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Otto von Knobelsdorff (31 March 1886 – 21 October 1966) was a German general during World War II who led the 19th Panzer Division and then held a series of higher commands. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.
- Otto Von Knobelsdorff’S Old Prussian Lineage
- Leading from The Front
- Fighting Against “The Hated English”
- The Drive to Moscow
- Gruppe General Von Knobelsdorff
- Plugging The Soviet Breakthrough
- “Pursue The Defeated Enemy”
- Operation Citadel: Germany’s Gettysburg
- A Victory on July 7th
- Holding Back The Soviets
Otto Heinrich Ernst von Knobelsdorff was born in Berlin on March 31, 1886, the progeny of an old Prussian military family. His father had been a major in the 12th Infantry Regiment, and his mother was born a von Manteuffel. After years being educated as a cadet at Bensberg and Gross-Lichtenfelde, Knobelsdorff in 1905 joined the Imperial Army’s Infa...
The German offensive in Poland on September 1, 1939, was a showpiece for Blitzkrieg (lightning war) and destroyed the Polish Army in about two weeks. Fourteen mechanized or partially mechanized divisions supported by an overwhelming Luftwaffe air arm were decisive in the stunning success, though some 40 regular infantry divisions also took part. Kn...
Knobelsdorff led from the front again the next day, directing his battalions toward objectives on the Albert Canal. Only individual Belgian soldiers were encountered, and they inevitably surrendered. The Belgians, however, were well entrenched on the far side of the canal. Late on May 11, Knobelsdorff issued a special order of the day praising his ...
Knobelsdorff was promoted to generalleutnant (major general) on December 1, 1940, shortly after his 19th Infantry Division had been converted into the 19th Panzer Division and received Czech 38(t) tanks. The able general picked up the craft of armored warfare with remarkable speed. The division’s Kriegstagebuch for the period from the invasion of t...
The first Soviet counteroffensive of the war blasted out of the ice and snow on December 5 along a 500-mile front, primarily against Army Group Center, which reeled back from the outskirts of Moscow. Knobelsdorff’s divisional history suggests that he began to lose faith in his Führer, who had continued to throw exhausted troops fruitlessly against ...
By December 1942, the situation along the Chir River northwest of Stalingrad looked grim for the Germans. The Soviets were on the attack and creating an unbreakable ring around Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Erich von Manstein’s newly established Army Group Don had taken over the Chir River sector on November 28, nin...
Despite Knobelsdorff’s and Balck’s successes, Germany faced a strategic disaster in the East in early 1943. The main point of the Soviet winter offensive was aimed at the southern end of the German front. As of late January, Army Group A’s First Panzer Army was hurriedly withdrawing from the Caucasus through Rostov while Manstein’s battered Army Gr...
Knobelsdorff played a leading part in Operation Citadel, the German attempt to eliminate a large Soviet salient at Kursk in July 1943. The Battle of Kursk was Germany’s Gettysburg, the last time Hitler would launch a major offensive in the East. The scale was gargantuan, by most accounts the largest tank battle of the war. But first Manstein’s rena...
Fourth Panzer Army launched preliminary attacks on July 4 and captured observation points on both corps fronts necessary for direction of the artillery preparation the following day. Knobelsdorff’s corps battled thunderstorms as well as the Soviets and on the 5th had to cross a seemingly bottomless sea of mud along a rain-swollen and heavily mined ...
Hoth’s planned double envelopment of the Soviet tank forces on the 8th did not succeed. The XLVIII Panzer Corps left flank was open and vulnerable, and when word reached Knobelsdorff that the main body of Soviet tanks was about to attack him from the north and northeast, Grossdeutschland and the 11th Panzer Division had to stop and throw out defens...
Otto von Knobelsdorff (* 31. März 1886 in Berlin; † 21. Oktober 1966 in Hannover) war ein deutscher General der Panzertruppe im Zweiten Weltkrieg . Inhaltsverzeichnis. 1 Leben. 2 Auszeichnungen. 3 Schriften. 4 Literatur. 5 Einzelnachweise. Leben.
Knobelsdorff, von, Otto. Date of birth: March 31st, 1886 (Berlin/Brandenburg, Germany) Date of death: October 21st, 1966 (Hannover/Lower Saxony, Germany) Nationality: German. Biography. Promotions: April 25th, 1905: Fahnenjunker; January 27th, 1906: Fähnrich; August 18th, 1906: Leutnant; November 18th, 1914: Oberleutnant;
Knobelsdorff, Otto von. * 31. März 1886, Berlin. † 21. Oktober 1966, Hannover. Otto von Knobelsdorff war Kadett in der Kadettenanstalt Bensberg und der Hauptkadettenanstalt Groß-Lichterfelde und kam 1905 als Fahnenjunker zum Infanterie-Regiment "Großherzog von Sachsen" Nr. 94, wo er am 18. August 1908 zum Leutnant befördert wurde. Am 29.
The 19th Panzer Division (English: 19th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Wehrmacht, during World War II. It was created from the 19th Infantry Division . The division fought exclusively on the Eastern Front, except for a brief period of refitting in the Netherlands in mid-1944.
The enemy forces defending Lorraine along the Moselle line belonged to General of Panzer Troops Otto von Knobelsdorff’s First Army, which comprised six infantry and three panzergrenadier divisions.
