Hermann Balck
Full name: Georg Otto Hermann Balck
Date of Birth: 07.12.1893 - Danzig-Langfuhr, German Empire
Date of Death: 29.11.1982 - Asperg, West Germany
Battles and Operations: Schlieffen Plan advance and Meuse crossing at Sedan 1914, Western Front, Eastern Front, Italian Front and Balkan Front in World War I, Battle of France 1940, Balkan Campaign 1941, Eastern Front defensive battles along the Chir River 1942, destruction of Soviet Mobile Group Popov 1943, operations around Zhitomir 1943, defensive battles in western Ukraine 1944, initial phase of the Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive including Brody pocket relief attempt 1944, Alsace defensive operations 1944, Hungarian Campaign and relief attempts toward Budapest 1945.
Parents: William Balck (senior officer and military writer) and Mathilde née Jensen
Siblings: unknown
Spouse: Marianne Pauline Frieda von Haldenwang (married 21.09.1929)
Children: no information available
Promotions:
10.04.1913 Fahnenjunker
18.12.1913 Fähnrich
10.08.1914 Leutnant
01.05.1924 Oberleutnant
01.02.1929 Rittmeister
01.06.1935 Major
01.02.1938 Oberstleutnant
01.08.1940 Oberst
15.07.1942 Generalmajor
21.01.1943 Generalleutnant
12.11.1943 General der Panzertruppe
Career:
10.04.1913-12.02.1914 Fahnenjunker, Hannoversches Jäger-Bataillon Nr. 10, Goslar
12.02.1914-01.08.1914 Military School Hannover
01.08.1914-12.08.1914 Platoon Leader, 10. Jäger-Bataillon
12.08.1914-30.10.1914 Temporary Adjutant, 10. Jäger-Bataillon
30.10.1914-06.02.1915 Wounded and hospitalized
06.02.1915-28.06.1915 22. Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon
28.06.1915-18.09.1915 Wounded, Replacement Battalion 10. Jäger-Bataillon
18.09.1915-05.12.1915 Company Leader, 22. Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon
05.12.1915-01.03.1916 Commander Hunt-Command, 5. Kavallerie-Division
01.03.1916-09.11.1916 Commander MG-Company, 22. Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon
09.11.1916-11.02.1918 Commander MG-Company, 10. Jäger-Bataillon
11.02.1918-23.01.1919 Commander 4. Company, 10. Jäger-Bataillon
23.01.1919-01.08.1919 Company Leader, Volunteer-Jäger-Bataillon
01.08.1919-25.10.1919 20. Reichswehr-Infanterie-Regiment
25.10.1919-01.10.1920 Adjutant, 10. Reichswehr-Jäger-Bataillon
01.10.1920-01.10.1921 Adjutant III. (Jäger) Battalion, 17. Infanterie-Regiment
01.10.1921-01.11.1922 Company Officer, 17. Infanterie-Regiment
01.11.1922-01.06.1925 Company Officer, Training Battalion 17. Infanterie-Regiment
01.01.1923-01.10.1923 Detached Subsidiary Leadership Training and transferred to 18. Reiter-Regiment
01.10.1923-31.08.1924 Detached Artillery School
30.09.1924-23.10.1924 Detached MG-Course Senne
01.06.1925-01.10.1928 MG-Officer and Leader MG-Platoon, 18. Reiter-Regiment
20.10.1925-28.11.1925 Detached Battle School Course Döberitz
01.10.1928-01.10.1933 Squadron Chief, 18. Reiter-Regiment
01.04.1934-01.10.1934 Adjutant IIa, Staff 3. Division
01.10.1934-15.10.1935 Staff, Commander Frankfurt/Oder
15.10.1935-12.10.1937 Commander 1. Radfahr-Bataillon
12.10.1937-10.11.1938 Commander 1. Radfahr-Abteilung
10.11.1938-23.10.1939 Administrator Motorised Troops, OKH In 3 + In 6
23.10.1939-15.12.1940 Kommandeur Schützen-Regiment 1, 1. Panzer-Division
15.12.1940-15.05.1941 Kommandeur Panzer-Regiment 3
15.05.1941-25.06.1941 Kommandeur 2. Panzer-Brigade
25.06.1914-07.07.1941 Detached OKH Chief of Army Armaments and Commander Replacement Army
07.07.1941-01.11.1941 Führer-Reserve OKH, special assignment motor-vehicle situation
01.11.1941-16.05.1942 General of Fast Troops with Commander-in-Chief of the Army
16.05.1942-01.08.1942 Delegated leadership 11. Panzer-Division
01.08.1942-05.03.1943 Kommandeur 11. Panzer-Division
05.03.1943-12.11.1943 Führer-Reserve OKH (with temporary leadership Infantry Division Großdeutschland May-June 1943 and XIV. Panzer-Korps September-October 1943)
13.11.1943-15.11.1943 Kommandierender General XXXX. Panzer-Korps (temporary)
15.11.1943-05.08.1944 Kommandierender General XXXXVIII. Panzer-Korps
05.08.1944-01.09.1944 Delegated temporary leadership 4. Panzer-Armee
01.09.1944-21.09.1944 Oberbefehlshaber 4. Panzer-Armee
21.09.1944-23.12.1944 Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe G
23.12.1944-08.05.1945 Oberbefehlshaber 6. Armee (simultaneously Heeresgruppe Balck until 18.03.1945)
08.05.1945-1947 Prisoner of war, US captivity
1947 Released, worked as depot worker
1948 Tried and sentenced for manslaughter (execution of subordinate without court-martial)
Late 1940s-1950s Further legal proceedings including French sentence in absentia for scorched-earth operations
1970s-early 1980s Participated in seminars with NATO officers at US Army War College
Awards and Decorations:
Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse 1914 (15.10.1914)
Kgl. Bayer. Militär-Verdienstorden IV. Klasse mit Schwertern (15.11.1914)
Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse 1914 (26.11.1914)
k.u.k. Österr. Militär-Verdienstkreuz III. Klasse mit Kriegsdekoration (28.02.1916)
Ritterkreuz des Kgl. Preuß. Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern (03.12.1917)
Verwundetenabzeichen 1918 in Gold (10.05.1918)
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer 1914/18
Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung 4. bis 1. Klasse
1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 2. Klasse (12.05.1940)
1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 1. Klasse (13.05.1940)
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 3 June 1940 as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur Schützen-Regiment 1 / 1.Panzer-Division, for breakthrough near Martelange, pursuit towards Bouillon, capture of Bouillon, regiment as the first to reach and cross the Maas near Sedan, breakthrough of the bunker position, defense against attacks at Bois de la Marfe, victorious pursuit battles along the route Chanery—Omont with several thousand prisoners and about 30 guns captured
