2nd Panzer Army (Wehrmacht)

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Troop association badge of Panzer Group 2 from June 22, 1941 to the end of 1941. The G referred to the commander Colonel General Heinz Guderian.

The 2nd Panzer Army / Panzer Army High Command 2 (PzAOK 2) was a large 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.

The forerunner was the group Guderian , which on June 1, 1940 from the General Command of the XIX. Army corps was formed and which consisted of two army corps. On November 16, 1940, it was renamed Panzergruppe 2 . In July and August 1941 it was also referred to as the Guderian Panzer Group . On October 5, 1941, it was renamed the 2nd Panzer Army .

commitment

1940

The Verband Panzergruppe Guderian was set up on the orders of Hitler on May 28, 1940 (during the Battle of Dunkirk ) and existed from June 1 to June 25, 1940 (the end of the Western campaign ). The Commander-in-Chief was General of the Panzer Troops Guderian , Chief of the General Staff was Colonel Walther Nehring , and the rest of the staff was also made up of the staff of General Command XIX. Army Corps together. The command authority arrived in Signy-le-Petit on June 1, 1940 .

The Panzer Group Guderian was subordinate to the 12th Army under Colonel General List , which in turn was subordinate to Army Group A under Colonel General von Rundstedt . The following were subordinate to Panzer Group Guderian:

The Guderian Panzer Group was set up especially for the second part of the western campaign . Some of the subordinated units came directly from the Channel coast to the collecting area southwest of Charleville-Mezieres . The general direction of movement was south-southeast (west of the Meuse) until reaching the Swiss border at Pontarlier on June 17th.

1941/42

During the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 , Panzer Group 2 was part of Army Group Center , which was tasked with conquering Moscow. On June 22, 1941, Colonel General Guderian on both sides of Brest-Litovsk put his armored troops over the bow while an infantry corps attacked the fortress.

Outline June 1941

After the advance on Kobryn and the participation in the boiler battle at Białystok and Minsk , the Berezina was crossed at Bobruisk and Borissow and the Dnieper at Mogilew . After the Kesselschlacht near Smolensk , the tank group had to look ahead to the further advance towards Moscow and was regrouped to the south to take part in the battle for Kiev . Guderian's units crossed the Sejm on September 9 and reached Romny a day later . At Lochwiza on September 15, the connection to Panzer Group 1 was achieved and the ring around the Soviet southwest front was closed.

After the regrouping in the Gluchow area , Operation Taifun followed in early October . Used on the southern section of the Battle of Moscow , Panzer Group 2 was reinforced by the LIII. Army corps set up against Tula and stopped in the front arc there by Soviet counter-attacks. When the Soviet counter-offensive started on December 5, the tank group was thrown back on the Kirov - Bolchow - Mtsensk line. Thereupon Guderian was released from his command. Since Christmas 1941 Rudolf Schmidt , promoted to Generaloberst on January 1, 1942, led the 2nd Panzer Army and the 2nd Army in personal union.

1943

From the spring of 1942 the 2nd Panzer Army was part of the defensive forces in the central section of the Eastern Front, and were assigned at this time in addition to the LIII. Army Corps, the XXIV. And XXXXVII. mot. Army Corps.

During the Citadel operation in July 1943, the 2nd Panzer Army was hit by a Soviet counter-offensive over the Suzha sector, the Oryol Operation , which contributed to the decision to abandon the German offensive.

Outline July 1943

By the beginning of August, the entire front arc of Orel had to be surrendered together with the southern commanding 9th Army . The Army High Command was withdrawn from the front a little later and relocated to the Balkans in August 1943 , where it directed the German measures in the " Axis Case " and took the lead in the partisan struggle in Yugoslavia .

1944/45

During Operation Spring Awakening (March 1945), the 2nd Panzer Army under General Maximilian de Angelis , whose left wing extended as far as Lake Balaton , attempted a relief attack from the Nagybajom area towards the east on Kaposvár . The company "Eisbrecher" was supposed to merge Army Group South with Army Group E lying on the Drau , but was prevented from doing so by the Soviet 57th Army (General Sharochin ). Towards the end of the war, the army withdrew to Carinthia via western Hungary and Styria ; at last the following general commands were assigned:

Commander in chief

Chiefs of the General Staff

See also

literature

  • 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 .
  • Memories of a soldier. Autobiography. Original 1951 published by K. Vowinckel Verlag, reprint 18th edition: Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-87943-693-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schramm: OKW-Kriegstagebuch 2nd volume, Kriegsgliederung p. 733
  2. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner: The war in Austria 1945, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1986, war organization in the appendix