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| Christian Tychsen as SS-Sturmbannführer |
Christian Tychsen first joined the 50.SS-Standarte in 1931 before being transferred to the newly formed SS-Verfügungstruppe and SS-Standarte Germania in 1934. During the war he commanded various units within the Waffen-SS before he became commander of SS-Panzer-Regiment 2 of the 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich in November 1943. After being wounded more than nine times in total, Tychsen was severely wounded in Normandy on the afternoon of July 28 1944 while his VW Kübelwagen was ambushed and fired upon by an American M-4 tank of the 67th Armored Regiment. He died as temporary commander of Das Reich aged 33 of his wounds in American captivity, and was stripped of all his decorations and all other types of identification for souvenirs - as a result SS-Obersturmbannführer Tychsen was buried as an unknown soldier. Tychsen was finally identified in the 1970's and rebuired with full honors. Awards among others: Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, German Cross in Gold and Wound Badge in Gold. Image: a formal studio portrait of the Reich veteran Christian Tychsen. He was awarded the Knight's Cross after the recapture of Kharkov on March 31 1943 and the Oakleaves on December 10 the same year. The photograph was taken by the South Tyrol-born war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Friedrich Zschäckel. Commons: Bundesarchiv.
Sometime ago I found this on the internet: In 1995, from Captain John C. Bult of the 2d Armored MP Co., I purchased 1/2 dozen photos which were on Tychsen's person at the time of his demise, as well as a flatwire Das Reich cuffband taken from his tunic, and a small Mauser made .25 auto pistol and holster, which Tychsen wore on the rear of his belt. The location or disposition of his Soldbuch and dogtag are still unknown. As a result of the publication of my book, most of the medals Tychsen was wearing when ambushed have been located. The vet who got the medals was a tank driver in the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2d Armored Division and he died in 1992. A person who worked with this vet in a hardware store after WW2, wound-up with the medals. Before he died, the vet told that younger co-worker some details of the ambush. Tychsen's car tried to run a 2d AD roadblock during the St Lo Breakout and was shot up; it turned on it's right side and crashed. The vet in question was first to examine the bodies. He removed Tychsen's KC with oakleaves, discarding the ribbon, probably because it was bloody. He got all the medals and badges which were visible on the left chest, as Tychsen was lying on his right side. Then another GI turned the body over and snatched the DK in gold from Tychsen's right chest and held it up for all present to see. At that point, the other soldiers began a detailed search of Tychsen's person and removed everything except his tunic; more on that later. Lt John Cleveland of the CCB 2d AD traffic squad happened to be at the roadblock when the ambush took place. His job was to direct traffic for Combat Command 'B' and he evidently took the photos and cuffband and pistol during the group pilfering of the body. Since Cleve preferred Lugers and binoculars as souvenirs, he gave Tychsen's items to Captain Bult, his C.O. a week later. He tossed the pistol, photos and cufftitle on Bult's desk and said "I got these from a German colonel.. I almost missed the pistol because it was on his back, not on his side." In 1968, some friends of Tychsen's from Germany had exhumed several bodies of unidentified German officers, in search of his remains. They ID'd him by his dental work, which was unique and resulted from the Russian grenade wound in 1942, which left the horrible scars on his chin. Tychsen's black panzer tunic was exhumed with the body in 1968, still bearing a 4 pip rank collartab and one field grade shoulderboard. All other insignia and decorations were gone. The fact that his tunic was still present when the body was exhumed can be verified in an article in the SS Veterans' magazine 'Der Freiwillige'. The article is called 'The Search For Christian Tychsen', and was published in 1994. This contradicts what Jost Schneider wrote in his KC winners book, when he asserted that souvenir hunters removed Tychsen's tunic with all decorations. Tychsen was reburied under a stone with his name on it-prior to that, he had been listed as an unknown German officer. As to Tychsen's cap, I suspect the vet who got the KC picked it up and tossed the medals inside. I also suspect he later discarded the cap and kept only the metal skull, because one of those was in his effects, plus the following decorations: 1 bronze Infantry Asslt badge, 1 silver close combat bar, 1 Iron Cross 1st class, 1 black wound badge made of brass, with the paint deliberately removed to make it appear gold, and of course the RK with Eichenlaub.
ReplyDeleteOf the estimated 13-15 million men who served in the German Armed Forces in World War II only 882 were awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak-leaves.
ReplyDeleteThank you both for the above information. I'm going to visit Haut Vents and the crossroads next week. Does anyone know if Christian died and was buried at the crossroads as I believe Mark Bando states, or if he survived long enough to be taken into captivity. I'm trying to get an English version of Breakout at Normandy.
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