XXVI. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The XXVI. Army Corps of the German Wehrmacht , in the full title Generalkommando XXVI. Army corps , was the name for the corresponding command authority but also for the association of several divisions and its own corps troops , which was led by this general command and was under the supreme command of an army or army group.

history

Positioning and organization

The later XXVI. Army Corps was established on August 22, 1939 in Military District I as "Command Staff z. b. V. ”set up. The commanding general had been Lieutenant General and later Artillery General Albert Wodrig since August 22, 1939 , which is why the army corps was also referred to as "Corps Wodrig" in the first month of the war .

Attack on Poland and campaign in the west

After the attack on Poland in September 1939, the Association of the 3rd Army under General der Artillerie Georg von Küchler , which belonged to Army Group North under Colonel General Fedor von Bock . On the left flank of the 3rd Army, the "Corps Wodrig" with the 12th and 1st Infantry Divisions advanced with evasive Polish troops in the area south of Chorzele . On September 2, the corps approached Przasnysz and had to repel Polish counter-attacks. It reached Maków Mazowiecki on September 5th . On September 6, the bulk of the army corps reached the Narew near Różan , where the Kempf Panzer Division had already started the fight for the transition. The next day the corps was able to form a bridgehead over the Narew . On the 8th, the corps and its two infantry divisions took possession of the area around Ostrów Mazowiecka . On the same day, the 1st Cavalry Brigade, directly subordinate to the army, reached the bow at Brok , and the next day the “Wodrig” corps was able to form a bridgehead there as well.

The "Corps Wodrig" was on October 1, 1939 in the XXVI. Army corps reformed. In the western campaign against France in May 1940, the corps was part of Army Group B (Field Marshal von Bock) and operated in the section of the 18th Army (GFM von Küchler) against the Netherlands. The 207th , 208th , 254th and 256th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to you . During the "Red" phase it was subordinated to the 2nd Army under Colonel General Weichs , now the 34th and 45th Infantry Divisions were assigned .

1941

On June 22, 1941, the XXVI. Army Corps in the Association of Army Group North (General Lindemann) took part in Operation Barbarossa . The 291st Infantry Division advanced northward across the East Prussian border into the Baltic States near Memel , occupied Libau on June 29 and Riga on July 3 . The attack of the 58th and 291st Infantry Divisions on Narva took place in mid-August, and the 1st Infantry Division reached the Luga section at Kingissepp on August 17th . In September 1941, the corps, together with the XXXVIII. Army corps lying in front of Oranienbaum , took part in the attack on Leningrad . The corps then blocked the Oranienburg bridgehead with four infantry divisions (from west to east: 217th , 254th , 93rd and 212th ).

1942

Between 1942 and 1943, the Corps held the after Schlüsselburg regrouped, the blockade of Leningrad from the east upright. On August 19, 1942, the Leningrad Front began two offensives in the direction of Sinyavino and Tosno, where the XXVI. Corps was concentrated. The Soviet troops crossed the Neva River and built a bridgehead. On August 27, the Volkhov Front also attacked , broke through the front between the 223rd and 227th Infantry Divisions and reached the approaches to Sinyavino . Together with the XXX. Army Corps , the Soviet forces were destroyed in the Gaitolowo pocket . Until September 24th, the Soviet units were included. The 11th and 18th Armies took 12,000 prisoners, destroyed or captured 300 artillery pieces, 500 mortars and 244 tanks. The Volkhov Front withdrew to their original positions on October 1 and the Leningrads on October 10.

1943

On January 12, 1943, in the room was Schlüsselburg standing XXVI. Army Corps attacked on both sides by 67th Army from the west and troops of the 2nd Shock Army from the east during Operation Iskra . On the first day, a small bridgehead was fought for on the left bank of the Neva near Marjino in the section of the German 170th Infantry Division . In the east, south of the village of Lipa and on both sides of Gaitolowo, the Soviets managed to break into the front in the 1st and 227th Infantry Divisions . The Commander in Chief of the 18th Army, General von Leyser immediately reinforced with the 96th Infantry Division , which was from the section of the XXVIII. Army Corps had been withdrawn. On January 18th, Shlisselburg was lost to the Red Army, at the same time the Red Army managed to form an 8 to 11 kilometer wide corridor and restore the direct land connection to Leningrad.

1944

In early 1944, as a result of the Russian counter-offensive , it was pushed back on Narva , where it was able to withstand until the summer of 1944. The general command was concentrated in the north of Lake Peipus as part of the Narva Army Division with the 225th and 227th Infantry Divisions . As a result of the collapse of the Army Group in mid- June 1944, the 170th Infantry Division had to be surrendered to the Polotsk area and a general retreat to Riga was necessary. After the city of Riga was lost in September 1944, the 18th Army in Courland was cut off. The vacated staff of the XXVI. Corps was subordinated to the 4th Army and used to defend East Prussia . The 1st Infantry Division , the Schirmer Group and the 549th Volksgrenadier Division were assigned . From October 16, 1944, the first Soviet invasion of East Prussia took place, the front of the XXVI. and XXVII. Army Corps was torn up by the 11th Guard Army , the border positions between Wirballen and Wystiter See were lost during the Gumbinnen-Goldaper operation . South of Gumbinnen , General Galizki's troops broke through to the Angerapp sector near Nemmersdorf . Only through counter attacks by the XXXIX. Panzer Corps at Goldap and Gumbinnen the situation was restored.

1945

After the beginning of the Battle of East Prussia , the 3rd Panzer Army had the 1st, 56th and 69th Infantry Divisions in the Haselberg - Schloßberg area and the 349th and 549th Volks-Grenadier in the Gumbinnen area -Division subordinated. The front of the corps was broken through after a few days by the troops under Army General Tschernjachowski and forced to retreat to Insterburg . In February 1945 the corps remained in the formation of the 4th Army still south of Königsberg near Braunsberg and was later broken up in the Samland pocket. On April 16, the attack of the Soviet 43rd Army on Peyse broke through and the defense of the XXVI. Break through AK. The remnants of the 5th Panzer - the 28th Jäger - and the 1st Infantry Division were among the last subordinate units .

guide

Commanding Generals:

  • General of the Artillery Albert Wodrig Deployment until October 1, 1942
  • General of the Infantry Ernst von Leyser October 1, 1942 to July 1, 1943
  • General of the Panzer Troops Gustav Fehn July 1 to August 19, 1943
  • General of the Infantry Ernst von Leyser August 19 to October 31, 1943
  • General of the Infantry Carl Hilpert October 31, 1943 to January 1, 1944
  • Infantry General Martin Grase January 1 to February 15, 1944
  • General of the Infantry Anton Grasser February 15 to May 11, 1944
  • General of the Artillery Wilhelm Berlin May 11th to June 15th 1944
  • General of the Infantry Anton Grasser June 15 to July 6, 1944
  • General of the Infantry Gerhard Matzky July 6, 1944 to May 1945

Chief of the General Staff:

  • Lieutenant Colonel i. G. Hans Boeckh-Behrens list until October 20, 1939
  • Colonel i. G. Hermann Foertsch October 21, 1939 to October 1940
  • Colonel i. G. Richard-Heinrich von Reuss October 8, 1940 to July 1942
  • Colonel i. G. Hans Christ July 1942 to August 1943
  • Colonel i. G. Karl-Friedrich Jessel August 1943 to April 1944
  • Colonel i. G. Kurt Spitzer April 1944 to 1945

literature

  • 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 .
  • Percy Ernst Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
    • Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen ,
    • Volume II: 1942 edited by Andreas Hillgruber , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
    • Volume III: 1943 edited by Walther Hubatsch , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965