Werner Kempf

Germany state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1886–1964 ○ Died

German panzer general who led Army Detachment Kempf on the southern face at Kursk

He joined the Imperial German Army in 1905 and served on through the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht as an armoured commander. He led Panzer Division Kempf in the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the 6th Panzer Division in the Battle of France in 1940, and in Operation Barbarossa in 1941 his XLVIII Corps fought at Uman and Kiev and pushed as far as Kursk. At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 he commanded Army Detachment Kempf on the 4th Panzer Army's right, but was held up from the crossing of the Donets. He commanded the Wehrmacht in the Baltic in 1944, was taken prisoner in May 1945 and released in 1947.