The Devils General: The Life of Hyazinth Von Strachwitz the Panzer Graf
English
By (author): Raymond Bagdonas
This is the story of the most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, known as the Panzer Graf (Armoured Count). An aristocratic Silesian, whose ancestors had faced the Mongols at Leignitz, Strachwitz first won the Iron Cross in the Great War. After fighting with the Freikorps and in between the wars, he was serving with the 1st Panzer Division when the Polish campaign inaugurated World War II.
Leading from the front, his exploits as commander of a panzer battalion earned him further decorations during the French campaign. Transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa where he earned the Knights Cross. The following year, during the advance on Stalingrad, he won the Oak Leaves for destroying 270 Soviet tanks at Kalach. Now commander of a regiment, he reached the Volga and fought ferociously on the northern rim of Sixth Armys perimeter. Severely wounded during the battles, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket.
Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Divisions panzer regiment, and won the Swords to the Knights Cross during Mansteins counteroffensive at Kharkov. After fighting through Kursk and the ensuing defensive battles, he was transferred the next year to Army Group North where he won the Diamonds to the Knights Cross at Narva.
For the rest of the war, sandwiched around a stay in hospital, he commanded ad hoc battlegroups, and pioneered the formation oftank hunter brigades, consisting of deep-penetration infantry armed with panzerfausts and other demolitions who would ambush Soviet tanks. Wounded 12 times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, he was finally able to surrender to the Americans in May 1945.
Australian author/researcher Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Divisions official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Grafs later battlegroups never kept them, has nevertheless written an intensely detailed account of this combat leaders life, as well as ferocious armoured warfare in World War II. See more
Leading from the front, his exploits as commander of a panzer battalion earned him further decorations during the French campaign. Transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa where he earned the Knights Cross. The following year, during the advance on Stalingrad, he won the Oak Leaves for destroying 270 Soviet tanks at Kalach. Now commander of a regiment, he reached the Volga and fought ferociously on the northern rim of Sixth Armys perimeter. Severely wounded during the battles, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket.
Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Divisions panzer regiment, and won the Swords to the Knights Cross during Mansteins counteroffensive at Kharkov. After fighting through Kursk and the ensuing defensive battles, he was transferred the next year to Army Group North where he won the Diamonds to the Knights Cross at Narva.
For the rest of the war, sandwiched around a stay in hospital, he commanded ad hoc battlegroups, and pioneered the formation oftank hunter brigades, consisting of deep-penetration infantry armed with panzerfausts and other demolitions who would ambush Soviet tanks. Wounded 12 times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, he was finally able to surrender to the Americans in May 1945.
Australian author/researcher Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Divisions official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Grafs later battlegroups never kept them, has nevertheless written an intensely detailed account of this combat leaders life, as well as ferocious armoured warfare in World War II. See more
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