Now an oberst (colonel),[3] a more substantive period in command of the 4th Panzer Division followed from late July to September 1940.

[2] He was then transferred to the 7th Panzer Division, serving occupation duty in France and then in Russia during Operation Barbarossa,[4] as commander of its 7th Schützen Brigade.

[6] However, when his successor as commander, Generalmajor Erwin Mack, was killed in action, he returned as the division's permanent leader.

In late December 1942, having received a promotion to generalleutnant[Note 2] a few weeks earlier, he was injured as a result of an accident with a tank.

His participation in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler went undetected and he ended the war at Bergen, as its area commander.