Kurt Knispel
Born(1921-09-20)20 September 1921
Salisfeld, Czechoslovakia
Died28 April 1945(1945-04-28) (aged 23)
Urbau, German occupied Czechoslovakia
Allegiance Germany
Service/branchWehrmacht
Years of service1940–1945
RankFeldwebel
Unit12th Panzer Division
503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsGerman Cross in Gold

Kurt Knispel (20 September 1921 – 28 April 1945[1]) was a German tank commander during World War II.

Knispel was severely wounded on 28 April 1945 by shrapnel to his head when his Tiger II was hit in battle by Soviet tanks. He died two hours later in a German field hospital.[2]

On 10 April 2013, Czech authorities said that Knispel's remains were found with 15 other German soldiers behind a church wall in Vrbovec, identified by his dog tags.[3][4]

On 12 November 2014, the German War Graves Commission reburied his remains at the Central Brno military cemetery in Brno.[5] He was buried with 41 other German soldiers who died in Moravia and Silesia.[6]

Knispel was profiled extensively in the second installment of the popular historical fiction series Panzer Aces, written by Franz Kurowski. Alfred Rubbel, Knispel's superior officer during the war, challenged Kurowski's retelling of Knispel's alleged tank kills and awards. Rubbel described Kurowski's writing on Knispel as "a sheer outrage. What he wrote in there, it is all made up. Alone the quotes he puts in my mouth. It is all completely untrue."[7][8]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Detailansicht". Retrieved 2017-08-03.
  2. ↑ Hans-Jörg Schmidt (2014-06-16). "Sudetendeutsche: Tschechien kümmert sich nicht um deutsche Gräber". Die Welt. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  3. ↑ "Archeologové objevili hrob největšího tankového esa 2. světové války — Zprávy — Zpravodajství Brno — Česká televize". Ceskatelevize.cz. 2013-04-09. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  4. ↑ "Remains of Kurt Knispel located ..." War History Online. 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2017-01-28.
  5. ↑ Grabstätte von Kurt Knispel
  6. ↑ "MZM - Uložení ostatků Kurta Knispela". Mzm.cz. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  7. ↑ Töppel, Roman (2018). Arbeitskreis Militärgeschichte E.V. "Der ganze Krieg als Abenteuer. Der Schriftsteller und "Historiker" Franz Kurowski". Portal Militärgeschichte (in German). doi:10.15500/AKM12022018. ISSN 2198-6673.
  8. ↑ Töppel, Roman; Straub, Katharina (2018). "The War, One Great Adventure: The Writer and "Historian" Franz Kurowski (2018)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. p. 238. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 238.
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