The Secret German Tank that the Nazis Couldn't Control
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- čas přidán 13. 02. 2023
- During World War 2, the Wehrmacht sent messages over the radio singling out a few men out of the millions serving, and it was the highest honor any soldier of any rank could receive. Throughout the entire conflict, only one non-commissioned officer of the German tank arm was named in the Wehrmacht Radio communique: Kurt Knispel.
Although he was the best Panzer ace, with a reported 168 tank kills, he never received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross despite being recommended four times.
Knispel had a knack for breaking the rules, sported long hair and a beard, and had a particular disdain for abusive SS officers, which earned him more than a few enemies within the ranks.
Even so, he is widely considered the most successful tank ace of World War 2. And yet, the affable rulebreaker is also the most forgotten Panzer ace of them all…
- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
Dude had STONES to go against the SS and live to talk about it. Until his demise that is. Awesome story. He should be remembered.
WW2 rendered so many true heroes - those that are one of a kind - especially on the German side and among all branches of the Armed Forces, in such huge numbers that a good lot of them have gone almost unheard of even after 80 years of the war's end. It's good to get to know about them through these YT videos.
@@rainbowseeker5930 especially on the German side? Lmao
Found the wehraboo
@@fromulus - Dude, they fought for 6 years against the whole world, giving and taking ON ALL FRONTS, always heavily outnumbered , and yet they managed to keep within boundaries their countless and well-equipped enemies. That's why I wrote "especially...".
@@rainbowseeker5930 Don't mind the ignorant troll, he's most likely a boomer.
Never argue with a Tiger Ace
He was not one of the most successful tankers in history. He was THE most successful tanker in the history of armored warfare, not even just WWII.
Yes. Him and Michael Wittman were the best in history.
It takes a team to run a tank.
wdym?
@@kerryspagnoli2363 out of every single war fought in history . Wittman and Knispel were the best ever. Not just in kills but in every way.
WW2 is also by far the only war in history that gave tankers as many opportunities as were given to him. His stats are heavily skewed because of this, and there needs to be comparisons to other famous tankers using metrics that are comparable. Similar to how median and per capita stats are used to help accurately determine information. To give another example of this: In baseball, pitchers are rarely allowed to pitch full games, and will be pulled out with little leniency. Because of this, records for strikeouts and innings pitched will forever go unbreakable even though there are pitchers that are objectively better today.
I’m not doubting he’s the most successful tanker in history, I’m just saying that if all tankers in history were put in the same situations as he was in, he might not be the best.
Damn... The world needs a movie on *Knispel.* A man who performs his duty as a soldier and is honorable.
For Sure 👍
@@chalkie7534if they made it “woke” he’d be black and gay
@@forestfire2670 black gay na_i that hates na_i's LoL
Agreed
@@forestfire2670 Bwahahaha
That generation of men on both sides were no joke.
Yeah most are now weak playstation pussies
True that.
This is an exceptional example among millions... but it's true that the current young generation isn't even comparable to Knispl's.
Yeah that's bullshit, exceptional men have always and will always exist in times of war.
@@benolofson9732 Yeah....that's not...especially in large numbers like ww2. But hey, go back to your video game.
Just the fact he made it long enough to go from a Panzer IV, Tiger and King Tiger says alot. Not many lived long enough to get even close to that.
And survive a T-34 shot ripping through his Pz.IV paper armor lol
@@geoffsails I could see maybe revenge getting in another one but if I made it through two I'm done man lol
@@guythatpaysforyourhandouts2478 You didn't have the luxury of declaring yourself as "done". Do it and you would be. Done, that is.
@@geoffsails "paper armor"? Sure put-paid on a whole lot of T-34s before the end. Think tense of thousands and you'd be getting the idea.
@@fwinkler112 That's funny the people that were actually there said otherwise. But why believe them when we got you right?
Long hair, beard, an eccentric tank ace? It’s Oddball!!
Agree lol
In fact his name is some kind of popular. In Germany "Knispel" can be said to an accurate gun and "geknispelt" can be said when u hit a nearly impossible shot.
