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

About this book

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 Contents Introduction 1 Early Years 2 World War I and Captivity 3 Post-war Freikorps Actions 4 Joining the Nazi Party and SS 5 The Inter-war Years and the Invasion of Poland 6 The Battle of France 7 Romania and Yugoslavia 8 Operation Barbarossa 9 The Battles of Dubno and Uman 10 The Battle of Nikolayev 11 The Battle of Kiev 12 The Battle of Kalach 13 The Road to Stalingrad 14 Inside the Cauldron 15 The Grossdeutschland Division 16 The third Battle of Kharkov 17 To Kill Hitler 18 Operation Citadel 19 The Battle of Kursk 20 Operations Strachwitz 21 The Battle of Tukum 22 The Battle for Germany 23 Captivity and Post-war Years Appendix 1 The Awards of Hyazinth Graf von Strachwitz Appendix 2 Rank Equivalents Appendix 3 Civil Ranks and titles of Nobility Appendix 4 Holders of the Panzer Assault Badge in Gold Appendix 5 Aces of the Panzerwaffe Appendix 6 German Army List of Civil Courage Bibliography Index