2nd Army (Wehrmacht)
2nd Army / Army of East Prussia |
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coat of arms |
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active | October 20, 1939 to May 8, 1945 (surrender) |
Country | 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 |
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)
- LI. Army corps under Lieutenant General Reinhard with 101st light , 132nd and 183rd infantry divisions
- XXXXIX. Mountain Corps under General of the Mountain Troops Kübler with 1st Mountain Division
- XXXXVI. Motorized Army Corps under General Vietinghoff with 8th and 14th Panzer Divisions and 16th Infantry Division (motorized)
- LII. Army corps under General von Briesen with 125th Infantry Division
- Reserve: 79th (in May 1941 to LII. AK), 169th and 197th Infantry Divisions
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 In August she was withdrawn from Army Group Center and subordinated to Army Group Guderian in order to take part in the Battle of Kiev .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
- High Kdo XXXV. AK with 56th , 134th , 262nd and 293rd Infantry Divisions
- LV. Army corps with 45th , 95th and 168th infantry divisions and 221st security division
- XXXXVIII. Army corps (motorized) with 9th Panzer and 16th Infantry Division (motorized)
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
- VII Army Corps under General Hell with 68th , 75th , 26th and 88th Infantry Divisions
- XIII. Army corps under General Straube with 82nd , 327th , 340th and 377th Infantry Divisions
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
- XX. Army corps under General der Artillerie von Roman with 14th, 102nd , 129th and 292nd Infantry Divisions
- XXIII. Army corps under General der Infanterie Melzer with 7th, 299th Infantry and 5th Jäger Divisions
- XXVII. Army corps under General der Artillerie Felzmann with 35th, 252nd Infantry and 542nd Volksgrenadier Divisions
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
- Colonel General Fedor von Bock : August 26 to September 2, 1939
- Colonel General Maximilian von Weichs : October 20, 1939 to November 15, 1941
- General of the tank troop Rudolf Schmidt : November 15, 1941 to January 15, 1942 (m.st.Fb)
- Colonel General Maximilian von Weichs: January 15, 1942 to July 15, 1942
- Colonel General Hans von Salmuth : July 15, 1942 to February 3, 1943
- Colonel General Walter Weiß : February 4, 1943 to March 9, 1945
- General of the Panzer Troop Dietrich von Saucken : March 10 to May 9, 1945
Chiefs of the General Staff
- Lieutenant General Hans von Salmuth : August 26 to September 2, 1939
- Lieutenant General Hans-Gustav Felber : October 20, 1939 to February 15, 1940
- Major General Rudolf Konrad : February 15 to November 1, 1940
- Colonel Hermann von Witzleben : November 1, 1940 to October 26, 1941
- Lieutenant General Gustav Harteneck : October 26, 1941 to November 20, 1943
- Major General Henning von Tresckow : November 20, 1943 to July 21, 1944
- Colonel i. G. von Schewen: July 22 to August 1, 1944
- Major General Robert Macher : August 1, 1944 to May 9, 1945
See also
Web links
- Finding aid for inventory RH 20-2: Army High Command 2 1939–1944 in the Federal Archives
- German 2nd Army. June 1939 - April 1945. (PDF; 157 kB) Retrieved September 15, 2011 (English).
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 .