Date of birth:

September 11th, 1919 (Woppmannsdorf/Bavaria, Germany)

Date of death:

November 12th, 2007 (Langenlonsheim/Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)

Nationality:

German

After the outbreak of the Soviet offensive in Newel, the company, in which Leutnant Kercher served as platoon leader, was engaged beginning November 1943 in the north-west Newel. On December 17, 1943, strong German infantry forces, supported by Panzern, entered the town of O.
Leutnant Kercher was assigned to this hard-pressed battalion with his Sturmgeschützen. Thanks to their protection, the enemy pressure is always left behind. Yet during this firefight, Leutnant Kercher discovered a gathering of hostile tanks in a mule. Not detected from the enemy, he diretcted two Sturmgeschützen there and destroyed three T 34 and four T 60. All in all during this day, Leutnant Kercher destroyed twelve enemy tanks on December 17, 1943 and received the knight cross on March 11, 1944.

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• Photo 1: Willi Schumacher
• Photo: Willi Schumacher collection
  - Panzerjägerabteilung 5 - Geschichte der 5. Infanterie- und Jäger-Division
  
• - Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer, Elite of the Third Reich - The Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939-45: A Reference, Helion & Company Limited, England, 2003
  - Reinicke, A., Die 5. Jäger-Division – Polen, Westfeldzug 1940, Rußland, Das Ende an der Oderfront, Nebel Verlag GmbH, Eggolsheim, Deutschland, 2003
  - Ritterkreuz Archiv I / 2008