The 3rd Panzer Army was a German armored force formed on 1 January 1942, existing until 3 May 1945. Hermann Hoth commanded the army during Operation Barbarossa and World War II, and the army would have to fight its way out of Belarus into Lithuania and Poland through 1943 and 1944. After the Battle of Seelow Heights, the 3rd Panzer Army suffered heavy losses, and the army's last 300,000 troops under Hasso von Manteuffel surrendered to the British Army at Hagenow on 3 May 1945.