[8] As the first-born son he was the heir to the title Graf (Count) Strachwitz and, following family tradition, he was christened Hyazinth, after the 12th century saint.

He received further schooling and paramilitary training at the Königlich Preußischen Kadettenkorps (Royal Prussian cadet corps) in Wahlstatt—present-day Legnickie Pole—before he transferred to the Hauptkadettenanstalt (Main Military Academy) in Berlin-Lichterfelde.

[6][11] In August 1912, Cadet Strachwitz was admitted to the élite Gardes du Corps (Life Guards) cavalry regiment in Potsdam as a Fähnrich (Ensign).

[10] The Life Guards had been established by Prussian King Frederick the Great in 1740, and were considered the most prestigious posting in the Imperial German Army.

[15] When his unit arrived at their position near the Belgian border Strachwitz and his platoon volunteered for a mounted, long-distance reconnaissance patrol, which would penetrate far behind enemy lines.

Now classified as "determined to escape", Strachwitz was put in the cargo hold of a ship which commuted between Marseilles or Toulon and Thessaloniki, Greece.

An inspection by the Swiss medical commission from the International Red Cross ordered him transferred to a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, where he awoke after days of unconsciousness.

The doctors told Strachwitz that the French government had requested his extradition back to France, once he had fully recovered, to serve his full term of five years of forced labour.

The newly established provisional government under the leadership of Chancellor Friedrich Ebert was threatened by the Spartacist uprising of the German Revolution, whose ambition was a Soviet-style communist dictatorship.

In parallel, Strachwitz, fearing that Silesia was being "handed over to the Poles", as he viewed the actions of the Inter-Allied Committee, joined the Oberschlesischer Selbstschutz (Upper Silesian Self Defence).

In 1921, during the Silesian Uprisings, when Poland tried to separate Upper Silesia from the Weimar Republic, Strachwitz served under the Generals Bernhard von Hülsen and Karl Höfer.

Two months later his wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Alexandrine Aloysia Maria Elisabeth Therese born on 30 July 1921, nicknamed "Lisalex".

The Strachwitz family grew further when on 22 March 1925 a third child, a son named Hubertus Arthur, nicknamed "Harti", was born on their manor at Schedlitz, later renamed Alt Siedel—present-day Siedlec.

[32] During the crossing of the Meuse, the first objective, Strachwitz organized the traffic across the bridge and ensured delivery of the anti-aircraft ammunition to help fend off an Allied aerial attack.

[34] Elements of the 1st Panzer Brigade and the subordinated Infantry Regiment (motorized) Großdeutschland reached the river Aa south of Gravelines that night, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) southwest of Dunkirk.

The second phase of the Battle of France, Fall Rot (Case Red), was about to begin and Strachwitz returned to the 2nd Panzer Regiment where he again served as a supply officer.

On 25 March 1941, the government of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia had signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers in an effort to stay out of World War II.

This was immediately followed by mass protests in Belgrade and a military coup d'état led by Air Force commander General Dušan Simović.

For this purpose the mobilized forces of 1st Panzer Group under the command of Generaloberst Ewald von Kleist were ordered to attack Belgrade in what would become the Invasion of Yugoslavia.

But Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Walther von Reichenau, who visited his son, a Leutnant in the 4th company of Panzer-Regiment 2, revealed to them the true objective of the next campaign.

Talking to General Rudolf Schmundt and Kurt Zeitzler, the Chief of Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres, he was tasked with the creation of the Panzer-Regiment "Großdeutschland".

[48] He led the regiment when it took part in the Third Battle of Kharkov, fighting alongside SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser's II SS Panzer Corps.

[57] After a stay in the hospital at Breslau and a period of convalescence at home he received an order assigning him as "Höheren Panzerführer" (higher tank commander) to the Army Group North.

[58] On 26 March 1944, the Strachwitz Battle Group, consisting of the German 170th, 11th, and 227th Infantry Divisions and a tank hunting brigade, attacked the flanks of the Soviet 109th Rifle Corps south of the Tallinn railway, supported by an air strike.

[61] The Ostsack (east sack) of the Krivasoo bridgehead, defended by the Soviet 6th and the 117th Rifle Corps, were confused by the Strachwitz Battle Group's diversionary attack on 6 April.

At the same time, the 61st Infantry Division and the Strachwitz tank squadron pierced deep into the 59th Army's defences, splitting the two rifle corps apart and forcing them to retreat to their fortifications.

[65] During a visit to a division command post on 24 August 1944 Strachwitz was badly injured in an automobile accident when his vehicle rolled over, killing the other occupants.

He was taken to the prisoner of war camp at Allendorf near Marburg, where he was interned together with former Wehrmacht generals Franz Halder, Heinz Guderian and Adolf Galland.

The idea was to arrest and hand over Hitler into the custody of Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge, at the time commander-in-chief of Army Group Centre.

Seeing himself as a state-maker, the Otto von Bismarck of the Arabian peoples, Shishakli's goal was to transform Syria into a kind of "Prussian Arabia".