Hans Graf Von Sponeck - Second World War

Second World War

On 1 February 1940, von Sponeck was promoted to Generalleutnant. The German airborne assault on the Low Countries began on 10 May 1940 with Generals Kurt Student and Hans Graf von Sponeck. Sponeck led the German troops in the failed Battle for the Hague and was almost captured, only to be saved by the bombardment of Rotterdam on the 14th of May 1940, that led the Dutch capitulation. He was wounded and on his return to Germany was further awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler.

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