20 Facts About Hubert Lanz

Karl Hubert Lanz was a German general during the Second World War, in which he led units in the Eastern Front and in the Balkans.

Hubert Lanz was retained in the reduced post-war Reichswehr, being promoted to captain on 1 February 1928.

In June 1941, Hubert Lanz led his division in the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Hubert Lanz continued to command the division during its advance in the Soviet Union, participating in the breakthrough of the Stalin Line and the advance to the Dnjepr and the Mius River.

In May 1942, Hubert Lanz's division fought in the Second Battle of Kharkov and then participated in the Fall Blau offensive through southern Russia and into the Caucasus.

Hubert Lanz was tasked by Hitler to hold the area of Kharkov, even though he was outnumbered by almost 4:1.

On 9 September 1943, Hubert Lanz assumed command of the newly formed XXII Mountain Corps in Epirus, Greece.

Collective punishment of entire localities for guerrilla attacks was common, with directives to execute 50 to 100 hostages for each German casualty; only four days before Hubert Lanz assumed command, men of the 98th Regiment of 1st Mountain Division under Lieutenant-Colonel Josef Salminger, an ardent Nazi, had executed 153 civilians in the village of Mousiotitsa and another 317 in the village of Kommeno.

Hubert Lanz himself was often at odds with his new subordinates.

Furthermore, in late 1943, pressed by both the Germans and rival leftist ELAS guerrillas, General Napoleon Zervas, the leader of EDES, the dominant guerrilla group in Epirus, reached a tacit agreement with Hubert Lanz and restricted his forces' operations against the Germans.

Hubert Lanz was tasked with overcoming the Italian forces in Epirus and the Ionian Islands.

Hubert Lanz himself was initially in favour of negotiating the Italian surrender, but in the end followed his orders and stormed these islands.

Hubert Lanz was present in Cephalonia both during the battle and the subsequent massacre.

Hubert Lanz was brought to trial in 1947 in the so-called "Southeast Case" of the Nuremberg Trials, along with other Wehrmacht generals active in the Balkans.

However, his defence team cast doubt on the allegations concerning these events, and as the Italians did not present any evidence against him, Hubert Lanz convinced the court that he had resisted Hitler's directives and that the massacre did not happen.

Hubert Lanz claimed that the report to Army Group E reporting the execution of 5,000 soldiers had been a ruse employed to deceive the Army command, in order to hide the fact that he had disobeyed the Fuhrer's orders.

Hubert Lanz added that fewer than a dozen officers were shot and the rest of the Acqui Division was transported to Piraeus through Patras.

Hubert Lanz's defence argued that the Italians were under no orders to fight from the War Office in Brindisi, and would therefore have to be regarded as mutineers or franc-tireurs who had no right to be treated as POWs under the Geneva conventions.

Ultimately, Hubert Lanz was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, a comparatively light sentence compared with other commanders involved with operations in the Balkans, like Lothar Rendulic.

On 1 February 1951, Hubert Lanz was released after his sentence was commuted to time served.