3rd Panzer Army (Wehrmacht)

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The 3rd Panzer Army / Tank Army High Command 3 (PzAOK 3) was a major unit of the Army of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . She was the high command of changing army corps and numerous special troops.

history

The Panzer Group 3 was on November 16, 1940 by the promotion of the General Command XV. Army corps (mot.) Formed, which had previously been used in the Polish and western campaigns . Hermann Hoth , who was promoted to general colonel after the campaign in the west, remained the leader of the association . Initially subordinated to the 1st Army in France , the staff moved to Army Group C at home in the winter of 1940/41 .

1941

In preparation for Operation Barbarossa , the Panzer Group was moved to Poland in order to take part in the attack on the Soviet Union as part of the Central Army Group . Panzer Group 3 attacked on June 22, 1941 from the front ledge of Suwalki in the direction of Olita and Grodno ; in addition to four armored and three motorized divisions, it had also been assigned 4 infantry divisions:

The German 9th Army and Hoth's troops formed the northern pincer arm during the Kesselschlacht near Białystok and Minsk , which, in cooperation with the southern armored wedge of Panzer Group 2, led to the encirclement of the Soviet western front . Immediately afterwards, Panzer Group 3 took part in the Kesselschlacht near Smolensk in July , during which the German advance on the Dnepr - Düna line was temporarily stopped. In September there was a reclassification in preparation for the resumption of offensive actions with the aim of advancing to Moscow via Vyazma and Rzhev . The Panzer Group was temporarily reinforced to four corps by surrendering other armies. The breakthrough through the Soviet lines was achieved in the Vyazma Kessel Battle (October 2–16), whereupon the Panzer Group received the order to advance on Kalinin . During this attack, Hoth was recalled to the 17th Army and replaced by the General of the Panzer Troop Georg-Hans Reinhardt . Due to the beginning of the mud period ( Rasputiza ), the German advance remained stuck until the onset of frost in mid-November 1941. In the Battle of Moscow , the advance to the Ivankovo ​​Reservoir and the Moscow-Volga Canal was successful , until the counter-offensive of the West and Kalinin Fronts that began in early December forced the tank group to retreat to the Lama .

1942/43

On January 1, 1942, the Panzer Group was renamed the 3rd Panzer Army . Together with the 9th Army and the 4th Panzer Army , the army ran the risk of being encircled in the Rzhev area in early 1942 (→  Battle of Rzhev ). However, the Army High Command was withdrawn from the front in mid-January to be deployed at the threatened interface with Army Group North . For this purpose, scraped reserves and fresh divisions brought in from the west were placed under him. In the winter of 1942/43 the battle of Velikiye Luki took place here . In the fall of 1943, the army had to retreat to the panther position before the Soviet Smolensk operation .

1944

In the summer of 1944, the army was surrounded during the Soviet operation Bagration , but was partially able to free itself again. At that time it had no main battle tanks, but had 60,000 horses. Your focus paved the battles at Tekino, Vitebsk and the Daugava .

Army organization on July 19, 1944

In August, Doppelkopf succeeded in temporarily reestablishing contact with Army Group North. After the advance of the Red Army, it withdrew to Lithuania and Courland and, after contact with Army Group North was finally broken after the Baltic operation, fought near the Memel River in East Prussia from October 1944 .

1945

On January 20, 1945, Soviet troops captured Tilsit . After the retreat of the IX. Army Corps also had the gene. Kdo. XXVIII. be withdrawn from the Memel bridgehead . The 3rd Panzer Army was cut off together with the 4th Army from the rest of Army Group Center during the Battle of East Prussia . The Army High Command was then evacuated across the Baltic Sea and placed under the Vistula Army Group in Pomerania , where it took over the troops of the 11th SS Panzer Army . The army was involved in the Battle of East Pomerania and defended the Oder line with the "Fortress Stettin " until the end of April . During the Stettin-Rostock operation (April 1945) the army was subordinate to four corps groups:

After the Soviet breakthrough on the Oder , most of the army withdrew to Mecklenburg to be taken prisoner by the Western Allies, while parts ( III. SS Panzer Corps ) took part in the Battle of Berlin and fought in Brandenburg .

War crimes

The 3rd Panzer Army was involved in numerous crimes against the civilian population in Belarus . From March 1944, the 3rd Panzer Army had civilians from Vitebsk deported to the Borissow camp on a large scale as workers . Together with the SS , police and civil administration, the association carried out so-called “major actions” against partisans such as “Operation Rain Showers” ​​and “Spring Festival”. Villages were searched and burned down. The civilian population was either forcibly recruited for labor service or shot on suspicion of being partisans.

people

Commander in Chief of Panzer Group 3/3. Panzer Army
period of service Rank Surname
November 16, 1940 to October 5, 1941 Colonel General Hermann Hoth
October 5, 1941 to August 15, 1944 Colonel General Georg-Hans Reinhardt
August 15, 1944 to March 9, 1945 Colonel General Erhard Raus
March 9 to May 8, 1945 General of the armored force Hasso von Manteuffel
Chiefs of the General Staff of Panzer Group 3/3. Panzer Army
period of service Rank Surname
November 16, 1940 to May 13, 1942 Colonel Walther von Hünersdorff
May 13, 1942 to May 5, 1943 Lieutenant General Walter Schilling
May 5, 1943 to September 1, 1944 Major general Otto Heidkämper
September 1, 1944 to May 8, 1945 Major general Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand
General staff officers (Ia) of Panzer Group 3/3. Panzer Army
period of service Rank Surname
November 16, 1940 to January 31, 1941 Lieutenant colonel Harald Freiherr von Elverfeldt
February 1, 1941 to June 1, 1942 Lieutenant colonel Carl Wagener
June 2, 1942 to November 5, 1943 Colonel Dietrich Beelitz
November 5, 1943 to September 25, 1944 Colonel Hans-Joachim Ludendorff
September 25, 1944 to May 8, 1945 major Hans Krohn

structure

Army troops

Subordinate major associations

July 1941
October 1941
February 1942
July 1942
February 1943
December 1943
July 1944
October 1944
March 1945

See also

literature

  • James Lucas: The Wehrmacht 1939–1945. Numbers, data, facts . Tosa Verlagsgesellschaft, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-854-92880-7 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 2. The Land Forces 1–5 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0871-3 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Why Stalin did not end the war in 1944. welt.de, June 25, 2014, accessed June 25, 2014.
  2. ↑ possibly Tekino in Tver Oblast .
  3. ^ Tony Le Tissier: Kampf um Berlin, Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, appendix p. 227
  4. ↑ Crimes of the Wehrmacht: 3rd Panzer Army (PDF; 1.6 MB)