Greats from Germany
...ahhmm...schuss!?...
100 prozentiger bullshit, niemand sagt das.
I am 40 years old, lived in all parts of Germany and serviced in the army and noone ever said anything with "knispel" to me.
@@tilmerkan3882 and what do you wanna tell me? I mean I think you maybe never heard: Ränftl, Motschekiepsche, Hitsch .... and so on. You never heard it, ok, it still exists 🤷♂️
Knispeln is another word for basteln, fummeln, werkln, friemeln...🤓
My great uncle was a panzergrenadier in 2nd SS Panzer, and he was exactly the same in regard to the mistreatment of Soviet prisoners and Jews during his time on the Eastern Front. He was spared from disciplinary action by his superiors due to the level of heroism he showed during battles such as the Battle for Moscow, the 3rd Battle of Kharkov and and the subsequent Battle of Kursk. Upon his unit's transfer to the Western Front to face the Normandy landings he was severely wounded in France in July 1944 and then transferred back to Germany where he remained in a Munich Hospital until the end of the war. He was discharged from the hospital in May 1945, was briefly incarcerated by the Americans, and then released. I have his war diary, which I'm still mulling over what to do with. It details practically every day of the war in the East and West from his time in the division from 1941 to 1944.
Copy it for yourself, maybe publish on the net then donate to a reputable museum?
You could make it into a book or publish it in a certain way.
If you ever translate it and put it up somewhere please let me know. I'd love to read it.
Well
Publish it
Share it with the world. The experiences of these brave men deserve to be told.
Kurt Knispel had 20/10 vision and perfect depth perception. What that means is that his vision was twice as good as a normal person but if he said that a tank was 732 meters away then you knew that it was 732 meters away. He had problems with authority but he was also known to steal from other units whenever the opportunity presented itself. His effectiveness as a tank commander was the only thing that kept him out of prison.
I don't understand. I thought 20/20 was as good as it got. Thanks for the info.
@@thejohn6614 20/20 is considered to be perfect vision. There are people who have better vision than 20/20. 20/10 by definition is twice as good as 20/20. The fact that he had 20/10 in both eye is not only remarkable but explains his incredible skill as a gunner.
@@joelex7966 I see. I didn't know that. I thought 20/20 was as good as it got. Thanks for the info and the reply.
@@thejohn6614 20/20 just means your vision is at a 1:1 scale, you see something 20 metres away as if it's 20 metres away. 20/10 means you see something 20 metres away as if it's 10. which means you have a much smaller field of view, however you have significantly better long range vision. 20/20 is seen as "perfect" because it's what we evolved to see
@@joelex7966 no... long sighted is not better than 20/20 because short sighted depth perception is virtually non existent... dude would've had to stand up to see his plate of food on the table LOL...
Knispel isnt unknown in Germany, we talked a lot of his tactics in the Bundeswehr.
what made him different from the other tank commanders?
@@stayhungry1503 probably the 168 tank kills ^^
@@himhim3344 haha yes but i mean how did he manage to do it when so few others even came close. he must have had certain methods that others didnt use.
@@stayhungry1503I don’t know about his methods but he had incredible eyesight and depth perception.
NO, yet in the USA we have Nazism supporting Donald Trump.
What an amazing story. I'd never heard of him until now, so thank you very much for this great recounting!
I'd be curious how he'd do in a modern tank. Does the automation get in the way of his instincts?
I believe 3 miles is about the upper limit now, and he did it with those crappy WWII sights.
@@recoil53 Zeiss doesn't make "crappy" ANYTHING. They were cutting-edge back then and, with updates in tech, would be usable now. Bet you modern versions of them are sourced for Leopard 2s. "Crappy" would be the puke that the Soviets used. If they even had optics...
@@fwinkler112 I know the quality of Zeiss optics.
However, by any modern standard, those sights are garbage.
@@fwinkler112 Soviet optics were fine. The problem was their field stop limitation. German optics were 2.5:1 magnification and Soviet ones were 4:1, which was like looking down a straw.
Unfortunately, the sties about Kurt Knispel are mostly untrue.
