: It spearheaded the encirclement battles at Minsk and Gomel, pushing rapidly through Belarus and into Russia.
: Following the failure at Kursk, the division began a multi-year fighting withdrawal across the Desna and Dnieper rivers, constantly acting as a "fire brigade" to plug gaps in the collapsing German lines. The Final Years and the Courland Pocket (1944–1945) 4 Panzer Division 1941-1945
: In late 1944, the division was pushed into Lithuania and eventually trapped in the Courland Peninsula along with the rest of Army Group North. : It spearheaded the encirclement battles at Minsk
The division's history is also marked by documented war crimes, particularly during the earlier campaigns in Poland and the Soviet Union. These included the Śladów massacre in 1939, where 252 prisoners of war and 106 civilians were executed, as well as instances of using civilians as human shields. The division's history is also marked by documented
: In October 1941, the division encountered the Soviet T-34 tank near Mtsensk. The superior Soviet armor and firepower "savaged" the division's lighter Panzer IVs, forcing a temporary halt and a reorganization of the remaining tanks into a single brigade.
: During the massive Soviet summer offensive of 1944, the 4th Panzer Division was one of the few units to successfully counter-attack, briefly halting the Soviet advance near Warsaw at the Battle of Radzymin.