Hermann - Bernhard Ramcke Hermann - Bernhard " Gerhard " Ramcke ( 24 January 1889 – 4 July 1968 ) was a German general . He was a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Swords , Oak Leaves , and Diamonds , one of only 27 people in the German military so decorated . Ramcke ' s career was unusual in that he served in all three branches of the German armed forces . Early life and World War I . Ramcke was born in Schleswig to a family of farmers . He joined the German Imperial Navy in 1905 as ship ' s boy . During the First World War he served aboard the armored cruiser " Prinz Adalbert " in the Baltic and North Sea . When the " Adalbert " suffered extensive damage in 1915 , fearing that the war might end before the ship returned to service , Ramcke transferred to the marines . The " Adalbert " returned to service months later and was lost with 672 of her crew , as Ramcke would learn from a short telegram received at the front . Ramcke fought in the West with the German Marine - Infanterie , mainly in the area of Flanders . In 1916 he was decorated with the Iron Cross second class and later the Iron Cross first class . After a defensive action against three British attacks he was decorated with the Prussian Golden Merit Cross , the highest decoration for non - commissioned officers in the German Imperial Forces , and became a deputy - commissioned officer . In 1918 he attained the rank of leutnant der marine - infanterie . By the time the Armistice was signed , he had risen to the rank of oberleutnant . He had been wounded 5 times in combat and spent 18 months in hospital . In 1919 he then fought against the Bolsheviks in the Baltic as a member of the so - called " Russian Army of the West " ( composed mostly of German veterans ) and was wounded once in the shoulder . Ramcke stayed in the Reichswehr during the Weimar Republic period . He continued to serve in the new Wehrmacht during the Third Reich , climbing through the ranks until he attained the rank of oberstleutnant in 1937 . World War II . On 19 July 1940 , Ramcke was transferred to the 7th Fliegerdivision under the command of General Kurt Student and was promoted to oberst . At the age of 51 he successfully completed the parachute qualification course . In May 1941 working with the division Stab he helped plan and also took part in Operation " Merkur " , the airborne attack on Crete . Ramcke led the " Fallschirmjäger - Sturm - Regiment 1 " , and also led " Kampfgruppe West " . After the successful , but costly , victory in Crete , remainders of several " Fallschirmjäger " units were formed into an ad hoc brigade , and command was given to Ramcke . He was also promoted to generalmajor on 22 July 1941 . In 1942 " Fallschirmjäger - Brigade Afrika " was sent to North Africa to join Rommel ' s " Afrikakorps " . The brigade was renamed " Fallschirmjäger - Brigade Ramcke " in July and supported the offensive towards the Suez Canal , but when the offensive got bogged down they entered the line at El Alamein . The British attack at the Second Battle of El Alamein did not directly strike the unit but they soon became involved in heavy fighting . During the withdrawal of the " Afrikakorps " , the Brigade was surrounded and written off as lost by the high command since it had no organic transport . Rather than surrender , Ramcke led his troops out of the British trap and headed west , losing about 450 men in the process . They soon captured a British supply column which provided not only trucks but food , tobacco and other luxuries . About 600 of the paras later rejoined the " Afrikakorps " in late November 1942 . Ramcke was sent back to Germany , where he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross personally by Adolf Hitler . In 1943 Ramcke , now a generalleutnant , took command of " 2nd Fallschirmjäger - Division " . The division was deployed to Italy , to help bolster the German forces there to ensure that Italy did not join the Allies . When Italy signed the armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943 , the division , along with other German units , took part in Operation " Achse " to take control of the country . Ramcke led his division in an assault on Rome , and secured the city two days later . The division continued serving in Italy for a while , during which time Ramcke was wounded after his car was forced off the road by an Allied fighter - bomber . Ramcke returned to command the division in early 1944 . By this time 2nd FJ was fighting on the Eastern Front , during the withdrawal from the Bug River area . Ramcke fell ill during this time and