The 15. Panzer-Division was formed on 1 November 1940 in Landau and Heidelberg within Wehrkreis XII by converting the 33. Infanterie-Division and incorporating elements including Panzer-Regiment 8 from the 10. Panzer-Division, creating a fully motorized armored formation equipped primarily with Panzer II, III and IV tanks. Transported by sea to Tripolis in Libya between March and May 1941, it joined Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel’s Deutsches Afrikakorps as one of its two core panzer divisions alongside the 21. Panzer-Division and immediately entered combat south of Tobruk, capturing Fort Capuzzo and positions at Sollum while participating in the unsuccessful assaults on the Tobruk fortress in April–May 1941. Throughout the summer of 1941 the division helped defeat British relief attempts during Operations Brevity and Battleaxe, then endured heavy fighting and significant tank losses during the British Operation Crusader in November–December 1941, during which its commander Generalmajor Walter Neumann-Silkow was mortally wounded. After a brief period of refitting it took part in the 1942 summer offensive known as Unternehmen Theseus, outflanking the Gazala Line, contributing decisively to the capture of Tobruk on 21 June, and advancing deep into Egypt until halted at El Alamein. The division suffered catastrophic casualties during the First and especially the Second Battle of El Alamein in July and October–November 1942, after which it conducted a long fighting withdrawal through Cyrenaica, past Tripolis and the Buerat position to the Mareth Line in southern Tunisia. In February–March 1943 it participated in the counter-offensive at Kasserine Pass against American forces before being forced northward; by May 1943 the remnants of the 15. Panzer-Division, short of fuel and ammunition, were destroyed south of Tunis and surrendered with the remaining Axis forces in North Africa, after which the division was never reconstituted as a panzer formation.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Oberst Johannes Kümmel (1909-1944) was born on 21 July 1909 in Coswig, Saxony, and entered military service in 1928 with Infanterie-Regiment 12 before transferring in 1938 as Feldwebel to Panzer-Regiment 8, with which he took part in the Polish campaign and received promotion to Leutnant on 1 December 1939 and to Oberleutnant on 1 April 1940. After the French campaign the regiment moved to North Africa in January 1941, where Kümmel distinguished himself during the defensive fighting around the Halfaya Pass; on 15 June 1941, as Oberleutnant der Reserve and Chef of 1./Panzer-Regiment 8 of the 15. Panzer-Division in the Deutsches Afrika-Korps, he independently attacked a far larger enemy tank force west of Capuzzo, preventing its northward advance that would have cut off vital German supply columns and thereby enabling the subsequent destruction of the Allied armour, an action that earned him the nickname “Lion of Capuzzo” and the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 9 July 1941. Promoted to Hauptmann, he assumed command of I. Abteilung of the same regiment in early 1942 and led it with decisive effect during the storming of Tobruk on 20 June 1942 as well as in the fighting around Marsa Matruh and at El Alamein, where on 1 September 1942 his unit reached Hill 132 and advanced to within 18 kilometres of the coast in the rear of the British front; for these achievements he was awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 11 October 1942 as Hauptmann der Reserve and Kommandeur of I./Panzer-Regiment 8. On 1 December 1942 he was promoted to Major and posted to Panzerersatz-Abteilung 7 in Germany, later serving as a tactics instructor at the Panzerschule before being transferred in June 1943 to the XIV. Panzerkorps in Italy, where he was promoted to Oberstleutnant and in September 1943 appointed Kommandeur of Panzer-Regiment 26. Johannes Kümmel met his death in a motor-vehicle accident near Cisterna on 26 February 1944 and was posthumously promoted to Oberst on 20 May 1944.
Oberstleutnant der Reserve Eberhard Zahn (1910-2010) was born on 2 January 1910 in Barmen and after completing his Abitur studied business administration, earning the degree of Diplom-Kaufmann before being awarded a doctorate as Dr. rer. pol. in 1933; he then worked for I.G. Farben AG and later for other industrial firms until the outbreak of war. Upon mobilisation he joined as a reservist the Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 33, took part in the French campaign and was promoted for bravery to Leutnant der Reserve on 1 June 1940. In late April 1941 his unit was transferred to North Africa under Erwin Rommel as part of the 15. Panzer-Division, where the formation was redesignated Panzerjäger-Abteilung 33. On 15 June 1941, during Operation Battleaxe, Leutnant der Reserve Zahn, serving as Zugführer in the 2. Kompanie, single-handedly manned a 5-cm Pak and repulsed a strong British armoured thrust advancing from Capuzzo toward Bardia, destroying six enemy tanks before his gun was knocked out; after offering fierce resistance he was taken prisoner yet soon escaped through determined action and returned to German lines, for which he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 June 1941. Promoted successively to Oberleutnant der Reserve and then Hauptmann der Reserve, he continued to distinguish himself in the desert fighting, including around El Alamein, and on 6 March 1943 was awarded the Eichenlaub (204th presentation) as Chef of the 2. Kompanie/Panzerjäger-Abteilung 33 for an action in early July 1942 when the southern wing of the division was struck by a sudden armoured assault: he rushed forward under heavy fire, rescued a severely wounded company commander, assumed command himself and, with only three remaining guns, succeeded in bringing the enemy attack to a halt. After the African campaign he commanded the schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 88 on the Eastern Front, later led the Panzer-Brigade 101 and finally the Panzer-Regiment 9, rising to the rank of Oberstleutnant der Reserve. At the end of the war he was captured by Soviet forces during the Prague Offensive, escaped after several weeks, reached American lines and surrendered. In the postwar years he pursued a successful career as an industrial manager, serving among other posts as Vorstandsvorsitzender of the Ruhr-Stickstoff Aktiengesellschaft until his retirement, and he died on 7 February 2010 in St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut, Austria, at the age of one hundred.
