Guard Corps

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The Prussian " Gardestern " (Star of the Black Eagle Order ), the badge of the Guard

Until 1918, the Guard Corps consisted of all parts of the Royal Prussian Army . With the exception of Queen Augusta Garde Grenadier Regiment No. 4 , which was temporarily stationed in Koblenz , they basically had their garrison in the Prussian capital and residence city of Berlin as well as the Potsdam residence and the cities and communities between Berlin and Potsdam, the came to Greater Berlin only in 1920 . At the beginning of the First World War, the association was subordinate to the II Army Inspection .

The chief of the two most prestigious guards regiments, the 1st Guards Regiment on Foot and the Regiment of the Gardes du Corps, was always the respective King of Prussia .

structure

The Guard Corps was divided into two Guard Divisions with five Guard Infantry Brigades and two Guard Field Artillery Brigades , one Guard Cavalry Division with four Guard Cavalry Brigades and other troops and authorities:

The Guard Corps were also responsible for:

With the mobilization in August 1914, the Guard Corps was transferred to its war organization and subordinated with the 1st and 2nd Guard Divisions of the 2nd Army on the Western Front . The Guard Reserve Corps with the 3rd Guard Division and the 1st Guard Reserve Division, which was newly formed at the beginning of the First World War, was also assigned to the 2nd Army under General Gallwitz, but had to go to the Eastern Front after the siege of Namur be relocated. The Guards Cavalry Division came to the outbreak of war to the Higher Cavalry Command 1 (at the 3rd Army), the 2nd Guards Reserve Division for X Reserve Corps (also 2nd Army) and the Guard Ersatz Division Formed the mobile replacement with other replacement divisions.

In the further course of the war the following were set up:

Uniform and badge

The common badge of all guards troops was the so-called " guard star " (star of the black eagle order) as an overlay on the guard eagle with a helmet with a tip (" spiked hat "), shako , chapka of the Uhlans, etc .; All units of the Guard Corps wore special embroidery (mostly butt embroidery according to M1842 (" Gardelitzen ")) on the tunic collar and the cuffs . The latter were generally introduced in the German army as collar decorations after 1918. They are still attached to the collar tabs of the army uniforms of the Bundeswehr today . The so-called "Gardestern" graces the nowadays berets of the Military Police of the Armed Forces.

history

German War 1866

The Prussian I. Corps was repulsed on June 27, 1866 in the battle of Trautenau by the Austrian X. Army Corps under FML Ludwig von Gablenz . General von Bonin's troops lost their role as the vanguard of the Prussian 2nd Army and were replaced by the Prussian Guard Corps under Prince August von Württemberg . Gablenz withdrew his battered corps from Trautenau to Soor and asked his superior FZM Benedek for urgent reinforcements. Gablenz tried to direct the advance of the Prussian Guard by concentrated artillery fire from the north and east on Staudenz and hold it there. He wanted to give units of the approaching IV Corps under FML Tassilo Graf Festetics the opportunity to fall into the flank of the guard from the south. On June 28, there was a battle between Thrush and Burkersdorf . The Prussian 1st Guards Division, led by Lieutenant General Wilhelm Hiller von Gaertringen , successfully pushed back the Austrian defenders at Staudenz. At the same time, further north, the 2nd Guard Division under General Heinrich von Plonski was able to cut off the Austrian Brigade Grivicic from the rest of the X. Corps and almost completely wipe it out in the battle near Burkersdorf.

Following Moltke's orders , the Guard Corps had defeated the enemy at Burkersdorf and Alt-Rognitz and in the following days established contact with the I Army Corps and the V Army Corps . Moltke expected the unification of the entire Prussian 2nd Army on the Elbe at Königinhof , which was occupied by the 1st Guard Division. The 1st Guard Division intervened on July 3rd as the vanguard of the 2nd Army in the decisive battle of Königgrätz and was able to occupy Chlum . While defending this place against attacks by Austrian reserves, General Hiller fell after being hit by shrapnel.

