12th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)

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.

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