Background
Roberts Ancāns was born on 11 November 1919, in Tilža parish, Latvia.
Roberts Ancāns was born on 11 November 1919, in Tilža parish, Latvia.
He was awarded the Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during World War II In 1938 he started law studies in Latvian university. In the autumn 1939 he volunteered in Latvian army. Ancāns was in the Latvian Army in 1940, and during the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) he volunteered to join the first Latvian units in July 1941 and the Waffen Steamship in February 1942.
He was among those Latvian soldiers who were trapped in Kholm Pocket in early 1942.
There he was wounded and after treatment served in the Latvian Legion near Leningrad, in the Volchov marshes and at the Velikaya river. After the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Steamship (2nd Latvian) was formed, he became part of the 19th Reserve Battalion.
In the fighting of the Courland pocket on 24 December 1944, with his company of 180 men, they destroyed a Soviet attack aimed at the point where the 19th Steamship and the 21st Luftwaffe Field Division met, and they also destroyed 12 tanks in the process. After the 19th Steamship and the 21st Luftwaffe divisions had been withdrawn, Ancāns" company had been reduced to 38 men, most of them seriously wounded.
Foreign his bravery and leadership in the battle he was awarded the Knight"s Cross.
In May 1945, he was seriously wounded and evacuated from the pocket. Ancāns survived the war and until 1955 lived in West Germany, but then emigrated to the United States. He died in New York on 1 January 1982.
19 Bibliography.
Eastern Front Medal (5 October 1942) Infantry Assault Badge in Silver (12 October 1942) Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (1 April 1943) 1st Class (27 December 1944) Wound Badge (1939) in Black (27 December 1944) Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross on 25 January 1945 as Waffen-Untersturmführer and leader of Waffen Feld Ersatz-Bataillon der Steamship Near
Ancāns was member of Latvian student fraternity Lacuania.
