Erhard Raus (January 8, 1889 - April 3, 1956) was a German Colonel General (Generaloberst) during World War II. He commanded the 6th Panzer Division during the early years of the war on the Eastern Front before taking Army and Army Group commands.
Born in Wolframitz (Moravia), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he entered the Austro-Hungarian Army Cadet School at Koenigsfeld on 1 October 1905 and was commissioned as an officer on 18 August 1909. He fought throughout World War I with the Bicycle Light Infantry, becoming highly decorated, rising to the rank of Captain and eventually commanding Bicycle Light-Infantry Battalion 1.
He married Marries Anna Morsani on August 17, 1918.
On January 18, 1919 he was selected for retention in the Austrian Army following the end of the war, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel in 1936. He spent these years in a number of staff and training posts before being absorbed into the Wehrmacht during the Anschluss in 1938, following which he continued with several other staff roles.
Raus was appointed chief of staff to XVII Corps a few months before the war started but did not see any combat with these units, due to his staff role, when they attacked Poland and then headed west in 1940.
Following the practice of sending staff officers into the line he took over the command of Infantry Regiment 243 in June 1940, then Motorised Infantry Regiment 4 in July. In May 1941 he took command of the 6th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the 6th Panzer Division. However he had never led any of these formations into any sort of battle prior to 22 June 1941. His last combat experience was with the Bicycle Light Infantry Battalion 1 in the Austro-Hungarian Army where for 5 months in 1918 he was the acting commander.
On 22 June 1941, Kampfgruppe Raus (the 6th Panzer Division was operating with two Kampfgruppen — Kampfgruppe Raus and Kampfgruppe von Seckendorff) under his leadership, launched into the Baltic States and by August 20 had crossed through Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, fought alone for several days after capturing a bridgehead over the Luga River, took part in some the early Eastern Fronts most infamous battles and actions, broke through the Stalin Line and had arrived upon the outskirts of Leningrad.
On 7 September 1941, Raus was appointed the acting commander of the 6th Panzer Division.
On 15 September, the 6th Panzer Division, minus its artillery was ordered off the line outside of Leningrad. The division was to be transferred to Army Group Centre to take part in Operation Typhoon — the attempt to capture Moscow.In Raus' opinion, the Soviet strength in his division's sector had been crushed, opening an opportunity to break into the city. He told of how his men in one week during the furious fighting outside the city had rolled up 12 Soviet defensive positions and captured 248 bunkers.
On 11 October he was awarded the Knights Cross for his seizure and defence of the Luga River bridgehead.
Raus and his men were transferred to the LVI Panzer Corp and formed part of the spearhead striking for Moscow. During this drive, his men working in combination with other panzer divisions helped encircle 400,000 men at Vyazma.
At the beginning of December they stood only 14 km from the outskirts of Moscow. During the Soviet winter counterattack, Raus claimed to have saved his entire division by giving orders to blast holes into the frozen soil - each large enough to shelter three to five soldiers. Within hours his men were dug in and able to repel further Soviet attacks and withstand the terrible weather with fewer losses.
During the beginning of January 1942, the Soviet counterattacks were threatening to cut off the Fourth and Ninth armies, here Raus gained a new command of high importance. General Walter Model (commanding the Ninth Army) issued orders that all rear area personnel would be placed under the command of Raus and he was given the job of organising these men to protect the lines of communications and stop any encircling operation by the Soviets.By February, Raus states he had collected around 35,000 men under his command and by mid February he was counterattacking the Soviet positions, helping stabilise the line and halt any chance of large chunks of Army Group Centre from being encircled.
In early April, now with only his 6th Panzer Division under his command, they were transferred to France to refit and rest and he was appointed the commander of the division on 29 April.
In mid November 1942, the division left France for the Soviet Union via train. Raus claimed to have saved much of his division from needless casualties by ignoring protests by train officials and organizing the transport of his men in what he called "Combat Trains", that being each trainload of his men would be able to deploy into small combined arms groups and thus be able to effectively repel partisan attacks for minimal material damage or loss of life.
