Leutnant Hans Ulrich Fischer (March 26, 1914 – November 14, 1941)

Leutnant Hans Ulrich Fischer was Führer of the 11th Kompanie, III. Bataillon, Infanterie-Regiment 431, 131. Infanterie-Division.

“Leutnant Fischer conducted a series of purposeful actions that not only cut off the retreat of considerable enemy elements still west of the Desna River, but also enabled his Regiment to cross over the river on the same day. This thrust by his Regiment caused the enemy to pull back behind the Wjetma, which in turn triggered the ultimate collapse of the north wing of the Russian 5th Army (which was fighting near Briansk).  Annotation: Near Gomel Fischer and his Kompanie broke through the hostile positions and stormed a howitzer battery. Later, after breaking through enemy positions in the Desna area, he determined that a river crossing existed to the north of his assigned sector. He immediately continued thrusting forward on his own initiative and captured the newly created wooden bridge over the Desna on the October 02, 1941, following bitter close combat.” (From Traces of War)

Knights Cross of the Iron Cross formal award document issued to Leutnant Hans Ulrich Fischer on parchment with an integral blank front leaf, Führerhauptquartier, October 23, 1941. The ornately lettered document is executed in India ink and gold with a hand-inked signature of Adolf Hitler at the bottom. The parchment is just the slightest bit wavy, as is very common in such documents, but otherwise fine condition. Award documents for the Knight’s Cross are rare, even though Hitler granted over 7,000 of them. A severe backlog soon developed and, in the end, very few recipients of the award ever received their large formal award documents.

The document is part of a veteran bring-back that we proudly offer here for the very first time. The GI opted to bring 9 single formal documents in one red presentation leather folder (Mappe) which will be auctioned with Ratisbon’s through a couple of auctions.