3rd Panzer Army

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3rd Panzer Army
3. Panzerarmee
Active16 November 1940 – 3 May 1945
CountryFlag of Germany (1935-1945).svg  Nazi Germany
Branch Army (Wehrmacht)
Type Panzer
Role Armoured warfare
Size Army
Engagements
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern location map.svg
Black pog.svg
XXXII Corps
Black pog.svg
XXXXVI
Pz Corps
Black pog.svg
XXVII Corps
Black pog.svg
CI Corps
Black pog.svg
402nd Div
Black pog.svg
Elements
12th Army
Orange pog.svg
6th Airborne Div
Green pog.svg
8th Inf Div
Green pog.svg
29th Inf Div
Green pog.svg
82nd Airborne Div
Green pog.svg
(1)
Red pog.svg
65th Army
Red pog.svg
2nd Shock Army
Red pog.svg
3rd Guards
Tank Corps
Red pog.svg
49th Army
Red pog.svg
70th Army
Red pog.svg
3rd Guards
Cav Corps
Red pog.svg
19th Army
Orange pog.svg
5th Inf Div
Orange pog.svg
15th Inf Div
Orange pog.svg
11th Armd Div
Mecklenburg: Situation 2 May 1945
Red – Soviet forces, Orange – British forces, Green – U.S. forces, Grey – German forces
Sources: Tieke – p. 447, Allied Situation Map, Ustinow – Map 158
(1) – U.S. 84th Infantry Division, Bold units are 3rd Panzer Army

The 3rd Panzer Army (German : 3. Panzerarmee) was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 3rd Panzer Group on 1 January 1942.

Contents

3rd Panzer Group

The 3rd Panzer Group (German : Panzergruppe 3) was formed on 16 November 1940. It was a constituent part of Army Group Centre and participated in Operation Barbarossa and fought in the Battle of Moscow in late 1941 and early 1942. Later it served in Operation Typhoon, where it was placed under operational control of the Ninth Army. Panzergruppe 3 was retitled the 3rd Panzer Army on 1 January 1942.

Orders of battle

At the start of Operation Barbarossa the Group consisted of the XXXIX and LVII Army Corps (mot.).

Panther on the Eastern Front, 1944. Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-244-2321-34, Ostfront-Sud, Panzer V (Panther).jpg
Panther on the Eastern Front, 1944.

2 October 1941

Part of Army Group Centre.

3rd Panzer Army was formed by redesignating 3rd Panzer Group on 1 January 1942.

In March 1944, the 3rd Panzer Army took part in the forced assembly and deportation of Russian civilians in the Borisov area. The civilians were deported to Germany for use as forced labor. [1]

During Operation Bagration in July 1944, 3rd Panzer Army became part of the encirclement at Tekino, the Duna and Vitebsk, where it was largely destroyed. Surviving units retreated through Lithuania before reforming a line near Courland, fighting and being defeated during the Battle of Memel in late 1944.

In February 1945 the 3rd Panzer Army was one of the armies that made up the new Army Group Vistula. On 10 March 1945, General Hasso-Eccard von Manteuffel was made the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army, which was assigned to defend the banks of the Oder River, north of the Seelow Heights, thus hampering Soviet access to Western Pomerania and Berlin. They then faced an overwhelming Soviet attack launched by General Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front during the Battle of Berlin. On 25 April the Soviets broke through 3rd Panzer Army's line around the bridgehead south of Stettin [2] and crossed the Randow Swamp.

Following the defeat at Stettin, 3rd Panzer Army was forced to retreat into the region of Mecklenburg – the headquarters of 3rd Panzer Army. Manteuffel made negotiations with British generals including Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery at Hagenow on 3 May 1945 so that he with 300,000 German soldiers would surrender to the British rather than Soviet forces. [3]

Commanders

No.PortraitCommanderTook officeLeft officeTime in office
1
Hermann Hoth.jpg
Hoth, HermannGeneraloberst
Hermann Hoth
(1885–1971)
16 November 19405 October 1941324 days
2
BUNDESARCHIV, Georg-Hans Reinhardt 1.jpg
Reinhardt, GeorgGeneraloberst
Georg-Hans Reinhardt
(1887–1963)
5 October 194115 August 19442 years, 315 days
3
No image.png
Raus, ErhardGeneraloberst
Erhard Raus
(1889–1956)
[4]
16 August 194410 March 1945206 days
4
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-143-21, Hasso von Manteuffel.jpg
Manteuffel, HassoGeneral der Panzertruppe
Hasso von Manteuffel
(1897–1978)
11 March 19453 May 194553 days

Notes

  1. "Hamburger Institut für Sozial Forschung, Verbrechen der Wehrmacht, p. 18" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  2. Richard Lakowski, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Vol. 10/1, pp. 653-654, München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2008
  3. Mitcham Jr/Mueller, Samuel W./Gene (2012). Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 137. ISBN   978-1-4422-1154-4.
  4. Raus, Erhard. Panzer Operations p. 353

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References