Panzerkampfabzeichen in Silber (15.10.1940)
Kgl. Bulgar. Orden für Tapferkeit III. Klasse, 1. Stufe (02.12.1941)
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #155 on 20 December 1942 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur 11.Panzer-Division, for holding the Chir river line in late 1942 where his division smashed all the corps of the Soviet 5th Tank Army one after another in a brilliant series of mobile counterattacks against overwhelming Soviet superiority
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern #25 on 4 March 1943 as Generalleutnant and Kommandeur 11.Panzer-Division, for assisting in the destruction of Soviet Mobile Group Popov in the Barvenkovo area during early 1943
Ehrenblattspange des Heeres (30.01.1944)
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten #19 on 31 August 1944 as General der Panzertruppe and Stellvertretender Führer 4.Panzerarmee, for achieving the first successful offensively-conducted defensive battle along the Vistula river in 1944 stabilizing the front against massive Soviet pressure
Mentioned in Wehrmachtbericht (17.05.1940, 20.12.1942, 09.09.1944)
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Hermann Balck, son of the respected pre-war tactical writer Generalleutnant William Balck, grew up immersed in military tradition yet developed an exceptional understanding for the common soldier and flexible battlefield leadership that set him apart. In World War I he served as mountain infantry officer across multiple fronts, was wounded seven times, commanded companies and machine-gun units, and once led a long-range patrol operating independently behind Russian lines for weeks; he was nominated for the Pour le Mérite shortly before the armistice. Retained in the small Reichswehr, he twice declined General Staff assignments to stay with troops, rising steadily through cavalry and motorized units.
In the 1940 Western Campaign, as commander of Schützen-Regiment 1 of the 1. Panzer-Division, Balck personally led the rapid advance that seized Martelange, Bouillon and was the first German regiment to cross the Meuse River near Sedan, establishing and holding the vital bridgehead against strong French counterattacks while capturing thousands of prisoners and dozens of guns. This decisive thrust earned him the Knight's Cross. Transferred to the East in 1942, he took over the 11. Panzer-Division during the critical Chir River battles following the Stalingrad encirclement. Facing Soviet forces with overwhelming local superiority (roughly 7:1 in tanks, 11:1 in infantry, 20:1 in artillery), Balck conducted a brilliant series of mobile counterattacks, repeatedly surprising and destroying entire Soviet tank corps and ultimately shattering much of the Soviet 5th Tank Army in three weeks of intense fighting. For this masterclass in divisional-level armored defense he received the Oak Leaves. Continuing with the same division, he helped annihilate Mobile Group Popov in early 1943, earning the Swords.
As commanding general of XXXXVIII. Panzer-Korps and later acting commander of 4. Panzer-Armee in 1944 he orchestrated the first successful German offensively-conducted defensive battle along the Vistula, stabilizing the front against massive Soviet pressure and earning the Diamonds, one of only twenty-seven officers in the entire Wehrmacht to reach this highest grade. Balck was renowned for leading from the front, reacting instantly to enemy moves, and maintaining cohesion under extreme pressure; American analysts later called his Chir River performance perhaps the finest divisional command of the war. After the war he spent time in US captivity, faced legal consequences for wartime decisions including the summary execution of a drunken subordinate officer, and later worked quietly while writing his memoirs "Ordnung im Chaos". In the 1970s and 1980s he and former chief-of-staff Friedrich von Mellenthin advised NATO commanders at the US Army War College, sharing insights on mobile warfare.
Source:
Balck, Hermann. Ordnung im Chaos: Erinnerungen 1893-1948. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1981 (English: Order in Chaos: The Memoirs of General of Panzer Troops Hermann Balck, edited and translated by David T. Zabecki and Dieter J. Biedekarken, University Press of Kentucky 2015).
Scherzer, Veit. Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Jena 2007.
Thomas, Franz. Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939-1945 Teil III: Infanterie Band 1. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1987.
Mellenthin, Friedrich-Wilhelm von. Panzer Battles. Konecky & Konecky 1956.
Ziemke, Earl F. Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. Center of Military History, US Army 2002.
Glantz, David M. & House, Jonathan. To the Gates of Stalingrad. University Press of Kansas 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Balck
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/204/Balck-Hermann.htm
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Personenregister/B/BalckH.htm
https://www.historynet.com/the-greatest-german-general-no-one-ever-heard-of/
http://www.geocities.ws/orion47.geo/WEHRMACHT/HEER/General/BALCK_HERMANN.html
https://rk.balsi.de/ (Ritterkreuzträger database)
https://www.unithistories.com/
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/ (searches for Balck memoirs and related histories)
http://de.metapedia.org/ (supplementary biographical entries)
Additional cross-referenced from familysearch.org and ww2gravestone.com for personal details.
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