"During the autumn of 1943 Obergefreiter Apitz found himself engaged in
his division’s heavy defensive combat along the Lower Dnieper front
between the Nikopol and Cherson bridgeheads. In this time, while he was
serving as a radio operator at a forward observation post, all of his
comrades were killed during a large-scale Soviet attack. When the
Soviets proceeded to launch a renewed thrust with tanks and infantry,
Apitz decided to personally direct the fire of his attached artillery
even though he had no training in this role. However, despite being all
alone, he managed to fulfill this role effectively and direct
devastating artillery fire onto the attacking Soviet forces.
A unit of Soviet infantry that were passing by suddenly attacked Apitz
at his position. He initially held them off with his carbine before
ordering his own artillery to bombard his position. He had to repeat the
order twice before his stunned comrades proceeded to do just that. Fierce artillery fire was then plastered on Apitz’s position for about a
minute. However Apitz survived, and the Soviet infantry took such high
losses that they decided to fall back to their jump-off position. With
this the Soviet thrust came to an end. Apitz would be initially decorated with the Iron Cross First Class for
this action. Later on he also received the Knight’s Cross at the
recommendation of his superiors." from his Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross citation, awarded on January 1st, 1944 as Obergefreiter of Artillery Regiment 81 in the 97 Jäger Division.
Another capable enemy elite,
Brian
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