Reserve army

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The reserve army was part of the German army in World War I and the Wehrmacht in World War II . It was stationed within the Reich territory and comprised command and administrative authorities, training units and guards .

tasks

The replacement army had the particular task of training replacement teams in the home war area and requesting and testing technical innovations. It comprised the departments of the inspectors for the various branches of the army , for training as well as for officer training. In addition, the General Army Office , the Army Weapons Office and the Army Administration Office with the military district commands belonged to the replacement army. In 1944 the Army Personnel Office was also placed under the reserve army.

The divisions had regimental strength training units in their home area , which were subordinate to the reserve army. In these regiments, all newly drafted soldiers were given basic training and then sent to the actual combat unit. All soldiers who were on vacation, in hospitals or otherwise for convalescence or training in the Reich were also subordinate to the reserve army . The assignment to the reserve army took place automatically and until the soldier returned to his unit at the front.

The reserve army in World War II

During the mobilization on August 26, 1939, parts of the General Army Office (AHA) were formed into a Department Chief of Army Armaments and Commander of the Replacement Army (BdE) in the Army High Command (OKH). On September 1, 1939, Colonel General Friedrich Fromm was appointed commander of the replacement army. The reserve army provided training and supplementary troops for the units of the field army that were deployed at the front . The strength of the replacement army fluctuated considerably (rounded figures).

year Field army Reserve army total
1939 2,741,000 996,000 3,737,000
1940 3,650,000 900,000 4,550,000
1941 3,800,000 1,200,000 5,000,000
1942 4,000,000 1,800,000 5,800,000
1943 4,250,000 2,300,000 6,550,000
1944 4,000,000 2,510,000 6,510,000
1945 3,800,000 1,500,000 5,300,000

As more and more soldiers were needed at the front towards the end of the war , the number of personnel in the replacement army continued to decline during this period. In connection with the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, it was planned to put the replacement army on alert so that they could control neuralgic points in the Reich.

After the assassination attempt failed, Adolf Hitler handed over the command of the reserve army to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , because he no longer trusted the officers of the Wehrmacht. Himmler then appointed SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner as his chief of staff . Fromm was the People's Court for "cowardice" sentenced to death because he has not been proven a direct involvement in the assassination attempt, and on March 12, 1945 in the penitentiary Brandenburg-Gorden by shooting executed .

Towards the end of the war, more and more training units were used against the advancing Allies . The reserve army formed the last contingent of the Wehrmacht.

Military district commands after 1939

Military district area headquarters
I. East Prussia , Bialystok District Koenigsberg
II Pomerania , Mecklenburg Szczecin
III Altmark , Neumark , Brandenburg Berlin
IV Saxony , East Thuringia , North Bohemia , northern Sudetenland Dresden
V Alsace , Baden , Württemberg Stuttgart
VI Westphalia , northern Rhineland , eastern Belgium Muenster
VII Southern Bavaria Munich
VIII Silesia , Eastern Sudetenland Wroclaw
IX Hesse , West Thuringia kassel
X Province of Schleswig-Holstein , northern Hanover Hamburg
XI Braunschweig , Anhalt , southern Hanover Hanover
XII southern Rhineland , CdZ area Lorraine , Palatinate , Luxembourg Wiesbaden
XIII Northern Bavaria , northwestern Sudetenland Nuremberg
XVII Gaue Wien , Niederdonau , Oberdonau (with southern Sudetenland ) Vienna
XVIII Gaue Salzburg , Tyrol / Vorarlberg , Carinthia , Styria (with northern Slovenia ) Salzburg
XX Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia , western East Prussia Danzig
XXI Reichsgau Wartheland Poses
Bohemia and Moravia Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Prague

Commander of the reserve army before and during World War II

literature

  • Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich. 6 volumes. Boldt-Verlag im Oldenbourg-Verlag, Munich 1969–1995.
  • Martin van Crefeld: Combat strength, organization and military performance 1939-1945. 4th edition, Freiburg 2009 (English original edition 1980).
  • Bernhard R. Kroener: The personal resources of the Third Reich in the field of tension between the Wehrmacht, bureaucracy and the war economy, 1939–1942, in: ders./Rolf-Dieter Müller / Hans Umbreit (eds.): War administration, economy and personnel resources, 1939– 1941, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 703-1003.
  • Christoph R. Rass: "Human material". German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Interior views of an infantry division 1939–1945 . Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2003.
  • Christoph R. Rass: The military courts of the reserve army in the west of the Reich (military district VI) 1939 to 1944/45 , in: Geschichte in Köln 51 (2004), pp. 119-145 ( online ).
  • Kerstin Theis: Wehrmacht justice on the home front. The military courts of the replacement army in World War II . de Gruyter Oldenbourg Verlag, Berlin 2016.
  • Military regulation: H.Dv. 140 Guidelines for training in the replacement army from March 1, 1938

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dirk Richhardt: Selection and training of young officers 1930–1945. On the social genesis of the German officer corps. (Dissertation, Marburg 2002) p. 184 with reference to the individual sources used, accessed on May 11, 2015.