Career
The Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves and Swords was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. He was wounded in action and died from his injuries on the last day of World World War II in Europe. World War I Ernst-Günther Baade volunteered for military service in 1914 at the age of seventeen and joined the 9th Ulanenregiment (light cavalry).
Baade distinguished himself in the fighting on the Eastern Front and was chosen for officer candidate training.
He was commissioned as Leutnant in August 1916. In 1918 he transferred to the Western Front where he was wounded during a poison gas attack.
Second World War On 6 March 1942 Baade was assigned to the active reserve of officers (Führerreserve). He subsequently transferred to the 15th Panzer Division in North Africa and took command of the 115th Rifle Regiment on 15 April 1942, at that time committed to action in Libya and Cyrenaica.
Baade became a legend in the Afrika Korps and was known to go into battle dressed in a Scottish kilt and carrying a claymore, a double-edged broadsword.
Baade distinguished himself on 27 May 1942 by his leadership and decision making, checking an armored attack to the rear of the 15th Panzer Division. A battalion of the regiment under his command managed to infiltrate into Bir Hacheim on the next day, defeating the British attackers after 24 hours of bitter fighting. He was again wounded on 28 July 1942 at El-Alamein, when his position was hit by artillery fire, then was evacuated to Rome and Germany for a period of convalescence.
Promoted to Generalmajor, Baade was given command of 90th Infantry Division at Monte Cassino.
He was known for his occasionally eccentric behavior, his very small staff, and his frequent front-line inspection visits, all of which made him popular with his troops. He was one of the few general officers who earned the wearing of a Tank Destruction Badge on his upper right sleeve for the single-handed destruction of an enemy tank with an infantry weapon.
Baade was wounded in the neck and lower leg by a phosphorus projectile on 24 April 1945, when his Kübelwagen was strafed by a British fighter aircraft near Neverstaven in Holstein. He was taken to a hospital at Bad Segeberg, where he died of gangrene on 8 May 1945, the last day of the war in Europe.
Wehrmachtbericht references Citations Bibliography.