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Hermann Hoth
Generaloberst Hermann Hoth, one day before Operation Barbarossa
Nickname(s)	"Papa Hoth"
Born	(1885-04-12)12 April 1885 Neuruppin, Province of Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	25 January 1971(1971-01-25) (aged 85) Goslar, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918)  Weimar Republic (to 1933)  Nazi Germany
Years of service	1903–45
Rank	Generaloberst
Commands	Third Panzer Group Seventeenth Army Fourth Panzer Army
Battles / wars	World War I World War II Invasion of Poland (1939) Fall of France (1940) Operation Barbarossa (1941) Operation Typhoon (1941) Operation Blue (1942) Battle of Voronezh (1942) Second Battle of Kharkov (1942) Battle of Stalingrad (1942) Operation Wintergewitter (1942) Battle of Kursk (1943) Battle of Kiev (1943)
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Signature

Hermann "Papa" Hoth (12 April 1885 – 25 January 1971) was an officer in the German military from 1903 to 1945. He attained the rank of Generaloberst during World War II. He fought in France, but is most noted as a panzer commander on the Eastern Front. Hoth commanded the 3rd Panzer Group during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and the 4th Panzer Army later during the Wehrmacht's 1942 summer offensive. Following the encirclement of the 6th Army in Stalingrad in November 1942, Hoth's panzer army unsuccessfully attempted to relieve it during Operation Wintergewitter. After Stalingrad, Hoth was involved in the Kursk counter-offensive in the summer of 1943 and the Battle of Kiev. The Fourth Panzer Army under his command at Kursk was the largest tank formation ever assembled. Hoth was dismissed from command by Adolf Hitler in 1943, only to be reinstated for a short time during the last weeks of the war. After the war, he served six years in prison for war crimes, and became a writer on military history.

Before the war

Hoth was born in Neuruppin, the son of an army medical officer. He joined the army in 1903 and at the start of World War I was promoted to Captain and he won both classes of Iron Cross. He remained in the Reichswehr (the armed forces of the Weimar Republic) in the interwar period. Following the reorganization of the German military into the Wehrmacht in 1935, he was promoted to Major-General and appointed to command the 18th Infantry Division.

World War II

Hoth was promoted to Lieutenant-General and given command of the XV Motorised Corps from 10 November 1938, leading it in the invasion of Poland the following year. During the invasion of France in May 1940, his panzer corps guarded Guderian's right flank during their dash through the Ardennes, and contained the 5th Panzer Division and Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division. Following the successful conclusion of the campaign Hoth was promoted to Generaloberst on 19 July 1940.

In Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Hoth commanded the Third Panzer Group which captured Minsk and Vitebsk. In October he replaced General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel as commander of the Seventeenth Army in Ukraine. As its commander he called upon his men to understand the need for "harsh punishment of Jewry". His army was driven back by the Russian offensives of early 1942 (see Second Battle of Kharkov).

In June 1942, he took over from General Erich Höpner as commander of Fourth Panzer Army. As part of Operation Blue, the German offensive in southern Russia, the army reached the Don River at Voronezh. Hoth was then ordered to swing south to support the First Panzer Army's crossing of the Don, a move which General Kleist found unhelpful, as the additional panzer army clogged the roads. It then advanced to the north in support of the Sixth Army's attempt to capture Stalingrad.

In November 1942, the Soviet winter counteroffensive smashed through the German lines and trapped the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. Hoth's panzer army was the centerpiece of Operation Winter Storm, the attempt to relieve the Sixth Army, under the overall command of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group Don. The operation failed, as Soviet reinforcements and worsening weather ground down the German advance. On 25 December, the Soviets resumed their offensive, forcing the Germans back and sealing the fate of the Sixth Army.

In July 1943, Hoth commanded the Fourth Panzer Army in the Battle of Kursk. His divisions, now reinforced by the II SS Panzer Corps, initially penetrated Soviet lines, before being brought to a halt at Prokhorovka. Manstein urged that the attack continue, but the lack of further progress the next day meant that the attacks on Prokharovka were called off.

