Meyer, Otto.

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Meyer, Otto, born 23-12-1912, in Moldenit, Sleeswijk-Holstein, was an SS Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS  during World War II who was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.  on 04-06-1944. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Meyer volunteered for service in the SS in 1934 and was selected to become an officer in 1936 and posted to the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz,    upon graduation he was promoted to SS Untersturmführer  (first lieutenant) SS-Nr. 10.260 and posted to the SS Deutschland Regiment . under command of SS Brigadeführer Otto Kumm

  As a company commander he served in the Polish Campaign, the Battle of France, Operation Marita in the Balkans and the invasion of Russia Operation Barbarossa.  Operation Barbarossa, original name Operation Fritz, during World War II, code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which was launched on 22-06-1941. The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign signaled a crucial turning point in the war. Although Adolf Hitler had congratulated himself on the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939 as a matter of expediency, anti-bolshevism had remained his most profound emotional conviction as World War II entered its second year. Following the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states and of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in June 1940, which put Soviet forces in proximity to the Romanian oil fields on which Germany depended, Hitler’s long-standing interest in overthrowing the Soviet regime was heightened. He became acutely suspicious of the intentions of the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, and he began to feel that he could not afford to wait to complete the subjugation of western Europe, as he had originally planned, before dealing with the Soviet Union.

On 09-11-1941 Otto was promoted to SS Sturmbannführer (major) and in January 1942 awarded the German Cross in Gold  for personal bravery. At the beginning of 1943 he was transferred to the 9th SS Panzer Grenadier Division, in the in de 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen under command of SS Obergruppenführer Willi Bittrich   in France and promoted to SS Obersturmbannführer  (lieutenant colonel).

Death and burial ground of Meyer, Otto.

 

In January 1944 he was given command of the 9th SS Panzer Regiment and for his leadership during the battle for Tarnopol awarded the Knight’s Cross. In June 1944 the division served in Normandy where he distinguished both himself and his regiment by destroying over 300 allied tanks during Operation Overlord.

During the Second World War, Operation Overlord was the code name for the large-scale landing  by the Western Allies on the Normandy coast of German-occupied Western Europe. Operation Overlord began in the evening and night of Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 June 1944 with the largest amphibious landing in history. ‘Overlord’ was the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe. In Eastern Europe the Germans were already losing to the Soviet Union and two days earlier Rome had been captured by the Allies. The operation started with airborne landings and a massive amphibious assault in the early morning of June 6. After the landing, an attempt was first made to maintain and expand the Normandy bridgehead. Various operations were undertaken for this purpose and during Operation Cobra the Allies finally broke through the German lines. When the Germans fell at Falaise, the battle was decided in the Allied favor. The road to Paris was open and the French capital was captured. The liberation of Paris is generally regarded as the end of Operation Overlord.

Prior to the battle, the Allies had carefully mapped the area, with great care also being paid to the weather conditions around the Channel. The operation required low tide and good visibility. D-Day was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather forced a postponement. On June 6, weather conditions were not much better, but General Dwight Eisenhower chose not to wait until the next full moon. This decision helped catch the Germans by surprise, as their experts did not expect an attack given the weather conditions. The German General Erwin Rommel had even left for Germany on June 4 to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday at home. Nicknamed “the Desert Fox,” Generalfieldmarshall Erwin Rommel  also commanded German defenses against the Allied invasion of northern France. After being implicated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he died by suicide in October 14-10-1944, age 52..

This Battle of Normandy (6/6/1944 to 25/08/1944) claimed about 425,000 victims, of which 209,000 were Allies, with approximately 37,000 ground troops killed and 16,714 air troops killed. 83,045 of those 209,000 were largely British, Canadian and Polish troops. 125,847 were American.

After escaping from the cauldron of Falaise (Falaise Pocket), Otto Meyer was killed crossing the River Seine on 28-08-1944, age 31, near Duclair, Seine-Maritime. In September 1944 he was awarded a Posthumous award of the Oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross. In September, he was awarded a posthumous award of the Oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross. An Official Recommendation for a Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, by Bittrich, to Otto Meyer, Regiment Commander in 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen, KIA, c.1944.

In France the division rejoined the II SS Panzer Corps under command of SS-Obergruppenführer Paul “Papa” Hausser and served as a reserve part for the Heeresgruppe Nordukraine until it was transferred to France on 12-06-1944. By the end of June, Hohenhaufen reached its positions in Normandy, after a week of being exposed to massive Allied air attacks. The attack plans that existed for the division were made impossible by the British attack on Caen on 26-06-1944. The division had to make a complete turn and advance to the west of Caen to strengthen the German positions there. It was there that the heaviest fighting on the Western Front to date took place, and the 9th SS Panzer Division lost 1,200 killed, wounded and missing during this period. On July 10, the German 277th Infantry Division under command of General of the Communications Troops Albert Praun relieved the Hohenstaufen division. General Praun survived the war and died 03-03-1975 (aged 80) in Munich, West Germany. SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Meyer is buried on the German war cemetery of Bourdon. 14 Rue du 8 Mai 1945, 80310 Bourdon.

 

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