Friedrich Von Mellenthin - Eastern Front

Eastern Front

Upon recovery, from November 1942 to May 1944, he served as Chief of General Staff for the XXXXVIII. Panzerkorps on the Eastern Front in Russia, where he participated in the battles following the encirclement of Stalingrad, and later in Kursk, the Battle of Kiev, and the spring 1944 battles in western Ukraine, including the battle for Tarnopol. As Chief of Staff for the XXXXVIII. Panzerkorps, he made frequent radio contact with General Paulus at Stalingrad, to learn of his plans for complying with Hitler's order to hold the encircled city against the attacking Red Army. Following the defeat at Stalingrad, General Mellenthin described the German war on the Eastern Front in the following terms: "We are in the position of a man who has seized a wolf by the ears and dare not let him go." (May 14, 1943).

In July 1944 von Mellenthin was Chief of Staff of XXXXVIII. Panzerkorps when it unsuccessfully tried to relieve the Brody encirclement during the first days of the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation. When a range of commanders were moved, von Mellenthin followed General Hermann Balck when Balck was promoted to commander of 4. Panzerarmee in August 1944, during the later stages of the battles in western Ukraine and south-eastern Poland. During this time Soviet Marshal Konev's forces pressed the German forces behind the San river in south-eastern Poland, creating a bridgehead that became one of the springboards for the Vistula-Oder Operation in January 1945.