Kaltenegger, Roland Oberstleutnant Wilhelm Spindler. Vom Ritterkreuzträger des Frankreichfeldzuges zum Eichenlaubträger während der Rückzugskämpfe auf dem Balkan

Wilhelm Spindler belonged to the 1st Mountain Division from the first to the last day of his military career. In the Polish, French, Yugoslavian and Russian campaigns, he was initially deployed as a platoon leader and later as a company commander, particularly in the 13th Company of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 98. From July 1943 to August 1944 he was commander of the Mountain Infantry Battalion 54 in the Balkans and from October 1944 until the end of the war of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 99 during the heavy defensive fighting in the Balkans and in Hungary before he was wounded in March 1945.

During their combat service in the Second World War, 38 members of the 1st Mountain Division were awarded the Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross. One of them was Wilhelm Spindler, who received this high decoration on 21 December 1940 as a lieutenant and orderly officer on the staff of the III Battalion of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 99. Only three members of the main division of the German mountain troops were awarded the coveted Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross - namely Lieutenant General Hubert Lanz on 23 December 1942 as commander of the 1. Gebirgsdivision and Major Harald von Hirschfeld on the same day as commander of the II. battalion of the Gebirgsjägerregiment 982, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Spindler as commander of the Gebirgsjägerregiment 99 on 31 January 1945 for his combat service around a commanding height.