Heinz Rafoth

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Heinz Rafoth
Heinz Rafoth, 2023.jpg
Oberst a. D. Dr. agr. Heinz Rafoth in 2023
Birth date 6 January 1923 (1923-01-06) (age 101)
Place of birth Putzar, Kreis Anklam, Province of Pomerania, German Reich
Allegiance  National Socialist Germany
 West Germany
Service/branch Balkenkreuz.jpg Heer
Bundeswehr cross.png Bundeswehr
Rank Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant)
Oberst i. G. (Colonel in General Staff)
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Iron Cross
Infantry Assault Badge
Wound Badge
Close Combat Clasp
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Heinz Rafoth (b. 6 January 1923) was a German officer of the Wehrmacht during World War II and of the Bundeswehr. On 6 January 2024, Hugo Broch and Heinz Rafoth, the last two living recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (after the death of Lorenz Neumayr), celebrated their 102nd and 101st birthdays respectively.

Life

Heinz Rafoth II.jpg

Heinz Rafoth was born on in Putzar, south of Anklam in Mecklenburg (today's state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), the son of a forester who had returned from the First World War wounded and seriously ill. After a premature Abitur (Notabitur) due to war and a short mandatory service with the Reich Labor Service (RAD), he was called up for military service and basic training in October 1940.

World War II

At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, Rafoth was a Gefreiter (Private E-2/Lance Corporal) in the 3rd Company/Infanterie-Regiment 48/12. Infanterie-Division .

His division experienced the advance battles in the northern sector of the new Eastern Front. Rafoth was wounded for the first time in October 1941. Returning to his unit, he experienced the difficult winter fighting of 1941/42. The 12th Infantry Division was one of the units that were trapped in the Demyansk pocket. The encirclement area was held by air supply and opened by a relief attack at the end of April 1942. The fighting on the former pocket fronts continued for another year. Rafoth was appointed Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier (officer candidate with NCO rank) and group leader in his company on 1 September 1942.

After the evacuation of the former Demyansk pocket in the spring of 1943, the 12th Infantry Division fought at Staraya Russa, from autumn 1943 in the Nevel area and from the end of December 1943 in the defensive battles near Vitebsk. Here, Rafoth earned the EK I in January 1944. After a third wound in February 1944, Rafoth was transferred to the Thorn Fahnenjunker School for officer training and later commanded to Posen. This was followed by promotions to cadet sergeant (Fahnenjunker-Feldwebel) with effect from 1 June 1944 and to 2nd Lieutenant (Leutnant) on 1 August 1944.

After leading a field gendarmerie squad, Lieutenant Rafoth returned to his old division in January 1945, although it no longer existed. The old 12th Infantry Division was destroyed in the east near Mogilev after the start of the Soviet summer offensive against Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte) at the end of June 1944. From the beginning of August 1944, the division was reorganized as the 12th Volksgrenadier Division and since October 1944 it has been in action on the Western Front. When Lieutenant Rafoth came to the 12th Volksgrenadier Division, it only had a combat strength of 300 men in mid-January 1945 due to the previous fighting. The division was therefore pulled out and refreshed. Afterwards – brought back to a combat strength of 3,600 men – the 12th Volksgrenadier Division took over a section of the front on both sides of Düren. After heavy fighting, this city was lost to the US armed forces at the end of February 1945. The division's infantry strength fell back to 600 men. The front was withdrawn to the Erft position, although there could hardly be any talk of a coherent front.

At the beginning of March 1945, the 1st Battalion of the 48th Grenadier Regiment in Blessem was surrounded by the enemy. It included Lieutenant Rafoth, who officially led the 2nd company of 48th Grenadier Regiment (12th Volksgrenadier Division). On 3 March 1945, to cover the ordered breakout of the remnants of his battalion, Rafoth stood at the southeastern exit of Blessem with a 20-man combat group consisting of stragglers and supply troops, whose leadership he had just taken over. During the fighting that day, Rafoth observed how two strong enemy companies, supported by two tanks, tried to reach the Erft River along the Lechenich–Liblar road. He therefore decided to withdraw from his assigned position on the edge of Blessem and fought his way through enemy-held territory to the village of Liblar. From here, fighting at the head of his men, he threw back the American attack spearheads, who had already reached the undamaged railway bridges via Kölner and Brühler Strasse (northeast of Liblar). Rafoth held these two bridges against a much stronger enemy for two hours, until the remnants of his battalion also fought their way over.

