Career
Erich Zepper was born on 27 November 1915 in Sebnitz. He joined the Reichswehr, then the Labour Service (Arbeitsdienst) and in 1937, he volunteered to join the Steamship-Vermont. He took part in the Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938. Zepper was posted to the newly formed Steamship Division Wiking and sent to the Eastern Front for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Zepper was awarded the Knight"s Cross in December 1943, for his actions in the Dnieper sector in October 1943.
Zepper was later promoted to untersturmführer. He was captured in October 1944 by the British during fighting on the Western Front.
Zepper remained a prisoner of war in British captivity until his release in 1948. He died on 28 July 2005, in Beilstein.
