Major Wilhelm von Malachowski (1914-1980) was born on 6 June 1914 in Rostock and died on 28 October 1980 in Köln. He entered the Wehrmacht in 1935 with Infanterie-Regiment 27 before transferring to Artillerie-Regiment 48, where he was promoted to Leutnant on 20 April 1937. As Oberleutnant from 1 September 1939 he served as Zugführer in the 7. Batterie during the Polish and Western campaigns. On 1 August 1940 he volunteered for the Sturmartillerie and joined Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189, becoming Batterie-Chef of the 2. Batterie on 1 August 1941. During the winter fighting of 1941/42 near Rzhev his Batterie supported the breakout of XXIII. Armee-Korps and on 23 January 1942 destroyed 18 enemy guns southeast of Bachmatowo; by then he had personally accounted for 35 enemy tanks since the start of Operation Barbarossa. For these achievements he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 January 1942 as Oberleutnant and Chef of 2./Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189. Promoted to Hauptmann on 1 March 1942, he took command of the newly formed Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 228 at the end of 1942 and led it in the attempted relief of the 6. Armee at Stalingrad. On 14 January 1943, during battles for Novo-Palovski, Ignatviko and Masloff, he independently directed a small force of only seven Sturmgeschütze, two 2-cm anti-aircraft guns and fifty infantrymen, capturing the objectives after heavy fighting against Soviet tanks and advancing along the right flank to the edge of Masloff; his guns destroyed eighteen T-34 tanks and one KV-1, of which he personally knocked out four T-34s and the KV-1. This action earned him the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (206th award) on 6 March 1943 as Hauptmann and Kommandeur of Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 228, the same day he was promoted to Major. Severely wounded on 9 March 1943, he later served as an Ausbildungs-Offizier at the Sturmgeschütz-Schule in Burg, then at the Waffenschule des Ersatzheeres, and from 1 September 1944 in the Generalstab des Heeres.

Source :
https://www.balsi.de/Weltkrieg/Einheiten/Heer/Artillerie/Sturmartillerie/Abteilungen/228-StugAbt.htm
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Sturmgeschutzeinheiten/Sturmgeschutzabteilung228.htm