soc.history.war.world-war-ii

I see one of the military mags has finally placed an article on a
panzer commander who is mentioned in von Mellinthin's book in glowing
terms.
Hoth's proposed attack to relieve the 6th Armee in Stalingrad, was
spoiled by a strong Soviet attack along the Chir front through the
336th infantry and a "worthless" Luftwaffe division. Balck's 11th
panzer was sent in to stabilize the situation on December 7th.
Using the axiom "Night marches save blood", Balck forced to commit
troops piecemeal, fought daily battles, smashing Soviet formations
until December 28th. One battle, the
"Tatsinskaya pocket", gave the 11th the the code name "Hannibal". In
this time period, the 11th panzer was credited with destroying 225
Soviet tanks; 347 anti tank guns; 30,000 troops Balck's losses:16
tanks; 12 anti tank guns; 215 kia; 155 missing; 1000 wounded.
Like a lot of sucessful commanders, Balck was controversial,
Wilmot called him a "swashbuckling martinet".
This is rather familiar; one might also use this for Patton.
I prefer von Mellinthin's comment: "Balck has strong claims to
be regarded as our finest field commander."