Date of birth:

March 23rd, 1906 (Lage/Lippe, Germany)

Date of death:

February 28th, 2000 (Lage/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)

Nationality:

German (1933-1945, Third Reich)

Promotions:
1926: Polizeianwärter
1927: Polizei-wachtmeister
1929: Polizei-Oberwachtmeister
01.04.1933: Leutnant der Landes-Polizei
01.04.1934: Oberleutnant der Polizei
19.11.1934: Oberleutnant
30.09.1937: Hauptmann
18.01.1942: Major
1943: Oberstleutnant
15.02.1945: Oberst

Johannes Ludwig Wilhelm Barge was born on March 23, 1906 in Lage / Lippe and joined the Münster Police School on April 7, 1926 as a police candidate. At the same time he was promoted to police sergeant, he was transferred to 1st standby in Oberhausen on April 1, 1927. Promoted to police sergeant on 01/01/1929, he took part in the 15th officer candidate course at the Spandau Police School and the Eiche Police School from 06/24/1930 to 07/10/1931. On April 1, 1933 he was promoted to lieutenant in the state police and on April 1, 1934 to lieutenant in the state police. On November 29, 1934 he was appointed first lieutenant to III. Battalion of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment was employed in Celle and on January 31, 1935 he was a company officer of the 11th Company, later the 17th Infantry Regiment, where he was promoted to captain on September 30, 1937. On October 15, 1937, he joined the staff of the 2nd Battalion, took part in the officers' course at the Potsdam War School from July 10, 1938 to August 10, 1938, and on November 10, 1938 became chief of the 2nd company of his regiment. In the course of the mobilization he became 2nd orderly officer in the staff of the General Command of the XI on August 26, 1939. Army corps with which he took part in the Polish campaign. On January 11th, 1940 he was appointed chief of the 4th Company of Infantry Regiment 17, and on March 2nd, 1940 he was transferred to the staff of the 225th Infantry Division as IIa with immediate effect. Three days later he was adjutant in the staff and from May 9, 1940 1st orderly officer of the division. On June 20, 1940 he became commander of the III. Battalion of the 377 Infantry Regiment, with which he took part in the Russian campaign and was promoted to major on January 18, 1942. After being transferred to the Führer Reserve on March 1st, 1942, Barge received command of the Infantry Battalion on April 15th, 1942. 550. On June 1st, 1943 he was returned to the reserve and became commander of the Fortress Infantry Regiment 966 with effect from June 20th, 1943. On September 9th, 1943 he was appointed commander of the island of Kephalonia and then took over on October 2nd, 1943 the command of the Grenadier Regiment 746, the Fortress Division 133. Then he took over the command of the Fortress Grenadier Regiment Crete. There Barge went into British captivity on May 8, 1945, which led him to camp 305 at the Kleiner Bitzsee on the Suez Canal, among other places. In the spring of 1946 he was extradited to Greece, where he was released on October 6, 1950. The commander of the permanent place in Crete, Major General Benthack, sent a radio message to Dönitz on May 20th, 1945 (!!!). In it he praised the resistance of the 17,000 German soldiers on the island and asked for a free hand in the award of five knight's crosses. Dönitz radioed back on May 21, 1945 and recognized the troops' performance. He also authorized the awarding of the knight's cross. The barge, who was promoted to colonel on February 15, 1945, received one of these knight's crosses. According to the latest information, the award of the Knight's Cross is legally ineffective, since Dönitz was no longer entitled to award knight's crosses after May 8, 1945. The order commission of the OdR, under Fellgiebel, independently dated the award date back to 04.05.1945. Barge was an OdR member. Johannes Barge died on February 28th, 2000 in Lage / Lippe.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Major

Unit:

Kdr, Infanterie-Bataillon 550 z.b.V., 3. Panzerarmee

Awarded on:

July 28th, 1943

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Oberst (Colonel)

Unit:

Kommandeur, Festung-Grenadier- Regiment "Kreta"

Awarded on:

May 21st, 1945

After the hostilities had stopped, the Kommandant of Crete, Generalmajor Benthak, radiotelegraphed Dönitz, on 20th May 1945, in which he glorified the resistance of the German forces on the island and asked to be permitted to award five Knight’s Crosses. In a radio message on 21st May, Dönitz was supposed to have agreed in this.
Barge was one of the five who received the award. The award date was later changed by the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuzträger to 4th May 1945.
Recent research has revealed that the awarding was in fact not justified. The awarding was done after Dönitz had stopped the awarding of all decorations after 8th May 1945.

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

February 19th, 1942

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

October 12th, 1939

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

March 4th, 1942

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

September 16th, 1942

in silver

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Awarded on:

July 20th, 1942

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

• Photo 1:
• - Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002
  - Fellgiebel W.P., Elite of the Third Reich, The recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939-1945: A Reference, Helion & Company Limited, Solihull, 2003, ISBN 1-874622-46-9
  - Patzwall K., Scherzer V., Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Geschichte und Inhaber Band II, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001, ISBN 3-931533-45-X
  - Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945
  - Die Ritterkreuztraeger der Deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS