24th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)

24th Panzer Division
A Panzer III of the 24th Panzer Division in Stalingrad.
Active	28 November 1941 – 8 May 1945
Country	Germany
Allegiance	Wehrmacht
Branch	Heer
Type	Panzer
Role	Armoured warfare
Size	Division
Garrison/HQ	Wehrkreis III: Frankfurt an der Oder
Anniversaries	in former East Germany
Engagements	World War II Case Blue Battle of Stalingrad
Commanders
Notable commanders	General of the Cavalry (Germany) Kurt Feldt
Insignia
1941–42

The 24th Panzer Division was formed in late 1941 from the 1st Cavalry Division based at Königsberg.

The division fought on the Eastern Front from June 1942 to January 1943, when it was destroyed in the battle of Stalingrad. Reformed it once more returned to the Eastern Front in late 1943 and remained there until surrender to Soviet forces in May 1945.

Service

The 1st Cavalry Division was formed shortly after the outbreak of World War II, in November 1939, when the 1st Cavalry Brigade was expanded to division-size.^[1]

The division was part of the German invasion of northern Netherlands where it encountered only weak defences as it was not a strategy important area. After the Dutch surrender the division took part in the final actions of the battle of France before serving as an occupation force there and, from September 1940, in Poland. It participated in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, where it was part of the Army Group Center before being send back to East Prussia for conversion to a tank division.^[2]

After initially being stationed in northern France the division served under the Fourth Panzer Army in Army Group South of the Eastern Front from June 1942. The division participated in the capture of Voronesh and, in late December 1942, was encircled in the Battle of Stalingrad and destroyed.^[2]

The 24th Panzer Division was reformed in March 1943 and served in Normandy, Italy,^[2] and then went back to the Eastern Front where it suffered heavy casualties around Kiev and the Dniepr Bend. During spring-1944 it took part in the battle of Târgu Frumos, part of the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive. Near the end of the war it saw action in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Parts of the division were evacuated to Schleswig-Holstein and surrendered there to British forces at the end of the war while the remainder surrendered to Soviet forces in East Prussia in May 1945.^[3][4]

In keeping with the Division's mounted origins, the 24th Panzer's tank crewmen wore the golden-yellow Waffenfarbe of the cavalry rather than Panzer pink.^[5]

Commanders

The commanders of the division:^[6]

• General Kurt Feldt - From 28 November 1941 to 15 April 1942
• General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild - From 15 April 1942 to 12 September 1942
• General-Leutnant Arno von Lenski - From 12 September 1942 to 31 January 1943
• General Maximilian Reichsfreiherr von Edelsheim - From 1 March 1943 to 1 August 1944
• General-Major Gustav-Adolf von Nostitz-Wallwitz - From 1 August 1944 to 25 March 1945
• Major Rudolf von Knebel-Döberitz - From 25 March 1945 to 8 May 1945

References

1. Mitcham, p. 174
2. Mitcham, p. 175
3. Mitcham, p. 176
4. Stoves, p. 161
5. Stoves, p. 162
6. Mitcham, p. 176–177

Bibliography

• Mitcham, Samuel W. (2000). The Panzer Legions. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3353-3.
• Stoves, Rolf (1986). Die Gepanzerten und Motorisierten Deutschen Grossverbände 1935 – 1945 [The armoured and motorised German divisions and brigades 1935–45]. Bad Nauheim: Podzun-Pallas Verlag. ISBN 3-7909-0279-9.
• Panzers at war, A J Barker, 1978
• Death of the Leaping Horseman, Jason D Mark, 2002