Siegfried Brosow - Knight's Cross

Knight's Cross

On 13 September 1943, Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Brosow was ordered to establish unit-boundary security positions in the reserve sector between the SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion Das Reich and the 344th Grenadier Regiment. This area signified the southwesterly height 188, just forward of a small wooded area north of Kraschantschen. This strategic point along the front had to be held, at all costs, against any Soviet penetrations.

Heavy Russian artillery and mortar fire was directed against the German strategic point and the remaining earthworks that lay 500 meters to the north. Once the barrages lifted, but with added strong support from tanks, the Russian infantry assaulted the German Division's lines from positions near Perekop. While the SS Reconnaissance Battalion had successfully knocked out 45 T-34 tanks and stopped the assault on the right, Russian infantry managed to breach the German lines in the area of the III. Battalion, 344th Grenadiers. Infiltrating the German trench system and moving 1200 meters forward, two Russian companies launched an attack against the reserve sector. The Russians were quickly tied down by the defending 1st Pionier Company, but tried again and again to gain ground along the street and tree line. Each time they were turned back.

Recognizing the immediate danger, regardless of his weak security reserve, Hauptsturmführer Brosow led a counterattack into the Russian flanks. With 45 men of the 1st Pionier Company, Brosow infiltrated the Russian occupied trenches under heavy fire. Close combat with submachine pistols and hand grenades ensued as they struggled to reclaim their ground, meter upon meter. After 700 meters and under Russian artillery fire, heavy German casualties and growing enemy resistance ground the German attack to a halt. Contact with their right flank could not be established. That night, Brosow and his men recaptured the remaining ground during a sweeping night-assault with flamethrowers. The German attack completely routed those Russian units that had breached the German lines, to include two Soviet battalions that were staging for an attack. Siegfried Brosow and his men not only ejected the Russian presence within the German lines, but they also removed the Russian threat of splitting the divisional forward positions of Das Reich in two. The Russians were denied use of the main road that led to the only bridge over the Worskla river. For this action Brosow was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 13 November 1944.