SS-Brigadeführer Alfred-Ingemar Berndt (born 22 April 1905 in Bromberg (Posen); died 28 March 1945 at Veszprém, Hungary) was a German journalist, writer and close collaborator of National Socialist Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Berndt wrote an eyewitness account of the 1940 German invasion of the Low Countries and France, Tanks Break Through!, and is regarded as propagandistic creator of the "Desert Fox" myth attached to the German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Although he had been a high-ranking official in the Propaganda Ministry from Hitler's early days in 1933, Berndt was willing to relinquish his comfort zone to then register as a volunteer for the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) when World War II broke out, with the rank of ordinary soldier! After Blitzkrieg's success in the West in 1940, Berndt returned to his old job as a writer and journalist. In May 1941 he returned to the front, and this time together with Rommel in Africa. Berndt - who has six fingers on one of his leg (!) - was trusted to be a propaganda reporter as well as filling Rommel's diary. Although shortly afterwards he was called home by Goebbels, Berndt still did not leave Afrikakorps, and went back and forth between Germany and Africa until finally Rommel was expelled from there in 1943. Berndt then continued his work as a propaganda expert, and was trusted to writes about the Battle of Stalingrad, surrender of German troops in Tunisia and the Katyn Massacre. On May 24, 1944, two weeks before the Allies landed in Normandy, he shot dead an American pilot captured by the Germans. His actions clearly violated the laws of war set by the Geneva Conventions, but Berndt was never brought before a military tribunal because he died in combat in Hungary. It turned out he had registered as a war volunteer (again!), and this time was assigned to the Wiking Division as a Waffen-SS officer. Medals and awards he has received: Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse (May 27, 1940) und I.Klasse (June 6, 1940); Allgemeines-Sturmabzeichen; Verwundetenabzeichen; Medaglia d'Argento al Valore Militare (Italy); and Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (July 17, 1943)
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Ingemar_Berndt
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=50844&start=15
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