2nd Army (Wehrmacht)

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2nd Army / Army of East Prussia

2nd Army coat of arms

coat of arms
active October 20, 1939 to May 8, 1945 (surrender)
Country Flag of Germany (1935–1945) .svg German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type army
Installation site Prussia
Second World War Campaign in France
Invasion of the Balkans
German-Soviet War
Battle for Kiev (1941)
Double battle near Vyazma and Bryansk
Battle for Moscow
Company blue
Voronezh-Kharkiv operation
Battle of the Dnieper
Operation Bagration
Battle of East Pomerania

The 2nd Army / Army High Command 2 (AOK 2) was a major unit of the Army of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . She was the high command of changing army corps and numerous special troops.

history

The 2nd Army was set up for the first time during the mobilization for the attack on Poland on August 26, 1939 and acted as Army Group Command from the start . On September 2, it was renamed Army Group North .

The army was again set up on October 20, 1939 under General der Kavallerie Maximilian von Weichs by renaming the AOK 8, which had been moved to the west . In the western campaign she was subordinate to Army Group A and took part in the battles around Paris . In April 1941, during the Balkan campaign , it attacked Yugoslavia from Austria together with the 12th Army operating from Bulgaria and took Belgrade .

Structure April 1941 (Operation Marita)

From June 1941, at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa , she fought on the southern wing of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front . In August she was withdrawn from Army Group Center and subordinated to Army Group Guderian in order to take part in the Battle of Kiev . Then she fought with the XIII. , LIII. and XXXXIII. AK in the double battle near Vyazma and Bryansk and on the southern section of the battle for Moscow . On October 25, 1941, AOK 2 moved from the Brjansk area back to the right wing of Army Group Center by taking over three corps of the 2nd Panzer Army and advancing them in the direction of Livny , Jelez , Tim and Kursk . After the Soviet counter-offensive, the 2nd Army was subordinated to Army Group South in early 1942 and took part in defensive battles in the Kursk area.

Outline January 1942

In June and July 1942 it was referred to as the von Weichs Army Group , during which time the Hungarian 2nd Army and the 4th Panzer Army were subordinate to it. As such, she carried out the attack on Voronezh at the beginning of the Blue Company . After the establishment of Army Group B , which the previous Army Commander-in-Chief General Maximilian von Weichs took over, it was subordinated to this and took part in defensive battles in the Voronezh area until 1943 .

In February 1943, the 2nd Army was again subordinated to Army Group Center. During the Citadel operation , the troops defended the front between Sevsk and Rylsk in the area west of Kursk.

Outline July 1943

In the Chernigov-Poltava operation (from August 26, 1943) the Soviet 60th Army managed to break into the German defense lines south of Sevsk . After the deployment of the 9th Panzer Corps and the 65th and 31st Armies , the penetration was extended to 100 kilometers wide and 60 kilometers deep by August 31. On September 2nd, Sumy was lost, and the 2nd Army had to retreat to the Sosch sector in fighting . The XIII. and VII Army Corps south of the Pripyat into the command area of ​​the 4th Panzer Army , while the 2nd Army remained reorganized in the Gomel area. After the loss of Gomel (November 26th) to the Soviet 48th Army , the retreat took place on the Dnepr line at Shlobin , where the 2nd Army again formed the south wing of Army Group Center.

The 2nd Army in the Pripyat region survived the Soviet summer offensive Operation Bagration (June 1944) relatively unscathed. After the loss of Pinsk (July 14th), the permanent Brest-Litovsk square had to be evacuated by the end of July .

Outline January 1945

In January 1945 the army was subordinated to the newly formed Vistula Army Group and defended the Narew sector during the Battle of East Prussia . The resistance of the 2nd Army was stronger than expected for the 2nd Belarusian Front and on January 14th only allowed the Soviets to advance from a depth of 7–8 kilometers. Only when General Rokossowski decided to introduce the 2nd Shock Army into the battle did the breakthrough on Neidenburg succeed . On January 17 and 18, Modlin , Płońsk and Płock fell into Soviet hands. After the loss of the Narew positions, the 2nd Army was entrusted to protect the Gdańsk Bay threatened by the Soviets with the construction of a new front on the lower Vistula , which stretched from Graudenz via Zempelburg and Märkisch Friedland to Stargard . During the Battle of East Pomerania the 2nd Army lost Graudenz and the river line between the Vistula and the Nogat . The 2nd Army was renamed the East Prussian Army on April 7, 1945 and was responsible for the defense of the remaining areas on the Danzig Bay and in East Prussia . After one month, she surrendered to the Red Army on May 8, 1945 .

Commander in chief

Chiefs of the General Staff

See also

Web links

literature

  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht Volume II: 1942 edited by Andreas Hillgruber, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht Volume III: 1943 edited by Walther Hubatsch, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 2. The Land Forces 1–5 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0871-3 .