The 4th Panzer Army, operating as Panzer Group 4 from its formation on 15 February 1941 to 1 January 1942, was a German panzer formation during World War II. As a key armoured component of the Wehrmacht, the army took part in the crucial battles of the German-Soviet war of 1941–45, including Operation Barbarossa, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, and the 1943 Battle of Kiev.
Fall 1943, 4th Panzer Army in Southern Ukraine
Erich Hoepner (right) with commander of the SS Polizei Division, Walter Krüger, October 1941
During the Battle of Kursk
Image: Bundesarchiv Bild 146 1971 068 10, Erich Hoepner
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. It was the largest and costliest land offensive in human history, with around 10 million combatants taking part, and over 8 million casualties by the end of the operation.
Clockwise from top left: German soldiers advance through northern Russia German flamethrower team Soviet Ilyushin Il-2s over German positions near Moscow Soviet POWs on the way to prison camps Soviet soldiers fire artillery
The Marcks Plan was the original German plan of attack for Operation Barbarossa, as depicted in a US Government study (March 1955).
Semyon Timoshenko and Georgy Zhukov in 1940
Army general (later Marshal) Zhukov speaking at a military conference in Moscow, September 1941
