Heinz Heuer

As a police investigator in 1952, Heuer attempted to establish the circumstances of the death of his brother-in-law, who had been captured while fighting alongside the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord at Leisenwald and Waldensberg near Wächtersbach. Along with others, he had apparently been shot in the head by U.S. Army soldiers. His inquiries were not fruitful, but the German War Graves Commission did conduct an exhumation of a mass grave in the area in 1961, and re-interred 34 bodies in the nearby war cemetery, 23 of which had clearly been shot in the head. Heuer returned to the area during this investigation and tried to push for an inquiry into the killings, but was unsuccessful. He died on 6 January 2002.

In 1945, Heuer was an Oberfeldwebel der Gendarmerie in charge of a special purpose kampfgruppe during the Battle of Berlin. On 16 April 1945, he was assigned a mission by the Chief of the Army Headquarters (German: Oberkommando des Heeres, OKH) General der Infanterie Hans Krebs. The task involved attacking a Soviet command post, and Heuer led a group of 28 soldiers to complete the mission. While establishing the location of the Russian headquarters, Heuer and his men observed about 40 enemy tanks. On the night of 21 April, Heuer's group captured the Russian command post, and seized a quantity of maps and important documents. While returning from their mission, they encountered elements of their kampfgruppe engaging the enemy tanks they had seen earlier. Heuer and his group joined their comrades, and during the fighting 27 Russian tanks were destroyed, with Heuer personally accounting for 13 of that number using Panzerfaust one-shot anti-tank weapons. Upon his report to Krebs, the general was so pleased with Heuer's successful completion of the mission and his tank destruction efforts that Krebs awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, witnessed by Adolf Hitler's personal adjutant General of the Infantry Wilhelm Burgdorf and SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein. Krebs also field promoted Heuer to Leutnant der Feldgendarmerie.

Heinz Heuer (2 August 1918 – 6 January 2002) was a German military police (German: Feldgendarmerie) officer who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for single-handedly destroying 13 Soviet tanks during the Battle of Berlin in the closing days of World War II. He was the only member of the Feldgendarmerie to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Heuer was born in Berlin on 2 August 1918. His Army career began at the age of 18, serving in Flak regiments in Döberitz and Berlin before undergoing police training in 1938, and being assigned to Ordnungspolizei Headquarters. This was followed by special duties assignments to the Foreign Office and Wehrmacht Headquarters (German: Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) military intelligence (German: Abwehr) foreign department. During the war, Heuer served on a number of fronts and also with the Brandenburgers.