168 kills made him the most successful tank commander
With his success rate, Kurt Nispel outclassed the highly decorated Wehrmacht and Waffen SS tank gunners. He got the shot even in very difficult conditions. But the Nazi regime kept its distance from non-conformist oddballs.
With the Type VI “Tiger” tanks, Kurt Nispel (1921-1945) became the most successful gunner and commander of World War II.
Quelle: Image Alliance / Photo12/ Collection Bernard Croset; Wikipedia/Fair Use
MWith his tattered shirt, goatee, and long hair, Kurt Nispel (1921-1945) looked like a late-1970s hippie who somehow failed the conscientious objector test. But this alternative was not available at the time, as Nisbel served in the Wehrmacht. Thanks to his successes, he is still forgiven for his non-conformist appearance. Because Nispel was the most successful German tank gunner and commander of World War II.
You can think of him as a role model for Sergeant Rolf Steiner, who American director Sam Peckinpah created the title character of his 1977 war film The Iron Cross. Nispel was confused with superiors, didn’t think much of smart behavior, held a cigarette in his mouth when officers spoke to him, and despised bullies who were loyal to the line. In Krakow he allegedly beat an SS manWhen this captured Red Army man is disturbed.
Born in 1921 in Salisfeld (Salissow) in the Sudetenland, Nispel completed his apprenticeship in a car factory. Disliking the job, he volunteered for the tank force in 1940. His skill with binoculars was soon noticed there, and he was sent to the war against the Soviet Union as a gunner of a Panzer IV. During the winter of 1941/42 he shot down several Soviet vehicles, demonstrating his ability to use the gun effectively even at a disadvantage in defensive battles. Eliminating twelve T-34 tanks during the summer offensive of 1942 earned him a promotion to corporal.
After a long hospital stay, Nispel was one of the first tank men invited to train on the new heavy panzer VI “Tiger”. With this combat vehicle, the Wehrmacht technically overtook the Red Army for the first time. By the end of the war only 2000 of these 57 to 70 ton giants had been produced in various versions. But the kill rate of the heavy tank battalions, which were the group of Tiger tanks, was huge.
In the Great Tank Battle of Kursk in July 1943, Nispel managed to claim 27 kills with his “Tiger’s” 8.8 cm cannon. Once he shot down a T-34 from a distance of three kilometers. But he was not promoted as an officer. Nispel did not fit the mold of the National Socialist model soldier that Nazi propaganda wanted to present as a war hero.
Nevertheless, Nisbelin does not and cannot rule without talent. In 1944, when the super heavy battle tank VI II “Königtigger” came forward, he was given command of one of these monsters. With him he fought in the West and in Hungary. Many times he covered retreating units as the last man to hold off his pursuers.
“Black Baron” though Once mentioned in a Wehrmacht report, but the award of the Knight’s Cross – although proposed several times – did not materialise. Nispel was credited with 168 enemy tank kills, 126 as gunners and 42 as commanders. About 30 murders are unconfirmed; He must pass some of them on to the younger comrades Agreed to boost their morale.
By comparison: the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to brave model soldiers such as Otto Karius (150 kills) or Michael Whitman (138 kills). All that was left for Nispel was the German Cross in Gold on the Tiger Arms and lamenting in veteran reports that he “generally deserves oak leaves and so on”. The fact that Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels never mentioned him in his daily notes speaks volumes for the strained relationship between the regime and its top tank commander.
Knispel almost managed to escape the war. On April 27, 1945, he was promoted to Sergeant. A day later, his tank was captured by Soviet tanks near Vlasatice in South Moravia. MG shots hit his torso. Shrapnel killed him as he was transported 100 kilometers from his hometown.
Nispel’s grave is missing. It wasn’t until 2013 that archaeologists found his remains with a dog tag in a mass grave in Vrbovec. They were buried the following year at the German Military Cemetery in Brno by the German War Graves Commission.
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