Hube's Great Escape
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Buy Now! The Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket: Home Hube’s Great Escape By Jeff Chrisman Gen. Hube. Gen. Raus. Note: Soviet units are in plaintext; was one of the few generals Hitler German units are in italics. respected, so when the situation in Stalingrad became bleak in January Background 1943 the dictator insisted the general fl y out of the pocket to avoid capture. y April 1944, Hans Valentin Hube felt he would be deserting his Hube was a highly decorated troops if he left the pocket, and he at B leader of the German panzer fi rst refused to go. Hitler then fl ew in force. He’d risen from the rank of Gestapo agents to bring out Hube, colonel at the beginning of the war to under arrest if that proved necessary, lieutenant general. Lt. Hube had lost but Hube agreed to voluntarily leave his right arm in combat during the with them. He was made commander First World War, and he was the only of First Panzer Army in October 1943, handicapped offi cer to be retained shortly before it was shifted into the in the army afterward. In 1941 he middle of the Army Group South Ukraine since mid-summer and and last natural barrier before the German front at the 40-mile land Armored Troops Erhard Raus, was a commanded 16th Panzer Division (AGS) front in the southern Ukraine. had mostly retreated beyond their Carpathian Mountains. The Germans’ bridge between the Pripyet Marsh decorated panzer leader who’d risen in its advance across the Ukraine By late February 1944 AGS best natural defensive barrier, the main supply line across the area was on the north and the Carpathians to from regimental command through and then to the banks of the Volga at was trying desperately to build a Dnieper River, in January. The Soviets the double-track railroad from Lvov the south, then exploiting through brigade, division and corps levels to Stalingrad the next year. Along the solid front diagonally across the were meanwhile consolidating the to Odessa, which bisected the plain it into the heart of Poland. That his army command in just four years. way he earned the Knights Cross and southern Ukraine: from Army Group territory they’d regained and were between the Bug and the Dniester. area was where the north fl ank On AGS’s southern fl ank was the subsequently Oak Leaves to go with it. Center (AGC) near Kovel southeast regrouping for their next offensive. On the AGS north fl ank those of Manstein’s AGS joined AGC. weak Eighth Army, in equally intermit- In September 1942 Hube was to Dubno, Jampol, Shepetovka, The front on the southern fl ank distances became compressed, and Fourth Panzer Army held that tent contact with Army Group A (AGA) promoted to command XIV Panzer Kazatin, north and east of Vinnitsa, of AGS ran about 50 miles west of the that’s where its commander, Field fl ank, but in its depleted state it was west of Kirovograd. Eighth Army Corps, and he became the fi rst corps and just south of Zvenigorodka and Dnieper and 50 miles east of the next Marshal Erich von Manstein, expected able to maintain only intermittent commander, Gen. of Infantry Otto commander to receive Swords to the Shpola, joining Army Group A near natural barrier, the Southern Bug the Soviets would focus their next contact with AGC on its left, at the Woehler, was also in his fi rst army- Knights Cross when Hitler personally Kirovograd. The troops had been River. The Dniester River, another 50 effort. He saw they could achieve the southern edge of the Pripyet Marsh. level command and was also highly bestowed them in December. Hube withdrawing westward through the miles beyond the Bug, was the next greatest success by penetrating the Fourth Panzer’s commander, Gen. of decorated. He had, however, held only 32 WORLD at WAR 35 | APR–MAY 2014 WORLD at WAR 35 | APR–MAY 2014 33 Group North (AGN), or by evacuating Seventeenth Army from the Crimea. Hitler expected the spring mud would soon immobilize both sides equally, as it had done in springs past, and that would provide the respite his eastern armies so badly needed. Unfortunately for the Germans, that remained true only for them, as the Soviets were increasingly enjoying superior mobility thanks to their US-built four- and six-wheel drive lend-lease trucks. The Soviets were benefi tting not only from that enhanced operational mobility, but also from the superior logistical effort it was allowing them to make. Even further, though offi cial German policy in their retreat across the Ukraine had called for a total “scorched earth” withdrawal—with everything and everyone of military value that couldn’t be taken away destroyed in place—it hadn’t worked