The Austrian Ludwig Kepplinger was the first NCO in the Waffen-SS to be awarded the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. At the time he served as a SS-Hauptscharführer in SS-Standarte
Der Führer. He is reported to have been an exceedingly brave death-defying soldier. SS-Untersturmführer Ludwig Kepplinger was wounded in the Caucasus when serving as Company Commander of the 10th Company of SS-Infanterie-Regiment
Westland of the SS-Division Wiking. After recovering from his wounds Kepplinger was given command of SS-Panzer-Abteilung 17 of the then newly created German-Latin Waffen-SS division
Götz von Berlichingen with the majority of its original cadre coming from replacement units and conscripts. These were predominantly Panzer soldiers, like Kepplinger, whose vehicles had been knocked out. The Wiking veteran SS-Sturmbannführer Ludwig Kepplinger was murdered by French partisans southeast of Laval in August 1944. His body was found in 1980 west of Villiers-Charlemagne. Left image: Ludwig Kepplinger as SS-Hauptsturmführer. Credit: Bill Treseler. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: a Wolfgang Willrich portrait of Kepplinger, showing him in the combat clothing worn at the time of his Knight's Cross winning action, with
camouflage smock and steel helmet. He is armed with the MP28, a popular submachine gun and forerunner of the mass-produced MP38/40. Credit:
Gordon Williamson and Josef Charita. FU.
My father and a driver were in a vehicle heading to a planning meeting when they drove into an ambush .Per his notes the driver backed away into a ditch over turning the vehicle. All three subsequently scrambled out of the vehicle under machine gun fire from the tank.Herr Keplinger had injured his ankle and required assistance to walk. After a short period they became pursued by ground formation's . Keplinger ordered the driver and my father to hide him by a tree and continue without him to german lines and seek help. For four days they were pursued by partisans eventually becaptued in a farm house that they had entered to barter for food.
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