An Order of the Crown in Gold to Knight's Cross Lieutenant Colonel Von Aulock

Andreas von Aulock (1893–1968) was a German officer during the First and Second War, and a recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. His father, Franz vonAulock, had been a Prussian officer. This motivated Aulock and his older brother Hubertus to join the military as well. Aulock went to a cadet school and was then deployed as a Lieutenant in the 6th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 95. In the First War he initially fought in Belgium, then took command of the 4th Company to lead them at the Eastern Front in Poland. He joined the Regiment Staff as an adjutant and later fought in the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres). In August of 1917 he was promoted to Senior Lieutenant. In 1918 he was awarded the Wound Badge in Silver. After the war Aulock joined a Freikorps (free corps, paramilitary organisation). In 1937 he re-entered the army as a Captain of the Reserve. A year later he was promoted to Major. In August of 1940 Aulock took command of the Infantry Regiment 226, now a Lieutenant Colonel. Two years later, him and his regiment fought in the Battle of Stalingrad. In late 1943 Aulock was promoted to Colonel and received the Knight’s Cross for his role in the Kuban bridgehead deployments. In February of 1944 Aulock became the fortress commander of Saint Malo, an important harbour in the French Brittany region. Here he fought the Americans in the Battle for Brest. Even after Saint Malo was sacked, Aulock still held the citadel and refused to capitulate. The Americans sent a German priest to talk him into doing so, but Aulock responded: “A German soldier does not surrender.” Because of this, the Allies gave him the honourific title “Madman of Saint Malo”. On August 16 he was awarded the Oak Leaves, and he was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht. Two days later Aulock and the remaining 400 soldiers under his command finally surrendered.