Kaltenegger, Roland Oberleutnant Maximilian Burghartswieser. Vom Heeresbergführer zum Ritterkreuzträger von Kreta

This is the story of First Lieutenant Maximilian Burghartswieser. Born on 10 June 1914 in Ruhpolding in Chiemgau, he joined the 11th Company of the Munich Infantry Regiment at Bad Reichenhall on 1 November 1934 after training as a bricklayer. On 16 October 1935, he joined the 10th Company of the newly formed Mountain Infantry Regiment 100. A skier and mountaineer, he completed all the required courses of Army Mountain Guide training from April 1936 to the end of April 1937 and was appointed Army Mountain Guide on 10 December 1937.

This made him one of a small mountaineering elite of just under 400 soldiers in the Wehrmacht who were allowed to wear the coveted Army Mountain Guide badge on their uniform. The Polish campaign took Maximilian Burghartswieser with the 1st Mountain Division to the gates of Lviv. Promoted to sergeant on 1 October 1939, he was awarded the Iron Cross II Class on 25 October 1939. The French campaign took Burghartswieser with the 1st Mountain Division across the Oise-Aisne Canal, the Aisne and the Marne to the area of Bourges. For bravery in the face of the enemy, he was awarded the Iron Cross I Class on 19 June 1940. By surrendering his company in the Mountain Infantry Regiment 100, Burghartswieser joined the newly formed 5th Mountain Division under Major General Julius Ringel. With this division he took part in the Balkan campaign of 1941 and the breakthrough through the Metaxas Line, which was followed by Operation Merkur, the attack on the island of Crete. For his decisive, dashing feat of arms as first sergeant and platoon leader in storming the enemy positions during the attack on Galatas on 25 May 1941, Burghartswieser was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as first sergeant and shock troop leader. The next deployment took Burghartswieser to the gates of Leningrad as part of Army Group North with his division as a runway fire brigade. During fierce fighting in the Newa Arc, Burghartswieser, as a lieutenant and platoon leader in the 7th Company of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 100, was killed by a bullet through the heart on 22 August 1942. Posthumously he was promoted to first lieutenant with effect from 31 August 1942.