Background
Hermann Hoth was born in Neuruppin, Germany to an army medical officer.
Hermann Hoth was born in Neuruppin, Germany to an army medical officer.
Hoth joined the army in 1903 and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross during World War I. He remained in the Reichswehr (the armed forces of the Weimar Republic) in the interwar period. Following the reorganization of the German military into the Wehrmacht in 1935, he was appointed to command the 18th Infantry Division.
During WW1, he was promoted to the rank of captain and won both classes of the Iron Cross award for bravery. During the inter-war years, he remained in the Germany military. In 1935, he was promoted to the rank of major general and was given command of the 18th Infantry Division. On 10 Nov 1938, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and was given command of the XV Motorized Corps.
Hoth led the XV Motorized Corps during the invasion of Poland at the start of the European War; on 27 Oct 1939, he was awarded the Knight's Cross award for his performance in Poland. In the following year, he participated in the invasion of France. On 19 Jul 1940, he was promoted to the rank of general. In 1941, as the commanding officer of the 3rd Panzer Group against Russia, his men captured the Byelorussian cities of Minsk and Vitebsk; he was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross on 17 Jul 1941 for his victories in Byelorussia. In Oct 1941, he became the commanding officer of the 17th Army in Ukraine. In May 1942, the 17th Army was driven back at Kharkov. In Jun 1942, he became the commanding officer of the 4th Panzer Army and was ordered to support the 1st Panzer Army's crossing of the River Don in order to support German efforts at Stalingrad in Southern Russia. In Nov 1942, as the German 6th Army was trapped in Stalingrad, Hoth's 4th Panzer Army was the centerpiece of Erich von Manstein's Operation Winter Storm which aimed at relieving the 6th Army; by the end of the year, the operation was deemed a failure. In Jul 1943, Hoth and the 4th Panzer Army participated in the Battle of Kursk, where his divisions, the largest tank formations ever assembled, performed extremely well. On 15 Sep, he received Swords to his Knight's Cross award. Nevertheless, the successive Russian victories blemished his record, he he was relieved of his command in Nov 1943.
In Apr 1945, Hoth was recalled to active duty. He commanded troops in defense of the Harz Mountains in the weeks of the war.
After the war, Hoth was tried at Nuremberg, Germany at the High Command trial, and was found guilty of war crimes. On 27 Oct 1948, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1954 and became a writer of military history. He passed away at Goslar, Germany, in 1971.
Following the end of the war, Hoth was tried at the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, in the High Command Trial. During his testimony he sought to explain his November 1941 order aimed at elimination of the "Bolshevik-Jewish resistance". He claimed that his instructions only meant that his troops should be vigilant and were intended to improve morale: "The German soldier in his good nature ... easily forgot that he was still in enemy territory" and that the "power of Bolshevism [had to be] broken". He insisted that no physical harm came to civilians as the result of this measure, which his troops executed with "clean hands". Hoth maintained that if any Jews had been killed it was due to their connection to crimes against the German forces. "It was a matter of common knowledge in Russia that it was the Jew in particular who participated in a very large extent in sabotage, espionage, etc.," Hoth claimed.