In the aftermath of Kursk, the Red Army mounted a series of successful offensives that crossed the Dnieper, retook Kiev and pushed the Germans out of eastern Ukraine. Despite his record, Hitler blamed Hoth for part of the losses and relieved him of command.

In April 1945 he was recalled from the officer reserves to active duty and assigned to command the defense of the Harz Mountains, a position he held until the end of the war.

After the war

Following the end of the war, Hoth was put on trial at the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, found guilty of war crimes in the High Command Trial, and on 27 October 1948 sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1954 and spent his retirement writing. He died on 25 January 1971 in Goslar, where he is buried.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class (20 September 1914)
  • 1st Class (2 August 1915)
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award 4th to 1st Class
• Austrian Military Merit Cross (3. Class)
• Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords (16 August 1918)
• Bavarian Military Merit Cross (2. Class)
• Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg
• Eiserner Halbmond
• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (21 September 1939)
  • 1st Class (27 September 1939)
• Order of Michael the Brave
  • 3rd Class (6 November 1942)
• Bulgarian War Merit Order (4. Class)
• Panzer Badge in Silver
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 27 October 1939 as General der Infanterie and commander of XV Armeekorps
  • 25th Oak Leaves on 17 July 1941 as Generaloberst and commander-in-chief of Panzergruppe 3
  • 35th Swords on 15 September 1943 as Generaloberst and commander-in-chief of 4. Panzerarmee
• Mentioned five times in the Wehrmachtbericht

Wehrmachtbericht references

Notes

1. The 4th Panzer Army was advaincing on that line, on my left. It could have taken Stalingrad without a fight at the end of July, but was diverted south to help me in crossing the Don. I did not need its aid, and it merely congested the roads I was using.

References

Citations

1. Hermann Hoth
2. The rise of the Wehrmacht: the German armed forces and World War II, Volume 1 Samuel W. Mitcham page 537 Praeger 2008
3. Liddell Hart 1948, pp. 204–205.
4. ^ Thomas 1997, p. 304.
5. ^ Scherzer 2007, p. 406.
6. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 235.
7. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 55.
8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 41.
9. Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 1, p. 639.
10. Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 1, pp. 701–702.
11. Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 1, p. 702.

Bibliography

• Alman, Karl (2008). Panzer vor — Die dramatische Geschichte der deutschen Panzerwaffe und ihre tapferen Soldaten. Würzburg, Germany: Flechsig Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88189-638-2.
• Berger, Florian (1999). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges (in German). Vienna, Austria: Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 978-3-9501307-0-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 – Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Schaulen, Fritjof (2003). Eichenlaubträger 1940 – 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe I Abraham – Huppertz (in German). Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 978-3-932381-20-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Thomas, Franz (1997). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 1: A–K (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2299-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Williamson, Gordon (2006). Knight's Cross, Oak-Leaves and Swords Recipients 1941–45. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-643-0.
• Panzer-Operationen: Die Panzergruppe 3 und der operative Gedanke der deutschen Führung, Sommer 1941 (Heidelberg: Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, 1956)
• Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939–1945 Band 1, 1. September 1939 bis 31. Dezember 1941 (in German). München, Germany: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. 1985. ISBN 978-3-423-05944-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)

