6th Army (German Empire)

Flag of a staff of an army high command (1871-1918)

The 6th Army or Army High Command 6 (AOK 6) 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

Commander in chief Colonel-General Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria (from August 2, 1914) Colonel General Ludwig von Falkenhausen (from August 28, 1916) General of the Infantry Otto von Below (April 23, 1917) General of the Infantry Ferdinand von Quast (September 9, 1917) Chief of Staff Major General Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen (from August 2, 1914) Colonel Gustav Freiherr von der Wenge called Lambsdorff (from May 19, 1915) Lieutenant General Hermann von Kuhl (from November 24, 1915) Colonel Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg (from August 28, 1916) Major General Karl von Nagel zu Aichberg (from November 25, 1916) Colonel Fritz von Loßberg (April 11, 1917) Major Max Stapff (June 11, 1917) Lieutenant Colonel Hermann von Lenz (August 27, 1917) Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Herrgott (August 8, 1918)

The Army High Command 6 of the German Army was established in August 1914 as part of the mobilization of the First World War in Munich . About three quarters of this army consisted of units of the Bavarian Army . As on August 2, 1914 German Empire , the mobilization was made available from the eight were Army inspections made eight armies. One of them was Army High Command 6. In August 1914 the army comprised the following units:

Foot Artillery Brigade Pioneer General 5 5th Landwehr Brigade Prussian XXI. Army Corps

I. kgl. Bay. Army Corps II. Kgl. Bay. Army Corps III. kgl. bay. Army Corps I. kgl. Bay. Reserve Corps

Initially she was deployed in Lorraine , where she was involved in the first skirmishes during the deployment (→ battle near Lagarde ). She initially backed away from a French offensive. As part of the border battles , the 6th Army itself attacked and drove back the French in the Battle of Lorraine (August 20-22, 1914). After the defeat of the German 1st and 2nd Armies in the Battle of the Marne , both sides tried to encompass the opposing north wing (→ Race to the Sea ). The Supreme Army Command therefore pulled out troops of the 6th Army and relocated them north. In the second half of September, Army High Command 6 was detached to command a section of the front in the north. The troops left behind in Lorraine were combined as the Falkenhausen Army Detachment . The headquarters of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was relocated to St. Quentin at the end of September 1914 and to Arras on October 10th . After the battle of La Bassée and Armentières the front froze in Flanders for trench warfare .

The 6th Army remained deployed on the Western Front. The headquarters had been in Lille since November 8, 1914 and then from February 29, 1916 in Douai . On March 15, 1917, it moved to Tournai to go back to Lille on April 15, 1918. The relocation began on October 1, 1918 and ended in Iserlohn on November 29, 1918 .

See also

→ Main article : Army (German Empire)

literature

• Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918. Siegismund, Berlin 1937. ( History of the Royal Prussian Army and the German Imperial Army. Volume 5.)

Web links

• The highest command posts in the army. on www.deutsche-kriegsgeschichte.de (as of April 16, 2010)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in World Wars 1914–1918 , Berlin 1937, p. 396
2. ^ Hermann Stegemann: History of the war. Volume 1. Stuttgart / Berlin 1917, p. 103.
3. ^ Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in World Wars 1914-1918. Berlin 1937. p. 77.