Heinz von Westernhagen (29 August 1911 – 19 March 1945) was the commander of the 501st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion of Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS during World War II.
Biography[]
Heinz von Westernhagen was born on 29 August 1911 in Riga, Latvia, and the family was forced to flee Riga twice when the Russian Empire expelled its Germans in 1914-15 and in 1919 when the Bolsheviks occupied the city, forcing the family to leave the city again. He joined the Sturmabteilung in 1930 and rose in the ranks of the SS in the Interwar Years. At the start of World War II, he was assigned to the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and fought in France and the Low Countries in 1940. On 13 May 1941 he was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery in the Battle of Greece, and he was a veteran of tough fighting against the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. In July 1942, the Leibstandarte was transformed into a panzergrenadier division and sent to occupied Normandy before fighting at the Third Battle of Kharkov in 1943 and the Battle of Kursk. On 19 July 1943, he was given command of the 501st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion, and he fought in the battles for Normandy, including the Battle of Villiers-Bocage on 13 June 1944, during which he suffered a head injury. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, but he was forced to leave his battalion in the hands of Heinrich Kling, and he shot himself. His death was covered up as a small bomb fragment hitting his head, but he was sad at the loss of his battalion, and the government wanted to preserve the morale of the 501st and to protect his pregnant wife.