4th Panzer Division ( Wehrmacht ) The German 4th Panzer Division ( " 4 . Panzer - Division " ) was established in 1938 . It participated in the 1939 invasion of Poland , the 1940 invasion of France , and the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union . It remained on the Eastern Front , mainly under Army Group Centre , until it was trapped on the coast at Courland in the summer of 1944 . It was evacuated by sea and returned to the main front in West Prussia in January 1945 . It surrendered to the Soviets there at the end of the war . During the Polish campaign the division engaged in a series of massacres against the civilian population and POW ' s . History . Creation . The 4th Panzer Division was formed as 7th Panzer Brigade in Würzburg on 10 November 1935 , as the first unit of the second series of German " fast units " . On 10 October 1938 , it was upgraded to full divisional status . During the Munich Crisis and the subsequent Anschluss of Czechoslovakia it was screening the border with Poland in case of a pre - emptive strike by the Allies . In August , 1939 , it was attached to the XVI Panzer Corps of the 10th Army under Gen . Walther von Reichenau . Polish Campaign . At the beginning of the Invasion of Poland ( 1939 ) , the division was one of the first to cross the border in the operational area of Army Group South . Equipped with roughly 341 tanks , including 183 Panzer I , 130 Panzer II , 12 Panzer IV and 16 PzBef . The division lacked some infantry and anti - tank units . Polish historian Mieczysław Bielski wrote that immediately after entering Polish territory , on 1 September , the division used civilians as human shield s during the battle of Mokra . During that battle the division was fighting the Polish Volhynian Cavalry Brigade under Colonel Julian Filipowicz . Their tanks proved to be inadequately armoured and the Poles inflicted heavy casualties on the German formation and repulsed most of its units , which lost roughly 160 vehicles in the battle ( between 70 and 100 of them , tanks ) , mostly to Polish - made Bofors 37 mm anti - tank guns and Kb ppanc wz . 35 anti - tank rifle s . According to the Polish historians Kazimierz Leszczyński and Janusz Gumkowski , a Polish aircraft was shot down on 3 September and its crew taken prisoner . One of its passengers was brutally interrogated , tortured ( German soldiers cut off his nose , ears and tongue ) and then executed by personnel of the 4th Division . After supporting 1st Panzer , the division took part in the break - through of the Polish lines near Kłobuck , the Poles withdrew . Three days later , the 4th Panzer Division continued its move towards Warsaw . It reached the Polish capital on 8 September and tried to take the city by surprise . At 17 . 00 , the forces of the 4th Panzer Division supported by the 31st Infantry Division attempted an assault on Warsaw ' s western borough of Ochota . The assault was repulsed and the German forces suffered heavy casualties . The following day the division was reinforced with artillery and the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler motorised infantry regiment , and began another assault towards Ochota and Wola . Well - placed Polish anti - tank guns and barricades erected on main streets repulsed this assault . On several occasions the lack of armament on the Polish side was made up for by ingenuity . One of the streets leading towards the city centre was covered with turpentine from a nearby factory . When German tanks approached , the liquid was set on fire , and the tanks were destroyed without a shot being fired . The German forces suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat . The 4th Panzer Division lost approximately 81 tanks out of 220 during the battle . After the failed assault on Warsaw , 4th Panzer Division was withdrawn westward and took part in the Battle of the Bzura , where it supported a German counter - attack . Polish - Jewish historian , Szymon Datner , stated that on 18 September , in the village of Śladów , units of the 4th Panzer Division shot or drowned 252 prisoners of war and 106 civilians in the Vistula . After that it was withdrawn to the Niederrhein . French Campaign . During the Battle of France in 1940 , the division came under the command of Erich Hoepner ' s XVI Panzer Corps , part of von Kleist ' s Panzer Group in the 6th Army commanded by Walther von Reichenau . After a blitzkrieg assault through Liege and Charleroi , it reached the area of Bethune , where it fought against the British Expeditionary Force in what became known as the battle of Dunkirk . However , due to Adolf Hitler ' s orders , it did not manage to capture Dunkirk itself . In early June 1940 , the division managed to cross a large part of France in several days . By the time the cease fire was signed it had reached Grenoble almost unopposed . After several months of occupation duty in France , in late November the 4th Division was again withdrawn to Würzburg , where it was reorganized and reinforced . The 36th Panzer Regiment was detached and assigned to the newly formed 14th Panzer Division , while the 103rd Artillery Regiment was reinforced with a third battalion . Eastern Front . Barbarossa . The division was moved to East Prussia and then to the area of Brześć Litewski in occupied Poland , where it was assigned to the XXIV Panzer Corps under Geyr von Schweppenburg . On 22 June 1941 , it took part in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the Soviet Union . During the first day , the division managed to drive a wedge into the Soviet positions and reached Kobryń some 65 kilometres behind the lines . The division then spearheaded one of the pincer moves to surround and destroy a large Soviet force in the battle of Minsk , where the German army took approximately 300 , 000 prisoners . After the battle of Homel it reached Kiev , where it fought against another pocket of resistance . In September 1941 , the division was attached to Army Group Centre , which was preparing to take part in the battle of Moscow . The assault started on 30 September 1941 , the division reached Mtsensk and Tula as the southern arm of a pincer which tried to surround the Soviet capital . However , the Germans had been almost paralysed when the autumn rains set in , turning the only road to Tula into a stretch of mud . Bogged down German tanks proved an easy target for Russian bombers . With the onset of frost in early November , the Germans could use the roads again , but faced the problem of not being equipped for winter warfare , as Hitler had anticipated a quick victory in the summer . Warm clothing and white camouflage suits were lacking , and more and more tanks and other vehicles were immobilised as temperatures dropped below freezing . Reserve unit , 1942 – 1943 . On 5 December , the division was withdrawn and ordered to defend a stretch of front near Moscow against a . In a series of retreats , the division lost almost all of its tanks . A month later it had only 25 machines still operational . It withdrew to the Orel area , where the thaw halted the Soviet counter - offensive and the unit could be partially reinforced . Throughout 1942 it fought in the battle of Orel , a series of almost World War I - like skirmishes , assaults and counter - assaults . The first battalion of the 35th Regiment was disbanded and the remaining tanks were transferred to the surviving tank battalions . It took part in the failed battle of Kursk , after which it withdrew to the area along the Desna River . After a series of Soviet tactical pushes , the front line was finally stabilized near Bobruysk , where the division spent the winter of 1943 – 1944 . Defensive operations on the Eastern Front , 1943 – 1945 . In the spring of 1944 , the division moved to the area of Kowel in occupied Poland , where it was to support Army Group South during the expected Soviet spring offensive . However , Operation Bagration , ( started on 22 June 1944 ) , was aimed at Army Group Centre and the division was forced to withdraw , along with the rest of the German army . Assigned to the XXXIX Panzer Corps under Gen . Karl Decker , the division withdrew to the area of Warsaw , where the Soviets halted their offensive due to the Warsaw Uprising . During the battle of Wołomin , 4th Division even managed to inflict some casualties on the Soviet III Tank Corps . The division was then transported to northern Lithuania , where it was to support Army Group North . It was attached to the 3rd Panzer Army . However , the Soviet advance cut the German army group in two and the division was mostly dispersed . Some of its sub - units were cut off from the rest of German - held territory together with the 16th and 18th Armies in Livonia , where they supported the defence until the end of the war . Other units were attached to smaller , often improvised formations . They were destroyed by the Soviet offensive of April – May 1945 .