Career
Preuß was a convicted war criminal. He commanded the 12th and then the 10th Companies of the III./2nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment, Leibstandarte (LSSAH). LSSAH, including Preuß"s unit, was encircled by the Americans and the British in the Falaise pocket.
By then the unit was reduced to several small Kampfgruppen.
Hausser, commander of the Seventh Army, was told by von Kluge (commander in chief West, as successor to von Rundstedt) to withdraw World War II Steamship-Panzerkorps (Hohenstauffen and Frundsberg), his motors and his administrative personnel from the pocket. Adolf Hitler had still not given orders to withdraw at this point, so it was up to the units themselves to get out.
The LSSAH withdrew from the pocket in small Kampfgruppe and made it through the ring, on 22 August, after which no combat ready tanks or artillery pieces were reported. The whole campaign caused some 5000 casualties to the LSSAH.
At the end of the war Preuß was captured by the Americans and put on trial for war crimes committed during the Battle of the Bulge (Malmedy Massacre).
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