out that way. In their hectic rush west, it’s estimated they only managed to destroy or evacuate about 20 percent of those resource and manpower totals. In that way, every mile of liber- ated territory yielded thousands A recent photo of modern-day historical reenactors, taking part in a reenactment of the fi nal breakout fi ghting. of conscripts for the Red Army as well as vast acreages of crop land. staff positions through most of the war, All the troops in AGS were exhaust- much more pressure, but Manstein In late January, two infantry corps, Two German infantryman dug in on the perimeter of the newly formed pocket. including serving as Manstein’s chief ed. Infantry divisions were constantly knew he had to reinforce that north one from First Panzer Army (XLII) and of staff at Eleventh Army in 1941. In the falling back for fear of encirclement, fl ank. He’d been lobbying Hitler for one from Eighth Army (XI), were sur- middle of AGS was Hube’s First Panzer while the motorized units raced from weeks to bring in another full army in rounded by the Soviets in a pocket near On 27 February, Manstein got • Fourth Panzer Army, with XIII Army, still trying to regroup after the sector to sector trying to blunt enemy order to better cover the gap between the town of Cherkassy on the Dnieper more good news: Fourth Panzer Army’s Infantry and XLVIII Panzer recent encirclement and rescue of two penetrations, seal off gaps or rescue AGS and AGC, whether by pulling back River. Though substantial parts of the XLVIII Panzer Corps, with the 7th and Corps, from Kovel south to corps west of Cherkassy while building units that had become encircled. None to shorten his own south fl ank, or two units were rescued on 17 February, 8th Panzer Divisions, had recaptured near Dubno, then east to a new front in the western Ukraine. of the armies in AGS could withstand transferring in formations from Army in the end the larger engagement still Lutsk, and by the end of the month Shepatovka: a distance of represented another defeat for AGS. the gap on the north fl ank of the approximately 125 miles. On 22 February, III Panzer Corps, army group, between AGC at Kovel the force that had broken through to and XIII Infantry Corps near Dubno, • First Panzer Army, with III the units surrounded at Cherkassy, was fully closed. Unfortunately for Panzer Corps at Proskurov, was dispatched to Proskurov to guard Manstein, there remained a 40-mile LIX Infantry Corps near against a Soviet attack expected gap between the south fl ank of XIII and Shepatovka, XXIV Panzer northwest of there. The 1st SS Panzer LIX Infantry Corps near Shepatovka. Corps south of Berdichev, and Division, another of the units that On 1 March, Manstein shifted all his XLVI Panzer Corps northeast had been involved in the Cherkassy armies’ boundaries north by one corps. of Vinnitsa: a distance of rescue, was also sent northwest, to the So Eighth Army’s LII Infantry Corps was approximately 130 miles. Ternopol area, and assigned to XLVIII transferred to Sixth Army (Sixth Army Panzer Corps with the same mission. had itself been transferred to AGA in • Eighth Army, with VII Infantry The following day Hitler fi nally early February). First Panzer Army’s Corps north of Uman, XLVII sent Manstein a few units to reinforce VII Infantry Corps was transferred Panzer Corps south of Shpola, his northern fl ank. The newly formed to Eighth Army, and Fourth Panzer and XL Panzer Corps south 357th and 359th Infantry Divisions, Army’s LIX Infantry Corps went to First of Kirovograd: a distance of along with the veteran 68th Infantry Panzer Army. That last shift made the approximately 135 miles. Division, were ordered to join Fourth gap west of Shepatovka the shared Panzer Army at Ternopol. That was responsibility of Fourth Panzer and Soviet Attack far short of the entire army for which First Panzer Armies. The overall AGS Manstein had been pleading, but front was then organized as follows. Against that 400-mile front the it was also better than nothing. Soviets were bringing to bear a Lt. Col. Franz Baeke. Soviet Gen. Vatutin. Marshal Konev. massive force. Facing AGS was, from 34 WORLD at WAR 35 | APR–MAY 2014 WORLD at WAR 35 | APR–MAY 2014 35 Buy Now! understrength 7th Panzer Division, were approaching from the Ternopol area. Home Late in the day on 5 March another vet- eran of the Cherkassy relief operation, the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion, with 13 operational Tigers, was attached to the 7th at Podvolocyska, astride the Ternopol-Proskurov highway and railroad 18 miles southwest of Baziliya. Also on the 5 March the other shoe dropped for AGS when Second Ukrainian Front attacked Eighth Army near Uman.