was sent back to Germany for recuperation . He assumed command again in May 1944 to oversee the rebuilding of the 2nd FJ - Division , which was based near Cologne . Following the Allied D - Day landings on 6 June , 2nd Fallschirmjäger - Division was sent to the Brittany region of France , and took up the defence of Brest . Following Operation " Cobra " , the allied breakout from Normandy , Major - General Troy H . Middleton ' s U . S . VIII Corps hooked left from Normandy and attacked the Brittany region . The German defenders in the region fell back on Brest , and Ramcke assumed command of the garrison , now known as " Festung Brest " . Brest was largely surrounded and infiltrated by partisan guerillas who succeeded in killing one of Ramcke ' s junior officers in the seat next to him as they drove through an ambush . Commanding about 35 , 000 German troops Ramcke led the defense of Brest from 11 August until 19 September . Ramcke refused early requests to surrender and followed orders to hold out as long as possible . On the final day of battle , it was only after escaping a strafing attack during a personal reconnoiter of the area , and the entry of American forces into the bunker , that General der Fallschirmtruppe Hermann - Bernhard Ramcke surrendered , on the same day as he was awarded the Swords ( 99th Recipient ) & Diamonds ( 20th recipient ) to the Knights Cross . Post war . Ramcke was shipped to the United States as a prisoner of war and later to England and France . While a POW at Camp Clinton , Mississippi , he wrote a letter to Byron Price . Arguing in the letter that the treatment of Germany following World War I had led to National Socialism and World War II , he protested the Morgenthau Plan as another attempt to enforce harsh treatment upon Germany . Citing General Middleton ' s remarks as verification , Ramcke detailed his efforts to protect American POWs and otherwise uphold the laws of war and stated he was " convinced that all other German commanders have acted in the same way " . To keep the letter out of his guards ' hands he slipped out of the camp , mailed the letter in a nearby town , and returned to camp , after meals and a brief pause in a hotel lobby to smoke a cigar and observe the holiday mood of Americans now free from fears of war , without being caught . In 1951 Ramcke was charged with war crimes in France , but he managed to escape from captivity to Germany . He returned voluntarily and was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a French court in March 1951 , but was released on 24 June 1951 . Testifying in his defense was American General Troy Middleton , to whose forces Ramcke had surrendered in the autumn of 1944 . After the war , Ramcke and Middleton maintained a correspondence for about fifteen years . Following his release from nearly 7 years captivity , Ramcke , through his public actions , became seen as a dedicated nationalist by his fellow generals and supported extreme right - wing movements such as the " Naumann - Kreis " in Germany . On 26 October 1952 , he told a group of former SS - men they should be proud of being blacklisted , while pointing out that in the future their blacklist would instead be seen as a " list of honor " . Ramcke ' s remarks caused a furor in Germany ; even the former SS General Felix Steiner distanced himself from them . Konrad Adenauer was so furious with Ramcke ' s remarks that he directed Thomas Dehler , the German federal Minister of Justice , to investigate the possibility of prosecuting Ramcke . Adenauer publicly decried Ramcke ' s remarks as " irresponsible " and his associated behavior as " foolishness " — a reaction probably prompted because Adenauer ' s government had made a significant effort to obtain early release for Ramcke from French imprisonment . Ramcke ' s intent , as stated by himself and his supporters , in his actions following the war was to again seek to protect his men , both in their reputations and their future , such as in cautioning against their being used as " cannon fodder " in the speech to ex - paratroopers during the rearmament debate . This was consistent with his behavior throughout his career during which his superiors found him to be a demanding subordinate in his advocacy for the needs of his men . Ramcke published two books , both autobiographies , one during the war and the other in 1951 . He did not join the new Bundeswehr , but pursued a career in the concrete industry instead in the years following . General of the Paratroopers Hermann - Bernhard Ramcke died after battling cancer at Kappeln on July 4 , 1968 .