Looking back at the Soviet-German battlefield of World War II, if you put aside the combat history of the German 4th Panzer Army, the eastern front operation will be particularly boring, because this unit has always undertaken the most important tasks of the three operational directions, and it is also the only unit in the 4 armored groups that participated in the Siege of Leningrad, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Decisive Battle of Kursk Tanks, so its combat history is also the richest and most studied by war historians. The reason why this unit is so capable of fighting is inseparable from the attention of the two commanders and Manstein, and let's take a look at the performance of this unit on the battlefield.
From the history of the development of the German armored forces, it is known that although the first three of the four armored groups that attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 undertook the heaviest combat tasks and the most important combat direction, the 4th armored group was the first to advance into the three Baltic countries, and Manstein's 56th Panzer Corps under his command was also the first to occupy the west Dvina River crossing.
Long before the Germans launched World War II, the 4th Panzer Group, formerly known as the 16th Motorized Army, not only participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938, but also belonged to the 10th Army of Army Group South in the 1939 blitzkrieg attack on Poland, and in the 1940 German attack on Western Europe and the occupation of France, the 16th Motorized Army was attached to Army Group B and upgraded to the 4th Panzer Group in February 1941.
From the formation process of the German armored group, it can be seen that although the 1st, 2nd and 3rd armored groups were all developed from the early Kleist armored group, the Gudri armor group and the Hot armored group, the formation of the Hopner armored group was specially prepared by the German army for the attack on the Soviet Union, and on the road to attack Leningrad, the 4th armored group was also the most frustrated and became an armored unit that came later.
Some believe that although Manstein commanded the 56th Panzer Army to run very fast, in July 1941 it was trapped in a circle in the primeval forest and swamps, which seriously affected the combat mission of the 4th Panzer Group, and Paulus, deputy chief of the General Staff of the German Army, even flew to the front line specifically for this matter to understand the situation. In fact, Manstein was trapped in the primeval forest only to find that these mistakes were due to the failure of german intelligence to understand the geographical environment of the three Baltic states, and the route attacked by Army Group North was not suitable for the march of the armored forces.
However, the combat capability of the 4th Panzer Group cannot be denied, although the 56th Panzer Army encountered danger, but the 41st Panzer Army fought a turnaround battle, in Lasenia, 200 German tanks surrounded and annihilated more than 700 Soviet tanks, thus making the Soviet Army pay special attention.
In this sense, although the 4th Armored Group ranks low, its combat effectiveness is obvious to all. In particular, after participating in the southward operation, its combat effectiveness was completely released, and it also played an irreplaceable role in participating in various large-scale battles on the Eastern Front.
On September 30, 1941, the offensive campaign of the largest Number of German troops on the Eastern Front began, and 1.8 million German troops were bound to march towards Moscow, and in order to strengthen the armored offensive, the German High Command also sent the 4th Panzer Group to Army Group Center, plus the 2nd and 3rd two armored units, and three iron tongs marched in unison to Moscow.
Prior to this, the Germans suspended the attack on Moscow by Army Group Center in August, and ordered the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce the Kiev Battlefield and the 3rd Panzer Group to reinforce the Leningrad Battlefield, and while Guderian encircled the Southwestern Front on September 16, Hopner also advanced 11 kilometers from Leningrad with the help of Hot, the closest German armored unit to the Leningrad front.
But good things happened, due to the needs of the German army to besiege Vyazma and bryansk Soviets, after the 4th Panzer Group participated in the Battle of Moscow, it never had the opportunity to return to the Northern Front, and after the Battle of Moscow, began to assume the responsibility of the battlefield fire brigade.
In January 1942, the 4th Panzer Group was officially upgraded to the 4th Panzer Army, and the commander was also taken over by Hort of the 3rd Panzer Group, and it was from this time that this armored unit had to fight every battle, and also underwent three times the process of re-replenishment of tanks.
