Hube, Hans Valentine ” Der Mensch”/”The Human Being”.

Hube, Hans Valentine, born 29-10-1890 in the garrison town  Naumburg an der Saale  one and a half year after Adolf Hitler (did you know)

 (see Hitler parents)(see William Hitler),  Hube came from a military family. In 1909 he was educated at the officers’ academy.and he joined the Imperial German Army in 1906 and was commissioned into the 26^th Infantry Regiment the following year. During the Great War he was in the thick of the fighting at Verdun in 1916. He was severely wounded  and his right arm was amputated. Hube overcame the physical and psychological disability associated with being wounded and returned to duty. With the collapse of Germany in 1918 Hube applied for the much reduced, but elite, German Army, the newly organized Reichswehr . Hube was the only one armed officer to remain in service. In 1934 he was given the command of an experimental motorized battalion, the prototype of the Panzer formations. By 1940 he was promoted to Oberst and led the 16^th Infantry Division   through conversion to full Panzer status.

In May 1940, Hube was responsible for the rapid conquest of the Netherlands and Belgium. He later assisted Generalfeldmarschall der Panzertruppe Erwin Rommel  in the conquest of France. After the conquest of Western Europe, he and Friedrich Paulus devised a plan for a possible invasion of Great Britain. After this invasion failed to materialize, Hube was appointed Generalmajor and given overall command of the 16th Panzer Division.

He succeeded Generalleutnant Heinrich Krampf   Krampf died age 75 on 16-11-1963 in Munich. Hube demonstrated his skill and talent as a master tactician during Operation Barbarossa  the German invasion of Josef Stalin‘s Russia. He was nicknamed Der Mensch, (“Real Man”) by his troops because of his reputation for being a tough, fair, courageous and of a completely outspoken character and the nickname the “one-armed Panzer General,”  In October 1942 he became a full General of Panzer Troops, was trapped with the Sixth Army   of Generaloberst Friedrich Paulus,  at Stalingrad and refused Hitler’s direct orders to evacuate insisting that he’d rather stay with his fellow soldiers. He was commander of the 16th Panzer Division, who he replaced Gustav Anton von Wietersheim   as commander of the XIV Panzer Corps on  15-09-1942. Wietersheim died on 25-04-1974, old age 90, in Bonn, the capital of West Germany. Hitler wanted Hube out

and ordered a special SS detachment to fly in and bring him back personally. Sent to Sicily he commanded the 14^th Panzer Corps  in a delaying action and was one of the last German soldiers off that devastated island. Back on the Eastern Front in 1944 General Hube maneuvered 1^st Panzer Army   in the Ukraine so as not to be pinned down by superior Russian armies opposing him. The whole campaign in Normandy caused the 1^st Panzer Division some 5.000 casualties. Also fighting battles against the Russian line of communications, as ordered by Generalfeldmarschall der Infanterie, Oberbefehlhaber Heeresgruppe Sud, Erich von Manstein,

he was constantly supplied by Luftwaffe air elements and eventually in conjunction with an attack by the 4^th Panzer Army under Austrian Generaloberst der Panzertruppe, Ernst Raus   Raus died of long problems age 67, on 03-04-1956 in Vienna, broke out through the Russian front line with his forces almost intact. Hube was personally decorated by Hitler for this fighting withdrawal, punching out of a large scale Soviet envelopment in early 1944.

As with Generaloberst Eduard Dietl, the plane crash raises questions in terms of military history. It is sometimes assumed that it was not just a misfortune.Generaloberst Hube was one of Hitler’s favorite Generals, and on his visit to Obersalzberg shortly before the crash, he had presented him with the diamonds for the oak leaves of the Knight’s Cross. On those days Hitler had thought of appointing Hube as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but postponed the appointment date. This was prevented with the sudden crash of Generaloberst Hube. Hubes death is also one of the unsolved cases

Hubes only son, Leutnant Ulrich Hube (born 29-07-1921 in Magdeburg), died on 24-07-1941 in the fighting against the Bolsheviks on the Eastern Front near Michalkina. Ulrich had received his training under his father in the Infantry Training Regiment of the Döberitz Infantry School as a flagjunker and finally as a flagjunker non-commissioned officer. Among his friends and comrades from this time was the 25-year-old sergeant Ludwig Havighorst, whom the 18-year-old “little Ulrich” regarded as a role model.

Death and burial ground of Hube, Hans Valentine ” Der Mensch”/”The Human Being”.

      While on route to take charge of Army Group South of the Ukraine area and on his leaders birthday, 21^st April, Hube was killed in a plane crash, a few miles from Berchtesgaden..   A few weeks before his own death, Adolf Hitler was still lamenting the passing of Der Mensch, stating that he was one of the top three commanders to emerge from World War II. Hans Hube was a fighting General and one always knew where he stood. Hube age 63, is buried on the Invaliden Friedhof of Berlin, Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels, close to the graves of the flying aces, Generaloberst der Flieger, Director General of Equipment for the Luftwaffe, Ernst Udet  and General der Flieger, Kommodore Jagd Geschwader 51, Werner “Vati”  Mölders,  the Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau  , Gestapo leader, Reinhard Heydrich and former Armament Minister, Fritz Todt  . Hube was given a state funeral in Berlin on 26 April 1944. His coffin was laid out in the Reich Chancellery and the eulogy was delivered by Heinz Guderian

. The guard of honour consisted of the Generals Walther Nehring, Hermann Breith, Heinrich Eberbach and Hans Gollnick. Gollnick survived the war and died 15-02-1970 (aged 77) in Hamburg.

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