This deserves a movie!! He did his duty and kept his integrity.
If he was amercian we would have about a dozen by now
Few days ago watched "White tiger" on YT. Russian movie with English subs.
Movie is a fiction but I see the parallel with this dude.
Most of this is myth.
@@thethirdman225 Copy and paste Mr. Sour grapes.
@@marchellochiovelli7259 No sour grapes here, Marchello. Just a thirst for accuracy. Pretty much everything in this video has been debunked. Almost all of it comes from a writer called Franz Kurowski, who was basically a propagandist, ‘clean Wehrmacht’ proponent and war fantasist. It’s only in the period since his death in 2011 that we have learnt what a lot of people already knew.
Kurt Knispel was - by the standards of the time - an unremarkable tankie. Interviews of his fellow soldiers, including his commanding officer, by Dr Roman Toeppel reveal that there is almost nothing in this legend. Knispel was well-liked and a survivor of many campaigns. He might even have destroyed as many tanks as has been claimed. But the fact is that nobody knows because, despite what Kurowski claims, nobody kept score. Thanks to Kurowski, who wrote under a dozen other pen names, we now have BS stories about him having 20/10 eyesight and laser rangefinder vision, how he punched an SS officer over treatment of prisoners, didn’t claim half the kills he’s supposed to have done and was passed over for the Ritterkreutz four times.
All of that is BS, exaggeration to the point of outright lies. Alfred Bruddel - Knispel’s CO - described him as popular but not a particularly good soldier and one who occasionally got himself into trouble. Bruddel scoffed at pretty much all of this and he was not alone. The stories about Knispel have taken on a life of their own. The fact that almost endless lists can be found on the internet, tracking ‘confirmed kills’ is basically meaningless. They all come from Kurowski or one of his dozen other pseudonyms. It’s worth pointing out that Kurowski no longer enjoys WP:RS status on Wikipedia and is now described as a historical novelist.
It’s been left to those with a greater loyalty to the facts to clean up the persistent stain he left behind.
He deserves recognition as a highly skilled and honorable warrior. As a man at the pinnacle of his abilities. Regardless of what side he was on.
I agree 100%. The difference between a hero and a villain commonly comes down to if one is on the winning or losing side. Ability is the critical factor here, and Herr Knispel sure had that, and he also showed compassion.
Not in WWII the sides.were.clear.Hitler needed to go and so did stalin. He was skilled he was.not cruel. He was not honorable he was a german.
@@michaelcauser474 Most of this is myth.
he dont we dont need to glorify killer name
Yes he was too busy being a warrior and with that sense of justice too not interested being part of the nazi party
One of the crazier things about Knispel is he often gave a lot of credit to other tank crews for kills and many historians believe he had a actual kill count of over 300. He also had very unique eyesight, allowing him to precisely judge the distance of a target without the use of a rangefinder, which helped him make extremely accurate shots with almost any tank cannon he used. Another cool fact is while he was a tank commander, he also stayed as the gunner as well. It is shown time and time again that he was an honorable soldier who did his duty and didn't tolerate mistreatment of unarmed POWs and captives.
Kurt deserves his own movie.
Although I understand what you want to say, I have you disagree about the "doing his duty" part.
NO ONE'S duty is to serve a mad man like Hitler or anyone like him.
Our DUTY is to take the mad men down and don't give them any power. NEVER!
@@hariszark7396 His duty was to destroy enemy tanks before they could destroy his.
@@himhim3344 Oh yeah?
What was "his tank" doing in a foreign country shooting and killing people defending their homes or just trying to live their lives?
Was that "his duty" too?
Clearly you have not understand anything I said.
Read my comment again pls.
@@hariszark7396 So dumb in that time you couldnt choose whom you gonna fight for
The man was true German, not a Nazi, simply fighting for Germany. He should be honored as simply a patriot.
Just as many other members of the Wehrmacht, they were not Nazis, but not many took a stance against what the Nazis were doing, as Knispel did.
@@billymcbread7136 even ss fought for fatherland
Dude aided Nazi actions. I'll give him props for his talent as a tanker but fuck honoring him.
