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52-524: The Red Army encircled the German Fourth Army in the city of Minsk . Hitler ordered the Fourth Army to hold fast, declaring the city to be a fortified place ( fester Platz ) and defended even if encircled. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army attacked from the north-east, while the 2nd Guards Tank Corps moved in from the east, and the 65th Army advanced from the south. About 100,000 Axis soldiers from

104-411: A Fester Platz and instructed the remnants of Ninth Army to reinforce its defence. 5th Panzer, which was reorganised on 28 June into a combat group under the command of Dietrich von Saucken , took up positions near Borisov on the main road north-east of Minsk, along which elements of Fourth Army were fleeing from the front. 5th Panzer's main tank regiments, which unlike many German armoured units at

156-613: A motorised brigade of the 4th Panzer Division . He was promoted to Generalmajor on 1 January 1942 and appointed divisional commander during the Battle of Moscow . He was wounded and thereafter spent several months in the hospital. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 January and was appointed commandant of the School for Mobile Troops ( Schule für Schnelle Truppen ). On 1 April 1943 he

208-524: A prestigious gymnasium in Königsberg , present-day Kaliningrad, where he graduated with his Abitur ( university-preparatory high school diploma ) in 1910. As a student, Saucken showed aptitude as an artist, a talent supported by his mother and the director of the Fridericianum, Georg Ellendt. He often visited Nidden , present-day Nida, Lithuania, where his ambitions to become an artist were influenced by

260-499: A screen of Soviet troops was left on the road to prevent any more elements of Fourth Army escaping into Minsk. 5th Panzer's engineers blew the bridges over the Berezina on 30 June in an attempt to deny the Soviet forces entry into Borisov. The overstretched main elements of Gruppe von Saucken now attempted to screen Minsk from the north-west, where the 5th Guards Tank Army threatened to sever

312-511: A sword and a monocle, Saucken personified the archetypal aristocratic Prussian conservative who despised the braune Bande ("brown mob ") of Nazis . When he was ordered to take command of the Second Army on 12 March 1945, he came to Hitler's headquarters with his left hand resting casually on his cavalry sabre, his monocle in his eye, . . . [and then] gave a military salute and gave a slight bow. These were three 'outrages' at once. He had not given

364-676: The Baltic coast over a period of two weeks and 4th Army threatened with encirclement. Hoßbach, with the Army Group Centre's commander Georg-Hans Reinhardt 's concurrence, attempted to break out of East Prussia by attacking towards Elbing ; but the attack was driven back and the 4th Army was again encircled in what became known as the Heiligenbeil pocket . For defying their orders, both Hoßbach and Reinhardt were relieved of command. By 13 February, 3rd Belorussian Front had pushed 4th Army out of

416-530: The Berezina crossings, having lost two corps commanders in as many days. The above units were under the overall command of Army Group Centre (Field-Marshal Walter Model ). The offensive developed through three main phases: the breakthrough of the initial German defences along the Berezina; the advance of the Soviet motorised exploitation forces; and finally the encirclement of the German Fourth Army after

468-504: The Dnepr . The Soviet summer offensive of that year, Operation Bagration , commencing on 22 June, proved disastrous for the Wehrmacht, including the 4th Army. It was encircled east of Minsk and lost 130,000 men in 12 days since the start of Bagration. Few units were able to escape westwards; after the battles in the rest of the summer, the army required complete rebuilding. During late 1944–45

520-672: The First World War he joined the paramilitary Freikorps . In 1921 he joined the Reichswehr . From 1927 on he was on special assignment in the Soviet Union , where he learned to speak Russian. In 1934 he was promoted to Major and posted as an instructor to the War School Hannover . He was promoted to Oberst (colonel) on 1 June 1939. Saucken took part in Battle of France , Balkan Campaign , Operation Barbarossa as commander of

572-703: The Heilsberg triangle. After 13 March 3rd Belorussian Front had pushed 4th Army into a ten by two mile beachhead west of Heiligenbeil before Hitler finally allowed the army to retreat across the Frisches Haff to the Frische Nehrung on 29 March. After Königsberg fell , Hitler sent Headquarters, 4th Army, out of East Prussia and merged its units with 2nd Army to form the East Prussian Army Group , commanded by Dietrich von Saucken , which surrendered to

