Last Ritterkreuz
 

Hello,

When and whom was the last Ritterkreuz of the war awarded to?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Do you mean under the Hitler regime, or Doenitz?

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Hi Guys

Seem to remember a couple of men being awarded the Ritterkreuz in the 1960's.

Regards

Johannes

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Do I need to rephrase my question? "During the war", it means before 8 May 1945.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

From what I recall, as the end of war approached, who was awarded what (and I include DKiG) and when became quite nebulous. Probably best firing off a few names in the hope like Hptm Karl-Heinz Stahnke getting the EL 27 Mar 45?

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Well, I know that my mother tongue being French, I may not be as specific as if I was on a French discussion board.
However, I thought I had been clear: last RK (not EL or DKiG) before 8/5/45.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Bonjour...
I do have Lt. Herbert Bareuther, Staffelkapitän 14./JG 3, KIA 30.04.1945 awarded the RK posthumously on the 02nd May 1945

The last “batch” of airmen seems to have been awarded the RK on the 28th April 1945…at least a SG 10 man, some NJG airmen and at least a Flak man.

Major Heinz Unrau, I/KG 51 was awarded his RK on the 01st May 45

It seems Fw. Josef Baldes, from 1.(F)/Aufkl.Gruppe 124 was awarded his RK on the 09th May 45…but am not sure about this one…another RK-Träger from the LW seems to have been awarded on that date too (a Fallschirmjäger)

CJE, you certainly do remember the Mister Kit series of booklets from the 80's-90's period (Mach 1)...well, there is a former KG 53 pilot and later JG 300 airman that received his RK (from documents of 1945) late in the 60's...as some of the gentlemen who answered the thread put correctly....it seems some airmen (LW) received their RK later in the 50's or 60's, due to the caos to process the formal documents on the last days before the end of WW2 in ETO (May 45).

Cordialement,
Baumgartner

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Chris-you misread what I wrote. What I wrote is if people fire off some names, maybe one can get there by cross referring the dates and hence a process of eliminating which is what Adriano has started. There are many cases of aircrew apparently being awarded but never receiving and that also applied to DKiG (which I know you are not interested in) from 1 Jan 45 onwards. Don't forget I am Welsh so English is not really my Mother tongue

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Chris, CJE, Vince and Johannes,

I understand that, from time to time, those LW airmen were personally invited to Berlin to receive the awards personally by the highest hierarchy. Therefore, profiting CJE's thread, does someone knows the last time this kind of cerimony was held at the Chancelery, in Berlin? I mean for awards from RK onwards (EL, S, Br)? We all have seen that vídeo showing some EKII being presented on A.H. last birthday, to some youngsters from the Wolksturm...but was the 28th April 1945 batch of LW airmen the last to have being honored with that kind of cerimony? From what I found, there were at least 4-6 airmen honored with the RK on that date. Of course, one can not dismiss that the date was similar (same document), but they may have received their award on the Squadron....at the front!

I also understand from books and pictures, that eventually some LW airmen did receive their RK from their commanding officers on a Squadron or Group cerimony...all hands saluting, etc...Perhaps by 1945 time...these cerimonies were held at this kind of level (Geschwader, Jafü, etc...).

Yours,
Adriano S. Baumgartner

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

The answer to this question is more complicated as you would think. The German efficiency had strict rules how someone could be nominated to receive the Knight's Cross and until his death on 30 April 1945 it was Hitler himself who ultimately decided if it was awarded or not. On the day he died some 33 proposals for this award were ready to be signed. His successor Dönitz sent a list of staff positions authorized to award the Knight's Cross on 3 May 1945, but legally only those awarded until and including 8 May 1945 can be valid.

According to the German historian Veit Scherzer about 200 alleged awards of the Knight's Cross are currently disputed as no official documentation or evidence of the award can be found. The cases of Herbert Bareuther and Heinz Unrau are two of them, furthermore the proposal of the award for Josef Baldes was never finalized.

The last confirmed award of the Knight's Cross to a member of the Luftwaffe went to Hptm Hans Beyer, Staffelkapitän 3.(F)/33, on 1 May 1945.

@Adriano
The video you mentioned was the last public appearance of Hitler and taken on 20 March 1945, one month before his last birthday. The last member of the Luftwaffe to receive an award personally from Hitler could have been Rudel on 1 January 1945.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Chris,

my father was awarded the Ritterkreuz on May 8th ( or 9th) 1945, although this has been disputed / contested by some RK-experts - for which I don't give a damn, either way. Documents of the award exist as well as the original of the KC. From a list I have seen I remember that he was amongst the last five or ten recipients. He belonged to 2. Pz.-Div. though, as he chose to volunteer for the Panzertruppe in 1940 fearing that he would come too late if he joined the Luftwaffe as a pilot - a fear that was unfounded. He only got his PPL in the sixties of the last century.

Don't know whether this helps. But anyway -

Best

Jochen

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Good example, Herr Doktor. The reason I asked for clarification on dates is that many RK historians deny claims by recipients made during the Doenitz period, including higher grades of the RK. There were a couple of Frenchmen who apparently got it in Berlin right at the end of the war, but these were probably only entries in the Soldbuch, Henri Fenet being one of them.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

I met Henri Fenet at the 1 Panzer Korps reunion in Austria back in 1990 and he wore his 1957 version of the RK at the meeting . He got this from Wilhelm Mohnke who confirmed this when I had contact with him .

