Helmut Wendorff - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Helmut Max Ernst Wendorff was an Obersturmführer

Obersturmführer

Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

(Second Lieutenant) in the Waffen SS. He was issued with the SS number 365 017 and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...

.

Wendorff was born on 20 October 1920 in Gauwinkel. In 1931, his family moved to Damme

Damme

Damme is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, six kilometres northeast of Brugge . The municipality comprises the city of Damme proper and the towns of Hoeke, Lapscheure, Moerkerke, Oostkerke, Sijsele, Vivenkapelle, and Sint-Rita. On 1 January 2006, the municipality had...

, in the Uckermark

Uckermark

Uckermark is a Kreis in the northeastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Barnim and Oberhavel, the districts Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and to the east Poland . It is the largest district of Germany areawise...

, where his father leased a farm.

In the autumn of 1939, Wendorff graduated from the Numburg National-Political School and volunteered for military service when war broke out and joined the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) on 4 September 1939.

On 6 November 1939, Wendorff joined up with the Regiment in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, where it had temporarily taken up quarters after the Polish Campaign. Wendorff was assigned to the 11th Company, but was transferred to the Sturmgeschütz

Sturmgeschütz

Sturmgeschütz is a German word for "assault gun", usually abbreviated StuG. The vehicle was a leading weapon of the Sturmartillerie, a branch of the German artillery tasked with close fire support of infantry in infantry, panzer, and panzergrenadier units...

(Assault Gun) Battery in June 1940. He saw action in the Balkans and the Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

with this Company.

On 14 September 1941, Wendorff was awarded the Iron Cross

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

2nd Class; he was also promoted from Sturmmann

Sturmmann

Sturmmann was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1921. The rank of Sturmmann was used by the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel ....

to Oberscharführer

Oberscharführer

Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...

(Technical Sergeant).
On 1 November 1941, Wendorff was sent to the SS Junkerschule in Bad Tölz

Bad Tölz

Bad Tölz is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and administrative center of the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.- History :Since the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the Ice Age, archaeology has shown continuous occupation of the site of Bad Tölz...

and returned to the Sturmgeschütz battalion in April 1942, as an Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer

Untersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921...

(Second Lieutenant).

On December 24, 1942, Wendorff was re-assigned to the 13 (Tiger) Company, SS Regiment 1 LSSAH,
at Fallingbostel, where he Commanded a platoon in the 2nd Company.

In the early spring of 1943, Wendorff’s old friend, Michael Wittmann

Michael Wittmann

Michael Wittmann was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. Wittmann would rise to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer and was a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holder....

joined the Tiger company. During Operation Citadel the LSSAH was located in the southern sector of the bulge. On the first day of action, Wittmann destroyed two anti-tanks guns and thirteen T-34s, while saving Helmut Wendorff's platoon, which ran into trouble. He was awarded the Knight's Cross on 12 February 1944.
When his tank versus tank victories had reached 58.

Wendorf later assumed command of Wittmann's 2nd Company, when Wittmann was appointed as the battalion commander of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Detachment

101st SS Heavy Panzer Detachment

SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101 (in German Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101, commonly abbreviated as s.SS-Pz. Abt. 101 was one of Waffen-SS's elite armored units, acting as a fire brigade and a crack assault unit on all fronts...

.
He was killed in action on 14 August 1944, when his Tiger was knocked out 3 kilometres west of Merzieres.
At the time of his death he had been credited with 84 tank kills.

See also