Fabio Paap

Fabio Paap
Born	Fabian Paap (1920-08-15)15 August 1920 Bitburg, Germany
Died	6 November 2022(2022-11-06) (aged 102)
Other names	Panzer Gott
Occupation	Military officer
Era	Vader Era Middenvader Era Vriend Era
Known for	Military development of the PzKpfw-55
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Spouse	Alicia Mercedes Bianchi (married 1953)
Children	3 daughters
Father	Franz Wilhelm Paap
Relatives	Jan Paap (cousin)
Family	Paap family
Military career
Allegiance	Nazi Germany  Tanoa Einsatzgruppen
Branch	German Army Wehrmacht
Service years	1940–1945 1946–2002
Rank	Feldwebel (German Army) Oberst (Tanoan Wehrmacht)
Unit	Panzer-Regiment 8 Panzer-Regiment 26 Panzertruppe
Conflicts	Second World War North African campaign Italian campaign

Fabio Paap (15 August 1920 – 6 November 2022), born Fabian Paap and nicknamed Panzer Gott, was a military officer who led armoured-vehicle development for the Panzertruppe of the Tanoa Einsatzgruppen. He directed the military development and trials of the PzKpfw-55, working with engineer Otto Rehberg and the manufacturer Strobl S.A., and later led the programme for its replacement, the PzKpfw-70.

Paap served as a tank crewman and platoon commander in the German Army during the Second World War. After captivity and the destruction of his family home, he accepted employment from his cousin Jan Paap and settled in Narevaku in 1946. He established a maintenance and technical-training facility outside La Roche, knowingly using prisoner forced labour in its construction. He reached the rank of Oberst and remained in military service until retiring in 2002.

Early life

Fabian Paap was born in Bitburg, Germany, on 15 August 1920. His father, Franz Wilhelm Paap, was a veteran of the First World War who ran a small road-haulage business. When the business failed in 1924, the family moved to Trier, where Franz Wilhelm worked as a lorry driver for another employer. They returned to Bitburg in 1928.

Paap developed an interest in vehicle mechanics as a child. Around 1930, he built a wooden model lorry with a moving axle, prompting a teacher to recommend technical education. He entered the Reform-Realgymnasium in Bitburg in 1931 and studied mathematics and science. In 1935, while examining a lorry belonging to his father's employer, he identified a slipping fan belt as the cause of overheating.

After his sixteenth birthday in 1936, Paap joined the Motor-Hitlerjugend and received motor-vehicle training coordinated with the Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps while continuing at school. He completed his Abitur in spring 1939. Although he had considered an engineering career, he followed his schooling with Reichsarbeitsdienst service and volunteered for the German Army's armoured forces in 1940.

German Army service

Paap's initial army training covered tank workshops and vehicle maintenance. By April–May 1941, he was serving with the workshop personnel of Panzer-Regiment 8, part of the 15th Panzer Division, in Libya near Tobruk. He sought a place in a tank crew and became a Panzer III loader in August, joining a regular crew in October.

North Africa

Anti-tank fire struck Paap's tank near Sidi Rezegh on 21 November 1941. The driver and gunner were killed, and the commander was wounded. Paap escaped through the turret and helped evacuate the commander, suffering burns to his hands. After recovering, he declined temporary workshop duties and requested a return to combat.

Paap attended a field course for non-commissioned officers in April and early May 1942. During the Gazala fighting on 27 May, Paap's commander was wounded. While the gunner continued firing, Paap helped coordinate the driver's movement and the tank's withdrawal. His conduct received a favourable report, and in June he was promoted to Unteroffizier and given permanent command of a Panzer III.

After fighting near Mersa Matruh on 27 June, Paap punched an inexperienced loader who had hesitated during the engagement, injuring his lip. The loader reported the assault to the platoon commander, who reprimanded Paap. The company commander concealed the assault from military criminal investigators and transferred the loader to another tank. Paap retained his command. He approached the loader in July, acknowledged that striking him had been wrong and attempted to apologise. The loader rejected the apology and refused to serve under him again.

During summer 1942, Paap travelled in an Opel Blitz with Gefreiter Heinrich Vollmer to collect spare parts from another camp. Men presenting themselves as friendly volunteer soldiers directed them onto another route, where the truck struck an explosive device. Vollmer was killed. Paap survived and sheltered in an abandoned farmhouse for about six days. After drinking contaminated well water, he developed severe diarrhoea and dehydration. He eventually left on foot, reached a German supply post and collapsed. Following treatment and several weeks of recovery, he returned to his regiment and resumed command of his tank.