I agree with this, too many are tarred with that nasty brush unnecessarily
So all best german soldiers are not nazis?
Knispel is not forgotten in the German military community. His version of the so called „Zielansprache“ is taught to tank crews in the Bundeswehr up to today.
what exactly is that zielansprache? i'm interested to know what is still being taught as you say to new tankers
@@decimated550
It is basically a shortend version of REHLZ. You can exchange target information with the commander or the gunner in seconds. Knispel shortened it to REZ with numbers mixed into it.
Das Verfahren der Zielansprache folgt dabei den Buchstaben des Merkwortes REHLZ
Richtung (relativ zur Beobachtungs- oder Fahrtrichtung im Uhrzeigersinn oder nach Geländetaufe)
(E)insehbares Gelände nach Vordergrund - Mittelgrund - Hintergrund
Entfernung immer in Metern! geschätzt
Hilfsziel als auffälliger Punkt im Gelände, niemals etwas, was sich bewegt
Lage zum Ziel
Ziel
@@haviiithelegogunner907 Danke fur den antword.
He’s become a poster boy for the alt-right in Germany. I’m not sure he would have wanted that.
"Zielansprache" ( Ziel ( exact discribed point for a hit ....Tank ,- House ,- Truck ,- enemy position etc. )
"Ansprache" is the exact (true) appearence of the "prey" in the inviroment .......
Example : A real good hunter "speak to himself ( automaticly and quietly in his thoughts ) the trues of the situation ,- the condition of the surroundings and the condition of the prey " ,- the whole situation boil down ,- or coagulate as a judge point to shoot ore not !
Sometimes there is just a small window ,- or crack ......to do so ....
And the judgement can keep you automatically back ,- not to shoot ....
"Keep the fingers straight" ... and seek for a better moment
But also it can be the decission of shoot thrue this small gap and kow for sure you will hit right one
All this shoot thrue the brain in short amount of time .....
Knispel could judge the situation and the shoot moment in just seconds and shorter
automaticly ( I will say ) ,- because his brain was trained after experience ,- and get faster and faster and deatlier....
This can't be trained !
But you as a observer can see and pick out people with that kind of talent !
Hope I could paint a picture close to it
@@decimated550
I was once at a pub with my lads and somehow we started to interact to this old, fairly drunk guy. He started talking about Kurt Knispel out of nowhere, how he was related to him and described so many details, such as he loved shiny red apples and things like that. I wish I could remember more but nobody actually believed him but later on, I found out that he is actually from Czechia (where I am from) and that he is buried in my town, Brno. Pretty fascinating story about him and it feels so strange to know that this weird drunk man might actually have been saying the truth.
Kurt Knispel always reminds me of Oddball in Kelly's Heroes- I don' t suppose one was a model for the other ?.
Thanks for a long overdue video on this remarkable tanker & soldier. Sadly Kurt never survived the war so no memoirs like Otto Carius' 'Tigers in the Mud'. RIP Kurt.
I had the same thought and then saw your comment. The Knispel photo even looks similar to Oddball.
@@mbuchart2927 same here , very similar
Poor Knispel, after coming out alive of hundreds of battles inside his tank, he found death just a week before the end of the war. May he rest in peace, he is not forgotten.
Thank you for making a beautifully made and unbiased video about this legend.
And the cheque is in the mail...
@@fwinkler112 Excuse me? You do realize that people CAN have honest opinions without getting paid? I mean, sorry that its me that brakes that down to you.
"Tank you very much!"
-Kurt Knispel
Thank you for honoring a true hero and best tank ace Kurt Knispel.
An amazing warrior.
R.I.P. K. Knispel.
Knispel was buried in a common grave along with several other German soldiers in the village where they met their fate in '45, and remained so until recently, when someone cared enough to look for the grave, exhume the remains, perform DNA analyses , discover which one was Knispel's , and finally bury him in a decent single grave, with a proper tombstone bearing his name and his birth/death dates. RIP.
Thank you for covering my favorite Tank Ace from WWII. Absolutely honorable man, victim of the times and yet was still an absolute Inspirational role model of a decent man and solider.
