The 6th Panzer Army () was a formation of the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

, formed in the autumn of 1944. The 6th Panzer Army was first used as an offensive force during the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Die Wacht am Rhein, Wacht am Rhein, was the last major German Offensive (military), offensive Military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western ...

, in which it operated as the northernmost element of the German offensive. The army was subsequently transferred to Hungary in early 1945 and used in both offensive and defensive actions there. The final battles of the 6th Panzer Army were fought in Austria, preventing its fall to

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

forces. The remnants of the army eventually surrendered to the United States Army. The army's commander throughout its existence, SS-'' Oberstgruppenführer''

Josef Dietrich Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a German politician, general and war criminal in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) during the Nazi era. Despite having no formal staff officer training, Dietrich was, along with Paul Hausser, t ...

said in early 1945: "We call ourselves the 6th Panzer Army, because we've only got six Panzers left."

Unit history

The 6th Panzer Army is best noted for its leading role in the

(December 16, 1944 – January 25, 1945). Although it never received an SS designation, calling it the ''6th SS Panzer Army'' came into general use in military history literature after the Second World War, most likely due to being led by a SS General and commanding many SS units or to separate it from the Wehrmacht's 6th Army. The attack of the 6th Panzer Army into the Ardennes in December 1944 failed to swiftly break the American defensive line and lost valuable time because of U.S. defensive efforts at locations like Monschau on the German border. Despite the allocation of SS panzer divisions, the 6th Panzer Army only managed a minor penetration into the northern defensive sector of the U.S. VIII Corps and its advance was thereafter checked by U.S. reinforcements arriving on the northern flank of the offensive. After the Ardennes Offensive, the 6th Panzer Army was transferred to Hungary, where it fought against the advancing Soviet Army. In March 1945, after the fall of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, the 6th Panzer Army launched one of the final German offensives of the war, Operation Frühlingserwachen around

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater rift lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the larges ...

. This was an attempt to protect the last sources of petroleum controlled by the Germans. The offensive lacked operational surprise, but Soviet Front commander

Fyodor Tolbukhin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (; 16 June 1894 – 17 October 1949) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He is regarded as one of the finest Soviet generals of World War II. Born into a peasant family i ...

's awareness of the presence of elite SS units, under direct orders from STAVKA Tolbukhin was ordered to use minimal forces against the SS until a counteroffensive could be made in strength north of

. On March 16 the 3rd Ukrainian Front launched its major counteroffensive and

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

admitted in his diary that failure was likely. Three days later, the Germans were thrown back at their original starting positions. The 1st, 2nd, 9th, and 12th SS Panzer Divisions were reduced to 31 operational armored fighting vehicles by March 15, 1945, while Army Group South as a whole retained 772 operational tanks and assault guns as of March 16, 1945. However, the German forces broke under the Soviet Red Army counteroffensive and retreated towards

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

to defend

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In April 1945, the 6th Panzer Army defended

against the advancing Soviets, but was unable to prevent a Soviet conquest of the city. When the war ended on May 8, 1945, the 6th Panzer Army was in Austria between Vienna and Linz, in which area it subsequently surrendered to forces of the Soviet and U.S. Armies.

Unit history

References

Further reading