20th Mountain Army

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Army Lapland
20th Mountain Army

active January 14, 1942 to May 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type army
structure see structure
management
Commander in chief see list

The Army Lapland / 20th Mountain Army 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 German Lapland Army ( AOK Lappland) emerged on January 14, 1942 from the Finland command post of AOK Norway . It was thus one of two army high command which controlled the German troops in Norway and Finland during the Second World War . The formation of the army had become necessary to improve command control after the AOK Norway was increasingly confiscated with tasks of coastal protection in Norway and a new offensive against Kandalaksha was planned for the spring of 1942 . The command of the new army was taken over by General of the Mountain Troops Eduard Dietl , who had previously been the commanding general of the Mountain Corps Norway . In addition to this, the army was at the beginning of the XXXVI. Mountain Corps and operationally the Finnish III. Corps. In May 1942, the XVIII. Mountain Corps to it. On June 22, 1942, the name was changed to the 20th Mountain Army . The army was stationed in Lapland, was involved in trench warfare on the Arctic Ocean and had a staff of up to 220,000 men.

After Finland left the Second World War, the army had to withdraw from the beginning of September 1944 to January 1945 in the " Birke company " to a deadlock in the triangle of three countries. The XVIII. Mountain Corps (General of the Infantry Hochbaum ) from the front between Uhtua and Kiestinki on Rovaniemi and the XXXVI. Mountain Corps (General of the Vogel Mountain Troops) to return from the Werman Front via Salla to Jvalo. The 20th Mountain Army fought in October on the Liza Front against Soviet troops and on the Rovaniemi Front against the now hostile Finnish army. From October 8, the German troops evacuated the last supply ports of Tornio and Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia before the Finns. In the north, meanwhile, was also the XIX. Mountain Corps (General of the Mountain Troop Jodl ) from the Liza Front to the triangle of three countries, the new Lyngen position was taken. From December 18, 1944, the 20th Army was also the Wehrmacht command post in Norway and took over the troops of AOK Norway after it had been disbanded. The members of the army were to be awarded the Lapland Shield for their service in Scandinavia in May 1945 , but this was no longer carried out.

On May 8, 1945 , the army surrendered to British troops.

guide

Commander in Chief of the 20th Mountain Army
period of service Rank Surname
January 14, 1942 to June 23, 1944 Colonel General Eduard Dietl
June 25, 1944 to January 21, 1945 Colonel General Lothar Rendulic
January 21, 1945 until the surrender General of the mountain troops Franz Boehme
Chiefs of the General Staff of the 20th Mountain Army
period of service Rank Surname
June 22, 1942 to March 1, 1944 Lieutenant General Ferdinand Jodl
March 1, 1944 to May 8, 1945 Lieutenant General Hermann Hölter
First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 20th Mountain Army
period of service Rank Surname
June 22, 1942 to April 10, 1943 Colonel Hugo Sittmann
April 10, 1943 to May 10, 1944 Colonel Hans Steets
May 10 to December 20, 1944 Colonel Friedrich Ubelhack
December 20, 1944 to February 1, 1945 Colonel Raimund Hearst
February 1 to May 8, 1945 Colonel Friedrich Ubelhack

structure

Army troops

Subordinate major associations

June 1942 April 1945

literature

  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 14. The Land Forces. Name associations. The air force. Flying bandages. Flak deployment in the Reich 1943–1945 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1980, ISBN 3-7648-1111-0 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 4. The Land Forces 15–30 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .
  • Hermann Hölter: Army in the Arctic. The operations of the German Lapland Army. Podzun Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1953.
  • Earl F. Ziemke: The German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940–1945 (see also http://www.history.army.mil/books/70-7_02.htm )
  • Roland Kaltenegger : War in the Arctic. Operations of the Lapland Army 1942–1945. Stocker Verlag, Graz / Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-7020-1018-1 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Colonel a. D. Günter Lehmann: Finland - military policy in the shadow of a great power
  2. ↑ died on June 23, 1944 in a plane crash