He was also the victim of Franz Kurowski, a propagandist and Nazi fantasist, who turned this poor man into something he was not. If you want to find out about Kurt Knispel, search for a video called The Truth About Panzer Aces.
reminds me of a saying, don't recall from where, but "Thousands earned medals for their bravery and heroism. Few got to receive them"
its very nice of dark doc to mention kurt in this channel...i admire him more than other german tank Ace coz of his character....hes a real german tank Ace...
im pretty sure every German tank ace, was a real German tank ace, lmao
@@SpookyScaryGangRapingSkeleton we are talking about true tank aces, i.e. guys that had a very impressive personality.
No matter he deserves the respect. Sabaton needs to make a song for him. Not all Germans were nazis.
by the current standards, all the people of european heritage that fought in WW2 were "nazis"
Being a Nazi is bad?
I actually think that most german soldiers were just soldiers.
wanna hear something wild ? Not all Nazis were bad. Being a Nationalsocialists, as crazy as this sounds, doesnt have to mean youre a murderous psychopath.
sabaton is gay
You have the best voice over of any CZcams channel. It’s nice that the videos are held to about ten minutes rather than blathering on and on. Extremely professional. Thx
Truly, an honorable adversary.
I have read about this man in the past, but didn't realize just how great a tanker he was until you put it into context for us. Thank you, Dark Docs! Your content is very good, sir!
Always nice hearing this man get his credit!!! He's an Unsung hero!
Nazi*
@@MikeWalksWithJesus what is a Nazi? It's a political party the National socialist. Many soldiers were not associated with the party, the SS however is a different story.
History is important to learn!
@@lazerbehm8681 very true.
@@lazerbehm8681 Fighting to achieve the ends of the Nazi party is just as good as being in it. You are still helping them take over the free world for fascism and no one who did that will ever be a hero.
@@filonin2 that's no different than saying everyone in the United States military is democrats/ or Republican, because that's the current party in power. Which is not true!!!!
Despite being on the "wrong side," SSGT. Kurt Knispel seems to be the type of guy you would want on your side. It is nice to hear a story about a, more or less, honorable WWII German soldier who was just fighting on (seemingly) the principles of protecting his country and his comrades in arms. The part about Knispel interfering with the SS Officer's mistreatment of a POW is bitter-sweet as it's great Knispel interfered, but it sucks he was basically punished for doing so. It's unfortunate he did not survive the war, but perhaps he got lucky (in a sense) because if he had survived, he would have likely been captured by the Soviets and, especially given his tank-kill record, would have suffered a fate worse than death.
He wasn’t protecting his country
@@MattKearneyFan1 Well, they were fighting Russia so that makes him a good guy.
@@iam5085 fighting a country they invaded early does not make him a good guy
@@MattKearneyFan1 Russians had a pact with the Nazies when they invaded the Eastern-Europe, so they were both 'evil', no worse than the other.
@@iam5085 and yet the Germans invaded their nation and murdered innocent people. Payback is a bitch for those nazis
The best tank Ace and a very Honable Person.
Heard that he actually had more kills but gave the credit to others. He just did not care about medals/fame. But to die just one week before the war ended, tragic.
This is why I love this channel you stay fare and not biased.cause they are good soldiers on both sides.they were just following orders .
Kurt needs his own movie.
I am interested about WW2 for only 55 years and today, I still learn something new: thank's for bringing those people to the light.
Two big thumbs up for this episode, oh Dark one! Particularly *love* the fact that Knispel had an apparent disdain for the SS and took no measured pains to conceal it. Keep up the great work!!
Much obliged for your work and efforts to bring this exceptional individual to the fore.
I was lucky enough to have this recommend to me on 04/28. What an amazing tale of an amazing tanker.
In the new top gun movie, Maverick says “I’m where I belong”. Never was that sing more true that for this tank commander. This guy was pretty bad ass.
Thank you sincerely for creating this impressive video and bringing to my attention a man i didn't but should have known about and the most deserved honor, recognition and remembrance of an incredible man, soldier and the legendary badassery this warrior brought to the battlefield! This man deserves to be remembered just as Gen. Patton!