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624-704: The Künstlerkolonie Nidden , an expressionist artists' colony. Following graduation, Saucken joined the Prussian Army on 1 October 1910 as a Fahnenjunker (Cadet) in Grenadier-Regiment König Friedrich Wilhelm I. (2. Ostpreußisches) Nr. 3 (2nd East Prussian Grenadier Regiment King Frederick William I Nr. 3), one of the oldest Prussian regiments, subordinated to the 1. Division (1st Division) and based in Königsberg. There, he

676-659: The Red Army at the end of the war in May. Meanwhile, the Headquarters, 4th Army became Headquarters, 21st Army . Dietrich von Saucken World War I Finnish Civil War World War II Dietrich Friedrich Eduard Kasimir von Saucken (16 May 1892 – 27 September 1980) was a German general during World War II who commanded the 2nd Army and the Army East Prussia . Turning down an offer to escape by air, he surrendered to

728-527: The Red Army in May 1945. Saucken was the last officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds of Nazi Germany . Saucken was born on 16 May 1892 in Fischhausen , East Prussia . He was the son of Landrat ( the chief administrative officer of a Landkreis ) Wilhelm Eduard Erich von Saucken. As a child, Saucken attended the Collegium Fridericianum ,

780-460: The "battle of the highways"), saw the 4th Army pushed back towards Orsha . Between October and the first week of December, Western Front had tried four times to take Orsha and had been beaten off in furious battles by Fourth Army. In 1944, the 4th Army was holding defensive positions east of Orsha and Mogilev in the Belorussian SSR , occupying a bulging, 25- by 80-mile bridgehead east of

832-538: The 'deep' objective of the city of Minsk. Authorisation was therefore given on 26 June to shift the 5th Panzer Division from Army Group South Ukraine to assist in the city's defence. By the time the operation had commenced, the entire Fourth Army had been bypassed on both its northern and southern flanks. Despite this, it was ordered to hold fast. Its central corps, the XXXIX Panzer Corps , had largely disintegrated under Soviet air attack whilst attempting to reach

884-596: The 4th Army, now under the command of Friedrich Hoßbach , was tasked with holding the borders of East Prussia . On the first week in November in Gumbinnen Operation , the 4th Army pushed back the Soviet forces in the Gumbinnen sector off all but a fifteen-mile by fifty-mile strip of East Prussian territory. The Soviet East Prussian Offensive , commencing on 13 January, saw the 2nd Army driven steadily backwards towards

936-761: The 65th Army and 5th Guards Tank Army closed the encirclement to the west. The bulk of Fourth Army, and much of the remnant of Ninth Army, were now trapped. Over the next few days, Fourth Army made several attempts to break out of the encirclement, led by those divisions still retaining a coherent organisational structure. The largest group of encircled forces comprised the divisions of XII Corps, which remained relatively intact, along with those elements of XXVII Corps that had successfully retreated from Orsha and which were now trapped near Pekalin (in Smalyavichy Raion , Minsk Region ). The corps commanders, Müller and Völckers, decided on 5 July that their forces should break out to

988-680: The Army at the OKH . A month later, Saucken commanded the 2nd Army in Prussia and provided logistical support to the Evacuation of East Prussia . In April, his army was renamed to Army East Prussia . On 8 May, Saucken received notice that he had been awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak leaves, Swords, and Diamonds , making him the last of 27 officers to receive this award. Though an airplane stood by to evacuate him, he refused to leave his troops when they surrendered to

1040-695: The Fourth and Ninth Armies were encircled, of whom some 40,000 were killed and most of the rest captured. The result was a complete victory for the Red Army, the liberation of Minsk, and the rapid destruction of much of the German Army Group Centre . The capturing of Minsk played an important role in Operation Bagration and in WWII itself. With the destruction of the 4th Army and more men to fight towards

