12th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)

German 12th Panzer Division
Unit insignia
Active	10 January 1941 – 8 May 1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Allegiance	Wehrmacht
Branch	Heer
Type	Panzer
Role	Armoured warfare
Size	Division
Insignia
Insignia of 12th Panzer Division in Summer 1943

In October 1940 the 2nd Motorised Infantry Division was reorganized as the 12th Panzer Division, and in June 1941 it joined Operation Barbarossa, fighting in the battles of Minsk and Smolensk. It fought the rest of the war on the Russian Front, notably at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, and surrendered to the Soviets in the Courland Pocket at the end of the war in Europe.

Commanding officers

• Generaloberst Josef Harpe, 5 October 1940
• Generalleutnant Walter Wessel, 15 January 1942
• Generalleutnant Erpo Freiherr von Bodenhausen, 1 March 1943
• Generalmajor Gerhard Müller, 28 May 1944
• Generalleutnant Erpo Freiherr von Bodenhausen, 16 July 1944
• Oberst Horst von Usedom, 12 April 1945

See also

• Panzer, Panzer Division
• Division (military), Military unit
• Wehrmacht, List of German divisions in World War II

References

A Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H of the 12th Panzer Division operating on the Eastern Front in the USSR, 1944.

Note: The Web references may require you to follow links to cover the unit's entire history.

• Burkhard Müller-Hillebrand: Das Heer 1933-1945. Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Vol.III: Der Zweifrontenkrieg. Das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende. Mittler: Frankfurt am Main 1969, p. 285.
• Georg Tessin: Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939 - 1945. Vol. II: Die Landstreitkräfte 1 - 5. Mittler: Frankfurt am Main 1966.
• Georg Tessin: Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939 - 1945. Vol. III: Die Landstreitkräfte 6 - 14. Mittler: Frankfurt am Main 1967.