During World War 2, the Wehrmacht sent messages over the radio singling out a few men out of
the millions serving, and it was the highest honor any soldier of any rank could receive.
Throughout the entire conflict, only one non-commissioned officer
of the German tank arm was named in the Wehrmacht Radio communique: Kurt Knispel.
Although he was the best Panzer ace, with a reported 168 tank kills,
he never received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross despite being recommended four times.
Knispel had a knack for breaking the rules, sported long hair and a beard,
and had a particular disdain for abusive SS officers,
which earned him more than a few enemies within the ranks.
Even so, he is widely considered the most successful tank ace of World War 2.
And yet, the affable rulebreaker is also the most forgotten Panzer ace of them all…
A Prodigy Into Action
When Sudetenland, today part of the Czech Republic,
was occupied by Nazi Germany on October 1, 1938, Kurt Knispel was only 17 years old.
From a young age, Knispel became enamored with the automobile industry and loved working on
mechanized machines and vehicles. Then, in 1940, he joined the Heer Wehrmacht forces.
Knispel started his basic training at the Panzer Replacement Training Battalion in Sagan,
Lower Silesia, and his favorite lessons were those related to armored warfare
in some of Germany's most impressive tanks, like the Panzer I, II, and IV.
The young man was then transferred to a field unit of the 12 Panzer Division,
where he completed his training as a loader and gunner on the Panzer IV. And while his
superiors immediately noticed his extraordinary abilities as a gunner, Knispel remained a loader.
As part of the Wehrmacht's Army Group Center,
the 12 Panzer Division joined the battle against Soviet Russia in June of 1941 as
part of Operation Barbarossa, when Nazi Germany invaded the territory.
By July, still in Soviet territory and with Knispel's Panzer tank damaged beyond repair,
his unit was transferred to Army Group north, and the men set course towards Leningrad.
That is when Knispel and his Panzer IV tank were suddenly hit by a Soviet shell.
While the entire crew jumped out of the hit tank, Kurt Knispel stayed inside.
Determined, he looked through his periscope, spotted the enemy’s T34 tank, and destroyed it.
It would become the first tank to be knocked out by Knispel's sharp eye.
After months of fighting, Leningrad remained in Soviet hands. During the operation,
the Panzer Regiment 29 suffered dearly, and the 9 Company was merged with Knispel's 3.
Knispel then met Obergefreiter Alfred Rubbel,
a fearless tank commander who became close friends with him.
According to Rubbel, Knispel never abandoned his comrades, even in the most challenging situations.
Not On My Watch
On May 17, 1942, Knispel and his unit returned to Germany.
Upon arriving at the Motherland, a brand new Panzer IV tank,
installed with a long-barrelled 75-millimeter gun, was awaiting both Rubbel and Knispel.
During a short leave, the men learned that their unit would be attached to the III Abteilung,
Panzer Regiment 4 of the 13 Panzer Division.
While the majority of the newly reformed unit was already on its way to Ukraine,
Rubbel and Knispel had to wait a few days to get used to their new vehicle.
Then, on their way to their latest mission, their train was stopped in Krakow, Poland.
Out of nowhere, Knispel heard cries and yelling in Russian and immediately rushed to the scene,
where he found a Soviet prisoner being mistreated and abused by a Schutzstaffel guard.
With a pistol in hand and a furrowed brow, Knispel intervened and got into an altercation with the SS
guard. Soon, the outspoken young soldier fell out of grace with the German military police and army.
And while his commander would constantly stick up for him during his service, Knispel would be
repeatedly denied medals and recognition, not to mention moving through the ranks.
Truth is, Knispel was a born rulebreaker.
With tattoos, a goatee, longer-than-allowed hair, and a strong distaste for injustice,
he was not just another soldier and clearly stood out from the crowd.
Even so, he was well-liked by his comrades, and his skills were never matched.
Road To Kursk
Knispel and the rest of his unit arrived in Ukraine on August 4,
1942, joining the Panzer Regiment 4 in action in the Caucasus mountains,
a small region between the Black and the Caspian Seas.
During the battles there, Knispel added 12 more tanks to his kill list,
finally earning some official recognition, getting promoted to Unteroffizier and receiving the Iron
Cross second class. He was also among the few lucky soldiers to man the new Tiger I tank.