1092-730: The German forces, the military situation was dire: in the Army Group's northern sector, Third Panzer Army had crumbled, with the LIII Corps wiped out, the VI Corps shattered, and the IX Corps being pushed steadily west. In the south, Ninth Army had lost all cohesion, its remaining troops being pounded by artillery and air bombardment. Fourth Army's three corps were now ordered to hold fast, despite being bypassed by Soviet forces on their flanks: Hitler declared Minsk

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1144-868: The Iron Cross 1st Class in May 1916. For combat in the German spring offensive and Hundred Days Offensive on the Western Front , he received the Prussian Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords and the Austrian Military Merit Cross . In 1918, he also served with the Baltic Sea Division under the command of General Rüdiger von der Goltz which fought in the Finnish Civil War (27 January – 15 May 1918). After

1196-498: The Nazi salute with raised arm and the words 'Heil Hitler', as had been regulation since 20 July 1944, he had not surrendered his weapon on entering....and had kept his monocle in his eye when saluting Hitler. When Hitler told him that he must take his orders from Albert Forster , the Gauleiter (Nazi governor, or "District Leader") of Danzig, Saucken returned Hitler's gaze....and striking

1248-694: The Red Army on the following day of 9 May 1945. After surrendering on the Hel Peninsula , Saucken went into Soviet captivity. Initially he was imprisoned in the Lubyanka Building and the Oryol Prison before being transferred to the Siberian Tayshet camp in 1949. Released from Soviet captivity in 1955, he settled in Pullach near Munich . He died there in 1980. A cavalry officer who regularly wore both

1300-606: The Western Campaign, the 4th Army was at the center of an organizational dispute between Army Group A, Army Group B , the Army High Command ( OKH ) and Adolf Hitler . The commander-in-chief of the army, Walther von Brauchitsch , was dissatisfied with the size and leadership style of Army Group A, especially its commander Rundstedt; on May 23, 1940, the OKH ordered that the 4th Army should be subordinated to Army Group B from 20:00 on

1352-629: The XXXIX Panzer Corps in late September 1944, when he took command of the forming Panzerkorps Großdeutschland . The still incomplete corps was divided when half of it, including Saucken, was ordered eastward to stop the Vistula–Oder Offensive . He led the corps until February 1945, when he was removed from his position and placed in the Führerreserve by Heinz Guderian , the Chief of Staff of

1404-419: The bridge was repeatedly damaged by bombing. The replacement corps commander, Lieutenant-General Otto Schünemann , was himself killed on 29 June, and the entire corps began to disintegrate. The elements of Army Group Centre holding Minsk began to prepare for withdrawal on 1 July, authorisation finally being given on 2 July. Von Saucken and the 5th Panzer Division were ordered to fall back towards Molodechno in

1456-506: The defensive positions were overrun. On the eve of the offensive, Soviet partisans carried out large-scale sabotage activities behind enemy lines, aimed at disrupting Army Group Center's logistical and communications capabilities. Some 10,500 explosives were detonated along the rail networks connecting the Dnieper to Minsk, all bridges in the area were blown up, and telephone lines extensively cut, paralyzing Army Group Center's communications for

1508-559: The encircled forces. Within the broader strategic framework of Operation Bagration , the Minsk offensive was a complete success: The 3rd and 2nd Belorussian Fronts were subsequently committed to the third 'pursuit' phase of the strategic offensive in the Vilnius and Belostock offensives respectively. The offensive helped pave the way for the eventual defeat of Germany. 4th Army (Wehrmacht) The 4th Army ( German : 4. Armee )

1560-473: The end of WWII. The role of the 3rd Belorussian Front in the first phase of Operation Bagration was essentially complete by 28 June, when the cavalry-mechanised units halted at the Berezina . The same day, with the initial objectives fulfilled, Stavka issued a new order, No. 220124. This ordered the Front to force the Berezina from the march, and develop an offensive towards Minsk and Molodechno , capturing

1612-479: The first 48 hours of the offensive. By 26 June, OKH had finally realised that the developing Operation Bagration was the main Soviet offensive, and that Minsk was its objective. As a result, the 5th Panzer Division was brought back from Army Group North Ukraine , arriving in Minsk on 27 June with the unenviable job of attempting to halt the Soviet advance and preventing the complete collapse of Army Group Centre. For

