SS-Unterscharführer Josef Prieß

[tylermclaren]

This thread is dedicated to finding and providing information on this soldier pictured in this Iconic photograph. He has recently been identified as Unterscharführer Josef Prieß, a battle hardened soldier of the LSSAH. So far, this is the information I have gathered on him thanks to the help of Forum Member "SS3" along with various online articles:

Josef Prieß (Obereggen, 05.02.1918) joined the Waffen-SS on 27.03.1940, signed for 4½ years and became an SS-Schütze in the 2. (Krad.-) Kompanie of AA LSSAH. During the 1943 Kursk battles Rottenführer Prieß served in the 2. (VW.-) Kompanie. After the Kursk battles he was promoted to Unterscharführer "wegen Tapferkeit vor dem Feinde." According to veterans of the SS AA 1 Prieß happily acted for the Kriegsberichter camera at Poteau because the photographer had served with Prieß in the Leibstandarte earlier in the war.

Josef Prieß was killed in action by MG fire on January 4, 1945 when Stabskompanie SS AA 1 (Ostuf. Goltz) attempted to infiltrate in the American lines 4 km east of Bastogne-Bras. He's burried at the Bastogne-Recogne war cemetery (Block 16, Grave 201), located just outside the town of Foy.

In late January 1945 his company commander wrote a letter to his wife to inform her about the death of her husband.

Here is a colorized version of the photograph of this Iconic soldier:



After learning his name, I searched for more information. While not much came up, I did find another "Prieß" in the LSSAH during the bulge, Hermann Prieß. Hermann Prieß was in command of the 1st SS-Panzerkorps Leibstandarte during the offensive. When I came across a photo of him, I saw a striking resemblance between Hermann and Josef. Notice the eyes, nose, and mouth... nearly identical to one another. Hermann is 17 years Josef's senior (born 1901), I wonder if he could have possibly been his Father, Brother, or Cousin?

Here is the side by side:

[Paul G]

Nice bit of research. Thanks for sharing!

PG-

[Pepe77]

Great story indeed. I can see some similarity between their faces too but who knows how are they related to each other?

[markus]

Doesn't anybody have Hermann Priess Personalakte to see whether he had a son of the name of Josef?! I personally doubt it, but who knows..?

[pete]

.

I know a guy who had an SS Dagger named to Herman Priess on the blade. No idea if that was actually real....

Pete

[Ruimteaapje]

The info you provided in the opening post of this topic comes from my files and my old posts in the AHF forum.

The man in the famous Ardennes photo is not Josef Prieß.

Other photos of the same man clearly show a Rottenführer collar tab. SS-PzAA1 veteran Helmut insisted that the men in those photo's are Gilbert ("Rottenführer Z" in Pallud's Battle of the Bulge then and now) and Prieß ("Rottenführer Y" by Pallud), and because Gilbert certainly looks very similar to "Z", I wrote about Prieß and Gilbert in the AHF forum many years ago. Prieß was Helmut's squadleader in the Fahrradzug, so if he identifies the man in the photo as Prieß and we see the equipment of the man in the photo (especially the "signalling" photo in which the collar tab isn't visible) I believe him. But then Helmut identified the officer with the stick (also one of the Poteau photos) as Wawrzinek but photos of the real Wawrzinek clearly show that it's not him.

There's little doubt that those men are indeed from the Fahrradzug of SS-Untersturmführer Kollatschny (the platoon was equipped with Sturmgewehre and the passengers on the Stabskompanie 8-Rad PSW's were from this platoon) but details such as the SS-Rottenführer collar tab do rule Prieß out. Prieß was an SS-Unterscharführer. There's no doubt about that, because his promotion to Uscha is listed in the Kriegstagebuch of the AA LAH (21. Juli 1943, m.W.v. 1. Juli 1943), the letter from his Kompanieführer Heinz Goltz to his widow dated 21. Januar 1945 - of which I have a copy - gives that rank and he is burried as such (Recogne-Bastogne, Endgrablage: Block 16, Grab 201).

So why did Helmut identify "Y" as Prieß: we must keep in mind that Prieß was killed in action on 04.01.1945 so when we showed Helmut the "signalling" photo it was over sixty years since he'd last seen him. Possibly the mapcase made him believe that it must have been his squad leader Prieß. Also note that Helmut had been transfered from the Totenkopf training battalion to 3./AA LAH weeks before the offensive (the platoon was transfered to the Stabskompanie only days before the offensive started), was wounded near Ster and hospitalized for the rest of the war, so he only knew Prieß for a few weeks.

Pallud approached me through e-mail but I decided not to help him because of my doubts regarding the information I recieved from the veterans. It is a pitty that he decided to use info from my old forum posts.

BTW, Josef Prieß was not related to Hermann.

[markus]

The info you provided in the opening post of this topic comes from my files and my old posts in the AHF forum.

The man in the famous Ardennes photo is not Josef Prieß.

Other photos of the same man clearly show a Rottenführer collar tab. SS-PzAA1 veteran Helmut insisted that the men in those photo's are Gilbert ("Rottenführer Z" in Pallud's Battle of the Bulge then and now) and Prieß ("Rottenführer Y" by Pallud), and because Gilbert certainly looks very similar to "Z", I wrote about Prieß and Gilbert in the AHF forum many years ago. Prieß was Helmut's squadleader in the Fahrradzug, so if he identifies the man in the photo as Prieß and we see the equipment of the man in the photo (especially the "signalling" photo in which the collar tab isn't visible) I believe him. But then Helmut identified the officer with the stick (also one of the Poteau photos) as Wawrzinek but photos of the real Wawrzinek clearly show that it's not him.

There's little doubt that those men are indeed from the Fahrradzug of SS-Untersturmführer Kollatschny (the platoon was equipped with Sturmgewehre and the passengers on the Stabskompanie 8-Rad PSW's were from this platoon) but details such as the SS-Rottenführer collar tab do rule Prieß out. Prieß was an SS-Unterscharführer. There's no doubt about that, because his promotion to Uscha is listed in the Kriegstagebuch of the AA LAH (21. Juli 1943, m.W.v. 1. Juli 1943), the letter from his Kompanieführer Heinz Goltz to his widow dated 21. Januar 1945 - of which I have a copy - gives that rank and he is burried as such (Recogne-Bastogne, Endgrablage: Block 16, Grab 201).

So why did Helmut identify "Y" as Prieß: we must keep in mind that Prieß was killed in action on 04.01.1945 so when we showed Helmut the "signalling" photo it was over sixty years since he'd last seen him. Possibly the mapcase made him believe that it must have been his squad leader Prieß. Also note that Helmut had been transfered from the Totenkopf training battalion to 3./AA LAH weeks before the offensive (the platoon was transfered to the Stabskompanie only days before the offensive started), was wounded near Ster and hospitalized for the rest of the war, so he only knew Prieß for a few weeks.

Pallud approached me through e-mail but I decided not to help him because of my doubts regarding the information I recieved from the veterans. It is a pitty that he decided to use info from my old forum posts.

BTW, Josef Prieß was not related to Hermann.

Excellent research!

[Ruimteaapje]

Excellent research!

Thanks! However, it seems I have a keen eye for giving detailed, well researched replies to posts after the TS stopped looking at it. Makes we wonder why I bother.