Arrested Nazi SS Major – Update

In the April #2 website update, we published Veteran Jack Randle’s story about back in May 1969 how he and other members of Surrey Detachment arrested an individual who gave his name as Frank Willow.  While in the subject’s house, the members noticed a photograph of the subject in a military uniform.  When questions about the photograph, the subject’s wife said it was a photograph of her husband as a major in the Nazi SS during World War II.  According to the wife, her husband was a decorated war hero and had served in the eastern front.

At the time, there was some suspicion that Frank Willow name was probably not his real name.  Subject was eventually returned to Germany because the information provided on entering Canada was not correct.  Apparenly when arrived back in Europe, he was placed in a mental institution. In our previous article, we published a photograph of this Nazi SS Major.

Based on this article, we received a response from Veteran Bob Henderson who is currently living in Regina and is private collector of German prisoner-of-war militaria.  Based on his past experience in researching German soldiers, Bob came up with a possible name for this Nazi SS Major – Friedrich “Friedel” Blond.

The photograph discovered in the Surrey residence is illustrated below along side that of Friedrich Blond.

According to the information provided by Bob Henderson – Friedrich “Friedel” Blond (29 April 1920 – 28 May 2009) was a obersturmfuhrer (First Lieutenant) in the Waff SS during World II.   He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II.

During World War II, Blond took part in the Polish Campaign, the Battle of France, Operation Marita (the invasion of the Balkans) and Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union).

In the summer of 1944, he was selected to become an officer and was posted to the SS-Junkerschul at Posen-Treskau.   After graduation, he was promoted to Untersturmfuhrer (Second Lieutenant) and given command of the 12^th Company of the SS Training and Reserve Battalion (Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler) who were based in Hagen.

Blond and his Battalion were moved to Berlin towards the end of the war.  His company being reinforced with me from the Army and from the aluftwaffe Flak units.  In April 1945, he company was attached to the 23 SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nederland.  On April 18, Blond was in command of 200 men who formed a defensive line slowly retreating towards the center of Berlin.  After several days of fighting successful defensive battles, the company was reduced to thirty men.  On April 28, 1945, Blond was wounded for the fourth time in the war by bomb splinters and awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for his bravery in the Battle of Berlin but did not receive the decoration as there were none were available to issue. According to relevant statements known the award was announced via radio from the Fuhrerbunker headquarters in Berlin on April 28, 1945.

After the war, Blond became an officer in the Austrian Army and attained the rank of Colonel.

At this moment in time, we are unable to substantiate whether Frank Willow and Friedrich Blond are in fact the same person.  We have written to the individual who drafted Blond’s obituary in 2009 for the purposes of determining if Willows and Blond are in fact the same person.