Willi Bachor signed photo.Zugführer-12./Panzer Regt. 24/24th Panzer Division

Description

From Traces of War....From his KC recommendation....
“Oberwachtmeister Bachor has been a fearless and outstanding Panzer Kommandant and Zugführer during all his battles. He continues to fight in the foremost line despite having been wounded nine times.
On the 18.03.1945 Bachor was deployed northeast of Grunenfeld (East Prussia) with his Sturmgeschütz.
Being deployed all on his own, he had a difficult mission here. He was tasked with maintaining his position despite strong enemy artillery and anti-tank gun fire in order to both support the hard-pressed Grenadiers and counter any potential enemy armoured attacks. At around 13:00 on this day the Russians began a breakthrough attack following a heavy artillery barrage. This attack was led by 11 medium/heavy tanks/assault guns and supported by abundant infantry and ground attack aircraft. Bachor stayed at his post with nerves of steel before taking up the uneven battle at very close range. In the bitter firefight that followed he was himself hit twice, however he in turn destroyed 6 Soviet AFVs. After this the enemy turned around and tried to escape Bachor’s murderous fire. Recognizing this, he decided to pursue them on his own initiative. He managed to take out two additional enemy tanks and immobilize a 15.2 cm assault gun with his last 4 rounds of high-explosive ammunition.
The enemy breakthrough was thereby prevented through the destruction of 9 enemy AFVs. With this Bachor himself achieved his 57th armoured kill. By now he has also destroyed over 90 medium/heavy anti-tank guns, artillery pieces and mortars.”
Although the request for the award of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes was supposed to have been placed in time, it was not received by the Heerespersonalamt (HPA) before 8th May 1945 and this has not been a formal Ritterkreuz awarding during the Second World War. Within the Bundesarchiv it is only known that a written request from the Divisionskommandeur of 24.Panzer-Division to award the requested decoration was made. Any formal awarding is not known. The awarding was recognized in 1982 by the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuzträger. This formally is an unlawful awarding.
Nice image with a bold Pigment ink sig.
Lab done postwar printed photo with a clean, problem free authentic
sig, by Bachor.
Again...the photo is a reproduction, the sig...authentic.

UACC Registered Dealer #200

Buyer pays 4.95 shipping with insurance domestically.
International orders, please enquire as to your shipping
rates after adding it into your ebay cart.

VAT & Customs duty, if any, are on the buyer.
Powered by SixBit's eCommerce Solution
Track Page Views With
Auctiva's FREE Counter