Franco-German War 1870–71

Prince August of Württemberg

The Guard Corps gathered under the commanding General Prince August von Württemberg until August 5, 1870 in Mannheim and was subordinated to the 2nd Army. During the western bypass maneuver of the enemy concentrated in the Metz area, Prince Friedrich Karl ordered the guard to intervene on August 18 during the battle of Gravelotte . While the IX. Army Corps under General von Manstein proceeded in the direction of Saint Privat , the 1st Guard Division under Major General von Pape had orders to advance from Habonville to support St. Ail. The village of St. Marie aux Chenes, which was laying the path, turned out to be heavily occupied by the enemy and had to be stormed. The attack of the guard took place west of Saint Privat over a wide plain and without sufficient artillery support, due to the superior Chassepot rifle , there were heavy losses. The closer the Guards got to Saint-Privat, the greater the losses in officers and men. When any further advance came to a halt at 6:30 p.m. and the promised help from the Saxon corps failed to materialize, the attack had to be broken off. In this one hour alone the Prussian guard troops lost a little more than 5,000 men - dead and wounded. Only in the evening succeeded the Saxon XII. Corps to roll up the right wing of the French battle line and thereby protect the struggling Guard Corps from further casualties.

The Guard Corps was then assigned to the newly formed Maas Army. This was after the battle of Beaumont on August 30th in the evening with the IV. Corps at Mouzon , with the XII. Corps north and with the guards south Beaumont. On September 1st, the Guard took part in the Battle of Sedan on the eastern bank of the Meuse . The 1st Guard Division stormed the village of Givonne, the 2nd Guard Division the enemy position at Daigny. Under the supreme command of Crown Prince Albert of Saxony , the corps was assigned a section in the north of the city during the following siege of Paris on September 20. Heavy fighting broke out on October 28 with French troops breaking out of the city for the possession of the village of Le Bourget . The 2nd Guard Division under General von Budritzki had little interest in regaining their positions in the village. Nevertheless, Crown Prince Albert ordered the city to be taken. On October 30th, the Prussian troops succeeded in retaking Le Bourget and taking around 1200 French prisoners. A second battle at Le Bourget took place on December 21, 1870. The village of Stains was evacuated from the outposts, then taken under artillery fire and then recaptured by the 1st Guard Regiment. The French garrison of Le Bourget was able to hold out for the day until the German counterattack by three battalions of Regiments No. 3 and No. 4 had pushed the French back in the afternoon. The Guards Corps lost 14 officers and 431 soldiers that day, dead, wounded and missing.

First World War

Karl von Plettenberg

By August 12, 1914, the deployment of the corps on the western front in the Malmedy area was completed. The commanding general was Karl von Plettenberg , while the chief of staff was Lieutenant Colonel Graf von der Schulenburg . The assigned 1st and 2nd Guard Divisions commanded Lieutenant General von Hutier and von Winckler .

During the invasion of Belgium , the corps was deployed on the left wing of the 2nd Army , advanced towards Namur and fought in the Battle of the Sambre on 23 August . During the Battle of St. Quentin (August 29th) the Guard Corps stood in the Guise area . During the German advance south of Guise, the X. Army Corps reached the line Audigny - Macquigny, the Guard Corps was set up on the left with the 2nd Guard Division on Puisieux and the 1st Guard Division on Proisy. Between September 2nd and 4th via Sissonne to Corbény (via the Damenweg ), the Marne was reached and crossed.

In the decisive battle of the Marne (September 6-9) the corps fought in close cooperation with the right wing of the 3rd Army on the Ecury - Fère-Champenoise line for the unsuccessful victory. After the French counter-attacks, the German withdrawal was ordered: the 1st Guard Division returned to Vertus on September 10th via Aulnay-Colligny, the 2nd Guard Division via Moraiunes le Petit-Bergéres. On September 12, the 1st Guard Division supported the heavily pressed VII Army Corps at Brimont in the northwest of Reims during the Battle of the Aisne . In mid-September 1914, the Guard defended the new positions at Fresnes and the Chemin des Dames . During the race to the sea , the Guard Corps of the 6th Army was transferred and intervened in the first battle of Arras in early October .

