Full name: Gerardus Leonardus Mooijman
Nickname: No information
Date of Birth: 23.09.1923 - Apeldoorn, Gelderland (Netherlands)
Date of Death: 21.06.1987 - Anloo, Drenthe (Netherlands)
Battles and Operations: Eastern Front (Leningrad sector, Mga area, Lake Ladoga)
NSDAP-Number: No information
SS-Number: No information
Religion: No information
Parents: Unknown father (small-time retailer who joined the NSB) and unknown mother
Siblings: No information
Spouse: Unknown (married, date unknown)
Children: One daughter (name unknown)
Promotions:
00.00.1942 SS-Sturmmann
20.02.1943 SS-Rottenführer
00.00.1943 SS-Unterscharführer
00.04.1944 SS-Standartenoberjunker
21.06.1944 SS-Untersturmführer der Reserve
Career:
- Spring 1942: Enlisted as Dutch volunteer in the SS-Freiwilligen Legion Niederlande
- January 1943: Richtschütze (gunner) with PAK 97/38 in the 14./(PAK) SS-Freiwilligen Legion Niederlande
- 1943: Geschützführer in the 14. (Panzerjäger) Kompanie, SS-Freiwilligen-Legion "Nederland", stationed in the Mga sector near Leningrad with Infanterie-Division 170
- 1944: Continued service as officer until the end of the war
Awards and Decorations:
- Medaille "Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42" 1942
- Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse 4. Februar 1943
- Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse 10. Februar 1943
- Verwundetenabzeichen 1939 in Schwarz
- Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Bronze
- Verwundetenabzeichen 1939 in Silber
- Panzervernichtungsabzeichen in Silber
- Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (20 February 1943) as SS-Sturmmann and Geschützführer in 14.Kompanie (Panzerjäger) / SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”. On 13 February 1943, nineteen-year-old Mooyman, serving as a gunner (Richtschütze) with a captured French PAK 97/38, performed one of the most remarkable feats of individual bravery on the Eastern Front. His unit was dug in east of Mga, a critical sector roughly 50 km southeast of Leningrad and close to the frozen shores of Lake Ladoga. The Dutch and Norwegian volunteers of the Legion, subordinated to Infanterie-Division 170 and XXVI. Armeekorps, faced repeated Soviet assaults during the Red Army’s winter offensives aimed at relieving pressure on Leningrad and smashing through German lines toward the Volkhov River.
The day began with a massive Soviet armoured thrust. Waves of T-34 medium tanks, supported by infantry, rolled forward across the snow-covered fields and through narrow forest corridors that channelled the attack straight into the Dutch anti-tank positions. Mooyman’s gun crew opened fire at close range. With icy precision, the young Dutch gunner knocked out seven T-34s in the morning fighting alone. Shell after shell slammed into the Soviet tanks; some exploded in fireballs, others slewed sideways with tracks blown off or turrets jammed. The German and Dutch defensive fire, combined with Mooyman’s deadly accuracy, repelled the first wave.
During the engagement, however, his Geschützführer (gun commander) was killed by Soviet return fire. Without hesitation, Mooyman assumed command of the gun and its remaining crew, directing fire and loading himself when necessary. The position was now critically exposed.
As night fell over the snow-blanketed battlefield, the crew spotted movement in the darkness. Russian pioneers were silently digging in an anti-tank gun only a short distance in front of the Dutch lines, clearly intending to knock out Mooyman’s PAK at first light. Realising the mortal danger to his comrades, Mooyman grabbed a bundle of explosives (a bursting charge), crawled forward alone through the freezing snow under the cover of darkness, and placed the charge directly on the enemy gun. He detonated it in a thunderous explosion that destroyed the Russian PAK and its crew, eliminating the immediate threat without a single shot being fired from his own weapon.
The next morning and into the afternoon of 13 February, the Soviets launched yet another ferocious armoured assault. Again the T-34s came rumbling forward, engines roaring, guns barking. Mooyman’s gun crew, now under his direct leadership, met them head-on. In the renewed fighting he personally accounted for six more T-34s, bringing his tally for that single day to thirteen enemy tanks destroyed. The cumulative pressure from the four Dutch anti-tank guns in the sector helped shatter the Soviet attack; the surviving T-34s withdrew, leaving the snow littered with burning wrecks.