The first additional strength was in 1942 with participation in Operation Blue. The 4th Panzer Army had two panzer corps, the 24th and 48th Panzer Corps, and the 13th Army, with a total of 3 panzer divisions and 4 motorized infantry divisions, and 633 armored tanks, of which the 11th and 24th Panzer Divisions were the most equipped and the Greater German Motorized Infantry Division was the most powerful. However, due to the division strategy of the German command, the 4th Panzer Army became a dragon runner, first going south to reinforce Army Group A, and then because of the formation of the Don River Army Group, the 4th Panzer Army became an assist, and was almost wrapped in dumplings by the Soviet army.
The second reinforcement was the Battle of kursk tanks in 1943. Although in early January 1943 there were only 495 german tanks available for combat on the entire Eastern Front, after the victory of the Kharkov counterattack on 15 March, the 4th Panzer Army was fully restored, and by the time Manstein decided to launch Operation Fortress on 5 July, the 4th Panzer Army had 1,100 tanks and 250,000 soldiers, and its combat strength had reached its peak. However, this operation was the last madness of Manstein's performance, the 4th Panzer Army not only suffered a head-on attack, but also lost most of its combat equipment, and by the end of the battle, the German army not only lost troops, but also the most valuable tanks.
The third additional strength was the Soviet reconquest of Kiev at the end of 1943. In this battle, although Manstein gathered the 2nd and 8th Armies, the main combat force was the 4th Panzer Army, although the Kursk tank battle was exhausted, but the German army still concentrated more than 400 tanks and artillery, and the strength reached 500,000 people.
However, the confrontation with Manstein was the Ukrainian First Front under the command of the Soviet Army Vatutin, which was a newly formed unit, and Vatutin was Manstein's old rival, and the two of them fought from Leningrad to Kiev, from north to south, Manstein won a Kharkov counterattack, so Vatutin gathered 6 armies of various arms and a 3rd Army of Guards Tanks, with a total of 660,000 people, 675 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as 7,000 guns of various types and more than 700 aircraft. From the perspective of the combat camp, Manstein has no chance of winning.
As a result of the battle, Vatutin adopted the tactic of attacking from the east to the west, transferring Manstein to the Kling landing field, but the main force moved to the north of the Lyutsy landing field, catching the 4th Panzer Army by surprise, although Manstein coordinated the deployment of additional troops and tanks, but the Soviet army won the final victory to retake Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army was seriously injured, 12 German infantry divisions, 2 panzer divisions, 1 panzergrenadier division were destroyed, and more than 600 tanks and artillery and more than 1200 artillery of various types were captured. With less than 30,000 losses of less than 30,000, Manstein's hopes of regaining the initiative on the battlefield were dashed.
In this sense, the 4th Panzer Army has been at the center of the war since it went south to Moscow, wherever there is a big battle, but 1943 was its year of disaster, although it won the Kharkov counterattack, it exposed its strength, and finally suffered another setback in the fortress operation, and kiev I let him fight all his family, not only Was Holt dismissed, but Manstein was also affected by this battle and was soon transferred out of the battlefield.
As far as the 4th Panzer Army was concerned, the German high command had high hopes, and Manstein also used it as the main force for the comeback, but the battlefield environment would not give this unit a chance to create glory again. With the end of the Battle of the Dnieper, the German army gradually retreated to the western front, and the 4th Panzer Army was gradually reduced to a support attacking force, first belonging to the Combined Forces of the Ukrainian Group and the 1st Panzer Army, and then to the 4th Army group under army group Center, defending the Vistula River, and finally retreating to the 9th Army defense zone, surrounded by Soviet troops, one surrendering to the American army, and the other stubbornly resisting.
It should be said that the 4th Panzer Army has the most information, which is both a tribute to this unit and a recognition of his combat history. However, no matter how effective this unit was, he was still a tool for the German army to launch blitzkrieg warfare, and under his armored hooves, countless Soviet troops paid the price of their lives. Therefore, as the Soviet encirclement became smaller and smaller, this unit chose to resist the Soviet army to the end, and finally surrendered to the Soviet army when it ran out of ammunition.
Of course, the reason why the 4th Panzer Army was so capable of fighting was inseparable from its excellent commanders Hopner and Hort, and after Manstein took over the command of the southern front, he pinned his hopes on this armored brigade, which was both the soul of this unit and the direct embodiment of combat ability. However, they were all dismissed, the soul of this unit was lost, and the combat effectiveness would decline accordingly.
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