3rd Panzer Army (Wehrmacht)
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:
- VI. Army Corps (Gen. der Pion. Forester ) with 6th and 26th Infantry Divisions
- 5th Army Corps (Gen. Inf. Ruoff ) with 5th and 35th Infantry Divisions
- XXXIX. Motorized Army Corps ( Gen. Pz.Trp. Schmidt ) with 7th and 20th Panzer Divisions and 14th and 20th Infantry Division (motorized)
- LVII. Army Corps (motorized) (Gen. Pz.Trp. Kuntzen ) with 12th and 19th Panzer Divisions and 18th Infantry Division (motorized)
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
- XXVI. Army Corps (General of Infantry Grasser ) with 6th Panzer Division , Corps Division D, 52nd Security Division , 561st Volksgrenadier Division , Kampfgruppe Tolsdorf and Panzer Grenadier Division Greater Germany
- IX. Army Corps (General der Artillerie Wuthmann ) with 69th , 212th , 252nd Infantry Divisions , 201st and 391st Security Divisions, 548th People's Grenadier Division, von Werthern Armored Grenadier Brigade and Corps Department H
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:
- Swinoujscie Corps Group (Lieutenant General Ansat ) with the 402nd Infantry and 3rd Marine Divisions
- XXXII. Army corps (Lieutenant General Schack ) with the infantry division "Voigt", the 281st Infantry and 549th Volksgrenadier Division
- Army Corps Oder (SS-Generalleutnant von dem Bach-Zelewski ) with the infantry brigade "Klossek" and the 610th Infantry Division
- XXXXVI. Panzer Corps (General der Infanterie Gareis ) with the 547th Volksgrenadier Division and the 1st Marine Division
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
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 |
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 |
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
- Higher Artillery Commander 313
- Commander of the rear army area 590
- Panzer Army Supply Leader 3
- 3rd Panzer Army News Regiment
Subordinate major associations
July 1941 | |
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October 1941 | |
February 1942 | |
July 1942 | |
February 1943 |
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December 1943 |
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July 1944 |
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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
- Finding aid for inventory RH 21-3: Panzer Army High Command 3 1939–1945 in the Federal Archives
- German 3rd Panzer Army. May 1941 - April 1945 (PDF; 134 kB) Retrieved September 15, 2011 (English).
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Why Stalin did not end the war in 1944. welt.de, June 25, 2014, accessed June 25, 2014.
- ↑ possibly Tekino in Tver Oblast .
- ^ Tony Le Tissier: Kampf um Berlin, Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, appendix p. 227
- ↑ Crimes of the Wehrmacht: 3rd Panzer Army (PDF; 1.6 MB)