Some years ago I read about highly effective squads of malcontents in the German ranks that were called Daredevils. They were used for long recon missions and to blow up stuff behind enemy lines, They were left alone by the officers since they performed tasks that nobody else cared to attempt.
He fought for his country as most people would and there fore shouldnt be hated in my opinion. He fought against unfair behavior so in my eyes he is a legend.
I always enjoy hearing stories of incredible soldiers who stand out from the everyday soldier, regardless of who they fight for.
The inspiration for "oddball"
I was thinking of the same thing.
A man to be honored ,admired and remembered
he was not an ordinary soldier, he was a true warrior! rest in piece herr knispel
According to his comrades he _was_ an ordinary soldier. Well liked but not what is made out here.
He's in Valhalla now!
@@joskarifinaukr6503 He wasn't Swedish.
@@thethirdman225 Swedes aren't the only Folk who may choose to believe in the Aesir.
@@joskarifinaukr6503 Still BS.
Kurt is not forgotten at all THANKS TO DARK DOCS
A man among men ! He fought his opponents with honor and without hatred !
As a fellow tanker. You have to respect this man. I feel a botherhood with him. I went by Oddball. I wasn't a straight arrow and worked with my men rather then order and sit back.
I just found this channel a few days ago and I am slowly binging everything uploaded. Much love and respect @Dark Docs for the content you make, reminds me of what The History Channel used to be.
One must give credit where credit is due. Kurt overwhelming tank kills certainly spoke of his keen eye and bravery. As an Axis forces tank commander I can still recognize his steadfast courage and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds. All my family Father, Mother signed up with the British Army. Dad was in the British Eighth Army gone at 18yrs old in 1939 until 1946. Duration of war plus 6 months. Yet i do admire Kurt especially as he stood up to an SS Officer abusing Russia. POWs. That takes heart and courage to defend those being oppressed. Kurt sadly was KIA a mere week prior to WW2 ending. May he finally rest in peace now. 💪🏻🙏🏻✨
Everything you put on this channel is great you'll do great work man.
Yes. Not only did he fight for the loosing team but he was often offside with the loosing team. Sounds like a man with principles.
Great video.
Often it is the misfits who have the talents. I like this guy, it seems he had integrity. Which is a good thing no matter what side you are on.
@niksandy7125 Often those who goes against the established narrative, proving it is wrong are labelled misfits or worse. And rarely will the establishment admit they are wrong but still when shit happens you are welcome to save their ass.
He never sold out to the Nazi ideology, just fought as a German patriot. Respect.
They should make a movie about him!!! Awesome person and story.
To gain the respect of your peers is Impressive. To gain the respect of your adversaries is Priceless! Respect.
He was clearly a born soldier with outstanding physical and moral courage, it's a shame that I did not know about him before.
It would be great to see a video similar to this on CPL Leslie Allen "The Bull".
I'm retired US Navy and a former police officer. I understand honor and pride. I like reading about other armies, navies, and air forces, along with our own, US.There is a difference between the German soldier, sailor, or airman, and nazi's. I do not like nazi's. I like that this tank soldier stopped the SS guy from abusing a prisoner. Well done.
Wow, an amazing story! Thanks for putting this together.
This installment was one of your best. Outstanding.
Did he describe a tank battle as a “kerfuffle”? Epic understatement!
🤣👍
"a strong distaste for injustice" rest in peace sir 🙏🏽 gott mit uns.
Dark docs has taken a step up over the past year in terms of editing and storytelling. This was addicting and very interesting.
This story, and this tank, make their case as some of the most impressive examples of German superiority in the category of armored vehicles.
Quite honestly, it's unsettling to think about how close they were to success, thanks to their military prowess and technological achievements alone.. their ideology and execution were both horribly lacking, had they not been so radical, who knows....
Russia is about to find out with the Lepard tanks being sent to Ukraine.
