Stop command

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The word halt command is used militarily and commands a force to stop all movement. Depending on how the fighting unit marches, it means

  1. not to advance further into enemy territory when advancing. Rapid formations, such as armored troops, typically receive this order. It gives the slower units the opportunity to catch up for reinforcements or supplies.
  2. to break off a retreat and to hold on to (defend) the territory held in possession. The order can serve to protect the retreat of other units or to keep enemy forces away from other targets.

Western Front in World War II

Probably the most famous stop order in war history was given by Adolf Hitler when Wehrmacht troops advanced on Dunkirk in May 1940 as part of the western campaign and encircled hundreds of thousands of British soldiers there. The stop order was given in the early afternoon of May 24, 1940 and was canceled after three days and eight hours. The tanks under General Heinz Guderian needed 16 hours to restore their readiness to march. The order to stop gave the British exactly four additional days. They used it to build a strong defensive ring around Dunkirk and to send ships to Dunkirk to evacuate 338,226 Allied soldiers, including around 110,000 French (see Operation Dynamo ). The operation was greatly facilitated by a very calm sea and cloudy sky.

This stop order is not to be confused with the “ Stop order from Montcornet ”, which was issued on May 17, 1940 and canceled on May 18 at 6:00 pm. The historian Martin Göhring wrote in 1958:

"On May 17, Hitler actually wanted to stop the tank units, and Brauchitsch and Halder only managed to prevail against him with great difficulty. They let the bandages roll away; on May 20th they reach the coast near Abbeville and can turn north, towards Calais and Boulogne, towards the sea. "

The book Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940 by Karl-Heinz Frieser deals in detail with the halt order.

Eastern Front in World War II

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht was after the failed capture of Moscow in the double battle of Vyazma and Bryansk and the counter-offensive of the Red Army on 5 December 1941, the Soviet-German front under severe pressure.

On December 26, 1941, Hitler issued a halt order in which he prohibited any backward movement without his express permission. He demanded from the troubled troops the "fanatical commitment of every commander ... to force the troops to fanatical resistance in their positions". Commanders were often reprimanded, deposed, demoted or otherwise punished for this reason. For example, Colonel General Erich Hoepner was deposed as commander of the 4th Panzer Army on January 8, 1942, because he had ordered a retreat a few days earlier. According to the historian Christian Hartmann , Hitler's “doctrinal stubbornness initially prevented the Eastern army from being broken up in the vastness of this theater of war, where it would probably have perished soon”.

On January 8th the Red Army began its winter offensive. Five armies of the Soviet northwest front broke through the defensive positions of the 16th Army between Seligersee and Ilmensee. In spite of this, Ernst Busch ordered his corps commanders - in accordance with Adolf Hitler's instructions - to hold onto their position, although this was practically impossible due to the unfavorable balance of forces in combination with the weather conditions at temperatures of -40 degrees. As a result of the order, 5500 German soldiers were trapped in the city of Cholm on January 28, 1942 (see Battle of Cholm ); the II Army Corps was included on February 8, 1942 ( Demyansk Kessel Battle ). The connection to Army Group Center was completely lost and the 290th Infantry Division was almost completely wiped out near Demyansk . Busch was fortunate that, after their breakthrough, the Soviet units pushed forward in a southerly direction towards the rear of Army Group Center, where they were from XXXXI. German Army Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Walter Model .

In the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest (autumn 1944 - February 13, 1945) Hitler gave militarily senseless stop orders.

Red Army

Impressed by the German stop orders, Josef Stalin issued Order No. 227 on July 28, 1942 , according to which the company commanders, battalion commanders, regimental and division commanders, as well as the corresponding commissars and political leaders, who without express orders, take up their positions in the fight against the To leave the Wehrmacht , to be regarded as traitors to the homeland and to be tried by a court martial.

literature

See also

Footnotes

  1. a b Section No turn of the war in 1940 after the victory over France ( Memento des original from March 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - no longer available on August 15, 2015, probably Steiner: Bismarck's heirs 1809–1945. see. Martin Göhring # Writings (selection) .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wlb-stuttgart.de
  2. (first edition 1995; 3rd edition 2005; 4th unchanged edition 2012)
  3. Berthold Seewald: Why the Wehrmacht survived the winter of 1941/42 Die Welt , January 10, 2017
  4. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag , 2nd edition 2010. ISBN 978-3-486-70225-5
  5. End of the Battle of Stalingrad: “decisive battle for the freedom of humanity” Deutschlandfunk , February 2, 2018
  6. "Don't take a step back!" - Stalin's famous order Annex to OKM 3.Abt.Skl. B.Nr. 15998/42 go. From 3rd September 42nd Order of the People's Commissar for the Defense of the USSR No. 227 from 28. July 1942