Through his own decision, 2nd Lieutenant Rafoth and his small battle group had made it possible for his battalion to retreat. And by holding the two undamaged bridges, the Americans were prevented from advancing even faster towards Cologne through the incomplete front line. This local success did not change the overall situation, but Rafoth's personal bravery was rewarded with the Knight's Cross being awarded to him on 20 April 1945. At this point he and the rest of his division had already gotten into the Ruhr basin, where he was taken prisoner. Since he was seriously wounded again, he had to stay in the hospital until 1946.

Knight’s Cross recommendation

Rafoth’s Knight’s Cross recommendation reads as follows:

On the 3 March 1945, Leutnant Rafoth fought to cover the ordered breakout of the remnants of the I. Bataillon/Grenadier-Regiment 48 in an action that primarily featured bitter urban combat. He did this from a position at the southeastern entrance of Blessem with a 20-man strong Kampfgruppe (consisting of stragglers and supply troops) which he had just been placed in command of. During this defensive battle he observed how two reinforced enemy bicycle companies (supported by two tanks) sought to reach the Erft River along the road Lechenich–Liblar. Leutnant Rafoth thus decided to disengage from his battle at Blessem, and he fought through enemy occupied territory up to the village of Liblar. From here, fighting at the head of his men, he threw back those American attacking spearheads that had already reached the undamaged railway bridges via the Kölner und Brühler roads (located northeast of Liblar). Here he held both bridges for two hours against a much larger attacking force until the remnants of the I./Grenadier-Regiment 48 arrived as reinforcements. This bold and decisive action by Leutnant Rafoth and his small Kampfgruppe prevented the enemy from capturing these two undamaged bridges. This in turn prevented the further advance of the Americans beyond the Division’s incomplete frontline and in the direction of Cologne.

To this was added an insightful comment by the commander of the superordinated LVIII. Panzer-Korps:

Leutnant Rafoth’s independent action to hold two bridges enabled the successful withdrawal movement by elements of the I. Bataillon/Grenadier-Regiment 48. His brave conduct had a major impact on the combat situation of his Division. I am emphatically in favour of the award of the Knight’s Cross.

Post-war

In 1946, Rafoth was released from the hospital and was no longer a POW. He completed a degree in agriculture at the University of Gießen (where he was 2nd chairman of the Studentenausschuß in the Frankfurter Straße 87[1]) and received his doctorate (Dr. agr.) in 1952 with the dissertation Die Eingliederung der Flüchtlinge in den westdeutschen Raum, ergänzt durch spezielle Untersuchungen in zwei hessischen Landgemeinden (The integration of refugees into West German region, supplemented by special studies in two rural communities in Hesse).

However, he then became an employee of the new Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz), which had been founded 1950 by the Allied High Commission. The United States Army had already operated a cover facility in Germany called the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”, whose agents had, among other things, the task of collecting information about the KPD, which was re-admitted in 1945.

Accepted into the Bundeswehr as a Captain (Hauptmann) in 1956, Heinz Rafoth had a second military career with the MAD, the Military Counterintelligence Service. In 1959, he was head of the MAD group in Düsseldorf. In 1961, he was promoted to Major and in 1966 to a Lieutenant Colonel in General Staff (Oberstleutnant i. G. since 1966). In Bonn he became full-time liaison officer, later stellvertretender Leiter, finally Dienststellenleiter of the BND-Büro in Bonn, with the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst; BND), whose responsibility is was to maintai. close relations with the Federal security and police agencies as well as foreign embassies.

Rafoth was promoted to Oberst i. G. (Colonel in General Staff) in 1973. As such, he was mentioned in the media in connection with the Guillaume espionage case in 1974 (GDR agent for Chancellor Herbert Frahm, called "Willy Brandt", SPD) and in 1977/78 with the wiretapping affair in the Federal Ministry of Defense. For example, the “Spiegel” articles can still be found online today.[2][3] He retired on 31 March 1982.

When colleagues took him hunting to Leinach, he came into contact with the Würzburg region northwest of Nuremberg for the first time. In 1998, he gave up his apartment in Bonn to move to Margetshöchheim (Birkachstraße 22), in a beautiful house on the edge of the forest. In January 2023, he celebrated his 100th birthdy.[4] Heinz Rafoth is the last living Knight's Cross recipient of the Heer and the last living Knight's Cross recipient who still served in the Bundeswehr. He can look back on a long and eventful life.

Awards and decorations

References

  1. ↑ Wintersemester 1948/49, p. 10
  2. ↑ Der Fall Guillaume, Der Spiegel, 6 October 1974
  3. ↑ Lange Leitung, Der Spiegel, 2 April 1978
  4. ↑ Margetshöchheimer Heinz Rafoth feierte 100. Geburtstag
  5. ↑ Rafoth, Heinz, tracesofwar.com
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