@@Frosty_tha_Snowman if you minus 80 years of liberal & communist propaganda.. their ideology wasn't horrible.
liberal democracy has bombed more civilian cities than any other ideology (on purpose knowing they were filled with civilians).
communism has starved and murdered more civilians than any other ideology (on purpose).
but fascism is "THE MOST EVIL WORK OF THE DEVIL EVER!"..
*ridiculously propagandized people
@Longji Dalu not really. A tank is nothing without a well trained crew and tactics.
Not really.
He was a free-thinker which is necessary for this type of success.
thank you for highlighting this unknown hero
You are more than quite a warrioir. Kurt. Much respect from this Kiwi.
Officers don't like enlisted men getting medals.
To true
Audie Murphy. How many did he get before they made him 2nd Lieutenant?
Why? They didn’t earn it yet?
@M!CAH T!ME we all know they like the own getting medals of enlisted since the beginning of time. Even stealing credit for courageous enlisted men.
@Kreistor God only knows. He did not want to be an officer. But got pressured into it by the brass. He wanted to stay with his men.
As a German, 60 years old, I can only say that it is almost an honor not to have received a Knight's Cross. Certainly, as a military service award, it would have been more than deserved. But to me his human qualities, swimming against the current and much more are much more important. himself against SS
Confronting minions requires more courage and personality than most can even remotely imagine. Such soldiers do not make a "career" but their reputation is nourished by such events and not only by the number of kills. This reputation is the actual, the most important order. The Order for Humanity, inside crime and the apocalypse.
Look up the "Ye Olde Pub" and it's friendly bf109G6/10 escort fighter...
But, wouldn't it be even MORE courageous for someone to speak up against an SS guard who has NOT the skills, kills and reputation of a Kurt Knispel? I am pretty sure there were more guys like him, we just never heard of them because they got discharged, imprisoned or worse. It's the same thing with modern actors. I applaud actors like Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman for standing up to the producers and insisting on the dark ending of Se7en (the producers wanted a cheesy and ordinary showdown in a factory). They are the reason this movie is a classic now, however, they could only do this because they Pitt and Freeman, any lesser actor would just have been fired and replaced.
Eloquently put!
Beautifully well put my friend.
Greetings from Melbourne , Australia.
Amen!
Your presentation in the chapter outline style is executed very well, Your voice makes the story serious and very enjoyable.
Great Delivery , Dark Doc . !
He fought on the wrong side of history, but facing down an SS officer takes balls.
He fought on the side given to him.
A lot of German soldiers back then didn't view anything wrong with the SS/Nazi party until it was too late. Its why I generally don't have a problem with most of your average german grunts just wanting to serve their country in WW2 and not knowing better. Its those who are war criminals and members of the SS/Nazi party that you should hate.
History has no "sides", it's only events & a timeline.
It was an SS Guard , not an officer, did you listen to the video?
No he ... SHUT UP ... .. NO he didn't!
Good work, Dark Docs. This guy was honorable guy.
Also some great commanders he had that stuk up for him against pressure from above.
That was so nice to watch. Finally a non german and english speaking person is not spreading hate (direct or covered) on germans.
Fascinating story and obviously an exceptional individual.
The low number of kills in Normandy was almost certainly due to the Allies overwhelmingly air superiority. Movement was very hard for the Germans particularly when it came to armored vehicles. In addition supplies were short and very restricted so most likely Knispel was operating at very limited capacity.
Second point is that not only must Knispel have been an exceptional offensive tank commander. He must also have been excellent in defense as he otherwise could not have come out alive from all these extraordinary decisive battles. Barbarossa, Kursk, Cherkassy, Normandy etc
The Allied air superiority in France in 1944 wasn't reflected in the number of tanks destroyed. But since tanks and infantry are mutually supportive and mutually dependent, Allied air power was able to successfully separate them, weakening the total package. The biggest problem the Allies had in France was that the Germans held all the high ground and controlled all the fire lanes. Air attacks only destroyed about 2% of the total.
So some or much of this story is made up? That’s bad. I remembered it as a Mark Felton video and that would have been hard to question but Darkdocs… cannot vouch for them. So I guess the Knispel story got conflated and eventually wrong?
