laststandonzombieisland

Dying of wounds just a week before the end of hostilities in Europe, Kurt Knispel was rolled into a mass grave with 15 other German war dead behind a church wall in Vrbovec. He had fought in every type of German tank as a loader, a gunner and a commander – received a fatal wound just ten days before the end of the war.  At age 23, the highest scoring tank ace of WWII – Kurt Knispel – was dead.This village in the South Moravian Region of what is today the Czech Republic, was the front line of the Eastern front in April 1945. However it was just a hundred miles from Kurt’s home. And his body has just been found and identified by his dog tags.

When his country was absorbed by Germany in 1938, Sudeten Czech Kurt Knispel soon found himself in the German Army. Attached to 1st Company of the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion, he became one of the highest scoring tank aces of World War II with a total of 168 confirmed tank kills. The actual number, although unconfirmed, may be as high as 195 as he killed several tanks that he did not claim, and whenever a kill was disputed he backed away.  He is counted with Johannes Bölter, Ernst Barkmann, Otto Carius and Michael Wittmann as being one of the, if not the, greatest tank ace of all time.

Kurt was a hero on both sides of the panzer though. He had several conflicts with higher Nazi authorities (for instance, he assaulted an Einsatzgruppen officer whom he saw mistreating Soviet POWs) and general lack of military bearing, sporting a goatee and hair longer than regulations.

Only his impressive track-record saved him from ending up in a military prison. This is thought to have kept him (though he was recommended for it four times) from winning the coveted Knight’s Cross, a standard award for most other World War II German panzer aces.

He is to be re-interred in a military cemetery in Brno, Czech Republic.