Army Division C

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Army Division C (until February 1917 Army Department Strantz , originally army group Strantz ) was one of three in the southern part of the Western Front used army divisions of the German Army in the First World War . Formed in September 1914 from the left wing of the German Crown Prince's 5th Army , it essentially held the front arch of Saint-Mihiel until 1918 .

history

The "Strantz Army Group" was ordered by the OHL on September 10, 1914 (during the Battle of the Marne ) from the temporary merging of the 5th Army Corps of Poznan with the Royal Bay brought up by the 6th Army . I. Army Corps with simultaneous subordination of the fortress Metz and the royal bay. Cavalry Division . The previous commanding general of the 5th Army Corps, General of the Infantry Hermann von Strantz , received command of the provisional formation, while Lieutenant General Robert Kosch took over the command of the 5th Army Corps. The army group remained subordinate to the 5th Army. Just two days later, the order was issued to transport the I. Bavarian Army Corps for another use. Instead, the III. kgl. bay. Army Corps (under General Ludwig von Gebsattel ) was added to the army group, which was called "Strantz Army Department" from September 18.

At that time, in mid-September 1914, there was uncertainty on the German side about the strength of the French units concentrated in the Verdun area. On the one hand, the OHL feared a French advance on Metz, but on the other hand it was also intended to take possession of the strategically important forts on the Meuse heights . The latter project was started on September 20 by the V. AK and the Bavarian III. AK tackled. As the first of the French forts, the Fort du Camp des Romains fell to the Bavarian III. AK, after the city of Saint-Mihiel had already been taken the day before.

The resulting protrusion of Saint-Mihiel, with which the Germans interrupted the railway line from Verdun to Toul , could be maintained by the army department until September 1918. It represented a constant threat to the important fortress Verdun and was fiercely contested several times, for example in the spring of 1915 when the 1st armée under Pierre Auguste Roques attacked the front arch with four corps.

From June 1915 to September 1918 the headquarters of the army department was the Château de Moncel near Jarny . When General von Strantz was dismissed from his post in February 1917 and replaced by Max von Boehn , the Army Department was renamed "Army Department C". In the following month Boehn was transferred to the 7th Army and Georg Fuchs took over the supreme command. From April 1917 the army department was subordinate to the Army Group Duke Albrecht , from February 1918 to the (2nd) Army Group Gallwitz .

In September 1918, the front arch of St. Mihiel was the target of the first major American Expeditionary Forces offensive . The First United States Army attacked Army Division C at the Battle of St. Mihiel on September 12 with the support of the French II Colonial Corps and forced them to vacate the front arc within four days. After the Armistice of Compiègne , the army division moved to Germany and was disbanded on December 24, 1918.

people

Commander in chief

Chiefs of Staff

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Cron, Duncan Rogers: Imperial German Army, 1914-18. Organization, structure, orders of battle. Helion & Company Limited, Solihull 2006, ISBN 978-1-874622-29-1 , p. 84.