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1664-465: The following day. As a result of this order, Rundstedt would have lost all the armored units ( Panzer Group Kleist , Panzer Group Guderian ) of his army group. According to the OKH's concept, Army Group B was subsequently to be utilized for the reduction of the Dunkirk sector of the front and Army Group A merely for flank security. When Hitler arrived at the headquarters of Army Group A near Charleville on

1716-514: The former in cooperation with the 2nd Belorussian Front and reaching the latter no later than 8 July. The 5th Guards Tank Army , under General Pavel Rotmistrov was however criticized for its slowness in attaining its objectives and ordered to display greater decisiveness. German planning largely involved damage limitation. The immediate effects of the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive and Bobruysk Offensive made it clear that Soviet forces had

1768-544: The marble slab of the map table with the flat of his hand, he said, 'I have no intention, Herr Hitler, of placing myself under the orders of a Gauleiter'. In doing this he had bluntly contradicted Hitler and not addressed him as Mein Führer . To the surprise of everyone who was present, Hitler capitulated and replied, "All right, Saucken, keep the command yourself." Hitler dismissed the General without shaking his hand and Saucken left

1820-466: The morning of May 24 and learned of the OKH's order, he immediately suspended it. The 4th Army remained with Army Group A, followed at 12:45 by the famous halting order , according to which the attack on the encircled Allied troops at Dunkirk was to be delayed until the infantry units ( II Corps , VIII Corps ) had caught up. The then Major-General Erwin Rommel , who was under Kluge, contributed immensely to

1872-473: The north-west and west respectively, accompanied by the remnants of Martinek's former XXXIX Panzer Corps; they were now as much as 100 km behind Soviet lines. The 25th Panzergrenadier Division acted as the spearhead for the breakout at midnight on 5 July, but was scattered, with some elements passing north of Minsk to reach German positions. The 57th Infantry Division and Panzergrenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle linked up and attempted to bypass Minsk to

1924-424: The north-west; von Gottberg, after stating the defences of Minsk were collapsing, withdrew his units towards Lida . With substantial elements of Fourth Army still east of the city attempting to withdraw, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps broke through the defences of Minsk in the early hours of 3 July; fighting erupted in the centre of the city at dawn. By the next day, Minsk had been cleared of German rearguard units, while

1976-441: The order, however, and continue escape attempts: Soviet forces were reporting actions against groups of encircled German soldiers several thousand strong until mid-July, and smaller groups until some time later. In total, around 100,000 troops from Fourth and Ninth Armies were caught in the encirclement, of whom some 40,000 were killed, most of the remainder being captured. Partisans played an important role in locating and mopping up

2028-496: The railway lines. The fall of the city seemed imminent: 65th Army was approaching from the southern route, the 5th Guards Tank Army was making progress from the north, and 2nd Guards Tank Corps had crossed the Berezina. In the meantime, the four divisions of XXXIX Panzer Corps had begun to pull back and make for the crossings at Berezino , south of Borisov, in an effort to escape the developing trap. A column of vehicles stretched back for many kilometres, under constant air attack, as

2080-495: The rear-area security units of the Dirlewanger and Kaminski Brigades (responsible for a series of atrocities and war crimes in the course of their 'anti-partisan' activities). The crossing points on the Berezina southwards were defended by several police and security detachments organised as Gruppe Anhalt , and elements of divisions from Müller's XII Corps, which had fallen back on the town of Berezino . 5th Guards Tank Army

2132-712: The remnants of several units that had been destroyed in the Soviet Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre . Composed mainly of elements of the 5th Panzer Division , 170th Infantry Division and the 505th Heavy Panzer Battalion , the battlegroup was later designated the XXXIX Panzer Corps . During the Soviet Minsk Offensive , it temporarily maintained an escape route across the Berezina River for retreating German soldiers. Saucken left

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2184-470: The room with only the merest hint of a bow. However, this alleged incident is disputed by Heinz Linge in his book 'In the footsteps of the Führer'. General Von Saucken was considered a loyal commander to whom this behavior certainly did not fit (he received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 8 May). In addition, the fact that he would not have addressed Hitler with 'Mein Führer' and with