After a Christmas break, Knispel was placed in
the 1 Kompanie of the Schwere Panzer Abteilung 503 heavy tank battalions.
Then, in the spring of 1943, Knispel and his new unit set course towards the east
to participate in Operation Zitadelle. Also known as the Battle of Kursk,
the operation was one of the largest and most significant tank battles in history.
One Hell of a Gunner
Beginning on July 5, 1943, Knispel and the Heavy Tank Battalion 503 were tasked
with opening up the roads for the 6 Panzer division on the right flank of the massive
Operation Zitadelle, and he successfully eliminated several anti-tank positions.
Knispel was on a roll.
Two days later, he managed to destroy a Soviet T34 almost a mile away in a single shot,
destroying seven more the next day, with a few as far as 1.25 miles.
Then, when his platoon bumped into a Soviet column of 14 tanks,
the Germans opened fire and destroyed 11 in minutes.
Knispel broke his own record on July 16, when his platoon was tasked with helping a cavalry
brigade from falling into Soviet hands and he destroyed an enemy tank almost three miles away.
For the next several months, the 503 Heavy tank battalion helped
out several German units from being decimated by the Russians.
During a nighttime mission, Knispel was positioned as a tank commander
around Osswetz when he heard Soviet tanks closing in on their location.
Then, when a third Tiger joined the party, all hell broke loose.
During the kerfuffle, the German commanders lit
the sky while trying to set the Soviet tanks ablaze. However,
the battle was over when the third Tiger was hit by a T34 and Knispel's engine overheated.
Ultimately, Knispel destroyed a whopping 27 tanks during the Kursk campaign.
And for his incredible actions, he received the Iron Cross First class.
More! More!
As September of 1943 came to a close, Knispel had racked up 80 downed enemy tanks.
In January, Knispel and the 34 Tiger tanks of the 503 Heavy Tank battalion were integrated
into the Armored Kampfgruppe Bäke and tasked with liberating men trapped at the Cherkassy pocket.
During the mission, the Tiger group took out an astonishing 267 Soviet Tanks.
By spring, Kurt Knispel was destroying one Soviet tank after another, and his
count surpassed 100 kills. He would then receive the German cross in Gold.
Days before the Allied invasion of Normandy in June of 1944,
Knispel and his men returned to Germany, where they received the brand new King Tiger tanks,
and the 503 were immediately sent to France to deal with the unstoppable Allied threat.
Despite massive success on the Eastern front, Knispel only destroyed two Allied tanks in
Normandy, most likely because of the different nature of combat and the battlefield conditions.
Then, as the battalion was sent back to Germany for one more reformation near the end of August,
Knispel was granted a visit to his hometown.
Even so, he was back on the battlefield by October, and he and his unit were sent to the
outskirts of Sconemedi, Hungary, where he secured his 126th hit.
His commander, Hauptmann Dr. Dienst-Körber, recommended him for the Knight's Cross of the
Iron Cross, one of four times Knispel’s commanders did so throughout the war to
recognize his outstanding courage, situational awareness, and superb handling of weaponry.
However, he would never receive the prestigious award and would
become an Ace of Aces without the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross under his belt.
Fall From Grace
By 1945, the Germans’ stance in the war had alarmingly worsened. In Slovakia and Hungary,
the Tigers of the 503 Heavy tank battalion suffered dearly, and by April, only 8 of the 34
mighty German tanks remained, including Knispel's. Even so, he would continue to rack up kills.
As the end of the month approached, the remnants of the 503 were sent to Vlasatice,
a town between Brno and Vienna, and Knispel was promoted to Staff Sergeant.
He then departed for his last battle on April 28.
Knispel secured his 168th kill in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.
By then, however, he was being overwhelmed by Soviet armor. Immobilized and encircled,
his Tiger II received a decisive blow, and the legendary Kurt Knispel was mortally wounded.
The 23-year-old soldier lost his life only a week before the war ended.
Almost 70 years later, Czech archaeologists discovered 16
German soldiers buried on the church grounds of Vrbovec.
Identified thanks to his dog tags, the Ace of Aces found his final resting place in 2014.
With 126 victories as a gunner and 42 as a tank commander, Kurt Knispel went down in history as
one of the most successful ace tankers of the war. However, the soldier's name never became popular,
maybe because he didn’t get to write a memoir or because he fought for the wrong side of history.
Even so, his talent could not be denied.
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