External links

v t e Battle of Stalingrad
Airfields Axis order of battle Red Army order of battle Bombing of Stalingrad in World War II German commanders German units
Operations  Nazi Germany Donnerschlag Winter Storm  Soviet Union Uranus Little Saturn Koltso
Formations Army groups and fronts B Centre Don Don Southwestern Stalingrad Voronezh Armies Axis German 4th Panzer German 6th Hungarian 2nd Italian 8th Romanian 3rd and 4th 1st Guards 2nd Guards 3rd Guards 21st 51st 62nd 64th 65th Corps XIV Panzer XXXX Panzer XXXXVIII Panzer IV VIII XI LI 8th Air Tank 1st 4th 13th 16th 24th 26th others 4th Mechanised 3rd Guards Cavalry 4th Cavalry 8th Cavalry Divisions Panzer 6th 14th 16th 17th 22nd 24th Infantry 3rd Motorised 29th Motorised 60th Motorised 5th 44th 71st 76th 79th 94th 100th 113th 295th 297th 305th 371st 376th 384th 389th others 9th Flak Guards Rifle 13th 15th 33rd 35th 36th 37th 39th Rifle 38th 45th 62nd 64th 91st 93rd 95th 112th 138th 157th 169th 173rd 181st 193rd 196th 204th 214th 221st 248th 284th 302nd 308th 422nd others 60th Cavalry 81st Cavalry
Notable participants Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Alexander Edler von Daniels Hermann Göring Hermann Hoth Hans-Valentin Hube Erich von Manstein Friedrich Paulus Wolfram von Richthofen Arthur Schmidt Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach Karl Strecker Romania Constantin Constantinescu-Claps Petre Dumitrescu Mihail Lascăr Other Axis members Viktor Pavičić (Croatia) Italo Gariboldi (Italy) Gusztáv Jány (Hungary) Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Hazi Aslanov Vasily Badanov Vasily Chuikov Nikolay Dyatlenko Sasha Filippov Filipp Golikov Vasily Gordov Vasily Grossman Nikita Khrushchev Nikolay Krylov Dmitry Lelyushenko Rodion Malinovsky Kirill Moskalenko Yakov Pavlov Alexander Rodimtsev Konstantin Rokossovsky Alexander Shcherbakov Semyon Timoshenko Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolay Voronov Erich Weinert Andrei Yeremenko Vasily Zaitsev Aleksey Zhadov Georgy Zhukov
Significant locations Barmaley Fountain Barrikady Factory Grain Elevator Gumrak Kalach Mamayev Kurgan Pavlov's House Pitomnik Airfield Red October Steel Factory River Don River Volga Tatsinskaya Airfield Tsaritsa Gorge Tractor Plant
In memoriam The Motherland Calls Stalingrad Madonna Sword of Stalingrad Battle of Stalingrad in popular culture
See also Battle of the Caucasus Battle of Kursk Case Blue Operation Barbarossa Second Battle of Kharkov Third Battle of Kharkov Volgograd

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v t e German Colonel Generals and General Admirals of Nazi Germany
Colonel General (Generaloberst) of the Army	Wilhelm Adam Hans-Jürgen von Arnim Ludwig Beck Johannes Blaskowitz Eduard Dietl Friedrich Dollmann Nikolaus von Falkenhorst Johannes Frießner Werner von Fritsch Friedrich Fromm Heinz Guderian Curt Haase Franz Halder Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord Josef Harpe Gotthard Heinrici Walter Heitz Carl Hilpert Erich Hoepner Karl-Adolf Hollidt Hermann Hoth Hans-Valentin Hube Erwin Jaenecke Alfred Jodl Georg Lindemann Eberhard von Mackensen Erhard Raus Georg-Hans Reinhardt Lothar Rendulic Richard Ruoff Hans von Salmuth Rudolf Schmidt Eugen Ritter von Schobert Adolf Strauss Karl Strecker Heinrich von Vietinghoff Walter Weiß Kurt Zeitzler
Colonel General (Generaloberst) of the Luftwaffe	Otto Deßloch Ulrich Grauert Hans Jeschonnek Alfred Keller Günther Korten Bruno Loerzer Alexander Löhr Günther Rüdel Kurt Student Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Ernst Udet Hubert Weise
General Admiral (Generaladmiral) of the Kriegsmarine	Conrad Albrecht Hermann Boehm Rolf Carls Hans-Georg von Friedeburg Oskar Kummetz Wilhelm Marschall Alfred Saalwächter Otto Schniewind Otto Schultze Walter Warzecha Karl Witzell
Oberst-Gruppenführer of the Waffen-SS	Sepp Dietrich Paul Hausser

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• 1885 births
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