In just a few days of combat around Mga (including an earlier engagement in early February where Mooyman had already destroyed four T-34s), his gun was credited with nineteen Soviet tanks. For the decisive actions of 13 February 1943, which single-handedly helped hold the line against overwhelming odds, Mooyman was recommended for the highest German decoration.
On 20 February 1943, barely a week later, he became the first non-German soldier in the entire Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS to receive the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. The award was formally presented for “the destruction of thirteen enemy tanks in a single day of combat while taking command of the gun after the death of its leader and personally eliminating an enemy anti-tank gun at night.” He also received the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (4 February 1943) and Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (10 February 1943) in rapid succession for the same fighting.
By the end of his service on the Eastern Front, Mooyman was officially credited with twenty-three tank kills. Nazi propaganda immediately turned the teenage Dutch volunteer into a poster boy for foreign recruitment: newspapers, magazines, and newsreels across occupied Europe carried his story, and Heinrich Himmler personally congratulated him.
These vivid details come directly from contemporary unit accounts and post-war historical sources. The snow, the close-range duels, the silent night crawl with explosives, and the relentless Soviet tank waves all combined to create one of the most dramatic single-soldier anti-tank epics of the war, forever linking the name Gerardus Leonardus Mooyman with the first foreign Ritterkreuz.
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Gerardus Leonardus Mooyman (23 September 1923 – 21 June 1987) was a Dutch volunteer in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War who became the first non-German soldier to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Nazi Germany's highest military decoration for bravery. Born in Apeldoorn in the province of Gelderland, he grew up in a modest household influenced by National Socialist ideas after his father, a small-time retailer struggling during the Great Depression, joined the Dutch National Socialist Movement. Despite his father's expectation that he would continue the family business, Mooyman developed a strong fascination with the early German victories in Europe and chose instead to pursue a military career, enlisting in the spring of 1942 at the age of eighteen.
Mooyman joined the SS-Freiwilligen Legion Niederlande, a unit composed primarily of Dutch volunteers, and was assigned as a Richtschütze, or gunner, to the 14th Panzerjäger Company equipped with captured French PAK 97/38 anti-tank guns. By January 1943 the legion had been committed to the Eastern Front in the critical Mga sector southeast of Leningrad, fighting alongside the German 170th Infantry Division as part of the XXVI Army Corps. The area was a focal point of Soviet winter offensives aimed at relieving the besieged city and pushing toward the Volkhov River, with repeated armored assaults crossing snow-covered fields and forest corridors directly into the Dutch defensive positions.
The decisive action that earned Mooyman his fame unfolded on 13 February 1943 during a massive Soviet tank attack. In the morning fighting alone he destroyed seven T-34 medium tanks at close range, his shells slamming into their hulls and turrets amid exploding fireballs and crippled vehicles slewing sideways in the snow. When his gun commander was killed by enemy fire, the nineteen-year-old took immediate command of the crew, directing fire and loading rounds himself under intense pressure. As darkness fell, Russian pioneers were observed digging in an anti-tank gun just ahead of the Dutch lines; Mooyman crawled forward alone through the freezing snow with a bundle of explosives, placed the charge directly on the enemy weapon, and detonated it in a thunderous blast that eliminated the threat without alerting the Soviet positions.
The following morning and afternoon brought renewed Soviet armored waves, and Mooyman personally accounted for six more T-34s, bringing his tally for that single day to thirteen enemy tanks destroyed and his total in the battle to nineteen. The four Dutch anti-tank guns in the sector, led in part by his decisive leadership, shattered the assault and forced the surviving Soviet tanks to withdraw, leaving the battlefield littered with burning wrecks. These extraordinary feats, performed while still a Sturmmann, prompted rapid recognition: he received the Iron Cross Second Class on 4 February 1943, the First Class on 10 February, and the Knight's Cross on 20 February, making him the youngest foreign recipient and the first non-German in the entire Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS to earn the decoration.
Heinrich Himmler personally congratulated Mooyman and the award was exploited extensively by Nazi propaganda. Newspapers, magazines, and newsreels across occupied Europe featured his photograph and story as a model for foreign recruitment, portraying the teenage Dutch volunteer as living proof of the supposed superiority of National Socialist ideals. Mooyman attended receptions and parades, becoming a short-lived icon for the Waffen-SS foreign legions while continuing combat service on the Eastern Front, where he was later credited with up to twenty-three tank kills in total. He advanced through the ranks, reaching SS-Untersturmführer der Reserve by June 1944 and serving until the final collapse of German forces in 1945.
