Kurt Meyer was a Waffen-SS officer during World War II. He fought in major battles, such as the Invasion of France, Operation Barbarossa, and the Battle of Normandy. Meyer was a skilled and daring officer who was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He became the youngest divisional commander of either side of the war.
Kurt Adolf Meyer Wilhelm Meyer was born in Jerxheim, Germany, on December 23, 1910. His father was a factory worker and a Sargeant Major during World War I. Meyer went to school in Jerxheim. He worked on a factory assembly line, then as a miner. He joined the Mecklenburg Police force in October 1929. Before Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany, Meyer was admitted to the SS in 1931 and assigned to the 22. SS-Standarte based in Schwerin. In 1932, he was commissioned as an SS-2nd Lieutenant. In 1934, Kurt Meyer was transferred to the SS’s most respected unit, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.
In 1936 Kurt Meyer was promoted to the rank of SS-1st Lieutenant, assuming command of 14 Panzerabwehr Kompanie. He commanded this company during the invasion of Poland. He won the Iron Cross second class on September 25, 1939. In the Polish Campaign Meyer was wounded for the first time on September 7; he was shot in the shoulder. In 1940, during the invasion of France and the Low Countries Meyer commanded the 15 Kradschützenkompanie, the 15th Motorcycle Reconnaissance Company. It was during these battles in France that Meyer got decorated for the second time, winning the Iron Cross first class on May 31, 1940. After the Western Campaign Meyer was promoted to SS-Major. But it was not until the Balkan Campaign that he was to show his true skills.
Meyer’s detachment was to cut off the Greek III Corps, which was at the time retreating from Albania. In order to achieve his objectives, Meyer’s Abteilung had to storm the formidable Kleisoura Pass, and drive for Lake Kastoria to cut off the Greek forces based in the town of Kastoria. The attack was initiated on April 13, but on April 14, the attack had been halted by the stiff resistance at the Kleisoura pass. The Greek 20th Division was very well entrenched in both the town of Werjes and the heights bordering the Pass itself.
Kurt Meyer split his Abteilung into three assault groups. He led one himself, one by Hugo Kraas and the other by Max Wünsche. At dawn a vicious relentless attack began; by 1100 hours the Greek outer defences were broken. By mid afternoon, the town and heights had been taken and the road to Kastoria opened. The battle for the heights yielded 600 prisoners. The Germans had only lost one officer and six soldiers, with one officer and 17 men wounded. On April 16, Meyer’s Abteilung thrusted deep behind the Greek lines and assaulted Kastoria from the south. He captured a further 1,100 prisoners. Because of his military performance and gallant behavior, Meyer was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on May 18, 1941.
In June 1941 Operation Barbarossa began. Meyer’s Abteilung was a part of Army Group South. Kurt Meyer never hesitated, for he was a resulute man of quick actions. In the capture of Mariupol on the Black sea, Meyer ordered his men to literally charge the guns, which resulted in the capture of the city and also a whole Soviet division. This battle was a typical example of Meyer’s style of command. Daring and brave, Meyer was always at the front of his assaults. In October, Meyer fell ill and handed over the command to Hugo Kraas. After convalescing in Berlin, spending time with his wife, he returned to active duty in January 1942. After returning, he was decorated again, receiving the German Cross in gold for bravery in combat.
By the end of 1942, Kurt Meyer and his SS-Panzergrenadier-Division ‘Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler’ took part in the recapture of Kharkov. On Febuary 23, 1943, Meyer was the 195th man to be awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross for his role in the Battle of Kharkov and many other succesful engagements with his SS Unit. In the summer of 1943, Hitler declared the formation of a new SS Division, which was to be composed of members of the Hitlerjugend organization born in the year 1926. The commanding officers were to come from the the 1.SS-Panzerdivision "Liebstandarte Adolph Hitler". Meyer was selected to command the young Grenadiers of SS-Panzergrenadierregiment 25 as he was promoted to SS-Colonel on June 21 1943.
On 6 June the Allied forces initiated the largest amphibous assault in history, Operation Overlord. On 14 June, SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt, commander of the 12.SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend" was killed by a Allied naval bombardment. As the highest ranking field officer, SS-Standartenführer Kurt Meyer was given command of the division on June 16. Thus, Meyer became the youngest divisional commander in the German in the war.
In spite of several British and Canadian offensives, Kurt Meyer managed to hold the line above Caen. But the division was reduced to a ‘weak battlegroup’ by July 4. Nevertheless, Meyer still hung onto the Carpiquet Airfield as wave after wave of Allied troops and tanks tried to wrench it away from his grasp. By July 9, Meyer realized he had to withdraw his division. Despite Hitler’s ‘No Retreat’ order, Meyer ordered the Hitlerjugend to pull back behind the Orne River, abandoning Caen to the Allies. After thirty five days of fighting, the Hitlerjugend had been reduced from 22,000 men to just under 5,000. On August 27, Meyer was awarded the Swords to the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross. One week later, on September 1, he was promoted to SS-General Major.
On September 6, 1944, in the town of Durnal, Belgium, Meyer was captured by Belgian partisans who handed him over to the American forces disguised as a German Army captain. He was held as a prisoner of war in the town of Aurich, Germany, until December 1945, when he was tried on five charges. He was found guilty on three of the five charges: to deny quarter to allied troops; the killing of seven Canadian prisoners of war at his headquarters at the L’Ancienne Abbaye Ardenne on June 8, 1944; and the killing of eleven Canadian prisoners of war at his headquarters at the L’Ancienne Abbaye Ardenne on June 7, 1944.
Kurt Meyer was sentenced to death by a firing squad. Nevertheless, this sentence was comuted to life imprisonment in January 1946 by Major General Chris Vokes because he found that the evidence against Meyer was a mass of circumstantial evidence. After nine years imprisonment, he was released on September 7, 1954 and went to work for the Andreas Brewery in Hagen. He became active in the Waffen-SS veteran’s organization HIAG, and was very outspoken in it’s battle to get war pensions granted for former members of the Waffen-SS. He wrote a book called "Grenadiers", which was published in 1957. When he was only 51 years old, Kurt Meyer died of a heart attack in Hagen Westphalia on his birthday, on December 23, 1961.
My father CANADIAN Russell Pocha faught against Kurt Meyer’s SS forces and then later guarded Kurt during the court trials until 1946. I heard stories when I was a boy but to read this now I think it’s very interesting and rewarding to understand the stories of these men – thank you!