Gustav Knittel
Gustav Knittel | |
---|---|
Born | SS Division Leibstandarte | 27 November 1914
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Gustav Knittel (27 November 1914 – 30 June 1976) was a Sturmbannführer (major) in the
World War II
Born in 1914, Gustav Knittel volunteered for the
After taking part in the German attack on
Kharkov battles
In March 1942 he was appointed as the company commander of the armored
Massacre of civilians
Ukrainian sources, including surviving witness Ivan Kiselev, who was 14 at the time of the massacre, described the killings at the villages of Yefremovka and Semyonovka on 17 February 1943. On 12 February the LSSAH occupied the two villages, where retreating Soviet Army forces had wounded two SS troops. In retaliation, five days later LSSAH troops killed 872 men, women and children. Some 240 of these were burned alive in the church of Yefremovka.[6] Knittel could not have participated in the massacre: the casualty reports of the Aufklärungsabteilung 'LSSAH'[5] and his medical records kept by the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) show that due to the bullet wound in his thigh incurred in front of Bereka on 15 February he was hospitalized in Krasnohrad on 16 February 1943 and was transferred to a field hospital in Poltava on 18 February.
Battle of the Bulge
Divisional commander
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Kampfgruppe_Knittel%27s_troops_on_the_road_to_Stavelot.jpg/220px-Kampfgruppe_Knittel%27s_troops_on_the_road_to_Stavelot.jpg)
That same day, 14 December, Knittel was briefed about the upcoming
The offensive started the next day, 16 December 1944. Initially Knittel advanced quickly, following in the wake of Peiper and Hansen without enemy contact, through Hallschlag, Manderfeld, Holzheim, Honsfeld, Heppenbach, Amel and Born.
On 18 December it became clear that Peiper made the best progress and Mohnke ordered Knittel to follow that battlegroup.
Increased pressure from American forces stalled the advance of the Leibstandarte and continued attempts from Knittel and Sandig to recapture Stavelot failed while Peiper had come to a halt in La Gleize.[8] The elements of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel on the western bank of the Amblève River were trapped between Stavelot, Coo and Trois-Ponts. On 20 December US Taskforce Lovelady from 3rd Armored Division attacked Knittel's positions from the direction of Trois-Ponts but was halted by a King Tiger tank and some anti-tank guns positioned near Petit-Spai.[8] That evening elements from the 82nd Airborne Division moved in on the positions near Petit-Spai and cut off the road to Wanne. On 21 December elements of the 3rd Armored Division pushed Schnelle Gruppe Knittel out of its positions in Ster, but elements of Kampfgruppe Hansen had reached Petit-Spai during the night, and their counterattack pushed the 82nd Airborne Division back to Trois-Ponts.[8] On 22 December a major attack from the 30th Infantry Division threw Knittel's men out of their positions at the western edge of Stavelot.[8]
It had become clear that the Meuse River could not be reached and Peiper decided on 23 December to abandon his vehicles and retreat through the woods to escape capture. He left La Gleize with the remaining men. 36 hours later he reached the German lines at Petit-Spai and then Wanne.[8] In the early morning of 25 December Knittel cleared his positions on the western bank of the Amblève River and withdrew his men to Wanne.[8] There the Leibstandarte regrouped before moving to the Bastogne area. The Ardennes Offensive ended for Knittel when airplanes from the American 9th Tactical Airforce bombed his command post near Vielsalm on 31 December 1944. He was hospitalized in Germany with serious concussion.[1]
Trial and conviction
In May 1945 Knittel returned to his family in Neu-Ulm but soon decided to hide on a farm near
In March, Knittel was transferred to Schwäbisch Hall, where Peiper and the other suspects of the Malmedy massacre were detained. Knittel and his Schnelle Gruppe had not taken part in the Malmedy Massacre since they had used a more southerly route. However, Knittel was questioned about war crimes in the Stavelot area.[8] Knittel confessed that on 21 December 1944 he had ordered the murder of eight American prisoners of war at the command post of his heavy company near Petit-Spay, east of Trois-Ponts.[12] Following his self-incriminating confession, (and despite "fully expecting and accepting that he would shortly be executed"),[10] he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 16 July 1946 during the Malmedy massacre trial.
