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losses in the winter battles around the capital and the Rzhev-Vyazma salient reduced it to a remnant that had to be withdrawn to France in spring 1942 for complete reconstitution and re-equipment with modern Panzer III and IV tanks.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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SCHWERTERTRÄGER
Generalmajor Dr. med.dent. Franz Bäke (1898-1978) was born on 28 February 1898 in Schwarzenfels and volunteered for military service in May 1915 during the First World War, serving in infantry and later artillery units on the Western Front where he earned the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse and was wounded before discharge in 1919 as an officer candidate. He then studied dentistry, received his doctorate in 1923, and established a successful practice in Hagen while briefly serving with the Freikorps Epp. Recalled to the reserves in 1937 as Leutnant der Reserve and later advanced through ranks, he joined Panzer-Abteilung 65 of what became the 6. Panzer-Division, participating in the Polish and French campaigns and Operation Barbarossa. As Major der Reserve and Kommandeur of II./Panzer-Regiment 11, Bäke received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 11 January 1943 for leading bitter urban fighting on 1 January 1943 in Nowo Marjewka against Soviet forces, destroying 27 tanks in the village and then launching a counterattack that eliminated another 32 tanks including 20 T-34s, thereby preventing a breakthrough by the Soviet 25th Tank Corps toward the railway west of Morosowskaja. During the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 near Belgorod, as Major der Reserve still commanding II./Panzer-Regiment 11, he persuaded superiors to seize Rschawez by night to form a bridgehead over the Sswernyi Donez; his Vorausabteilung encountered T-34s, and Bäke personally destroyed several with magnetic anti-tank grenades alongside his Ordonnanzoffizier, earning the Eichenlaub on 1 August 1943. Promoted to Oberstleutnant der Reserve and Kommandeur of Panzer-Regiment 11, he formed the ad-hoc schwere Panzer-Regiment Bäke with Tigers from schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503 and Panthers from II./Panzer-Regiment 23; between 23 January and 1 February 1944 this unit thrust via Shaskow to relieve pressure on III. Panzer-Korps during operations around the Balabonowka and Cherkassy pockets, destroying 268 Soviet tanks and assault guns plus 156 guns, for which he received the Schwerter on 21 February 1944. Later commanding Panzer-Brigade 106 Feldherrnhalle and then Panzer-Division Feldherrnhalle 2 as Generalmajor from April 1945, Bäke surrendered to American forces in May 1945, was released after captivity, resumed his dental practice in Hagen, and died on 12 December 1978 following a car accident.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Generalleutnant Walther von Hünersdorff (1898-1943) was born on 28 November 1898 in Cairo and entered the Imperial German Army on 9 August 1915 as a Fahnenjunker in the 1. Schlesisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 4, taking part in the First World War on the Western Front and receiving promotion to Leutnant on 19 October 1916 while serving as an Ordonnanzoffizier. After the war he remained in the Reichswehr, advancing through the ranks and by the outbreak of the Second World War serving as Ia of the 253. Infanterie-Division before transferring in October 1939 to the Generalkommando II. Armeekorps. On 12 September 1940 he became Chef des Generalstabes of the XV. Armeekorps under Hermann Hoth, a post that continued after the formation became Panzergruppe 3 and later the 3. Panzerarmee, with which he participated in Operation Barbarossa; for his staff work he received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 26 January 1942 as Oberst i.G. On 1 July 1942 he assumed command of Panzer-Regiment 11 and during the winter of 1942–43 led it in the Entsatzangriff known as Operation Winter Storm, advancing from Kotelnikowo and seizing a bridgehead over the Myschkowa only 48 kilometres from the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad, actions for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 22 December 1942 as Oberst. In early February 1943 he took provisional command of the 6. Panzer-Division, being confirmed as Kommandeur and promoted to Generalmajor on 1 May 1943. During Unternehmen Zitadelle in July 1943 his division fought northeast of Belgorod; on 8 July he broke through a heavily defended Soviet anti-tank ditch, then on his own initiative brought forward his own and a subordinated Panzer-Regiment of the 19. Panzer-Division for a bold thrust that stormed the village of Melichewo while destroying twenty Soviet tanks and thirty heavy anti-tank guns, providing an inspiring example to his Panzergrenadiere. For these achievements between 5 and 9 July he was awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (259th award) on 14 July 1943 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 6. Panzer-Division. On 13 July he suffered a light Streifschuss in the morning and a severe head wound from a Soviet sniper in the afternoon; he died of his injuries on 17 July 1943 in a field hospital at Kharkov and was posthumously promoted to Generalleutnant.
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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.
Generaloberst Erhard Raus (1889-1956) was born on 8 January 1889 in Wolframitz, Austria-Hungary, and died on 3 April 1956 in Vienna after a distinguished military career spanning both world wars. He enrolled in an Austro-Hungarian officer school at age 18, served in the First World War commanding a bicycle infantry company on the Eastern Front in southern Poland, and later joined the Austrian army as commander of a Vienna bicycle infantry battalion and instructor at the military academy. Following the Anschluss in 1938 he transferred to the Wehrmacht, serving initially in staff roles before assuming field command. During Operation Barbarossa, as Oberst and Kommandeur of the 6. Schützen-Brigade within the 6. Panzer-Division of XXXXI. Armee-Korps under Heeresgruppe Nord, Raus led a daring thrust on 13-14 July 1941 that seized two undamaged bridges over the Pljussa at Ljday and over the Luga at Porietsche, establishing a vital bridgehead. This action created a springboard enabling the Korps to resume its advance toward Leningrad and outflank strong Soviet defenses along the Luga, earning him the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 11 October 1941 for its operational significance. Promoted successively to Generalmajor, Generalleutnant and General der Panzertruppe, he later commanded the 6. Panzer-Division, then as Kommandierender General of the XI. Armeekorps within Armeeabteilung Kempf of Heeresgruppe Süd conducted a solid defense during the fighting around Belgorod in August 1943 that prevented an enemy breakthrough through his lines, for which he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 22 August 1943. Raus subsequently led higher formations including the 4. Panzerarmee, 1. Panzerarmee and 3. Panzerarmee on the Eastern Front through successive defensive battles until relieved in March 1945, reaching the rank of Generaloberst. After the war he authored several analytical works on armored tactics and the peculiarities of Russian warfare before his death.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Panzer_Division
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