Hans von Salmuth

Hans von Salmuth (November 11 1888–January 1, 1962) was a German army officer, serving in both World War I and World War II.

Born in 1888 in Metz, Germany (now a part of France) into a Prussian military family, he joined the German army in 1907. He served in the First World War, being promoted to the rank of captain by the war's end.

He stayed in the army after the war. He served as chief of staff, II Corps from 1934 to 1937, at which time he was promoted to brigadier general and made chief of staff to 1st Army Group Command. In 1938 he was assigned as chief of staff for the Second Army. In 1939 he was chief of staff for Army Group North, commanded by General Fedor von Bock.

Von Salmuth continued as chief of staff to General von Bock when the latter was given command of Army Group B in the invasion of France in May of 1940.

In 1941 Von Salmuth was assigned to the Eastern Front and given his own command, the XXX Corps. In 1942 he was made acting commander of the Seventeenth Army. For a short time, June 6, 1942 to July 15, 1942 he commanded Fourth Army.

In mid July 1942 he was made commander of the 2nd Army. On February 3, 1943 he turned over command of Second Army to General Walter Weiss.

Von Salmuth was promoted to full general in January 1943. He was again given command of the Fourth Army, giving it up in July 1943.

Von Salmuth then left the Eastern Front, going to France, where on August 8 1943 he was given command of the Fifteenth Army stationed in the Pas-de-Calais area of France. The Pas-de-Calais area was considered by Adolph Hitler to be where the Allies would choose to invade, and Fifteenth Army was given the most forces in the area. The Allies did everything in their power to encourage Hitler in his belief (see Operation Bodyguard) however, they had picked Normandy as the site of the invasion, an area defended by the German Seventh Army.

Von Salmuth wrote this anecdote in his diary about the morning of the D-Day invasion, June 6,1944;

“At 6 A.M., since it had been daylight for an hour and a half, I had my Chief of Staff telephone Seventh Army again to ask if the enemy had landed anywhere yet. The reply was, ‘Fleets of troop transports and warships big and small are lying at various points offshore, with masses of landing craft. But so far no landing has yet taken place.’ Thereupon I went back to sleep with a calm mind, after telling my Chief of Staff ‘—So their invasion has miscarried already !"

Von Salmuth was relieved of his command by Hitler on August 24 1944 following the disintegration of the German front line after the Allied breakout from Normandy (Operation Cobra). He was replaced by General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen. Von Salmuth was given no more commands in the war.

After the war, von Salmuth was held as a prisoner of war until 1948, when he was one of 185 defendants prosecuted in the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Allied Control Council (ACC) Law No. 10. Von Salmuth was tried in the High Command Trial and found guilty of war crimes against prisoners of war and enemy belligerents, and crimes against humanity involving civilians in occupied countries and was sentenced to twenty years in prison. However, he was released early after serving only five years, in 1953. He died in Heidelberg, West Germany, in 1962. He was buried in the Nordfriedhof cemetary located in Wiesbaden, Germany.

In the 1962 film, "The Longest Day", von Salmuth was portrayed by actor Ernst Schröder.

References

"Salmuth, Hans von." Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9344629> [Accessed March 25, 2006].

Biography of Colonel-General Hans von Salmuth http://www.generals.dk/general/von_Salmuth/Hans/Germany.html

Graves of Famous WWII Personalities http://www.xs4all.nl/~ejnoomen/wwgrave.html

David Irving: Hitler's War,Germany 1939-1945, ch. 36 (D-Day quote) http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Hitler/1977/html_chapter/36.html