Knittel and his lawyers immediately filed a request with the War Crimes Board of Review to have his case reopened. He retracted his confession and, like other defendants, complained that the interrogations included psychological torture. Knittel claimed to have been threatened with being handed over to the Belgians[13] and that his interrogators suggested that signing a confession or not was the choice between fair American justice and Belgian revenge.[14] Knittel complained that his defence lawyers had not been allowed to use the war diaries of the American units which had opposed his Schnelle Gruppe during the Battle of the Bulge to prove that no Americans were murdered at the date and location he gave in his confession.[15] However, the war diary of the 82nd Airborne Division shows that on 21 December 1944, during the battle between elements of Schnelle Gruppe Knittel and the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment between Trois-Ponts and Petit-Spay, an eight-man strong bazooka team was captured by the Germans less than a mile away from the command post described by Knittel in his confession.[1][16]
Unaware of the contents of the war diary of the 82nd Airborne Division, in March 1948 the reviewing authority reduced his sentence to 15 years imprisonment. In May 1948 the War Crimes Review Board Nr. 4 rejected the claim that irregularities had occurred during the trial against Knittel but following the Simpson Report and the findings of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services his sentence was further reduced to 12 years imprisonment. Knittel was released from Landsberg Prison on 7 December 1953 following a Christmas amnesty.[1]
Knittel later worked as a car salesman for Opel in Ulm until health problems, including several cardiac arrests, forced him to retire in 1970.[1] Knittel died on 30 June 1976 in Ulm hospital.
Summary of SS career
- Dates of rank
- Adjutant SS-Kradschützen-Reserve Battalion "Ellwangen": 26 August 1939 – May 1940
- Platoon Commander 15 Company/LSSAH, 15 May – 19 August 1940
- Commander 4th Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion LSSAH, 19 August 1940 – March 1942
- Commander 3rd Company 1st Reconnaissance Battalion LSSAH, March 1942 – April 1943
- Commander 1st SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion LSSAH, 22 April 1943 – August 1944
- Commander SS Field Reserve Battalion LSSAH, November 1944 – 12 December 1944
- Commander 1st SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st SS Panzer Division LSSAH, 14 December 1944 – 31 December 1944 (wounded)
- Awards
- German Cross in Gold on 23 January 1944 as SS-Sturmbannführer in the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 1 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"[17]
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 June 1944 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 1 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler".[18]
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 9789492475541
- ^ a b c d e SS Personalakten - Record Group 242, Publication A3343, SSO, Roll 185 (NARA)
- ^ SS RuSHA Akten - Record Group 242, Publication A3343, Series RS, Roll C5567 (NARA)
- ^ Kriegstagebuch LAH RS/1215 (Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv)
- ^ a b c Verlustmeldungen der Aufklärungsabteilung LAH, Microfilm M861 (Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv)
- ^ Parker 2014, pp. 356–357.
- ^ a b c d e Aussagen Gustav Knittels im Malmedy-Prozeß, Microfilm P26-A (NARA)
- ^ ISBN 0-900913-40-1
- ^ Kartheuser, Bruno. Dokumentation Kriegsverbrechen Stavelot Dezember 1944 – Documentation Crimes de guerre Stavelot, décembre 1944 (1994). Krautgarten, St. Vith.
- ^ ISBN 0-07-149911-3
- ^ Letter from Gustav Knittel to the head of the U.S. Army Secret Service, dated 5 January 1950 (NARA)
- ^ Aussagen Gustav Knittels im Malmedy-Prozeß, Microfilm P82-A (NARA)
- ^ Affidavit by Gustav Knittel, dated 15 March 1948 (NARA)
- ^ Affidavit by Gustav Knittel, dated 1 May 1949 (NARA)
- ^ Letter from Gustav Knittel to Willis M. Everett jr., dated 16 February 1948 (NARA)
- ^ 82nd AB Div G-3 Periodical Report G-2 Report No. 157, dated 28 December 1944 (NARA)
- ^ Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 238.
- ^ Scherzer 2007, p. 453.
Bibliography
- Parker, Danny S. (2014). Hitler's Warrior: The Life and Wars of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306821547. Archived from the originalon 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- Worst, Timo R. (2016). Career, crimes and trial of SS-Sturmbannführer Gustav Knittel. Pumbo. ISBN 9789492475541.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
- Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.