Date of birth:

May 4th, 1921 (Kelbassen/Easternprussia, Germany)

Date of death:

March 20th, 2008 (Apolda/Thuringia, Germany)

Nationality:

German

After attending primary school, he began an apprenticeship in agriculture and signed up for the Wehrmacht on December 5th, 1939, where he joined the 6th (MG) squadron of the 1st Cavalry Replacement Regiment in Allenstein.
With the notification of April 6th, 1940, he was transferred to the 3rd squadron of Reiter Regiment 2, as well as the transfer to Emsland on the Dutch border.
With the beginning of the fighting in the west, the bunker positions were stormed and advanced towards Zuiderdamm and Dreiländerdreieick to Dunkirk. Subsequently, they were regrouped and attacked with the aim of Paris. Horses waded across the Seine and conquered the bridges coming from behind. The aim of the fighting was the mouth of the Garonne, the simultaneous demarcation line.
After the fighting in the west, transferred to Poland, Bachor was picked up one morning by the military police and had to hand over his papers. Bachor was commissioned to scout out the Soviet positions on the border river Bug, at Brest-Litovsk. With this mission over several days, on the morning of the outbreak of war, his old troop pushes forward to the border and across the river fords.
This was followed by fighting on the Rokitno and Pripjet swamps, for Gomel, Zhitomir and the Vyazma-Bryansk basin battle.
Here the 1st Cavalry Division was withdrawn from combat and relocated to East Prussia, where it was converted to a tank division.
After 3 months of training in Paris, Bachor was reported to be part of the 1st company of Panzer Regiment 24, with which he took part in the advance battles in the Voronezh, Kalatsch and Stalingrad areas in the summer of 1942.
Bachor took part in the heavy and hard fighting in Stalingrad, was shot down and flown out seriously wounded. Brought to Vienna by hospital train, he received the necessary care in the Biedermannsdorf monastery.
In the Rennweg barracks he volunteered again for the Eastern Front, where he took part in the retreat battles via Romania to Hungary via Nikopol.
Relocation to East Prussia in the Heiligenbeil-Vogelsberg-Rosenberg area took place on special orders.
Bachor fought his way up the spit to the Fischhausen command post and back and came from there to Pillau. Via Ploen and Ludwigsburg he came to Karlsminde near Eckernförde, where the remaining parts of his unit were located.
There he received the order to command a werewolf group, which he refused.
Bachor was taken prisoner by the United States, where he was completely robbed except for his underpants. When he arrived at the Heide prisoner-of-war camp in Holstein, the commander of the "Desert Rat" division apologized for the behavior of his soldiers. The new uniform he received was navy blue.
After 4 weeks, the tank man Willy Bachor was released.
The award of the Knight's Cross to Willy Bachor is questionable. So a grant proposal was sent to the corps, but this did not pass the proposal on, or it was lost in the course of the conflict that prevailed at the time.
After the evacuation from East Prussia after the surrender, a second submission was made which was no longer processed.
Bachor's proposal of March 18, 1945, relates to the fighting of March 18, 1945 northeast of Grunenfeld / East Prussia. His mission was to support the grenadiers who were difficult to defend and to hold the position against tank attacks despite the strongest attack fire. Around 1 p.m. after appropriate fire preparations, the enemy attacked with 11 medium and heavy chariots, as well as numerous infantry. Hit twice during the fight, Bachor shot down 6 tanks or assault guns, whereupon the enemy initially turned away. But Bachor recognized the situation, pursued the enemy, shot down two more enemy tanks and shot a 6-inch assault gun immobilized. With these shooting successes, Bachor increased his shooting account to 57 shooting successes. He also destroyed 90 medium and heavy anti-tank guns, artillery pieces and grenade launchers by this time. The proposal for the Knight's Cross was made by the commander of the III. Department of Panzer Regiment 24, Rittmeister Kuls. The proposal was approved by the division commander von Nostitz-Wallwitz and passed on to the corps, where it got stuck.
In 1982 this "case" was dealt with by the order commission of the OdR and decided as justified with the date 08.05.1945. Ultimately, the date was changed to 05/11/1945. That the Wehrmacht had already capitulated at this point and therefore no one was entitled to award any knight's crosses is obvious.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Unteroffizier (Junior Officer)

Unit:

12. Kompanie, III. Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 24, 24. Panzer-Division, Heer

Awarded on:

June 28th, 1944

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Oberwachtmeister

Unit:

12./ Panzer-Regiment 24, 24. Panzer Division

Awarded on:

April 6th, 1945

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Oberwachtmeister

Unit:

Zugführer, 12./ Panzer-Regiment 24, 24. Panzer Division

Awarded on:

May 11th, 1945

Bachor’s Knight’s Cross recommendation reads as follows…

“Oberwachtmeister Bachor has been a fearless and outstanding Panzer Kommandant and Zugführer during all his battles. He continues to fight in the foremost line despite having been wounded nine times.

On the 18.03.1945 Bachor was deployed northeast of Grunenfeld (East Prussia) with his Sturmgeschütz.

Being deployed all on his own, he had a difficult mission here. He was tasked with maintaining his position despite strong enemy artillery and anti-tank gun fire in order to both support the hard-pressed Grenadiers and counter any potential enemy armoured attacks. At around 13:00 on this day the Russians began a breakthrough attack following a heavy artillery barrage. This attack was led by 11 medium/heavy tanks/assault guns and supported by abundant infantry and ground attack aircraft. Bachor stayed at his post with nerves of steel before taking up the uneven battle at very close range. In the bitter firefight that followed he was himself hit twice, however he in turn destroyed 6 Soviet AFVs. After this the enemy turned around and tried to escape Bachor’s murderous fire. Recognizing this, he decided to pursue them on his own initiative. He managed to take out two additional enemy tanks and immobilize a 15.2 cm assault gun with his last 4 rounds of high-explosive ammunition.

The enemy breakthrough was thereby prevented through the destruction of 9 enemy AFVs. With this Bachor himself achieved his 57th armoured kill. By now he has also destroyed over 90 medium/heavy anti-tank guns, artillery pieces and mortars.”

Although the request for the award of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes was supposed to have been placed in time, it was not received by the Heerespersonalamt (HPA) before 8th May 1945 and this has not been a formal Ritterkreuz awarding during the Second World War. Within the Bundesarchiv it is only known that a written request from the Divisionskommandeur of 24.Panzer-Division to award the requested decoration was made. Any formal awarding is not known. The awarding was recognized in 1982 by the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuzträger. This formally is an unlawful awarding.

• Photo 1: Willi Schumacher
• Photo: Willi Schumacher collection
  
• - FEDERL, CH., Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Panzerdivisionen 1939-1945, VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrücken, 2000.
  - PATZWALL, K. & SCHERZER, V., Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001.
  - WEGMANN, GÜNTER, Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939-1945, Biblio-Verlag, 2004.
  - Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002
  - Ritterkreuz Archiv II/2009, Veit Scherzer, Ranis, Juni 2009, ISSN 1866-4709
  - Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945
  - Wilhelm (Willy) Bachor