German 10th Panzer Division | |
---|---|
Active | March 1939 - 12 May 1943 |
Country | Germany |
Branch | German Army Heer |
Type | Panzer |
Role | Armoured warfare |
Size | Division |
Garrison/HQ | Wehrkreis V: Stuttgart |
Engagements | World War II |
Insignia | |
Insignia (1939–1940) | |
Insignia (1940–1941) |
The 10th Panzer Division (English: 10th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Heer, during World War II, established in March 1939.
The 10th Panzer Division was formed in Prague in March 1939, and served in the Army Group North reserve during the invasion of Poland of the same year. The division participated in the Battle of France in 1940, including the Siege of Calais, and in Operation Barbarossa attached to Army Group Center in 1941.
After taking heavy casualties on the Eastern Front it was sent back to France for rehabilitation and to serve as a strategic reserve against potential Allied invasion. The division was rushed to Tunisia after Operation Torch (1942) and spent six months in that theatre, where it engaged both British and American forces. It caused severe losses to the "green" US Army in some of their first encounters with the Germans under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at the Battle of Kasserine Pass (1943). It was later lost in the general Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943 and officially disbanded in June 1943. The division was never rebuilt.
In honour of notable members of the 10th Panzer Division being part of the German Resistance and the failed 20 July Plot to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944, a new armoured division was named 10th Armoured Division in 1959 upon the formation of the West German army as a part of the Bundeswehr.