Theodor Krancke

Theodor Krancke (30 March 1893 – 18 June 1973) was an admiral with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Under the command of Krancke, during the five-month-long raiding cruise, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer sank 13 merchant ships, one armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay, and captured three merchant ships representing 115,195 tons of Allied and neutral shipping.

During the Allied Invasion of Normandy Admiral Krancke, as Commander-in-Chief of Navy Group Command West headquartered in Paris, controlled all German naval vessels in France, as well as the various land-based naval units and the naval coastal artillery and antiaircraft batteries along the French Atlantic coast.

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class (May 1915)
 * 1st Class (27 September 1919)
 * Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
 * Sudetenland Medal 1939
 * High Seas Fleet Badge 1941
 * Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (19 October 1939)
 * 1st Class (20 April 1940)
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
 * Knight's Cross on 21 February 1941 as Kapitän zur See and commander of heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer
 * 614th Oak Leaves on18 October 1944 as Admiral and commander in chief of Marinegruppenkommando West