Hubert Brinkforth was born on April 15, 1916 in Marl in Westphalia and
joined the 14th (anti-tank) company of the 25th Infantry Regiment of the
2nd Infantry Division (motorized) on November 14th, 1938. With his
company he took part in the Polish and Western campaigns.
During
the regiment's heavy defensive battles in the Abbeville area, the gun,
on which Brinkforth was used as a gunner, was tasked with taking up an
important position six kilometers in front of the main battle line in an
advanced position to secure the bridgehead and to actively intervene in
the defensive battles. The gun and especially the gunner Brinkforth
managed to repel a British tank attack on the southern edge of the
village of Huppy on May 27, 1940. In just 20 minutes he managed to shoot
down 11 tanks. He even allowed some of them to come within 100 meters
and defied the cannon and machine gun fire. Through his behavior he also
encouraged the other anti-tank operators in the area to hold out, which
meant that the attack could be repelled.
For this act he was
promoted to private and received the EK II, at the same time he was
submitted for the Knight's Cross by the then Generalleutnant Erich von
Manstein.
On March 7, 1941, he was the first soldier from the
enlisted rank to be awarded the Knight's Cross. He received this award
as a private anti-tank rifleman in the 14th (anti-tank) company of the
25th Infantry Regiment, which at the time of the award was already part
of the 12th Panzer Division as the 25th Rifle Regiment.
The then
gun commander Horst Nickstat stated after the war that two of the 11
tanks were shot down by another gun in the company. However,
corresponding evidence is lacking.
Brinkforth is mentioned for his success in the Wehrmacht report on May 28, 1940:
"On
the southern front, individual tank-led enemy attacks on the lower
Somme were repelled. Thirty enemy tanks were destroyed, nine of them by
Schützen Brinkforth [...]"
After the end of the Western
campaign, the Infantry Regiment 25 (motorized) was renamed
Schützen-Regiment 25 on January 10, 1941, with Brinkforth, who was not
yet a Knight's Cross recipient at that time, being transferred to the
5th (heavy) company of the regiment. According to the report, he took
over the position of gun commander in the company's anti-tank platoon.
On
April 1, 1941, he was presented with the Knight's Cross by the division
commander, Lieutenant General Harpe, at the Tucheler Heide military
training area. He then had to personally report to the Supreme Commander
of the Wehrmacht, Hitler, at the Reich Chancellery on April 4, 1941.
At
the start of the Eastern campaign, Brinkforth was back in action and
was wounded in the left arm by a mortar grenade near Smolensk on August
1, 1941. He is then first transferred to the reserve hospital III in
Königsberg-Marlaufenhof and then to the reserve hospital
Gelsenkirchen-Buer in the Marienhospital there. Having recovered, he was
sent to the Infantry Tank Hunter Replacement Company 2 (motorized) in
Stettin-Krekow and was transferred back to the 12th Panzer Division on
November 24, 1941. With the report of December 16, 1941, he was again a
member of the 5th (heavy) company and took part in the heavy defensive
battles of the winter of 1941/42.
During the fighting in the
summer of 1942, Hubert Brinkforth, a non-commissioned officer, fell to a
direct artillery hit south of Pogostje am Wolchow.
The burial
took place on June 8, 1942 at the Ivanowskoye military cemetery, south
of Shapki. Hubert Brinkforth rests today at the war cemetery in
Sologubowka-St.Petersburg - final grave location: Block 4 Row 12 Grave
1184.
Source :
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Image-No.: 00047549)
https://web.archive.org/web/20110105215722fw_/http://ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Infanterie/B/Br/Brinkforth-Hubert.htm
