Career
The Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. During the Battle of Kursk Hünersdorff and a number of his staff were attacked by a group of Heinkel He 111s which had mistakenly targeted them while attempting to support the division, wounding Hünersdorff. That same day he was struck in the head by a sniper"s round.
Hünersdorff was flown on a Fieseler Fi 156 to a hospital at Kharkov.
There he was operated on by a leading brain surgeon, Doctor Wilhelm Tönnis, formerly a professor at the University of Würzburg. He succumbed to his injuries on 17 July 1943 and was buried at the Military Cemetery at Kharkov.
(14 May 1940) (27 May 1940) Bibliography.
