Kurt Knispel

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Kurt Knispel (born September 20, 1921 in Salisfeld, a district of Zuckmantel ( Czechoslovakia ); † April 28, 1945 in Urbau (Czechoslovakia)) was a non-commissioned officer, most recently a sergeant , and one of the most successful gunmen and tank commanders in the German armed forces during the Second World War .

Life

Knispel was born in 1921 in Sudetenland ( Czechoslovakia ). After finishing school, he did an apprenticeship in an automobile factory.

On May 15, 1940 he was called up to the 4th Company of the Armored Replacement and Training Department 15 in Sagan . Following basic training, he was trained as a gunner for tanks. In October 1940 he was transferred to the 3rd / 29th Panzer Regiment, which was subordinate to the 12th Panzer Division . There he was trained as a loader and gunner of a Panzer IV.

As a member of a Panzer IV crew, Knispel and the 12th Panzer Division took part in the Russian campaign on June 22, 1941 . Initially, the division was assigned to Army Group Center (Kesselschlachten of Minsk and Smolensk ), from September then to Army Group North to support the attack on Leningrad . During the Soviet counter-offensive in the winter of 1941/42, the division suffered heavy losses and was withdrawn to Estonia to refresh. In the course of the defensive battles, Knispel succeeded in eliminating large numbers of tanks, trucks and artillery.

In May 1942, Knispel's unit was relocated back to the German Reich and equipped there with the new Panzer IV F2. The unit was subordinated to the 3rd Panzer Regiment 4 of the 13th Panzer Division . With this, Knispel took part in the German Fall Blau summer offensive from August . For his successes (including the destruction of 12 enemy tanks) he was promoted to NCO and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. From November 19, 1942, he was treated in a field hospital near Nalchik because of an illness .

After the hospital stay, he completed a course for the new VI Tiger armored car . From April 1943 he was under the 1st Company of the Heavy Panzer Division 503 . For the destruction of 27 enemy tanks as part of the Citadel Company , he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. On May 20, 1944, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold.

From June 1944, Knispel commanded a VI Tiger II armored vehicle , with which he was used on the Western Front against the Allies who had landed in Normandy that summer . After a refresher in Germany, the 503 Heavy Panzer Division was relocated to Hungary in early October 1944, where it was used against the Debrecen operation .

One day after being promoted to Sergeant, Knispel suffered a severe head injury from shrapnel on April 28, 1945 when his Tiger II was hit while fighting with Soviet tanks and the ammunition he was carrying exploded. He died in the hospital two hours later.

Knispel was assigned a total of 168 enemy tanks shot down, 126 of them as a gunner and 42 as a tank commander. This is considered to be the highest number of kills by any soldier during World War II. Another 30 kills are unconfirmed.

In 2012 a group of Czech enthusiasts identified the place of Knispel's burial in the village of Vrbovec . On April 9, 2013, archaeologists from the Moravian State Museum discovered the remains of Knispel and other 21 German soldiers in a field burial site. On November 12, 2014, the German War Graves Commission buried his remains in the German military cemetery of the Central Cemetery in Brno .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Office (WASt) information: page 1
  2. ↑ a b German Office (WASt) information: page 2
  3. ↑ George Forty: Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II . ISBN 978-0-7603-3049-4 . Page 103 speaks of 162 degrees
  4. ↑ Martin Moštěk: Archeologové Nasli ve Vrbovci hrob elitního nemeckého tankisty. In: denik.cz . April 9, 2013, accessed March 27, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Moravské zemské muzeum: VÝROČNÍ ZPRÁVA ZA ROK 2013. January 27, 2014, accessed on March 27, 2019 . , P. 31
  6. ↑ a b Vlastimil Schildberger ml .: Podrobnosti o vyzvednutí ostatků Kurta Knispela a jejich pohřbení. In: KURT KNISPEL. Tankové eso II. Světové války. December 25, 2014, accessed March 27, 2019 .
  7. ^ Hans-Jörg Schmidt: Sudetendeutsche: The Czech Republic does not care about German graves. In: The world . June 16, 2014, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Kurt Knispel's grave
personal data
SURNAME Knispel, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German tank commander in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Zuckmantel , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1945
Place of death at Urbau , Greater German Empire