During a visit to a division command post on 24 August 1944 Strachwitz was badly injured in an automobile accident. The vehicle rolled over and the other occupants were killed. He sustained a fractured skull, and broken ribs, legs, arms and hands, and he was in critical condition. He was immediately taken to a field hospital, before being transferred to a hospital at Riga. He was then flown to Breslau in a Junkers Ju 52 for further treatment, where he was visited by his son, Harti. The doctors informed him that it would take him eight months to recover fully. Refusing to accept this, he worked out his own rehabilitation plan, and after seven days, Strachwitz signed himself out of the hospital, officially having himself transferred to the hospital at Oppeln. On the drive back he lost consciousness at almost every turn, arriving at his manor in Alt Siedel on 28 November 1944. Here he convalesced until 23 December 1944.