Hermann Hoth conflict Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Leading the 3rd Panzer Group
Hoth commanded the 3rd Panzer Group during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. This unit included the XXXIX Panzer Corps, LVII Panzer Corps, V Army Corps, and VI Army Corps which consisted of four Panzer divisions (7th, 12th, 19th, and 20th), three motorized divisions (14th, 20th, 18th), and four infantry divisions (5th, 6th, 26th, 35th). The 3rd Panzer Group fielded 626 tanks at the offensive's start. In his diaries, Hoth expressed no doubts about or opposition to the invasion, mirroring the opinion of most high-ranking German commanders. From a moral and ideological standpoint, Hoth believed that Russia had been overtaken by "Jewish Bolshevism", causing the country to turn away from its European heritage, transforming it into an expansionist, Asiatic, and despotic state as well as setting it on an unavoidable collision course with Germany. Hürter argued that Hoth's beliefs showcased remarkable similarities with Hitler's. Even after the war, Hoth continued to maintain that the invasion had been just based on these arguments. Despite his belief in the necessity of the invasion, Hoth had misgivings about its strategic planning and execution. He tried to convince his superior, Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group Center, that the 3rd Panzer Group had to operate with greater flexibility and prepare to strike deeper into the Soviet Union than intended by the high command (OKH). Bock rebuffed these requests. Regardless of his misgivings, Hoth generally adhered to the decided-upon plans and Bock's commands during the invasion. Researcher Robert Kirchubel described him as a "team player" and reliable in crisis situations during Operation Barbarossa.In course of the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group broke through the Soviet border defenses with relative ease. Bock consequently released Hoth from the 9th Army, allowing him to operate more freely. Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group and Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group proceeded to encircle Minsk as part of Army Group Center's operations, trapping 300,000 Red Army soldiers and capturing or destroying 2,500 tanks. At this point, Hoth again argued that the 3rd Panzer Group should move deeper into the Soviet territory and encircle more enemy troops before closing the pocket. This time he was supported by Bock, but they were overruled by the OKH. Alongside Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group, Hoth then pushed further to attack Smolensk, believing that they had to continue their advance to not allow the Red Army to reorganize. Before reaching the city, the panzer groups of Guderian and Hoth had almost outrun their supply lines, but were able to keep moving thanks to captured Soviet fuel depots. Hoth split his force into two, and secured vital crossings of the Daugava river on 3–4 July. His panzer group then kept advancing between the Daugava and Dnieper, capturing Vitebsk. The breakthrough of Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group at the Daugava-Dnieper line allowed for the encirclement of three Soviet armies.As the Wehrmacht advanced, questions arose about the treatment of suspected Red Army soldiers or deserters in civilian clothing. Hoth ordered the 3rd Panzer Group's officers to subject such individuals to a limited examination; if the officers concluded that the prisoners were Red Army soldiers, they were to be shot. Like all German armies on the Eastern Front, Hoth's Panzer Group also implemented the Commissar Order. Following the war, Hoth was the only German general who admitted that he had agreed with the order, believing that the Soviet political commissars could not be regarded as regular soldiers. According to reports from subordinate units, the order was carried out on a widespread basis.In mid-July 1941, the 3rd Panzer Group was subordinated to Army Group North to shore up the flanks and attempted to seize Velikie Luki. This was part of a larger operation aimed at seizing Leningrad. Hoth's forces were driven back on 20 July when Red Army forces broke through the German lines, prompting criticism from Bock for unnecessarily striking out too far to the north east. In early August, Hitler ordered a southward diversion of the German advance at Bryansk to the objection of many leading German officers, including Hoth, who advocated for a continued direct drive to Moscow. In mid to late August, Hoth's forces faced another setback owing to heavy losses and dispersal of efforts: facing the heavily reinforced Soviet 19th Army, he committed the 7th Panzer Division without infantry support, which resulted in what the