18th Army (German Empire)
The 18th Army / Army High Command 18 (AOK 18) was a large unit and the associated command authority of the German army during the First World War (1914-1918). It comprised several army or reserve corps as well as numerous special troops.
history
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In 1918, the Supreme Army Command assembled numerous troops for the planned spring offensive ( Operation "Michael" ) on the Western Front . In addition to reinforcing the armies that were already in the front, two new armies, the 17th and 18th Armies , were assembled. From January 1918 the troops of the 18th Army gathered in the area around St. Quentin . The new Army High Command 18 emerged on December 27, 1917 from the former High Command of Army Group Woyrsch . General of the infantry Oskar von Hutier became the commander in chief of the new army .
When the offensive began on March 21, 1918, the 18th Army and the 7th Army formed the left wing of the attack. The German offensive ended after initial successes in July 1918. Even after that, the army remained on the Western Front. The headquarters of the Army High Command was almost continuously in Leschelle , except for the period from May 9 to August 27, 1918, when it was in Auroir . On the retreat after the armistice of Compiègne , the headquarters in Biedenkopf was set up on December 2, 1918 .
References
→ Main article: Army (German Empire)
Web links
- The highest command posts of the army on www.deutsche-kriegsgeschichte.de (as of April 19, 2010)
literature
- Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918 , Military Publishing House Karl Siegismund, Berlin 1937 ( History of the Royal Prussian Army and the German Imperial Army 5).