During the withdrawal after the Second Battle of El Alamein in early November, another tank commander asked Paap to share his remaining fuel. Paap refused because he believed the transfer might leave both vehicles immobilised. His tank reached the next German position, while the other vehicle was abandoned and its crew escaped in a supply vehicle. The company commander heard the resulting complaint and supported Paap's decision. The two tank commanders subsequently avoided one another.

Paap reached El Agheila with his tank and crew by 24 November 1942. During a workshop inspection there in late November or early December, he argued with the mechanics and insisted that he understood the vehicle better than they did. A workshop NCO mockingly called him "Panzer Gott", and the nickname spread through the unit.

British anti-tank fire disabled Paap's Panzer III near Medenine on 6 March 1943. A deep shrapnel wound to his leg required surgery, and he was evacuated by air to Italy. By July he was medically fit and requested another tank command.

Italy and captivity

During summer 1943, Paap joined Panzer-Regiment 26 of the 26th Panzer Division and received a tank with a new crew. After the Italian armistice of 8 September, he participated in an attempt to disarm an Italian military position. The Italian soldiers refused and opened fire. Paap ordered his gunner to return fire, causing casualties before the surviving defenders surrendered. He ordered a ceasefire, had the prisoners disarmed and instructed his radio operator to request medical assistance. German infantry then took custody of the prisoners.

Paap was promoted to Feldwebel in October 1943 and given command of a tank platoon while continuing to command his own vehicle. His company commander had recommended him for the vacant post on the strength of his North African experience and maintenance skills. Later that month, Paap positioned the platoon along a secondary road to cover an infantry withdrawal, then withdrew his tanks by stages while they covered one another.

Following the Allied landings at Anzio in January 1944, Paap's platoon moved to the Anzio–Nettuno front and participated in the German counterattacks during February. When a subordinate tank became immobilised in waterlogged ground under Allied artillery fire, he halted the other vehicles and prolonged an attempt to arrange recovery. As the bombardment increased, he ordered the stranded crew to abandon the tank. His company commander criticised the delay for exposing the remaining crews. Paap defended his attempt to save a serviceable vehicle but acknowledged the risk and accepted instructions to leave comparable recoveries to designated recovery personnel when the tactical situation permitted.

Allied fire disabled Paap's own tank near Velletri during the breakout from Anzio in late May. He ordered his four crewmen to abandon it, and all five reached safety. After the retreat north of Rome, he reunited with the same crew. His company commander assigned him a repaired Panzer IV in June, allowing him to resume tank command and direction of his surviving platoon vehicles.

During fighting near Coriano in September, Paap positioned his tanks behind rising ground to support German infantry. When artillery began striking the position, he moved the platoon to a second firing line. In October, his tanks helped cover the infantry withdrawal on the approaches to the Savio River, and he continued serving in the Forlì–Faenza sector during November.

That winter, Paap received notice that his father had died in Germany. His company commander refused his request for funeral leave because the unit remained on active service. Franz Wilhelm had been killed in the bombing of Bitburg on 24 December 1944, which also destroyed the family home. Paap remained with his platoon while seeking further information.

During the April 1945 retreat towards the Po, Paap's Panzer IV could not be transported across the river. He ordered the crew to abandon it. All five crossed to the northern bank, continued into Veneto and rejoined remnants of the division. After the German surrender in Italy took effect on 2 May, they entered Allied captivity together at Ghedi, near Brescia. Paap remained there through the summer and was released in autumn 1945.

On returning to Bitburg, Paap learned the circumstances of his father's death and found the family home destroyed. He searched the ruins for personal belongings and tried to establish where his father had been buried. With no home to return to and no regular civilian employment arranged, he accepted Jan Paap's offer of work and housing in the Tanoa Einsatzgruppen.

Tanoan military career

Paap travelled from occupied Germany through Italy and Argentina in 1946 to take up his appointment as head of tank maintenance and technical training in the Panzertruppe. He entered the Wehrmacht with the rank of Hauptmann. After settling in Narevaku, he adopted the first name Fabio.

The Panzertruppe had transport vehicles and basic maintenance equipment but no operational tanks when Paap arrived. He began instruction using lorry engines and designed a purpose-built maintenance and training facility outside La Roche. Jan approved the plans and financed construction, which Paap supervised. Tanoan authorities supplied Narevakan prisoners as forced labourers, and Paap knowingly used them on the project. He understood the regime's exploitation and continued serving because it provided the resources and authority he wanted for his military development work.

Maintenance and early development

In 1948, Paap began directing original tank-design studies at the La Roche technical facility. His experience of the failed recovery at Anzio informed his emphasis on field maintenance and vehicle recovery. At his request, Jan recruited the German mechanical engineer Otto Rehberg. Paap demonstrated practical maintenance problems and set the military requirements, while Rehberg performed the detailed engineering calculations. Paap accepted revisions when Rehberg demonstrated that they were technically necessary.

