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Kurt Knispel
German World War II tank gunner From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kurt Knispel (20 September 1921 – 28 April 1945[1]) was a German tank commander during World War II. According to the Guinness World Records, Kurt Knispel is the most successful tank commander in history, with 168 confirmed enemy tank kills.[2]
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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.[3]
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.[4]
According to official records, he destroyed 168 enemy tanks—126 as a gunner and 42 as a tank commander. His comrades claimed that in reality, 30 more kills could be attributed to him, as Knispel was known to regularly credit his kills to others in order to boost the confidence of young soldiers.[5]
On 12 November 2014, the German War Graves Commission reburied his remains at the Central Brno military cemetery in Brno.[6] He was buried with 41 other German soldiers who died in Moravia and Silesia.[7]
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."[8][9]
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Awards
- German Cross in Gold on 20 May 1944 as Unteroffizier in the 1./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503[10]
References
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