Generalleutnant Willibald Borowietz (1893-1945) was born on 17 September 1893 in Ratibor in the German Empire and began his military career on 5 March 1914 as a Fahnenjunker in the 4. Kompanie of the 3. Schlesisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 156. During the First World War he served on the Western Front, was wounded twice, and lost his right eye in September 1914 near Saint-André; he received both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz and the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz before the armistice. After the war he entered the Schutzpolizei in Breslau, rose to Polizei-Major, and returned to the Wehrmacht in 1935 as Major. His wife Eva Ledien, of Jewish descent, took her own life in October 1938 so that their children could be Aryanized. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 50 (later Panzerjäger-Abteilung 50) in the Polish and Western campaigns and the Balkans, earning clasps to his Iron Crosses. On 10 June 1941 he assumed command of Schützen-Regiment 10 of the 9. Panzer-Division. As Oberstleutnant he led a Vorausabteilung in a bold night thrust via Plurow and Zalosce toward Zbaraz northwest of Tarnopol; his force overran successive Soviet lines, destroyed or captured 92 tanks, 16 guns and 12 anti-aircraft pieces, and annihilated a Russian tank division, for which he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 24 July 1941. Promoted Oberst, he later took the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold. In November 1942 he transferred to North Africa, assumed leadership of the 15. Panzer-Division and was promoted Generalmajor on 1 January 1943. In the final battles west of Tunis he personally directed heroic defensive actions against overwhelming Allied forces supported by artillery and air power, repeatedly occupying new positions, inflicting heavy losses and delaying the enemy long enough for the demolition of key installations in Tunis; for this leadership he was awarded the Eichenlaub (235th) on 10 May 1943, the same day he surrendered with the Afrika Korps. Promoted Generalleutnant while a prisoner, he was held at Camp Clinton, Mississippi, where he died by electrocution in a bathtub on 1 July 1945.
Major im Generalstab Hans-Günther Stotten (1916-1945) was born on 7 October 1916 in Berlin-Charlottenburg as the son of an Oberst and entered military service in October 1934 with the 3. Kompanie of the 12. Sächsisches Reiter-Regiment at Grossenhain, later attending the Kriegsschule in Hannover before being commissioned Leutnant in Panzer-Regiment 3 on 1 January 1938. During the Polish campaign he earned the Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse on 27 September and I. Klasse on 11 October 1939 after leading six Panzers near Zamosc to relieve an encircled Feldwach-Schwadron, routing a Polish battalion and capturing its commander. In the French campaign, as Führer of the 1. Kompanie of Panzer-Regiment 3 in the 2. Panzer-Division, he distinguished himself near Chalons by capturing an enemy battalion of some 900 men together with numerous machine-guns and three anti-tank guns; in a separate intense tank engagement he destroyed a 32-ton enemy tank, presumed to be a Char B1 bis, with his 37 mm gun using special ammunition, actions that brought him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 4 July 1940 and promotion to Oberleutnant. Serving as Adjutant of the I. Abteilung he took part in the Balkan campaign, advancing through Saloniki to Athens and then by sea to Brindisi, before joining the Russian campaign where on 2 October 1941 near Moscow he was severely wounded by a shell that struck his Panzer, surviving as the sole member of the crew. After recovery he was promoted Hauptmann on 1 April 1942 and served as Begleitoffizier to the Finnish General Tavela until September, when he transferred to North Africa, initially with Panzer-Regiment 5 and then leading companies and finally the I. Abteilung of Panzer-Regiment 8. There he particularly excelled in the defensive fighting at the Mareth-Stellung and during the opening of the Battle of Kasserine Pass on 19-20 February 1943, leading his Abteilung supported by Werfer-Regiment 71 into the pass and destroying many hostile anti-tank guns, later west of Gabes repulsing a superior enemy force with only eight Panzers and destroying five enemy tanks; though wounded by shell splinters in the head and a broken arm that necessitated his evacuation from Africa, he received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 14 March 1943 and, as the 236th recipient, the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz on 10 May 1943 while still listed as Hauptmann and Kommandeur of the I. Abteilung of Panzer-Regiment 8, having been promoted Major on 1 May. After convalescence he underwent Generalstabsausbildung from October 1943, briefly served with a Jäger-Division near Janina in early 1944, attended the Kriegsakademie in Hirschberg, and from August 1944 acted as Ic of Heeresgruppe Süd in the rank of Major i.G. On 4 April 1945 he was captured by Soviet forces near Vienna and was shot during an escape attempt the following day at Wolfsgraben in Niederdonau.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_Panzer_Division
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