Menn, Martin

Date of birth:: November 11th, 1918 (Krotschwitz, Germany)
Date of death:: 1944 (France)
Buried on:: German War Cemetery Champigny-St.-André
Plot: 9. Row: 7. Grave: 462.
Nationality:: German

Biography

Martin Menn joined the Division in November 1939 with the Pionier Bataillon. With the addition of a Pionier Kompanie to Regiment "Der Führer," he moved to that support unit in May of 1940, serving there as a Gruppenführer in Yugoslavia and during the first Russian campaign. During the latter months of the 1942 divisional reorganization, Menn returned to his newly rebuilt 16./Der Führer after recovering from being wounded.
Otto Kumm personally requested his award of the Iron Cross 1st Class on February 17, 1943. Sylvester Stadler recommended him for the German Cross in Gold while an Oberscharführer on January 28, 1943. This decoration was approved by Heinz Lammerding when he returned from Russia in March 1944.
In this year's fighting near Charkow (Kharkov), the Oberscharführer Menn once again displayed outstanding bravery, courage and dash as a platoon leader. Always on the head of his men, he knew no concern for his own safety. By providing an example, he swept his platoon along with him.
In the attack on the enemy's system of positions Nr 246.3, three kilometers southwest of Lutschki, Oberscharführer Menn entered the enemy's heavily fortified positions. He was the first man at the point position of his flamethrowers and maneuvered with them. Throwing hand grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat from the enemy. Menn succeeded in eliminating the first bunker and the adjoining system of trenches with flamethrowers. The enemy suffered heavy and bloody casualties. With this, the basis for the first company's attack into the enemy's system of positions was established.
On August 15, 1943, near Nikolova a gap of 350 meters width had formed between Menn's platoon and the adjoining 6th Company. The main combat line ran across a field of sunflowers. Through this gap the enemy had penetrated with strong forces. The enemy subsequently entered with a company-sized attack and attempted to roll up the company's positions from the flank. Oberscharführer Menn, who immediately recognized the danger in this poorly visible terrain, having no other reserves at his disposal, gathered his platoon staff and rushed to the right flank, immediately taking to the offensive.
Stubborn hand-to-hand combat developed, during the course of which eventually only Oberscharführer Menn and one other man from his platoon staff remained fighting. Oberscharführer Menn then suffered a wound to the back due to shrapnel from an anti-tank rifle but nonetheless remained in the fight until the enemy broke off the attack after having suffered heavy and bloody losses. Through Menn's initiative, a turning of the flank and side attacks was accomplished.
On September 10, 1943, Menn's platoon set out on a nightly counterattack near Kolowsk. Once again it was Menn who, armed with hand grenades and machine pistol, entered the trench the enemy had occupied as the first man. In the darkness a struggle of man against man developed. Through Menn's personal bravery and dash it soon became possible to inflict heavy losses on the enemy and to throw him out of the trenches. The Wehrmacht unit could then re-occupy it's previously lost sector of the trenches. It was Menn's merit that the enemy was thrown back to his original position.
When Menn's platoon was positioned on the right wing of Regiment "Der Führer" on September 14, 1943, the enemy attacked in the early morning hours. In front of the position of Menn's platoon any enemy attack broke down. When the enemy penetrated the right-hand neighbouring unit's positions, Menn took over a large part of the neighbouring trench sector.
Menn kept down the following Russian infantry, who intended to widen the gap, through the concentrated fire of his light infantry weapons. He held, with only minimal losses, his position against a vastly superior enemy until two Panther tanks arrived as reinforcements. Through his extraordinary bravery and cold-bloodedness, it was Menn who was to thank for the clearing of the enemy penetration.
When the company was subordinated to the II./Der Führer on October 6, 1943, Menn, together with the company, attacked the last positions of the enemy bridgehead south of Grebeni on the battalion's right wing. Through clever use of their own fire and his personal bravery, Menn pulled along his men up to the first enemy positions. Thus a fierce close-quarters combat developed, during the course of which Menn was wounded. Despite being wounded, Menn bravely fought on at the head of his men and inflicted bloody casualties on the enemy. It was due to his bravery that the company reached the Dnieper River. It was only then that he left the company because of his injury.
When on November 23, 1943, the enemy attacked near with vastly superior forces, Menn was the soul of the resistance. Here it was his personal example that prevented the enemy from penetrating the defending lines. It was a night Menn was with a listening post ahead of the main combat line. Under cover of the darkness, the enemy attempted to sneak past the listening post and penetrate the positions. Menn allowed the enemy to come as close as five meters and then opened fire with his machine pistol.
This caused great confusion among the enemy that Menn took advantage of by using his heavy machine gun on the Russians with devastating effect. Here again, it was the energy and initiative of this exemplary NCO that was the cause of the enemy leaving behind many dead and wounded men and giving up on his night attack."
Menn's final fate is unknown but he is not listed among the known Zugführer assignments of the 16./Der Führer or Pionier Bataillon during or after the Normandy campaign.

Martin Menn fell in France, in the Normandy campaign or subsequent retreat in 1944. He was first buried in St. Léonard near Alençon. This matches where Das Reich was fighting after D-Day (June–August 1944). He was later moved to a centralized war cemetery in St.-André-de-l’Eure, as part of the postwar grave consolidation by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission).

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!