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Herr Jochen PRIEN,

Firstly, I am a real fan of your work, really. (I only do have the full set about the JG53 History, though; but am interested on the JG 27 work of yours, since Obfw. Wilhelm Baumgartner seems to be from the same root of my Family, back in Switzerland...but this is another story).
Secondly: I know you wrote several books about the Luftwaffe, etc...but have you thought about writing about your father? I did not know he was a former veteran and highly decorated...Excuse me being curious, but had you talked about the war, I mean, when you were a kid, etc.?....or was it a difficult subject to talk about? Do you see, I have met only 4 former German WW2 veterans here in Brazil, one of them being Martin Drewes, back in 1996, one JG 27 airman shot down in 1945...a Ju 88 trainee pilot (who is still flying gliders) and a former NJG 2 and NJG 1 technician from Siemens that helped install the FuG 212 in the very first Nachtjagd aircraft (almost all of them passed away)...and this was Always a difficult topic to talk about. Of course, I am not a relative...so, they may have been suspicious, etc....

I understand this is an OFF topic question and is not related to the thread itself, but as a Latin American, I would like to understand if, during the 50's or 60's this was talked about, within the families of veterans...or if this was "verbotten" topic...

Again, please do let me express my admiration for your work and the tribute you did to all those Luftwaffe airmen, writing about their units and memories.

Adriano S. Baumgartner

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Adriano, you ask some interesting questions, but I think this needs a new thread. Why don't you cut and past your thread into a new one>

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Thanks Jochen,

It goes beyond my imagination to figure out that while Germany was crumbling down some bureaucrats were still typewriting the citations - "business as usual" style! - and dispatching (by courrier?) the medals in their boxes to the frontline units.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Hauptfeldwebel Paul Wilhelm was awarded the KC on May 5th by Heeresgruppe Mitte.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Excellent, VtwinVince! Because M. Chris CJE did not specify Luftwaffe in his Post No. 1 at the beginning of this thread!

L.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Larry, you make my day!
:)

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Major Helmut Voegtle, Kommandeur II. Gebirgsjaegerregiment 99, was awarded the RK on June 1st, and is listed in Fellgiebel's work, so apparently an actual award.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Fellgiebel's listing of Knight's Cross recipients can't be used as reference because the author himself stated that it wasn't an official work and for this reason simply refused to discuss the about 200 disputed award cases with historians like Manfred Dörr or Veit Scherzer, the latter compiled and published a new list in 2007 that is acknowledged as reference work by the German Federal Archives and Wehrmachtauskunftstelle (WASt).

The last Knight's Cross was apparently handed out to a member of the Kriegsmarine as late as 17 June 1945, given to ObltzS Georg-Wolfgang Feller for his minesweeping work in the Baltic Sea during the evacuation of Prussia. However, Dönitz had ordered on 11 May 1945 that all promotions and awards had to cease. As one can argue no German awards could be handed out legally after the unconditional surrender of Germany anyway.

Both cases mentioned by VtwinVince are disputed, the last undisputed award of the Knight's Cross was given on 8 May 1945 to Lt Friedrich Anding of the Panzer-Jäger-Abteilung Großdeutschland.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Dear Jochen Prien,

Was your father's name Peter Prien? Oberleutnant d. R. Prien was commander of the Stabskp./2.Pz. Div. and was awarded the Knight's Cross on May,9,1945. He also had two "Tank Destruction Badges". The information I got is from "Tank Killers-History of the Tank Destruction Badge" book.
I myself is a Knight's Cross Holder fan. I also don't care if the holder is officially or unofficially awarded the high neck decoration. As long as he deserved it and lived to wear it is very good to me!
I knew there were plenty of Luftwaffe pilots that were recommended for the Knight's Cross near the end of the WWII but final approval from the higher ups wasn't available. Quite a few of them were unofficially given the neck decoration anyway.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Gentlemen,

The Luftwaffe KG-53 bomber pilot and JG-300 day and night fighter pilot who finally was able to wear the Knight's Cross during the 1960's was named Arnold Doring. He served in the Bundesluftwaffe after World War II.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Gentlemen,

This is an interesting topic to review.


Edward L. Hsiao

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Although not an airtman but an Oberleutnant in a Panzer Division, the award date of my father's KC was 8 May 1945 as is evidenced on an official list of the last recipients of that decoration; the validity of the award has been contested by some historians a couple of years ago but not the fact of the award as such. IIRC there were several KC-awards with the date of the official last day of the war.

KR

Jochen Prien

P.S.: When I say official last day that is because my father's unit ended the war only on 11 May 1945 when they broke through the American lines somewhere in Checoslovakia in order to evade Russian captivity. The GIs offered no resistance being rather stunned by that group of several hundred Germans passing through with all their vehicles and equipment only to dissolve their unit some 5 kms further west, change to civilian clothes and head for home. My father rode back home to Hamburg on a bycicle, arriving there after several days.

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Could you tell us what Panzer Division your father was in?

Re: Last Ritterkreuz
 

Dear Edward,

yes, that was the one. And you're right, the award date was 9 May 1945.

KR

Jochen Prien