ϟϟ-Obersturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Bremer

Gerd Bremer as SS-Obersturmführer

During the Normandy Invasion the Leibstandarte veteran SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer (July 25 1917 – Oct. 29 1989) from Saarbrücken was trapped with his Battalion of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 of the 12.SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend in the Falaise Gap, but was finally able to withdraw to the Maas river covering the retreat of the 5.Panzer Army for which he was awarded the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross. He was next involved in the Ardennes Offensive in Dec. 1944 and Operation Spring Awakening in March 1945 in Hungary and ended WWII in the area of St. Pölten in Lower Austria. Bremer was kept as a POW by the French Government from July 1948 to 1954. After his release Bremer moved to Dénia on the Costa Blanca in the Alicante province of Spain. SS-Obersturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer died on Oct. 29 1989 in Alicante in Spain. Awards among others: Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and the German Cross in Gold. Image: Gerd Bremer pictured in the SS white summer jacket carrying the Knight's Cross in 1942. This photo was taken in Ukraine by Paul Augustin who served as a SS-Kriegsberichter with the Leibstandarte SS from at least 1940 until his death on March 9 1943. During that period, Augustin took many hundreds of photographs of his unit, and a collection of those photographs is maintained by the U.S. National Archives. Another photo of Bremer taken by Adolf Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann appears on the front cover of Waffen-SS Knights and their Battles: The Waffen-SS Knight's Cross Holders Vol 1: 1939-1942 by Irish-born author Peter Mooney. U.S. NARA.