How does one feel in spite of excelling in the field but never promoted and sidelined for not aligning with the ideology (destructive) of the majority. Perhaps, Kurt Knispel never minded it all through his short span of life...he was at peace with his conscience.
Kurt Knispel (1921 - 1945) is today hailed as the finest aces of tanks with 168 hits to his credit during World War II. He was a master marksman with extraordinary reflexes and situational presence of mind. At the height of war, Knispel hit an enemy tank as far as from 3000 meters, an impossible feat with those era tanks.
Knispel was born in a small town of Salisov in Czecoslovakia which was later annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. His father worked in an automotive company and the boy had a passion for vehicles. As the war progressed he soon enlisted in German Army (Wehrmacht) and happily went into Panzer Division (German tank regiment).
Knispel's first action was in Operation Barbarossa, the German offensive against Soviet Russia. He quickly progressed from a loader to gunner and started gaining on his skills with his precision on guns. He soon befriended Alfred Rubel, a young tank commander who remained his friend for lifetime.
Knispel would have quickly progressed in ranks if he had kept quiet like most of people in a fascist regime. On July 26, 1943 while going to war front after collecting brand new Tiger Tank, he heard a painful screaming of a man at Krakow railway station in Poland.
A SS (the same Social Service organization) guard was beating a Russian Prisoner of War to pulp. Knispel couldn't bear the brutality and intervened with a pistol and the SS guard ended up in train rails. For the Nazi ethics, he should have ended up on death row because SS was elite division meant only to exterminate all enemies of the nation (read Hitler).
Knispel's reputation on marksmanship saved his life that day. The German military police and 'high command' took a 'careful note' of him.
Though four commanders recommended him for Knights Cross of the Iron Cross for bravery over course of war, he never actually got it. He was never promoted beyond a 'Feldwebel' (NCO) and got a chance to command a tank at the fag end of life. Knispel continued what he is best at, knocking one tank after another across Eastern Front.
As the tides turned against Germany after the failed invasion of Russia, the retreat became inevitable and Knispel defending a 'Last Stand' at Urbau in German occupied Czechoslovakia ran out of his luck. Mortally wounded after his tank was hit, Knispel died on April 28, 1945 ten days before war ended. Though he was officially credited 168 hits, it is believed he would have scored more than 200. He happily stepped back if someone else claimed for a hit and never bothered about the count. It is also said he never left behind a crew member in the war front.
Knispel's mortal remains were finally found in a church cemetery at Vrbovec in 2013 and moved to the military cemetery at Brno in 2014. Knispel had a mind of his own and he believed in ethics of war as a soldier. He remains a legend among the tank crews.
Pic courtesy: Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment