Georg Preuß

Georg Preuss
Born	24 April 1920 Free City of Danzig
Died	Clenze
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Waffen-SS
Years of service	1939–45
Rank	Hauptsturmführer
Unit	1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross German Cross in Gold Iron Cross 1st Class Iron Cross 2nd Class Close Combat Clasp in Gold Eastern Front Medal Wound Badge in Gold

Georg Preuß (24 April 1920 — 3 February 1991) was a Hauptsturmführer (captain) in the Waffen-SS who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on the 5 February 1945, for his part in the Ardennes Offensive, he was also one of only 631 members of the German armed forces to receive the Close Combat Clasp in Gold. Preuß was a convicted war criminal.

World War II

He commanded the 12th and then the 10th Companies of the III./2nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment, Leibstandarte (LSSAH).

LSSAH, including Preuß's unit, was encircled by the Americans and the British in the Falaise pocket. By then the unit was reduced to several small Kampfgruppen. Hausser, commander of the Seventh Army, was told by von Kluge (commander in chief West, as successor to von Rundstedt) to withdraw II. SS-Panzerkorps (Hohenstauffen and Frundsberg), his motors and his administrative personnel from the pocket. Adolf Hitler had still not given orders to withdraw at this point, so it was up to the units themselves to get out. The LSSAH withdrew from the pocket in small Kampfgruppe and made it through the ring, on 22 August, after which no combat ready tanks or artillery pieces were reported. The whole campaign caused some 5000 casualties to the LSSAH.

War crimes

At the end of the war Preuß was captured by the Americans and put on trial for war crimes committed during the Battle of the Bulge (Malmedy Massacre). He was found guilty and sentenced to death which was later changed to life imprisonment, he was released in 1956 together with Joachim Peiper and Josef Diefenthal the last members of the LSSAH to be released from captivity.

Awards

• Close Combat Clasp in Gold on 1 April 1945 for up to 60 days in close combat
• Infantry Assault Badge in Silver
• Wound Badge in Gold
• German Cross in Gold on 1 April 1945 as SS-Hauptsturmführer in the III./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 2 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 5 February 1945 as SS-Obersturmführer and leader in the 10.(gp.)/SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 2 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"