2236-442: The south, but were also dispersed, while the same fate eventually befell the remainder of the 78th Sturm Division (after an initially successful breakout) and most of the other divisional groupings. Some elements of the 14th Infantry Division under their commander, Lieutenant-General Flörke , managed to link up with remnants of the 31st and 12th Infantry Divisions; Kampfgruppe Flörke , after finding Minsk abandoned and burning,

2288-429: The time were at full strength, were concentrated to the north, screening the rail lines being used for evacuation. The road itself was held by a rearguard of infantry, while Heavy Tank Battalion 505, equipped with Tiger Is , held the rail lines at Krupki to the east. There were few manpower reserves in the area from which a defence could be organised. Some further reinforcements were provided by Gruppe von Gottberg ,

2340-517: The victory of 4th Army. Kluge, who had been General of the Artillery , was promoted to Field Marshal along with many others on 19 July 1940. The 4th Army took part in Operation Barbarossa in 1941 as part of Fedor von Bock 's Army Group Center and took part in the Battle of Minsk and the Battle of Smolensk . In the aftermath of the German failure in the Battle of Moscow , Fedor von Bock

2392-706: Was a field army of the Wehrmacht during World War II . The 4th Army was activated on 1 August 1939 with General Günther von Kluge in command. It took part in the Invasion of Poland of September 1939 as part of Army Group North , which was under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock . The 4th Army contained the II Corps and III Corps , each with two infantry divisions, the XIX Corps with two motorized and one panzer divisions, and three other divisions, including two in reserve. Its objective

2444-527: Was eventually able to escape the pocket and reach the 12th Panzer Division 's positions. Lieutenant-General Müller, who had been placed in command of all the encircled units of Fourth Army, was captured on 8 July after a failed breakout by the 18th Panzergrenadier Division . He immediately issued an order to all encircled troops to surrender, which was broadcast over loudspeakers by Soviet forces and dropped from Soviet aircraft in leaflet form. A large number of German unit commanders and soldiers chose to disregard

2496-429: Was now bearing down on Minsk from the north-east (the subordinate 3rd Guards Tank Corps initially suffering some losses to 5th Panzer's heavy tank battalion at Krupki), while the Soviet 2nd Guards Tank Corps approached from the east. The bulk of 5th Guards Tank Army, accompanied by the rifle divisions of 11th Guards Army , attacked straight down the Minsk road, forcing the German infantry back into Borisov by 29 June:

2548-707: Was promoted to Leutnant (second lieutenant) on 19 June 1912. With the outbreak of World War I , the division was deployed on the Eastern Front . With the division, Saucken fought in the battles of Stallupönen , Gumbinnen , and Tannenberg and earned the Iron Cross 2nd Class in October 1914. Saucken then fought in the Battle of Verdun and in the battles of the Carpathian Mountains in September 1917, and received

2600-475: Was promoted to Generalleutnant ; in June he returned to the 4th Panzer Division, which he commanded during the Battle of Kursk . Saucken became acting commander of the III Panzer Corps in late June 1944. He received both the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords in 1944. In June and July, Saucken formed Kampfgruppe von Saucken (Battlegroup von Saucken) an ad hoc unit composed of

2652-487: Was relieved of his command of Army Group Center on 18 December. Kluge was promoted to replace him. General Ludwig Kübler assumed command of the 4th Army. After the launching of Operation Blue , the 4th Army and the entire Army Group Center did not see much action, as troops were concentrated to the south. From 1943 on, the 4th Army was in retreat along with other formations of Army Group Center. The Red Army's campaign of autumn 1943, Operation Suvorov (also known as

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2704-402: Was to capture the Polish Corridor , thus linking mainland Germany with East Prussia . During the attack on the Low Countries and France, the 4th Army, as part of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt 's Army Group A , invaded Belgium from the Rhineland . Along with other German armies, the 4th Army penetrated the Dyle Line and completed the trapping of the Allied forces in France. During

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