Career
The Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Hermann Ritter von Speck was killed on 15 June 1940 in Pont-sur-Yonne, France. In 2010, Jay Nordlinger spoke with von Speck"s daughter, who claimed that the general deliberately sought death in battle: He felt he could not break his oath to the army — he could not desert.
And his Catholic faith prevented him from committing suicide — suicide straight out, you might say.
So, he put himself in the line of fire. In his dying words, he did not say, “Give my love to my family,” or anything like that.
He said, “lieutenant had to be this way.” Iron Cross (1914) Bibliography.
