Pritzel, Klaus

Date of birth:: April 8th, 1913 (Burschen/Brandenburg, Germany)
Date of death:: March 22nd, 1974 (Rheydt/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Nationality:: German

Biography

Klaus Pritzel finally reached the rank of Major during the Second World War. After the war he served with the Bundeswehr en there finally reached the rank of Oberstleutnant.

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Deutsches Kreuz in Gold

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Hauptmann (Flight Lieutenant)
Unit:: 2.(Fern) Staffel, Aufklärungsgruppe O.b.d.L., Luftwaffe
Awarded on:: January 13th, 1942

Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Hauptmann (Flight Lieutenant)
Unit:: Staffelkapitän, 2.(Fern) Staffel, Aufklärungsgruppe O.b.d.L., Luftwaffe
Awarded on:: October 15th, 1942

The following newspaper article (dated 03.11.1942) describes why Pritzel received the Knight’s Cross…

“A Pomeranian is the First Over Astrakhan - Knight’s Cross for Hauptmann Pritzel:

The Führer has awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross to Hauptmann Pritzel, Staffelkapitän in a Fernaufklärungsgruppe.

The 29-year old Hauptmann Klaus Pritzel hails from Boeck (Kreis Ueckermünde), where his mother manages an estate. In almost every theatre of war he has delivered valuable and frequently decisive long-range reconnaissance information for the higher commands. The vast majority of his missions were carried out deep in enemy territory, and almost always in the face of a strong defense. The result was that he has been repeatedly forced to either fly on one engine or conduct emergency landings. Particularly noteworthy among his successes were his reconnaissance of all Caucasus Black Sea ports in just one day, his taking first aerial photos of Astrakhan, the continuous overwatch of the Stalin Canal and the reconnaissance of Leningrad’s port and dockyards.”