The Devil's General: The Life Of Hyazinth Strachwitz, The Panzer Graf

The Devil's General: The Life of Hyazinth Strachwitz, The Panzer Graf

This is the story of the most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, known as the Panzer Graf (Armored Count). An aristocratic Silesian, whose ancestors had faced the Mongols at Leipzig, 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 and was thus spared the fate of the rest of Sixth Army.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 of tank 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 armored warfare in World War II.Ray Bagdonas a retired businessman and former local Government Councilor, has had a decades long interest in WW2 particularly with the Russian Front. His other interest lies in the Military Orders and he is a Knight Commander of both the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a Knight of the Order of Mercy and the Military Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus. He lives in Brisbane on the Brisbane River with his wife Gail and two dogs Plato and Anouk, a Maltese and Bichon Frise, who sat in the study with him while he wrote.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Early Years2 World War I and Captivity3 Post-war Freikorps Actions4 Joining the Nazi Party and SS5 The Inter-war Years and the Invasion of Poland6 The Battle of France7 Romania and Yugoslavia8 Operation Barbarossa9 The Battles of Dubno and Uman10 The Battle of Nikolayev11 The Battle of Kiev12 The Battle of Kalach13 The Road to Stalingrad14 Inside the Cauldron15 The Grossdeutschland Division16 The third Battle of Kharkov17 To Kill Hitler18 Operation Citadel19 The Battle of Kursk20 Operations Strachwitz21 The Battle of Tukum22 The Battle for Germany23 Captivity and Post-war YearsAppendix 1 The Awards of Hyazinth Graf von StrachwitzAppendix 2 Rank EquivalentsAppendix 3 Civil Ranks and titles of NobilityAppendix 4 Holders of the Panzer Assault Badge in GoldAppendix 5 Aces of the PanzerwaffeAppendix 6 German Army List of Civil CourageBibliographyIndex