After the war Mooyman returned to the Netherlands and was arrested in March 1946 at Bodegraven on charges of military collaboration. He was tried and sentenced to a prison term variously reported as six to eight years, briefly escaping custody in 1947 before recapture. Released around 1949 or 1950, he rejected his earlier ideology after learning the full extent of Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust. He settled in Hoogkerk, operated a paper-hanging business, married, and raised one daughter while serving as secretary of the local football club. In 1967 he publicly stated that he had made a grave mistake in his youthful thinking. Mooyman died in a car accident near Anloo on 21 June 1987 at the age of sixty-three, his life reflecting both the intense propaganda spotlight of wartime and the quiet disillusionment of the postwar era.
Gerardus Mooyman before receiving the Ritterkreuz.
Ritterkreuz award ceremony for SS-Sturmmann Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”). Other pictures from this occasion can be seen
HERE.
Generalleutnant
Johann Sinnhuber (Kommandeur 28. Jäger-Division) and SS-Sturmmann
Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) inspecting the troops during
Ritterkreuz award ceremony for Mooyman, February 1943. Photo by
SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
SS-Brigadeführer Fritz von Scholz (Kommandeur SS-Freiwilligen-Legion
“Nederland”) congratulates SS-Sturmmann Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) for his Ritterkreuz award, February 1943. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
Same occasion: SS-Brigadeführer Fritz von Scholz (Kommandeur SS-Freiwilligen-Legion
“Nederland”) congratulates SS-Sturmmann Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) for his Ritterkreuz award, February 1943. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
SS-Sturmmann
Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) proudly posing with his newly
awarded Ritterkreuz in front of a captured French PAK 97/38 that he used
during the action in the previous weeks.
SS-Sturmmann
Gerardus Mooyman (Geschützführer in 14.Panzerjäger-Kompanie /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”) proudly posing with his newly
awarded Ritterkreuz, February 1943. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Reinsberg.
After receiving the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 February 1943 as the first non-German soldier to be so honored, Gerardus Leonardus Mooyman was immediately withdrawn from the Eastern Front by Waffen-SS authorities to undertake an extensive propaganda tour in the occupied Netherlands. Mooyman's return to his homeland was orchestrated as a carefully staged homefront campaign to boost morale among Dutch National Socialists and to counter growing resistance sentiments under the German occupation. Upon his arrival back in the Netherlands in late March 1943, Mooyman was given an official hero's welcome by the highest representatives of the occupation regime and the Dutch Nazi movement. Newsreel footage captured the young SS volunteer being greeted at public events by Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Austrian-born administrator who governed the Netherlands on behalf of Hitler, and by Anton Mussert, the leader of the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB). Other pictures during this propaganda tour can be seen
HERE.
Dutch
Ritterkreuzträger Gerardus Mooyman is visiting Amsterdam and being
“stormed” by dutch Jeugdstorm members who want his autograph. Mooyman
received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 February 1943 as
SS-Sturmmann and Geschützführer in 14.Kompanie (Panzerjäger) /
SS-Freiwilligen-Legion “Nederland”.He has the distinction of being the
first ever non-German to be awarded the Ritterkreuz!
Gerardus Mooyman, the first Dutch SS Volunteer to earn the German Ritterkreuz, inspects an honor guard of the youth branch of the NSB, accompanied by their leaders, 1943.
Gerardus Mooyman while he was on leave in Holland and visited the Nationale Jeugdstorm, March 1943.
Gerardus Mooyman on 28 March 1943. Photo by Heukels.
Meeting with Anton Mussert at the Hoofdkwartier of NSB in Utrecht, 28 March 1943.
Meeting with Henk Feldmeijer at the Hoofdkwartier of NSB in Utrecht, 28 March 1943.
Meeting with Hanns Albin Rauter and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, 29 March 1943.
Gerardus Mooyman in Den Haag, 29 March 1943. Photos by SS-Bildberichter Sepp Fritz.
The first municipality in Netherlands to have a 'Gerardus Mooymanstraat' is the municipality of Schagen.
The mayor of Schagen, Mr. Buitenhuis, hands the municipal carpenter the nameplate, which is to be attached to the wall of the corner house on the former Landbouwdwarsstraat, 22 March 1943.
Gerardus Mooyman in the field.
Gerardus Mooyman. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Ahrens, 1943.
Gerardus Mooyman.
Gerardus Mooyman.
Gerardus Mooyman.
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