By the end of November, the division was detrained and its mission became clear: To take part in Operation Winter Storm.
As the division along with the other elements of XLVIII Panzer Corps attacked, Raus later claimed that his division's ability to inflict such heavy losses upon the Soviet forces facing them was in part due to his leadership skills and inspiration. In December 1942, Raus fought a masterpiece of attack and defense that burned out the 2nd Guards Army (Soviet Union's Red Army).
When the offensive was called off and the Panzer divisions called back, Raus made the claim that his troops were within striking distance of Stalingrad and that his force could have saved the encircled Sixth Army claiming there was no resistance between them. He failed to mention that the relief force was unable to carry on fighting towards the city because of increasing numbers of Soviet formations moving between the two and that Paulus was also unwilling to breakout.
With the collapse of the front following Stalingrad, Raus found himself being placed in command of a newly formed XI Corps known until midsummer as Provisional Corps Raus , as well as a promotion to General of Panzer Troops. He was now under the command of Army Detachment Kempf and was commanding himself the 168th, 298th and 320th Infantry Divisions.
His men took part in the counterattack during the Third Battle of Kharkov, he then lead his men fighting across the Donets River during the Battle of Kursk (now commanding the 106th, 168th and 320th Infantry Divisions), their mission being to screen the Fourth Panzer Army while they broke through the Soviet defenses and drove on for Kursk to complete the encirclement.
In late July, following the failure of Operation Citadel, Raus' badly mauled Corp fought a rearguard action towards the Donets while the rest of the Army crossed before they finally crossed over.
There would be no relief for Raus or his men as the Red Army kept up its attacks. At this time the whole front was being pushed back by the Red Army, but he nevertheless managed to stabilise a major crossing point across the Donets. In doing so, he halted the Russians that threatened to outrun the retreating German army, which was scrambling to establish themselves on the Panther-Wotan Line; which was only partially completed at the time.
When they were finally ordered to fall back, his men had taken heavy losses. They fell back on Kharkov where they took part in the final battle for the city.
For his leadership during the defensive fighting from Belgorad to Kharkov he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross.
He was soon again on the retreat, leading his men from Kharkov back to the Dnieper River, having to fend off constant Soviet attacks and attempts to envelop the Corp until they reached the bridgehead at the river on 20 September.
Following his arrival, 8th Army gave Raus the mission of organizing the withdrawal of all Axis units in its sector (13 divisions) from the east side of the river to the west.
Following these events Raus spent the rest of the year fighting in the Ukraine. On 10 December 1943 he was appointed acting commander of the Fourth Panzer Army.
Several days later after setting up effective administration and improvising whatever craft he could lay his hands on, he had succeeded in his mission, pulling all divisions back across the river as well as thousands of cattle and horses .
The first test of his command was to blunt the Soviet Christmas offensive launched on the 24th. Having deployed his units to be able to absorb the initial Soviet attack, he ordered the construction of an anti tank ditch behind his lines as well as the evacuation of all unneeded material along with other efforts, but they were not to able to halt the Soviets .
However, through skillful use of his forces, Raus halted the Soviet offensive and scored a major defensive success although losing many men and being pushed back around 100 kilometres. He had kept the Soviets from breaking through although Raus openly admitted that General Balck’s Panzer Corp played a key role in halting the Soviet attack.
More fighting was to follow through April 1944 which resulted in the loss of further men unnecessarily due to Hitler's orders to turn cities and towns into fortresses and fight to the last man.
In May, Raus took command of the First Panzer Army. Few months later, he transferred to the Third Panzer Army.
In February 1945, Hitler transferred Raus to command the XI SS Panzer Corps in the Pomeranian area. When the Soviet Union crossed the German border, Hitler dismissed Raus from command of the Panzer Army.
Raus subsequently wrote and co-wrote a number of books and publications focusing on strategic analysis of the tank tactics used by his forces on the Eastern front. He died in Vienna General hospital on 3 April 1956.
