Walther Nehring

Walther Kurt Josef Nehring (15 August 1892 – 20 April 1983), was a German general of World War II, known for his involvement with the Afrika Korps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves and Swords was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Early life
Walther Nehring was born on 15 August 1892 in Stretzin district of West Prussia. Nehring was the descendant of a Dutch family who had fled the Netherlands to escape religious persecution in the seventeenth century. His father, Emil Nehring, was a schoolteacher and officer of the Military Reserve. While Nehring was still a child the family moved to Danzig.

His father's first wife Minna died early. Walther Nehring's oldest brother Edwin Nehring resulted from this marriage. Emil Nehring married Martha Weiß in 1884, the daughter of Marie Alexandrine von Zitzewitz, who belonged to the old Pomeranian nobility. Walther Nehring and his seven year older sister Else were born from this marriage.

World War I
Nehring joined the military service on 16 September 1911 in the Infanterie-Regiment 152. He became a commissioned Leutnant on 18 December 1913.

World War II
Nehring was the Chief of Staff of the XIX Corps during the German invasion of Poland and the Panzer Group Guderian during the Battle of France.

He later took command of the Afrika Korps in May 1942 and took part in the last major Axis offensive (Operation Brandung) of the Western Desert campaign and the subsequent Battle of Alam Halfa (August 31 - September 7, 1942), during which he was wounded in an air raid. Between November and December 1942, he commanded the German contingent in Tunisia.

After North Africa, Nehring was posted to the Eastern Front where he commanded first the XXIV Panzer Corps, and then from July to August 1944 the Fourth Panzer Army. Nehring then returned to the XXIV in August 1944 and led the Corps until in March 1945 when he was made commander of the 1st Panzer Army. During 1944 he was also the commanding officer of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps.

Following the end of the war, General Nehring wrote a comprehensive history of the German panzer forces from 1916 to 1945, Die Geschichte der deutschen Panzerwaffe 1916 bis 1945. He also wrote the foreword to Len Deighton's Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk.

Awards

 * Wound Badge in Gold
 * Panzer Badge in Silver
 * "Afrika" Cuffband
 * Medaglia d'Argento al Valor Militare
 * Iron Cross (1914)
 * 2nd Class (27 January 1915)
 * 1st Class (25 November 1917)
 * Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (11 September 1939)
 * 1st Class (29 September 1939)
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
 * Knight's Cross on 24 July 1941 as Generalmajor and commander of the 18. Panzer-Division
 * 383rd Oak Leaves on 8 February 1944 as General der Panzertruppe and commanding general of the XXIV. Panzerkorps
 * 124th Swords on 22 January 1945 as General der Panzertruppe and commanding general of the XXIV. Panzerkorps
 * Mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht
 * Bundesverdienstkreuz 1st Class (27 July 1973)