Background
Hans-Valentin Hube was born on 29 October 1890, in Naumburg an der Saale, German Empire.
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1925
Hans-Valentin Hube was born on 29 October 1890, in Naumburg an der Saale, German Empire.
Hube volunteered for military service in the Prussian Army in 1909, and served during World War I where he saw action in the battle of the Race to the Sea, and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern.
After 18 months as a cadet in an infantry regiment in Magdeburg he was promoted to Leutnant in 1910. Despite loss of his left arm in WWI he stayed in the Reichswehr. A full colonel by 1939, and author of a book, The Infantryman, Hube had an outstanding record in Poland and was again wounded. He assumed command of the 16th Mtz Div on 14 May 1940 and was promoted two weeks later to General- major. His unit became the 16th Pz Div on 1 Nov 1940. and about a month later it was sent to train the Romanian Army before taking part in Barbarossa.
Fighting in the Ukraine as part of AG South, der Mensch took part in the capture of Lvov and the exploitation that followed. He was awarded the RK on 1 Aug 1941 and the Oak- leaves on 16 Jan 1942. On 15 Sep 1942 he was promoted to Generalleutnanl and given command of the 14th Pz Corps, taking over from Gustav von Wietersheim in Stalingrad. He was heavily engaged for the next three months and was promoted on 1 Oct 1942 to General of Panzer Troops. Flown out of encircled Stalingrad to receive the Swords (22/159) from Hitler on 21 Dec 42 and to give a personal report, Flube pleaded for “the life of the Stalingrad army”. But the fuehrer insisted that everything possible, including resupply by air, was being done and was not amused by Hube’s suggestion that at least one Luftwaffe general be shot for the airlift’s failure to date (ibid.). The general returned to Stalingrad on 9 Jan 1943, turned over command of his doomed corps eight days later to Generalleutnant Helmuth Schloemer (B&O, 37) and was among the specialists evacuated. After directing the airlift from the outside, Hube took over a new 14th Pz Corps Hq on 5 Mar 1943. But a few months later he was sent to Italy.
When the Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943 Rommel had Hube sent there to command German troops in Guzzoni’s 6th Italian Army. With Kesselri tig’s authority to use his initiative. Hube conducted masterful delaying actions before withdrawing German troops across the Strait of Messina during the period 11-17 Aug 1943.
Summer vacation in Italy over, the Wehr- macht’s only one-armed general returned to Russia. On 30 Oct 1943 he succeeded Mackensen as head of the 1st Pz Army, which Konev was threatening to encircle in the Dnieper bend. Hube’s counterattack around Krivoi Rog was successful against odds of 15:1 in men, 5:1 in tanks, and a considerable Soviet advantage in mortars and artillery. In late Jan 1944, hindered by alternating blizzards and thaws, the panzer army and the 8th Army failed in an attempt to save two German corps trapped in the Korsun salient.
Promoted 15 Feb 1944 Generaloberst Hube came close to having his six panzer divisions and elements of 8th Army wiped out in Konev’s “mud offensive” that started on 5 Mar 1944. He saved his troops but had to abandon much materiel and could offer little resistance as Konev’s front quickly pushed to within 30 miles of the Dniester.
Hube then got into an unfortunate controversy with Manstein, his immediate superior. Manstein thought Hube should stay north of the Carpathians while fighting his way due west to the rear, thus in position to regain contact with Erhard Raus’s 4th Pz Army. But The Man wanted to withdraw south across the Dniester into Romania. Hitler sided with Manstein, but so fatigued by this exercise in professional decision-making he decided to sack the army group commander!
Now under Model. Hube tried it his way and failed—he could not get across the Dniester, so his 1st Pz Army had to undertake what Manstein had seen as the correct solution. Fighting day and night for almost a month, Hube linked up with the 4th Pz Army on 8 Apr 1944. He saved most of his veteran panzer army and perhaps prevented the annihilation of German forces farther east in Romania by delaying for almost a month the advance southward of Zhukov’s 1st Ukrainian Front.
After this achievement the hard, chubby-faced panzer army commander flew to Obersalzberg for Hitler’s birthday. On 20 Apr 1944 he was awarded the Diamonds (13/27) and promoted to Generaloberst. Returning to his headquarters he died the next day of injuries from a plane crash at Obersalzberg.
