Hans von Salmuth Hans Eberhard Kurt von Salmuth ( 11 November 1888 – 1 January 1962 ) was a German general during World War II . A lifelong professional soldier , he served his country as a junior officer in World War I , a staff officer in the inter - war period and early World War II , and an army level commander . General von Salmuth commanded several different armies on the Eastern Front and his final command was the Fifteenth Army in France during and shortly after the D - Day invasion . After the war he spent five years in prison for war crimes . Early life , the First World War and the inter - war period . Born in Metz , Alsace - Lorraine , into a Prussia n military family , he joined the German Army on 19 September 1907 . He served in the First World War . By the war ' s end , he had reached the rank of captain ( " hauptmann " ) . He stayed in the army after the war . He was promoted to colonel on 1 May 1934 and served as chief of staff of II Corps from 1934 to 1937 . On 1 August 1937 he was promoted to brigadier - general . He was assigned Chief of Staff to 1st Army Group Command . In 1938 he was assigned as Chief of Staff for the Second Army . He was promoted to the rank of major - general on 1 August 1939 . The Second World War . In 1939 he was Chief of Staff for Army Group North , commanded by General Fedor von Bock , and served in " Case White " ( " Fall Weiss " ) , the successful invasion of Poland . von Salmuth continued as Chief of Staff to General von Bock , when the latter was given command of Army Group B for the next big operation , " Case Yellow " ( " Fall Gelb " ) , the invasion of Belgium and France , in May 1940 . After the crushing defeat of the Allies in Case Yellow and the surrender of France , von Salmuth was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross on 19 July 1940 . On 1 August 1940 , he was promoted to lieutenant - general ( " general der infanterie " ) . In 1941 , von Salmuth was assigned to the Eastern Front . On 10 May , he was given command of the XXX Corps . Von Salmuth participated in Operation Barbarossa and saw service in the Crimea . The XXX Corps under the command of General von Salmuth successfully took part in the Battle of Sevastopol . In 1942 , he was made acting commander of the Seventeenth Army ( 20 April 1942 to 1 June 1942 ) . For a short time , 6 June 1942 to 15 July 1942 , he was assigned command of the Fourth Army , replacing the former commander , Gotthard Heinrici , who went on leave . In mid July 1942 , he was made commander of the Second Army . von Salmuth was promoted to full general ( " generaloberst " , literally " colonel - general " , the second highest World War II - era German officer rank , the highest being " generalfeldmarschall " ) , in January 1943 . On 3 February 1943 , he turned over command of the Second Army to General Walter Weiss , and was again given command of the Fourth Army while Gotthard Heinrici went on leave , this time until July 1943 . General von Salmuth was then re - assigned from the Eastern Front , and sent to France , where in August 1943 he was given command of the important Fifteenth Army stationed in the Pas - de - Calais area of France . The Pas - de - Calais area was that part of the Atlantic Wall believed by Adolf Hitler to be where the Allies would choose for the D - Day invasion , and Fifteenth Army was given 17 divisions , the largest contingent of any German army - sized formation on the Western Front . The Allies did everything in their power to encourage Hitler in his mistaken belief ( see Operation Bodyguard ) as they had picked Normandy as the site of the invasion , an area defended by the smaller German Seventh Army . Hans von Salmuth wrote this anecdote in his diary about the morning of the D - Day invasion , 6 June 1944 : The HQ of the 15th Army is today a museum , in Tourcoing ( France , near Lille ) . Von Salmuth was relieved of his command by Hitler , in late August 1944 , following the disintegration of the German front line , after the Allied breakout from Normandy ( Operation Cobra ) , and roughly about the same time as the liberation of Paris . He was replaced by General Gustav - Adolf von Zangen . Hans von Salmuth was given no further commands in the war , which for Germany ended approximately nine months later , in May 1945 . After World War II , Nuremberg trials , and retirement . After the war , von Salmuth was held as a prisoner of war until 1948 , when he was one of 185 defendants prosecuted in the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Allied Control Council ( ACC ) Law No . 10 . Von Salmuth was tried in the High Command Trial and found guilty of war crimes against prisoners of war and enemy belligerents , and crimes against humanity involving civilians in occupied countries and was sentenced to twenty years in prison . However , he was released early after serving only five years , in 1953 . He died in Heidelberg , West Germany , in 1962 . He was buried in the Nordfriedhof cemetery located in Wiesbaden , Germany .