Hans von Salmuth, son of Oberstleutnant Friedrich Ernst Werner Anton Freiherr von Salmuth, joined the Prussian Army in 1907 and served in the German Army in World War I. Salmuth remained in the army and served as chief of staff of II Corps from 1934 to 1937. He was assigned as chief of staff to the First Army Group Command. In 1938 he was transferred as Chief of Staff to the Second Army. In 1939 he was Chief of Staff for Army Group North, commanded by General Fedor von Bock, during the invasion of Poland. Salmuth continued as Chief of Staff to Bock, when the latter was given command of Army Group B for the invasion of Belgium and France, in May 1940. In July 1940 Salmuth was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On 1 August 1940, he was promoted to lieutenant-general. In 1941, Salmuth was assigned to the Eastern Front and given command of XXX Corps. He participated in Operation Barbarossa and took part in the Battle of Sevastopol. As all German corps on the Eastern Front, Salmuth's corps implemented the criminal Commissar Order. In 1942, he was made acting commander of the Seventeenth Army. For a short time, 6 June 1942 to 15 July 1942, he was assigned to command the Fourth Army, replacing the former commander, Gotthard Heinrici, who went on leave. In mid-July 1942 he was given command of the Second Army. In January 1943 Salmuth was promoted to Generaloberst, the second highest German officer rank in the Wehrmacht. At that time, he was faced with the Soviet Voronezh-Kastornensk Operation, in which the Second Army was almost destroyed. On 3 February 1943, he was given command of the Fourth Army until July 1943. In August 1943, Salmuth was reassigned to command the Fifteenth Army stationed at Pas-de-Calais, France. Salmuth was relieved of his command, in late August 1944, following the disintegration of the German front line, after the Allied breakout from Normandy, receiving no further command.
Trial and conviction
Salmuth was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Salmuth was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and mis-treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, and of murder, deportation, and hostage-taking of civilians in occupied countries. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. His sentence was reviewed in 1951, commuted to 12 years and backdated to June 1945. Salmuth was released in 1953. Hans von Salmuth died in 1962.