historian David Stahel describes as a "debacle". The division's attack ran into fortified Soviet lines and was repulsed with the loss of 30 tanks. By September, the constant fighing had heavily depleted Hoth's force, as the 3rd Panzer Group had only about 250 tanks remaining. Hoth's panzer group subsequently assisted in Operation Typhoon, the offensive to capture Moscow. Stationed on the left flank, his force and the 9th Army were supposed to attack from Dukhovshchina toward Vyazma. As the plans for Operation Typhoon were discussed by the OKH and frontline commanders, Hoth argued for a delay of one day regarding the offensive, but was overruled.At the start of Operation Typhoon, the 3rd Panzer Group made good progress, though was slowed down by Soviet air attacks and the worn-down state of some of its units. Hoth's force and the 9th Army successfully captured two bridges across the Dnieper east of Kholm-Zhirkovsky and were just 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Vyazma, close to achieving another encirclement, when they were stopped by counter-attacks ordered by General Ivan Konev on 3 October. The resulting fighting and the exhaustion of its fuel supplies pinned down the 3rd Panzer Group until 6 October, when Hoth was able to restart the advance and sealed the Vyazma-Bryansk pockets. He was then redirected north to capture Rzhev and Kalinin, even though this effectively removed the 3rd Panzer Group from the Battle of Moscow. Hitler and the OKH believed that the "fatal blow" to the Red Army had been already delivered at Vyazma-Bryansk, and hoped for more great encirclements.Hoth was an active supporter of the war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) against the Soviet Union, calling on his men to understand the need for "harsh punishment of Jewry". Under Hoth's command, units of the 17th Army took part in the hunt for and murder of Jews in its territory of control. In response to the issuance of the Severity Order by Walter von Reichenau, he issued an order of the day in November 1941. The document began with a relatively lengthy discussion of history, decrying Jewish influence on Europe, before extolling recent German victories as part of a mission to "save European culture from Asiatic barbarism" and promising the impending collapse and complete "annihilation" of the Soviet Union, an "enslaved and joyless country". Finally, he gave the following directive to troops under his command:
Every sign of active or passive resistance or any sort of machinations on the part of Jewish-Bolshevik agitators are to be immediately and pitilessly exterminated ... These circles are the intellectual supports of Bolshevism, the bearers of its murderous organisation, the helpmates of the partisans. It is the same Jewish class of beings who have done so much damage to our own Fatherland by virtue of their activities against the nation and civilisation, and who promote anti-German tendencies throughout the world, and who will be the harbingers of revenge. Their extermination is a dictate of our own survival.
Hürter argued that this order reflected that Hoth was fully aware of the ongoing Holocaust, and evidently urged his troops to kill Jews not just due to their alleged support for anti-German elements, but also to prevent them from taking revenge in the future. According to researcher Linden Lyons, the order reflected Hoth's "obsequiousness" to Hitler, a tendency to blame the German "national trauma" of World War I on Jewish Bolshevism, and an attempt to "outdo" the extremity of Reichenau's order. Researcher and Manstein biographer Marcel Stein argued that the order as a whole "can cast doubt upon Hoth's sanity" and was "full of repetitive venom and hatred".Based on his order's reasoning and claiming that the Red Army was also operating with extreme brutality, Hoth additionally ordered the 17th Army's soldiers to kill all suspected partisans. He advised subordinate officers to cultivate the growing hatred for Soviet troops among the common German soldiers. Hoth also ordered the shooting of any civilians encountered in the woods, as these could potentially support or be partisans. He also agreed with and ordered the mass requisitioning of food, despite causing starvation in occupied cities. In his diaries, Hoth expressed his belief that leniency was the main reason for resistance in the rear areas; accordingly the German security forces should exterminate any opposition without mercy. At the same time, Hoth moderated some of the most extreme orders from the OKH; for instance, he ordered his troops to not treat the Ukraine as a colony, and to show local civilians some respect. Hoth believed that the Ukrainians would become part of the new order in Europe.
battle warfare struggle fighting combat