General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel

SOME OF THE PRISONERS HELD AT
SPECIAL CAMP 11

NAME: General der Panzertruppe Hasso Eccard von Manteuffel

PW NO: A451660

RANK: General der Panzertruppe

CAPTURED: Hagenow, Germany

DATE: 3 May 1945

PERSONAL
DATE OF BIRTH: 14 January 1897

PLACE OF BIRTH: Potsdam

DATE OF DEATH: 24 September 1978

PLACE OF DEATH: Reith, Austria (buried at Diessen am Ammersee/Bayern)

NATIONALITY: German

RELIGION:

OCCUPATION: Regular Soldier

HEIGHT:

WEIGHT:

NEXT OF KIN:

Parents: Hasso and Susanne von Manteuffel.

Wife: Married Armgard von Kleist (the niece of Generafeldmarschall Ewald von Kleist) on 23 June 1921 – two children.

Account

A highly respected tank leader of great ability, General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel is best known for his role in the Battle of Bulge. In September 1944, he was summoned to Adolf Hitler’s military headquarters at Rastenburg where he received command of the depleted 5th Panzer Army then assigned to Army Group G on the Western Front. After seeing heavy combat around Lunéville and Arracourt in Lorraine against the U.S. 3rd Army commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., the 5th Panzer Army was withdrawn from Army Group G in October 1944. Transferred to control of Army Group B in the Eifel region of Germany, the 5th Panzer Army began refitting for Operation “Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine) – the last major German offensive of the war.

On 16 December 1944, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model’s Army Group B unleashed the offensive against the thinly held American front in the snow-covered Ardennes Forest. The overly ambitious plan called for the German forces to cross the Meuse River and capture Antwerp thus encircling those Allied armies north of the breakthrough. The 6th SS-Panzer Army, commanded by SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer und Panzer Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, would deliver the main effort in the north supported by the 5th Panzer Army in the center while the infantry of General der Panzertruppe Erich Brandenberger’s weak 7th Army would screen the southern flank.

The German Ardennes Offensive proved a failure, as the 6th SS-Panzer Army, bogged down by congested roads and tenacious American resistance, could not exploit its initial breakthrough. Although tasked with a supporting role, von Manteuffel’s army made the deepest penetration of the offensive. The 2nd Panzer Division, commanded by Oberst Meinrad von Lauchert, managed to reach the town of Celles near the bank of the Meuse River before being smashed by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division with the British 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (29th Armored Brigade) in support. However, without the release of Dietrich’s armor reserves to von Manteuffel in a timely manner, the 5th Panzer Army soon lost its momentum as well. The failure to capture Bastogne from the stubborn “Screaming Eagles” of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division (thereby tying down substantial German forces) and the allocation of additional units to bolster the weak southern flank further sapped the 5th Panzer Army’s offensive strength.

With the Ardennes Offensive clearly at an end, Hitler allowed a limited German withdrawal on 8 January 1945. Eight days later, he ordered the redeployment of Dietrich’s 6th SS-Panzer Army to Hungary for offensive operations against the Russians. Remaining on the defensive in the Eifel, von Manteuffel’s army was forced back to the Rhine by the advance of the U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies in February-March 1945. Relinquishing command of the 5th Panzer Army to Generaloberst Josef Harpe, von Manteuffel returned to the Eastern Front for his final assignment of the war.

For more in-depth reading on the Battle of the Bulge, refer to The Ardennes: The Battle of the Bulge (Center for Military History Publication 7-8) by Hugh M. Cole, a volume in the official history of the U.S. Army in World War II. An online edition may be found at this link.

The General's uniform that he wore duing the Battle of Bastogne now in the local museum

Promotions:

Fähnrich: 22 February 1916
Leutnant: 28 April 1916 (Patent 28 January 1915)
Oberleutnant: 1 April 1925
Rittmeister: 1 April 1934
Major: 1 October 1936
Oberstleutnant: 1 April 1939
Oberst: 1 October 1941
Generalmajor: 1 May 1943
Generalleutnant: 1 February 1944
General der Panzertruppe: 1 September 1944 (RDA 1 January 1944)

Commands & Assignments:

