SS OBERSTURMFUHRER WERNER WOLFF. In all of the Panzertruppe’s history, there is no comparable rise and fall of a gifted Panzer commander. Werner Wolff’s story is simultaneously of that of the Panzerwaffe, in which he served in his short but meteoric career. Werner Wolff, the 20 year-old hell-for-leather Panzer commander, the youngest in the Wehrmacht, was a man of body, soul and spirit who brought all three principles into high function in the Panzer Battles in a life of drama and challenge. Werner Wolff was a new breed of warrior native to the twentieth century who was immersed in the inhuman mass effects of modern warfare. Werner Wolff had a will almost fierce in its drive to prevail and conquer. His directness in thought and word are disquieting to the pretender, inspiring to the timid and challenging to the valiant and in terms of meeting all life’s challenges head-on. Werner Wolff approached and confronted every obstacle with his punch-in-the-nose bluntness. In the annals of war history, there have not been many young heroes of Werner Wolff’s dimension. His success was due to the way he drove home his attacks: They were point-blank, like the man himself. He was a man of consummate coolness under stress and has far more than his fair share of nerve, despite his tender years and extreme youth. Werner Wolf played the cards that fate has dealt him in war with an equanimity that all grown men can admire, but which few could even hope to emulate. In one heroic action in the battle of Kursk on July 12 1943, in the gigantic clash of armor at Prochorowvka, using the 3.7 cm anti-tank gun on his SPW 251D halftrack, he personally destroyed 11 guns, as well as numerous mortars, machine guns and anti-tank rifles, moreover, in a display of bold daring, he managed to destroy 2 tanks of the T-34 model at extremely close range with this small caliber weapon. And in his moment of even greater distinction, with incredible élan and on his own initiative, he was able to destroy a T-34 in close combat in a man against tank engagement and, in a man to man struggle, in a vicious hand to hand fight to the death, killed a Russian Commanding General with the general’s own dagger. When by the evening of that hot summer day an entire enemy tank corps had been thoroughly destroyed. Thanks to his aggressiveness and willingness leadership which was rock steady in any crisis. For this action he was personally recommended for the award of the Knight’s Cross by Sepp Dietrich, Theodore Wisch and Jochen Peiper. Which was awarded by a grateful nation on 7 August 1943. The urge to be top man was a driving force in all who were successful. In a company of heroes, only a Titan stands tall. Werner Wolff was the Man of the hour. A war correspondent interviewed Werner Wolff about his experiences and it was later the subject of a radio broadcast about his incredible actions at Prochorowvka in which Werner Wolff said: “ No man is any good who has no enemies”. In a career of brilliant promise, like a flash of a lightning comet shot up in glory, only to disappear back into the darkness just as quickly, Werner Wolff was mortally wounded on 20 March 1945, in Hungary, when he stood straight up in the turret, his belt line even with the hatch to launch an attack by giving the usual signal for the tanks to advance, the right fist up in the air, when at that moment, a mortar round exploded immediately next to Wolff’s tank on the right. Wolff screamed and fell inside his tank, the other tank commanders who had been watching their commander, were paralyzed with horror. A tiny piece of shrapnel had went directly up his nasal passage without any exterior manifestations, but went directly to his brain, critically wounded. He was brought to the Leibstandarte’s main aid station, which by then he had fallen into a coma. He was operated on and died there on 30 March 1945. A warrior of memorable quality such as Werner Wolff had burnished his name in the annals of the Panzer battles of World War II, who had found immortal fame in darkness, had gone to his eternal night. He reached the heights, and plumbed the depths. As in any soldier in any country, in any war, he was out to prove to the world with his immortal heroic actions, to prepare to fertilize the way to his nation’s freedom, with the blood of its fighters. The country’s finest blood, shed for the rebirth of the nation. It is not the half-hearted and neutral who go down in history, but those who take on the fight. Into the twilight of the Gods.
