Kurt Knispel is widely recognized as the number one tank-ace of WW2, he had 168 confirmed kills with his tank, some sources as high as 195-Knispel wasnt known for being to occupied with numbers and didnt quarrel if there was debate around a destroyd vehicle. (Note-kills here do not mean confirmed people killed, but vehicles destroyed!)
Kurt Knispel was from Czechoslovakia but enrolled in the german army in 1940. He received basic training with Panzer I-IV before being sendt to action in summer of 1941. He took part in Operatin Barbarossa-the attack on the Soviet Union and variuous other campaigns on the eastern front. In 1943 Knispel was sendt back to Germany to train with the new Tiger tanks, at that time he had "only" 12 confirmed kills, but Knispel soon felt very familiar in the new Tiger, which many allied tanks would experience...
Allied tanks was soon being blown away from the map by Knispel and his Tiger-and later King Tiger, one soviet T-34 heavy-tank was destroyed from a distance of about 3000m-while driving..... Knispels skills as gunner was unparallelled.
Unfortunately for Knispel-his behaviour was not up to the same standard-at least not from the Nazi-point of view. Long hair,goatee- beard, unwillingness to obey orders he disagreed with was one thing, refusing to take part in attacks on civilians was another. On one occiasion he attacked an officer from a "Einsatzgruppe" when he saw him mistreating soviet POW`s.
Even if he received the Iron Cross I and II class, the Panzer Badge and the German Cross in Gold he never got the same honours as many of the other german war-aces-not that he cared, by his fellow soldiers he stood in the highest regards.
Knispel was killed ten days before the war ended in a battle with overwheliming soviet forces near Wostitz. In 2013 his body-still with the dog-tags- was recovered behind a church wall in Urbau in Czechia.
Interesting piece.
SvarSlett