During the Battle of Ypres , the General Command was from November 11, 1914 as Corps Plettenberg with the 2nd Guard Division and the 4th Division in the newly formed Linsingen Group . On December 8th the corps left Ypres and was transferred to Douai in reserve. In January, the first parts moved to St. Etienne in Champagne . During the winter battle in Champagne , the 1st Guard Division arrived on February 20, 1915 to reinforce the 3rd Army . From April 19, 1915, the corps was transported to the Eastern Front . At the beginning of May 1915 the corps was with the 11th Army on the Biala and took part in the breakthrough battle of Gorlice-Tarnów . The persecution took place over the Wisloka until May 14th to Radymno and Jaroslau , where the San was crossed. After the breakthrough at Magierów (June 19), the Lemberg / Rawa-Ruska railway line was reached near Dobrosin. On June 26th the old Russian border was crossed at Tarnoczyn and in mid-July there was another breakthrough in the Battle of Krasnostaw . On August 1st Dobromysl was taken, after the pursuit battles on Wieprz the Bug near Janow was reached on August 23rd . After the fall of Brest-Litovsk , the corps was directed to Warsaw and transported back to the Western Front from mid-September.

At the beginning of the summer battle in July 1916, the corps was on the southern section between Lassigny and Ribecourt. The 1st Guard Division was freed north of Lassigny by the 44th Reserve Division and the XVII. Army corps transferred to Nesle as intervention reserve.

On April 17, 1917, the corps was called "Gruppe Aisne", was now subordinate to General of the Infantry von Quast and defended the eastern section on Damenweg as part of the 1st Army during the second Battle of the Aisne . In mid-June 1917 the Guard Corps in the Juvincourt area was subordinate to the 227th and 243rd divisions .

In the middle of the Third Battle of Flanders on September 9, 1917, the General Command of III. Bavarian corps detached from the main attack area, the leadership of the " Ypres Group " was now transferred to the Guard Corps under the newly appointed General von Dohna-Schlobitten. The previous commanding general von Quast took over the leadership of the 6th Army . During the battle at Poelcapelle and at Passchendaele, the command was assigned frequently changing divisions due to the rapid wear and tear during the days of the great battle. On October 13, the " Staden Group " was established on the right wing by shortening the front and surrendering troops . It was occupied by the command of the Guard Reserve Corps .

In the last year of the war, 1918, the General Command continued to be with the 4th Army in northern Flanders, facing British units in the area northeast of Ypres . From April 10, 1918, the corps participated with the 58th Division and the 6th Bavarian Division during the German attacks at Armentieres through northern flank attacks on Langemark .

Commanding generals

Surname Start or period of the command
Karl of Mecklenburg September 20, 1814 to September 21, 1837
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia March 30, 1838 to May 22, 1848
Karl von Prittwitz May 23, 1848 to June 1, 1853
Karl von der Groeben 0June 2, 1853 to June 2, 1858
August of Württemberg 0June 3, 1858 to August 29, 1878
Wilhelm Count of Brandenburg August 30, 1882 to August 20, 1884
Alexander von Pape August 21, 1884 to September 18, 1888
Oskar von Meerscheidt-Hüllessem September 19, 1888 to May 5, 1893
Hugo von Winterfeld 0May 6, 1893 to August 17, 1897
Max von Bock and Polach August 18, 1897 to January 26, 1902
Gustav von Kessel January 27, 1902 to May 28, 1909
Alfred von Loewenfeld May 29, 1909 to February 28, 1913
Karl von Plettenberg 0March 1, 1913 to February 5, 1917
Ferdinand von Quast 0February 6 to September 8, 1917
Alfred zu Dohna-Schlobitten 0September 9 to November 1, 1917
Alfred von Böckmann 0November 2, 1917 to November 11, 1918

literature

  • Eike Mohr: Bibliography on the army and troop history of the German Empire and its countries. 1806-1933. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2004, ISBN 3-7648-2331-3 .
  • Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the active service status of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. […] As of May 6, 1914. […] ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914.

Web links

Wiktionary: Guard Corps  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank Zimmer: Bismarck's fight against Emperor Franz Joseph - Königgrätz and his consequences, Styria Verlag Graz 1996, p. 107.
  2. ↑ Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany - based on the large general staff publishing house by W. Paulis successor (H. Jerosch), Berlin 1895, p. 11 and 78.
  3. ↑ Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany - based on the large general staff publishing house by W. Paulis successor (H. Jerosch), Berlin 1895, pp. 130 and 131.
  4. ↑ Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany - based on the great general staff publishing house by W. Paulis successor (H. Jerosch), Berlin 1895, p. 179.
  5. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914–1918. Volume XIII., ES Mittler und Sohn, Appendix 2 a Classification of the Western Army from June 20, 1917.
  6. ↑ http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/amtspresse/lösungen/alpha/W/ .