1908: Entered the Cadet Institute at Naumburg/Saale.
1911: Entered the Senior Cadet Institute at Berlin-Lichterfelde.
22 February 1916: Entered the Army as a Fähnrich in the Replacement Battalion of the Husaren-Regiment von Zieten (Brandenburgisches) Nr.3, Rathenow.
April 1916: In the field with the 5th Squadron of Hussar Regiment 3 attached to the 6th (Prussian) Infantry Division.
12 October 1916: Wounded by shrapnel in the right thigh near Bapaume, France/in hospital.
February 1917: Returned to the field and transferred to the General Staff of the 6th (Prussian) Infantry Division.
November-December 1918: Protected the bridge over the Rhine at Köln from revolutionaries to safeguard the withdrawal of the Field Army from the occupied territories to Germany.
20 December 1918: Transferred to the Replacement Squadron of Hussar Regiment 3, Rathenow.
January 1919: Second Adjutant of Freikorps “von Oven” in Berlin.
May 1919: Transferred to Reichswehr Cavalry Regiment 25, Rathenow.

A young Hasso von Manteuffel - photographed in dress Hussar uniform in 1921

1920-1930: Squadron Leader in the 3rd (Prussian) Reiter [Mounted]-Regiment in the 100,000-man Reichsheer, followed by seven years of duty as the Regimental Adjutant at Rathenow.
1 February 1930: Chief of the Technical Squadron of the 3rd (Prussian) Reiter-Regiment.
1 October 1932: Squadron Chief in the 17th (Bavarian) Reiter-Regiment, Bamberg.
1 October 1934: Transferred to Reiter-Regiment “Erfurt.”
15 October 1935: Squadron Chief in Motorcycle Rifle Battalion 2 of the 2nd Panzer Division commanded by Oberst (later Generalmajor) Heinz Guderian.
1936-1937: Major on the Staff and Training Officer of Cadets and Cadet Officers of the 2nd Panzer Division at Wünsdorf.
25 February 1937: Consultant in the Panzer Troop Command (General der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian)/Army High Command.
1 February 1939: Course Leader at Panzer Troop School II in Berlin-Krampnitz.
1 May 1941: Commander of the I. Battalion of Schützen [Rifle]-Regiment 7 of the 7th Panzer Division. [After sitting out the early campaigns of the German Army, Oberstleutnant von Manteuffel received his World War II baptism of fire upon the launch of Operation “Barbarossa,” the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Commanded by Generalmajor Hans Freiherr von Funck, the famous 7th Panzer Division served as a component of Generaloberst Hermann Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group under Army Group Center.[1] Staging from East Prussia, the 7th Panzer Division attacked across the Memel River in Lithuania and, after taking Vilnius, crossed the frontier into Russia proper. The division continued its advance through Minsk and Vitebsk before taking part in the capture of Smolensk in July 1941.]
25 August 1941: Commander of Schützen-Regiment 6 of the 7th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front. [Oberstleutnant von Manteuffel assumed leadership of the regiment after its commander, Oberst Erich von Unger, was killed in action on 21 August 1941. On 15 November 1941, the Germans began the final drive on Moscow. Despite the onset of a brutal winter they doggedly advanced on Moscow from the north and the south in an attempt to close the pinchers around the Russian capital. After taking part in the encirclement battle at Vyasma, von Manteuffel’s regiment captured the bridge across the Volga-Moscow Canal at Yakhroma on 28 November 1941. However, with no German reserves available to exploit the bridgehead, von Manteuffel reluctantly withdrew back across the canal. On 6 December 1941, the Russians launched the first of a series of major counteroffensives that forced the Germans back from Moscow. On 15 January 1942, Hitler finally bowed to the inevitable and authorized his freezing and exhausted armies to slowly pull back in measured stages to the Rzhev-Gzhatsk-Orel-Kursk line (Königsberg Line). After serving in the line near Rzhev for the next several months, the 7th Panzer Division transferred to France in May 1942 for a much-needed rest and refitting.]

Hasso von Manteuffel directing operations from his command vehicle on the Russian Front.

