SS-Rottenführer Werner Kindler of the Leibstandarte Division in 1943

Portrait of SS-Rottenführer Werner Kindler of the Leibstandarte Division taken in 1943. He survived at least 84 days of close quarters combat and was awarded on 1 April 1945 the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, being one of only 631 men awarded for this decoration! He was also awarded the German Cross in Gold, the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the East Medal and the Gold Wound Badge, having been wounded six times in action. Kindler served in Soviet Union, Italy, Normandy, in the retreat across France and Belgium, in the Ardennes campaign, in Hungary and finally in Austria, where he sank his half-track in the River Enns and surrendered to American forces on 10 May 1945, with the Soviets in hot pursuit. He wrote his his memoirs after the war, "Mit Goldener Nahkampfspange – Werner Kindler, Ein Panzergrenadier der Leibstandarte" (in English as Obedient Unto Death: A Panzer Grenadier of the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler Reports).