Paap presented their preliminary studies to Jan in early 1949 and obtained additional engineering funds. Jan withheld approval for a complete tank prototype, and the immediate work continued through component studies and practical towing experiments. When the available towing vehicles lost traction on wet ground, Paap asked Rehberg to investigate a tracked recovery tractor. They converted an existing industrial crawler into the Bergeschlepper 49, completed in late 1949. Paap directed its construction and trials, during which it recovered an immobilised military lorry. Rehberg cautioned that recovering a lorry did not demonstrate the ability to recover a tank.

The Panzertruppe also received its first operational tanks in 1949, imported M4 Shermans obtained through intermediaries in Argentina. Paap participated in technical familiarisation and maintenance preparation at La Roche. He continued the separate recovery experiments and requested an official assessment of the Bergeschlepper from the Tanoanisches Waffenamt in early 1950. The office required measured towing forces and heavier trials before sending inspectors. Paap arranged a test with a Wehrmacht transport detachment on 21 June 1950. Rehberg measured the towing forces during the tractor's successful recovery of a heavily laden lorry. Paap submitted the results to the Waffenamt.

Maintenance faults found during inspections led Paap to change how the Panzertruppe trained its mechanics and recorded servicing. Jan had extended his inspection responsibilities beyond La Roche on 20 November 1951, and Paap ordered corrective training after visiting a technical detachment before the year's end. He introduced common inspection sheets and servicing schedules on 12 March 1952 and supervised their implementation.

Captured Argentine Army vehicles brought further maintenance work during the Tanoan occupation of Patagonia in 1953. Paap inspected the transport vehicles and workshop equipment around Comodoro Rivadavia, then submitted recommendations on their usefulness to the Panzertruppe. He supervised practical examinations for the military mechanics working with the inherited vehicles. The training programme ended on 8 June 1954, and he reported its completion to his superiors.

PzKpfw-55 and concurrent programmes

Paap returned to the tank studies he had begun with Rehberg after his promotion to Major on 14 February 1955. He asked Jan to fund a complete experimental tank. The Waffenamt assessed the proposal at Jan's request and recommended a prototype with Paap as its military leader. Jan agreed to finance development through Strobl S.A. and transferred Paap's routine inspections and day-to-day training supervision to other officers so he could concentrate on the tank. Rehberg continued working on the design.

Strobl supplied the industrial engineering and manufacturing organisation for the PzKpfw-55. The company began manufacturing tanks after completing its steel facility on Tanoa in 1958. Paap personally directed the completed prototype's first military trials in 1960 and the further testing, requiring corrections before acceptance. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant on 1 October 1962.

The Panzertruppe accepted the PzKpfw-55 on 22 March 1963, and Strobl began series production on 15 January 1964. Jan also entrusted Paap with subsequent vehicle programmes. Paap assembled military project teams to work with manufacturers and led several programmes concurrently.

Working with reconnaissance crews on the PzSpW-60, Paap responded to complaints about visibility by requiring a revised crew arrangement and further trials before securing military acceptance. His work with artillery crews on the ArtSfl-61 likewise led him to require corrections during field trials. He also obtained approval for a KlPz-61 prototype and directed its military trials. Both the ArtSfl-61 and KlPz-61 reached military acceptance under his leadership. He continued directing the development teams and was promoted to Oberst on 1 April 1968.

PzKpfw-70 and continued service

Paap drew on the PzKpfw-55 crews' experience when preparing the requirements for its intended replacement, the PzKpfw-70. He assembled a military requirements team on 12 January 1970 and worked with industrial designers on the new tank. Jan funded a complete prototype through Strobl, which handled engineering and construction. Paap directed the military trials beginning on 14 June 1976 and required corrections before securing acceptance on 24 May 1979. Strobl began production on 14 January 1980 while the PzKpfw-55 remained in service.

Paap retained his development appointment after Eef Paap succeeded Jan in January 1980. Paap continued directing military development teams through the 1980s and remained in the post until 2002, when he handed over the appointment and retired completely from military work.

Personal life and later years

By July 1950, Paap lived outside La Roche in a house arranged by Jan's administration. That August, he wrote to the municipal administration in Bitburg to ask about his father's burial and surviving records of the destroyed family home.

Paap invited Rehberg home in September 1950. They discussed their lives in Germany and continued meeting socially.

Paap met the Argentine Alicia Mercedes Bianchi in a La Roche tavern in October 1950. They met there again in February 1951, when he asked her on a date and she accepted. They married in 1953 and had three daughters.

After retiring in 2002, Paap remained in La Roche. He died on 6 November 2022, aged 102.

See also

• Paap family
• Panzertruppe
• Arms industry of the Tanoa Einsatzgruppen