15 July 1942-4 November 1942: Commander of the 7th Panzer Grenadier Brigade of the 7th Panzer Division during the unit rest and refit in France.
5 February 1943-31 March 1943: Commander of Division “von Manteuffel” in Tunisia. [Initially formed as Division “von Broich” in Tunisia, the division was redesignated upon Generalmajor von Manteuffel’s assumption of command from Oberst Friedrich Freiherr von Broich.[2] The ad hoc division consisted of various units including the Luftwaffe Regiment “Barenthin,” Panzer Grenadier Regiment 160, Fallschirmjäger [Parachute] Pioneer Battalion 11, and the Italian 10th Bersaglieri Regiment.[3] On 26 February 1943, Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, the Commander-in-Chief of the 5th Panzer Army, launched Operation “Ochsenkopf” (“Ox Head”), a series of attacks conceived to expand the Tunis bridgehead.[4] Holding the right flank of the 5th Panzer Army, Division “von Manteuffel” advanced westwards to secure the hills commanding the Medene sector astride the Sedjenane—Djebel Abiod road. Capturing Sedjenane from British and French troops on March 3rd, the division paused for replacements and then renewed the attack. Generalmajor von Manteuffel’s division finally seized its objective pushing the British 46th Infantry Division back 20 miles in the process. General der Panzertruppe Gustav von Vaerst recalled: “A few days later however a sudden enemy attack took the division [von Manteuffel] by surprise and threw it back into the mountain terrain to the north. The fruit of our local success was lost again with the defensive line that we had attempted to establish, but we had probably succeeded in tying down enemy forces.” Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Afrika, dismissed von Arnim’s operation as “a mere waste of strength.”]
31 March 1943: Illness/in hospital/Army High Command Leader Reserve. [Collapsing in the field from illness and exhaustion, Generalmajor von Manteuffel was evacuated from Tunisia for hospitalization in Berlin and Heidelberg, Germany. Generalleutnant Karl Bülowius, the General of Pioneers of Army Group Afrika, assumed leadership of Division “von Manteuffel” (it was not redesignated) and surrendered its remnants to Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley’s U.S. II Corps on 9 May 1943.]
22 August 1943-20 January 1944: Commander of the 7th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front. [Granted command of the division personally by Hitler, Generalmajor von Manteuffel led the “Ghost Division” in central Russia seeing fierce combat at Kharkov, Belgorod, Akhtyrka, along the middle Dnieper River, and at Kiev. In late-November 1943, the 7th Panzer Division recaptured Zhitomir and helped extricate the 8th Panzer Division from a potential encirclement northeast of the city.[5] Tapped to command the Panzer Grenadier Division “Großdeutschland,” von Manteuffel handed the leadership of the 7th Panzer Division over to Generalmajor Adalbert Schulz.[6]]
26 August 1943: Wounded in the back by a Russian air attack on his command vehicle/treated at the front and remained with the troops.

[1] Commanded by Generalmajor (later Generalfeldmarschall) Erwin Rommel from February 1940-February 1941, the 7th Panzer Division played a key role in the invasion of France in May-June 1940. Under Rommel’s command, the 7th Panzer earned the sobriquet “Gespenster-Division” or the “Ghost Division” – the speed of its advance left the French uncertain when or where on the battlefield it would appear next.

[2] Achieving the rank of Generalleutnant, Friedrich (Fritz) Freiherr von Broich commanded the 10th Panzer Division in Tunisia from 5 February 1943 until his capture on 12 May 1943. Among other prisoner of war camps, he was held at Island Farm Special Camp 11 during his captivity.

[3] On 10 March 1943, Oberst Walter Barenthin, the commander of Luftwaffe Regiment “Barenthin,” was wounded and evacuated from Tunisia. For Operation “Ochsenkopf,” Major Rudolf Witzig’s Fallschirmjäger Pioneer Battalion 11 joined with a company of anti-tank guns, an artillery battery and a 20mm anti-aircraft battery to form Group “Witzig.” Major Witzig had received the Knight’s Cross for his role in the daring glider-borne assault on the Belgian Fort Eben Emael on 10 May 1940.

[4] On 9 March 1943, Generaloberst von Arnim was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Afrika upon Generalfeldmarschall Rommel’s return to Germany. General der Panzertruppe Gustav von Vaerst, in turn, took command of the 5th Panzer Army. Among other prisoner of war camps, General von Vaerst was held at Island Farm Special Camp 11 during his captivity.

[5] At the time of the actions around Zhitomir, Oberst Gottfried Frölich, the former commander of the 7th Panzer Division’s Panzer Artillery Regiment 78, led the 8th Panzer Division. Attaining the rank of Generalmajor, he was held as a prisoner of war at Island Farm Special Camp 11.

[6] One of the 27 recipients of the Knight’s Cross with Oakleaves, Swords and Diamonds, Generalmajor Schulz had been a longtime member of the 7th Panzer Division’s Panzer Regiment 25. After serving as a company chief and a battalion commander, he assumed command of the regiment itself in March 1943. Eight days after taking command of the “Ghost Division,” he was killed in action at Shepetovka on 28 January 1944.