Siegfried Brosow Siegfried Brosow was a Sturmbannführer ( Storm Unit Leader / Major ) , in the Waffen SS during World War II who was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . This was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during World War II . Siegfried Brosow joined the SS - VT ( auxiliary ) in 1937 and was issued the SS service number SS 353059 . He was selected to be an officer and sent to the SS - Junkerschule at Brunswick from 1939 to 1940 , while he was at the school he joined the NSDAP in December 1939 being given the party number NSDAP - Nr : 7 145 966 . During the Battle of France Untersturmführer ( Storm Leader / Second Lieutenatnt ) Brosow was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class for bravery and the Iron Cross 1st class , during the first assault on Moscow and was promoted to Obersturmführer ( Senior Storm Leader / First Lieutenant ) on 30 January 1942 . He returned to the Das Reich Pionier battalion in January 1943 as the commander of the 1st Company , until he became the commander of the Divisional staff in October 1943 . During the rebuilding of Das Reich in 1944 he became the temporary Pionier Battalion Commander and assumed full command during the Normandy Campaign . He led the Battalion until February 1945 when he was reassigned to the SS - Pionierschule as the commander of training and remained here until captured by the Russians in May 1945 . Siegfried Brosow remained in Russian captivity until October 1955 . Upon his release he became a school teacher . Siegfried Brasow died on the 18 November 2008 . 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 .