A Master Field Commander, Hermann Balck was born to a general at Danzig-Langfuhr on December 7^th 1893.  He served in the Tenth (Hanoverian) Jäger during the First World War, but gained acclaim as a field officer during the French campaign of the Second World War.  Acting as the CO of Schutzenregiment I (1^st Panzer Division), he established the first German bridgehead over the River Meuse by forcefully storming the river in boats and establishing pontoon bridges for tanks of the division.  During the first year of Operation Barbarossa, Balck commanded the 3^rd Regiment of the 2^nd Panzer Division, and by 1942 had been given command of the 11^th Panzer Division, arguably the finest Panzer Division in the Wehrmacht. 

Perhaps Balck’s most distinguished actions came during General Manstein’s failed attempt to break through to General Paulus’ entrapped 6^th Army at Stalingrad during the winter of 1942-1943.  Historian Alan Clark, in his book Barbarossa; The Russian-German Conflict of 1941-1945, provides great detail on how Balck’s 11^th Panzer saved the day as Soviet 5^th Tank Army threatened Manstein’s flanks along the Chir. 

“…Balck’s 11^th Panzer was driving up from Rostov during the day at almost the same speed as the Russian tanks were moving south.  That evening the heads of the two columns collided at the huge ‘State Farm 79’ just north of Verkhne-Solonovski, and exchanged fire until darkness fell.  The Russians then went into leaguer among the farm buildings, but Balck, with characteristic energy, led the mass of his tanks around the whole wide arc to the west and north, leaving only his engineering battalion and a few 88-mm guns to mask the Russian position.  This feat, over snow-covered unmapped ground and coming after a two day forced march, brought it’s reward.  Ten hours later the Panzers were astride the Russian approach route.  At first light they could see a large column of Russian trucks , infantry set down to reinforce te armored break-through, driving serenely along, nose to tail.  They charged down and ran parallel with the column, destroying it with machine-gun fire at ranges of about twenty yards, in order to conserve their armor-piercing ammunition.   After the destruction of the infantry, Balck’s tanks continued to drive south on the road the Russian moterised column had been following and arrived at the state farm just as the T-34’ were moving off (Also in a southerly direction) to attack what they mistakenly believed to be the weak left flank of the 336^th division.  The Russian tanks faltered as they caught the first shells from Balck’s screen 88’s, and at the moment they were set upon by the Panzers in their rear.  Their two brigades kept up the fight throughout the day, but by it’s end were practically annihilated, losing fifty-three tanks.  Only a few managed to slink away under cover of darkness.  They lay low in the frozen gullies which intersected the area, and were to emerge and cause some trouble in the days that followed.”

         Balck’s attack that morning, the 8^th of December 1942, cost the Soviet I Tank Corps 53 tanks, mostly of the T-34 class.  For the next week Balck’s 11^th Division continued to fill in the gaps left from the Soviet assaults, earning fame for it’s forced night marches speedy attacks.  However, on the 17 December, the Soviet Command launched an attack against the Italian 8^th Army, and preceded to make a drive toward Rostov.  Not willing to allow the Soviet force to pin Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist's Army Group A in the caucuses, Manstein withdrew the majority of Colonel General Hermann Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army from its attempts to relive Sixth Army, leaving 11th Panzer and XLVIII Panzer Corps vulnerable along the Don.  A Soviet crossing of the Don crushed the 336^th, and fearing another Soviet breakout, Balck ordered another one of his night marches be conducted on the 19^th of December, spearheaded by the 15^th Panzer Regiment.  Outside of Nizhna Kalinovski that night, the 25 tanks of 15^th Panzer were able to sneak around the back of a 42 Tanks Soviet column.  Unaware of the enemy behind them in the darkness, the column was completely annihilated by the force half it’s size.  15^th panzer would go on to destroy 65 Soviet tanks that day without cost to her own. 

            Despite the virtual destruction of the Soviet 5^th Tank Army in the battles along the Chir, the 11^th Panzer was withdrawn (With the rest of XLVIII Corps) to block of the Soviet advance to Rostov on 22^nd December.  With his division down to 20 operational Tanks and virtually combat ineffective, Balck nevertheless felt that Rostov could only be saved through German counterattacks.  Amazingly, he was able to surround the Soviet XXIV Tank Corps by Christmas, and with reinforcements from the 4^th PanzerGrenadier destroy the Tanks Corps.