Erich Lepkowski became famous for “Lepkowski’s Prisonbreak”, which took place on 16 August 1944. During this raid on a POW camp, Lepkowski and his men went deep into territory held by Partisans of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) and by Americans in order to rescue 130 of their fellow Fallschirmjäger troops.
Lepkowski’s raid was a terrific success. The column had travelled 75 miles round trip. They had rescued all 130 prisoners and even captured 15 FFI soldiers.
Erich Lepkowski was an instant hero and General Ramcke promoted him to Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) and he was awarded the Knight’s Cross.
You can read the full story of The Brasprats Raid, or Lepkowski’s Prisonbreak on WWII in Color: http://www.ww2incolor.com/german/Lepkowski-01.html
Another really cool online resource that I came across is “Infantry Aces: The German Soldier in Combat in World War II” by Franz Kurowski on Google Books. It has a whole chapter just on Erick Lepkowski: https://books.google.de/books?id=TCo-yhpu1zoC&lpg=PT201&ots=7auPO8g4gi&dq=erich%20lepkowski&pg=PT155#v=onepage&q&f=false
I have a hard copy of the book and I can highly recommend it!
Check out our version of Erich Lepkowski:
Erich Lepkowski is now available in our shop and via our resellers.
In the meantime, join the Stoessi’s Heroes group on Facebook and possibly also our Facebook page, so that you don’t miss any announcements.