The 6. Panzer-Division of the German Wehrmacht was formed on 18 October 1939 in Wuppertal from the 1. leichte Division after the Polish campaign had exposed organizational weaknesses in the light divisions, and it was initially equipped largely with Czech-built Panzer 35(t) tanks in its Panzer-Regiment 11 along with supporting panzergrenadier, artillery and reconnaissance units. Under its first commander, General der Panzertruppe Werner Kempf, the division took part in the 1940 Western campaign, advancing through Belgium and the Ardennes, crossing the Meuse and Oise, and contributing to the rapid collapse of French and Allied forces in Flanders and northern France before being transferred to East Prussia in September 1940. In June 1941 it joined Operation Barbarossa as part of Panzergruppe 4 under Heeresgruppe Nord, fighting in the Baltic states and toward Leningrad, then transferred to Heeresgruppe Mitte for the drive on Moscow, where heavy losses in the winter battles around the capital and the Rzhev-Vyazma salient reduced it to a remnant that had to be withdrawn to France in spring 1942 for complete reconstitution and re-equipment with modern Panzer III and IV tanks. Returning to the Eastern Front in late 1942 under Generalleutnant Erhard Raus, the division fought with Heeresgruppe Don in the failed relief attempt of Unternehmen Wintergewitter toward Stalingrad, then participated in the recapture of Kharkov in early 1943 and the subsequent Battle of Kursk as part of the southern offensive; thereafter it conducted a long series of defensive and withdrawal actions across Ukraine, through the Korsun-Cherkassy and Kamenets-Podolsky pockets, into Hungary and the Lake Balaton area, and finally into Austria and Czechoslovakia. Successive commanders including Generalleutnant Walther von Hünersdorff (killed at Kursk) and Generalleutnant Rudolf Freiherr von Waldenfels led the division through these later campaigns until, reduced to a Kampfgruppe, it surrendered near Brno in May 1945, after which most of its surviving personnel were handed over to Soviet captivity.
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RITTERKREUZTRÄGER
General der Panzertruppe Werner Kempf (1886-1964) was born on 9 March 1886 in Königsberg, East Prussia, as the son of a Prussian Oberstleutnant, and after education in the Prussian cadet corps he entered the Imperial German Army on 14 March 1905 as Fähnrich in the 6. Westpreußische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 149, being commissioned Leutnant in 1906 and later serving with the II. Seebataillon; during the First World War he fought with the Marinekorps Flandern on the Western Front, rising to Hauptmann by 1916 and performing general-staff duties, after which he continued in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic in various staff and command posts with motorized and infantry units before taking command of the newly formed 4. Panzer-Brigade in October 1937 and being promoted Generalmajor in January 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the improvised Panzer-Division Kempf (also known as Panzerverband Ostpreußen) during the invasion of Poland, then assumed command of the 6. Panzer-Division with which he took part in the 1940 Western campaign; for his leadership in that offensive, in which his division plunged deep into the enemy on the first day, crossed the Oise River and captured more than 10 000 prisoners in three days of bold advance and pursuit while he personally remained the driving force of the attack even under fire, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 3 June 1940 as Generalleutnant and Kommandeur of the 6. Panzer-Division and was promoted Generalleutnant the following month. In early 1941 he formed and took command of the XXXXVIII. Armeekorps (mot.), being promoted General der Panzertruppe on 1 April 1941, and with this formation participated in Operation Barbarossa as part of Panzergruppe 1 of Heeresgruppe Süd, distinguishing himself in the breakthrough of the Stalin Line, the encirclement battles at Uman and Kiev, and the capture of Kursk in 1941; the following year, still as Kommandierender General of the XXXXVIII. Panzerkorps, he directed the capture of Voronezh and the subsequent thrust that reached the southern outskirts of Stalingrad, for which achievements on the Eastern Front he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (111th award) on 10 August 1942. After temporary transfer to the Führerreserve he commanded the Armeeabteilung Kempf during the Battle of Kursk in 1943, later served briefly as Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Ostland, and ended the war in American captivity in April 1945, from which he was released in 1947; he spent his remaining years in Bad Harzburg until his death on 6 January 1964.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Panzer_Division
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