@@CharlesWestinghIII There’s a video by ‘Military History Not Visualized’ channel called ‘Truth About Panzer Aces’. Those two guys are serious professional historians. This is way worse than Mark Felton, though doubtless it’s the sort of thing he subscribes to.
@@CharlesWestinghIII Dark Docs, Dark Skies, etc.. are all as bad as each other. They’re probably the least reliable source of military history on CZcams. I have them listed as ‘Do not recommend channel’.
Excellent film, but you might want to change the title of the "Fall From Grace" segment. For, that segment shows Knispel displaying continued heroism until he was killed in combat. That is the opposite of a 'fall from grace.'
This channel is so much better, the audio is 💯!! Well done$
Not every German was a Nazi. This man stood up against an SS Officer and was punished for it by not getting the recognition that he deserved. If the U.S. can award U.S. medals to soldiers 50 years after the fact, then Germany can credit this guy with the German (NOT NAZI) Awards that he deserved.
KIA One week before the war was over. I saw a tombstone in an old Cemetery in Hazlehurst, Ms.. He was a 22 year old Confederate infantry soldier that fought the entire 4 years of the Civil war. He was killed at Petersburg, Va., April 2nd 1865, One week before the war ended.His father traveled over 900 miles from Mississippi to retrieve his sons body and bring him home.Sad
History is full of such sad examples. Or soldiers that survive the war only to die stupidly afterwards in traffic accidents, etc.
@@TaeussKramme Yes
Now that's a man any army would want in there ranks may he rest in peace
I love how somebody is talking about Kurt Knipsel, he is usually never talked about and is my favorite tank commander of world war 2 with in 2nd is Wittmam
Thanks for sharing this bit of lost history. He was a car guy I can relate.
Great piece of history. This man must of had,a superb tank crew. Thank you.
Well, he was a one-man-crew in its own.
he was commander AND GUNNER, he "knew" when an enemy tank came around, he judged the range as good as any modern laser range finders, so he was some kind of "superman", because this abilities helped him to be as good as he was.
Wittmann forced the Knights cross for his gunner, normally it was the crew who counted. Knispel had that talent to improve all soldiers around him, either by giving them kills he achived (so his tally is propably 50+ higher) and by his kind way. But he was also hated by other companies, because he was a thief who steals everything from others (just like in the US movies like that one with the pink submarine.. just that he was that guy in real)
Outstanding video, sir, among the very best. ☝️😎☝️
I always find stories of Germans resisting the nazi ideology incredibly inspiring and heroic. This guy could have been a national hero recognized everywhere if he just did want the party thought was right. He did what he thought was right instead and earned more respect for if. I’ve never heard the name so I’ll need to do some more research but if the story of him stopping the SS officer from beating a Russian was true I bet he stood up against most if not all of the nazi crimes he was aware of. Inspiring.
So, you believed _everything?_
the thing is , no all allies were upstanding and not all axis were bad ... rotten apples are everywhere, but it would nice to hear more of stories like this aswell, it is not bad to educate yourself from stories of both sides.
He may have fought on the wrong side, but he did so with honor. Unlike a vast number of his comrades. Probably why they had such a hard time keeping him in line. Hard to respect people when you know how terrible they really are. Rest in peace soldier, your battle is over now.
Another great video. Thank you.
What an amazing warrior! Truly, he was the Achilles of tank warfare.
He basically used his tank as a sniper rifle
He used his tank as a tank, that being offensively in tank-in-tank combat. His long-range scores are very impressive considering the tech at the time.
Pz IV shown at 3:57 is from Parola Tank Museum in Finland. Been there :)
Thanks for yet another interesting video!
Damn good made WW2 stuff from our Dark Docs! Gut gemacht! Danke!
Thank God there weren't more German tankers like this guy
If only there had been we might have smashed international Communism once and for all.
Respect! RIP Kurt!
Thank you for sharing
🤗🙏🇺🇲🏆
Excellent narration style as usual. 🎉
Damn, that sucks he died that late in the war. Awesome story. Definitely would enjoy watching a movie or more in depth story about him. Respect his skills and character even if he was on the opposite side.