The 9. Panzer-Division was a German Army armoured formation of the Wehrmacht that existed from 3 January 1940 until its final dissolution in April 1945, originating from the 4. Leichte Division formed in Vienna after the Anschluss from Austrian Bundesheer mobile units and headquartered in Wehrkreis XVII. Redesignated and expanded into a full panzer division with Panzer-Regiment 33, two panzergrenadier regiments (Panzergrenadier-Regiment 10 and 11), Panzer-Artillerie-Regiment 102 and supporting elements including Kradschützen-Bataillon 9 and Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9, it first saw major action in the Battle of the Netherlands in May 1940 as the sole mechanized force of the 18. Armee, racing to link up with Fallschirmjäger at the Moerdijk bridges and advancing toward Rotterdam and Dordrecht before participating in the subsequent Battle of France under Panzergruppe Guderian, covering more ground than any other German division and reaching Lyon by the French armistice. After refitting it took part in the 1941 Balkans Campaign as the armoured spearhead of the 12. Armee, helping separate Greek and Yugoslav forces, then joined Operation Barbarossa with XIV. Panzerkorps of Heeresgruppe Süd, breaking through the Stalin Line, participating in the Uman and Kiev encirclements that netted hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners, capturing the Dnieper dam at Zaporizhia, and later advancing under Panzergruppe Guderian to help encircle Bryansk and seize Kursk in November 1941. It endured the Soviet winter offensives of 1941–42 near Shchigry, counterattacked around Voronezh during Case Blue in July 1942, fought in Operation Mars near Rzhev, and suffered severe losses at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 as part of XLVII. Panzerkorps of the 9. Armee, losing dozens of tanks in a single air attack and advancing only about 15 km before withdrawing; thereafter it conducted a costly fighting retreat across Ukraine to the Mius front, Bryansk, and the Dnieper, dwindling by early 1944 to a handful of operational tanks. Withdrawn to Nîmes in France for rebuilding and reinforced with elements of the 155. Reserve-Panzer-Division, it was rushed north after D-Day, arriving in time to be nearly annihilated in the Falaise Pocket in August 1944, reduced to roughly 1,500 men and five tanks yet still covering the retreat of Heeresgruppe G. Partially reconstituted, it fought around Aachen, Geilenkirchen and the Peel Marshes, participated in the Battle of the Bulge with XLVII. Panzerkorps of the 5. Panzerarmee (with attached schwere Panzer-Abteilung 301), and later contested the Remagen bridgehead and the approaches to Cologne, by March 1945 reduced to a few hundred men and a dozen tanks; after futile resistance in Cologne its remnants were trapped in the Ruhr Pocket and largely surrendered to American forces in April 1945, with a small surviving Kampfgruppe absorbed into other units of the 11. Armee in the Harz Mountains before the formal disbandment of the division on 26 April 1945.
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SCHWERTERTRÄGER
Generalmajor Walter Gorn (1898-1968) was born on 24 September 1898 in Bieganin near Posen in the Kingdom of Prussia and enlisted as a Kriegsfreiwilliger in the West Prussian Grenadier-Regiment „König Wilhelm I.“ Nr. 7 during the First World War, seeing action on the Western Front before serving with machine-gun units and later joining Freikorps formations in the Baltic; after demobilization he entered the Schutzpolizei in 1920, rising through the ranks to Hauptmann by 1934 and transferring into the Wehrmacht in 1935 as commander of a company in the 3. Kradschützen-Bataillon of the 3. Panzer-Division. In the Second World War he served on the staff of the XIX. Armeekorps during the Polish campaign, then as Major took command of the I. Bataillon of Schützen-Regiment 10 (later redesignated Panzergrenadier-Regiment 10) of the 9. Panzer-Division; on 8–20 April 1941 during the invasion of Yugoslavia he led a mixed Abteilung in a bold advance from Gostivar toward Debar in Macedonia, overrunning strong Yugoslav resistance, capturing seven enemy batteries together with nine further batteries, twelve anti-tank guns and large quantities of matériel, liberating some 800 Italian prisoners whom he promptly rearmed and incorporated into his force, thereby establishing contact with Italian troops and earning the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 April 1941. Promoted Oberstleutnant and given command of Kradschützen-Bataillon 59, he fought in the fierce defensive battles around Voronezh in the summer of 1942, where his greatly depleted unit of only about fifty-five combat-effective men repeatedly repulsed heavy Soviet assaults, for which he received the Eichenlaub (113th award) on 17 August 1942. Taking over Panzergrenadier-Regiment 10, he distinguished himself in the winter battles of Rzhev, particularly near Sychyovka along the Vazuza and south of Loshki, where his regiment helped free the encircled 129. Infanterie-Division and destroy cut-off Soviet forces, resulting in the award of the Schwerter (30th award) on 8 June 1943 while he was Oberst. Later promoted Generalmajor, he commanded the 561. Grenadier-Division (subsequently Volksgrenadier-Division) in East Prussia and Lithuania against Operation Bagration and the subsequent Soviet offensives, then briefly the 710. Infanterie-Division in Austria before surrendering to American forces at Steyr on 8 May 1945; released from captivity in 1947, he died in Rosenheim on 10 July 1968.
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RITTERKREUZTRÄGER
Generalleutnant Wilhelm Schmalz (1901-1983) was born on 1 March 1901 in Reußen, Saxony, and entered military service in 1919, rising through the cavalry ranks of the Reichswehr as Leutnant (1 February 1923), Oberleutnant (1 February 1928), Rittmeister (1 April 1934) and Major (1 April 1939). He commanded the I. Bataillon of Kavallerie-Schützen-Regiment 11 during the Polish campaign, receiving the Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse on 14 September 1939 and the Eisernes Kreuz I. Klasse on 16 October 1939. As Major and Kommandeur of the I. Bataillon, Kavallerie-Schützen-Regiment 11 he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 28 November 1940 for actions during the pursuit phase of the Battle of France (Fall Rot): without specific orders he and his troops seized the bridge over the Loire at Allier as well as a crossing at Nevers, preventing the French from establishing a new defensive line along the river and enabling uninterrupted German pursuit operations between the Loire and the Swiss border. Promoted Oberstleutnant (1 February 1942) and Oberst (1 October 1942), he received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 8 February 1942 as Kommandeur of Kradschützen-Bataillon 59 and later commanded Schützen-Regiment 11 / Panzergrenadier-Regiment 11. Transferring to the Luftwaffe in 1943, he took command of the Brigade z.b.V. within the Panzer-Division “Hermann Göring” and led Kampfgruppe Schmalz on Sicily; for a brilliant series of defensive actions in the Mount Etna area from Catania to Messina despite shortages of troops and supplies he was awarded the Eichenlaub on 23 December 1943 (357th or 358th award). He became Kommandeur of the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1 “Hermann Göring” in April 1944, was promoted Generalmajor on 1 May 1944 and Generalleutnant on 30 January 1945, and served as Kommandierender General of the Fallschirm-Panzerkorps “Hermann Göring” until the end of the war; after American captivity and acquittal of war-crime charges in 1950 he lived until his death on 14 March 1983.
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.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Panzer_Division_(Wehrmacht)
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=949476&sid=e9a9c21e019f143d69ab9544692a59fb#p949476
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