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~SOLD~HUND Willy
Obersturmführer
Hund, Willy
* 23.03.1923 Wiesbaden
+ 30.04.2002 Meerbusch
Awarded Knights Cross: 20.04.1945
as: Obersturmführer Führer einer Kamptgr. aus der 6. u. 7./Freiw.PzGrenRgt 23 "Norge"
Awarded for actions during the Battle for Berlin
Norge was part of the 11th Panzergrenadier Division Nordland
Battle of Berlin
On 16 April, the division was ordered to defend Berlin. Despite recent replenishment, the division was still understrength. From 17 to 20 April, the division was involved in combat all along its front and then retreated into the city. On 24 April, the main Soviet Army assault was towards the Treptow Park area, which the rest of the pioneer battalion and the remaining Tiger tanks of a Panzer battalion were defending. Obersturmbannführer Kausch led the few tanks and armoured vehicles in a counterattack and succeeded in temporarily halting the enemy advance. However, by midday, the 5th Shock Army was able to advance again. A later counter-attack by three assault guns was stopped by a Soviet soldier with three captured German Panzerfausts.
Later in the evening of 24 April between 320 and 330 French troops from the SS Division Charlemagne arrived in Berlin after a long detour to avoid Soviet advance columns. On 25 April, Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg was appointed the commander of (Berlin) Defence Sector C, which included Nordland. Joachim Ziegler was relieved of his command of the division earlier the same day. The French Elite troops now known as Sturmbataillon Charlemagne was attached to Nordland. The arrival of the French bolstered the division whose two regiments had been decimated in the fighting against the Soviet Army forces. They each roughly equalled a battalion.
By 26 April, with Neukölln heavily penetrated by Soviet combat groups, Krukenberg prepared fallback positions for Sector C troops around Hermannplatz. He moved his headquarters into the opera house. As Nordland fell back towards Hermannplatz, Charlemagne and one-hundred HJ attached to their group destroyed 14 Soviet tanks with Panzerfausts; one machine gun position by the Halensee bridge managed to hold up any Soviet advance in that area for 48 hours. Nordland's remaining armour, eight Tiger tanks and several assault guns, were ordered to take up positions in the Tiergarten, because although the two divisions of Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps could slow the Soviet advance down, they could not stop it.[9]
The Soviet forces advance into Berlin followed a pattern of massive shelling followed by assaults using house-clearing battle groups of about 80 men in each, with tank escorts and close artillery support. On 27 April, the remnants of Nordland were pushed back into the central government district (Zitadelle sector) in Defence sector Z. Krukenberg's headquarters was a carriage in the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station. Thereafter, the troops in the government district were pushed back into the Reichstag and the Reich Chancellery.
On 30 April, after receiving news of der Fuhrer’s suicide, orders were issued that those who could do so were to break out. Prior to that Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke briefed all commanders that could be reached within the Zitadelle sector about the events as to Hitler's death and the planned breakout.[13] The break out from the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker started at 2300 hours on 1 May. There were ten main groups that attempted to head northwest.
Fierce fighting continued all around, especially in the Weidendammer Bridge area. In that area, what was left of the division was destroyed by Soviet artillery and anti-tank guns. Nordland's last Tiger was knocked out attempting to cross the Weidendammer Bridge. Several small groups reached the Americans at the Elbe's west bank, but most (including Mohnke's group and men from Krukenberg's group), were not successful. Most were killed in the fighting or taken prisoner after surrender to Soviet troops. Krukenberg made it to Dahlem, where he hid out in an apartment for a week, but then had to surrender. On 2 May hostilities officially ended by order of General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Defence Area Berlin.
Signed postwar photo measuring 4” x 6”
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