Ramcke, Hermann Bernard “Gerhard”.

Ramcke, Hermann Bernard “Gerhard”, born 24-01-1889 in Schleswig, to a family of farmers. He is born one month after Adolf Hitler (see parents).

   He was one of 13 children of Franz Hermann Ramcke (veteran active sergeant) and his wife Anna Sophia, born Korff. In the second year of school he answered the question about his career choice at school: “Admiral or General”. As he was rather slim, he was supposed to be turned down, but was then finally admitted to the service. He joined the Imperial Navy in 1905 as a cabin boy and was trained on the cruiser frigate SMS “Stosch” (S.M. training ship “Stosch”).

He joined the German Imperial Navy  in 1905 as ship’s boy. During the First World War he served aboard the armoured cruiser Prinz Adalbertin  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 1914 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. (see Adolf Hitler) In 1918 he attained the rank of Leutnant der Marine-Infanterie

.  Ramcke here with Erwin Rommel, by the time the Armistice was signed, had risen to the rank of Oberleutnant. On 19-07-1940, Ramcke was transferred to the 7^th Fliegerdivision  under the command of General der Flieger, 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, (see Bruno Braüer)    remainders of several Fallschirmjäger units were formed into a ad-hoc, and command was given to Ramcke. He was also promoted to Generalmajor on 22-07-1941. In 1942 Fallschirmjäger-Brigade Afrika was sent to North Africa to join Erwin 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. In 1943 Ramcke, now a Generalleutnant, took command of 2^nd 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 08-09-1943, 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 2^nd Para 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 2^nd Para-Division, which was based near Cologne. Following the Allied D-Day landings on 6 June, 2^nd 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     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. Fortress Brest was largely surrounded and infiltrated by partisan guerrillas 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 & Diamonds to the Knights Cross. On 26-10-1952, 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 and his Irish Setter after surrendering at point des Capucins on the Crozon Peninsula 19-09-1944. Ramcke meets two of his opponents Major General Donald Armpriester Stroh (far right) and Brigadier General Charles Draper William Canham (second from right),  the commander and assistant respectively of the 8^th Infantry Division  nickname “Golden Arrow Division. Chancellor, 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 likely prompted because Adenauer’s government had made a significant effort to obtain early release for Ramcke from French imprisonment. He was with many Generals interned in the POW Camp Trent Park in London. American Lieutenant General Troy Houston Middleton (left) talking to German General nhard Ramcke Hermann-Bernard After the war, Ramcke and Middleton maintained a correspondence for about fifteen years.

On 02-05-1945, as it advanced into northern Germany, the 8^th Infantry Division encountered the Neuengamme concentration camp Wöbbeln subcamp , near the city of Ludwigslust. The SS had established Wöbbelin in early February 1945 to house concentration camp prisoners who had been evacuated from other Nazi camps to prevent their liberation by the Allies. Wöbbelin held some 5,000 inmates, many of whom suffered from starvation and disease. The sanitary conditions at the camp when the 8^th Infantry Division and the 82^nd  Airborne Division  under Major General James “Slim Jim”Gavin

arrived were deplorable. There was little food or water, and some prisoners had resorted to cannibalism. In the first week after liberation, more than 200 inmates died. In the aftermath, the United States Army ordered the townspeople in Ludwigslust to visit the camp and bury the dead. The 82^nd  Airborne Division WWII casualties were 1,619 killed in action, 6,560 wounded in action and  332 died of wounds. Casualty figures for the 8^th Infantry Division, European theater of operations, total battle casualties: 13,986 and total deaths in battle: 2,852.

 Following his release from nearly 7 years captivity, Ramcke here with SS Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner  and SS Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille,  through his public actions, became seen as a dedicated nationalis by his fellow generals.

Death and burial ground of Ramcke, Hermann Bernard “Gerhard”.

Hermann Bernard Ramcke died of cancer on 04-07-1968, aged 79, in Kappeln and is buried on the Friedhof Friedrichsberg, Schleswig, in a family grave. A company of the Bundeswehr was present at the burial in the family grave at the cathedral cemetery Schleswig with full military honors including an honorary escort: Major Erich Lepkowski with his Fernspähkompanie 100. At the funeral, greetings from the order community of knight cross bearers, the HIAG and other traditional military communities were brought. Kurt Student was one of the numerous prominent speakers. Ramcke was married with Ruth, the daughter of Lieutenant General Paul Göldner (1875-1945). The marriage gave birth to eight children. The youngest son, Volker, was born in 1952, one year after his release from captivity. His nephew of the same name Bernhard, son of his brother Ernst Hermann Heinrich Ramcke (∞ Elisabeth Ramcke, born Molzen), was also a paratrooper, he fell on 03-05-1945 as a senior ensign a few days before the end of the war.