German WWII Postcard of Knights Cross Recipient Oberwachtmeister Johann Schmölzer -This postcard commemorates Johann Schmölzer who won the knights cross for his actions with his mountain troop. He won the cross in September of 1942. This is a sketch by the artist Wolfgang Willrich. The reverse is set up in the traditional postcard style, with room for the note, address. The caption reads “Ritterkreuztrager Oberwachmeister Schmölzer in einem Gebirgsjager-Battlion”. Interesting if you look at the reverse of the card, you can see the black box, this edit was done since they incorrectly identified Schmölzer as an Oberleutnant. If you are interested in how he won the knights cross, this is what happened. On April 28th of 1942 the Soviets landed their 12th Marine Brigade at Motovski and Lizabucht. They moved against the strongpoint Landebucht which was being held by Oberwachtmeister Schmölzer and 50 men. Schmölzer was able to find and recall his detached reconnaissance group from Thomasberg and bring it back to the strongpoint, but shortly afterwards the strongpoint Herzogstein was overrun. This led to the encirclement of strongpoint Landebucht by two hostile battalions. In the next 24 hours the Soviets tried and failed to overrun the strongpoint. The German munitions became very low, but fortunately a Gefreiter who had left the day before was able to break through to the strongpoint with 16 men and additional ammunition. When this in turn became low, Schmölzer made the independent decision to break out. Despite the nearly depleted ammunition stocks, Schmölzer and his men succeeded in breaking out with their wounded at a minimal cost in casualties. This card is in very good condition.