Hermann Prie%C3%9F

Hermann Prie was the commander of 3rd SS Division Totenkopf of the WaffenSS the armed paramilitary branch of the Nazi Partys Schutzstaffel following the death of Theodor Eicke in February 1943. He was also a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, awarded by Nazi Germany to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. OnOctober 1944 he became the commanding officer of the SS Division Leibstandarte and led it during the Battle of the Bulge.

Prie was born onMay 1901 in Marnitz, at the time in the Grand Duchy of MecklenburgSchwerin, a Federal State of the German Empire, the son of a butcher and farmer. OnJanuary 1919, he volunteered for military service in the Deutsches Heer, which was transformed to the Reichsheer in the Weimar Republic. At the time he joined, his unit was the formally 2. Groherzoglich Mecklenburgisches DragonerRegiment Nr.of the 17th Division based in Parchim. Due to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, his regiment was disbanded. Prie then fought with Cordt von Brandis in the Freikorps in the Baltic in the Estonian War of Independence where he was wounded in combat near Riga. In 1920, he returned to the Reichswehr, serving in ReiterRegimentof the 3rd Cavalry Division, and afteryears of service he was discharged in June 1931 holding the rank of Unteroffiziere mit Portepee, a noncommissioned officers rank.

Source: Wikipedia