4th Panzer Army (Germany)
- 4th Panzer Army (Germany)
The 4th Panzer Army (German: "4.Panzer-Armee") was, before being designated a full army, the Panzer Group 4 ("Panzergruppe 4"), a German panzer army that saw action during World War II. Its units played a part in the invasion of France, and then on the Eastern Front.
On commencement of Operation Barbarossa, the group was a part of Army Group North, and consisted of the XLI and LVI Army Corps (mot.) with three panzer and two motorised infantry divisions equipped with 631 tanks. It spearheaded the advance towards Leningrad, until it was transferred to Army Group Center to help its drive to Moscow.
The 4th Panzer Army, with Heinz Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army, destroyed countless Soviet units until it came to a stand still just outside Moscow.
In 1942 it became part of Army Group B, and some of its divisions, notably, the 24th Panzer Division, were encircled and destroyed at Stalingrad. Under General Hoth, what remained of the army failed in breaking the encirclement of Stalingrad in Operation Wintergewitter, and withdrew, forcing the surrender of the encircled troops.
The army was the southern spearhead in the Battle of Kursk, 5 july 1943. Following this failed offensive, it was pushed back, taking part in the defensive campaign to counter the Red Army's Lower Dnieper Strategic Offensive Operation, before ending the war in Slovakia as part of Army Group Centre.
Commanders
* Generaloberst Erich Höpner (15 Feb 1941 – 7 Jan 1942)
* Generaloberst Richard Ruoff (8 Jan 1942 – 31 May 1942)
* Generaloberst Hermann Hoth (31 May 1942 – 10 Nov 1943)
* Generaloberst Erhard Raus (10 Nov 1943 – 21 April 1944) [Raus, Erhard. "Panzer Operations" p. 352]
* Generaloberst Josef Harpe (18 May 1944 – 28 June 1944)
* General der Panzertruppen Walther Nehring (28 June 1944 – 5 Aug 1944)
* General der Panzertruppen Hermann Balck (5 Aug 1944 – 21 Sep 1944)
* General der Panzertruppen Fritz-Hubert Gräser (21 Sep 1944 – 8 May 1945)
See also
* List of German military units of World War II
* Army Group Centre
* Operation Barbarossa, Fall Blau
* Battle of Kursk
* Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
* Start of the Battle of Berlin
* Battle of Halbe only the V Corps, which was transferred from the 4th Panzer to 9th Army just before the battle.
* Prague Offensive
References
* Wendel, Marcus. .
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