General Command 59

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The Generalkommando 59 ( Higher Cavalry Command No. 6 until 1916 ) was a major unit of the army of the German Empire during the First World War .

structure

The General Command 59 was a General Command z. b. V. ( General Command for Special Use ). These emerged from 1916 and were purely command posts; the military units were assigned to him as required.

history

Lieutenant General Otto von Garnier was appointed Higher Cavalry Commander No. 6 on August 18, 1915 . In this capacity he was deployed with the 10th Army on the northern eastern front. From September 9 to 26, the cavalry corps began the Swentziany offensive to encircle it to the southeast. The 1st and 4th Cavalry Divisions attacked Soly and were able to take it on September 16. Here they encountered strong units of the Russian 2nd Army and therefore had to hurry back to the north of Smorgon . On the night of September 18, the Russian armed forces surprisingly evacuated Vilna without a fightBy retreating, they withdrew from the apparent enclosure.

The staff of the corps was transferred to the General Command on November 20, 1916 . BV No. 59 converted under Lieutenant General Hermann Brecht and transferred to the Western Front . Before the end of the war, the corps under Lieutenant General Erich von Redern was involved in retreat fights in Champagne and the transition to the right bank of the Meuse. The 96th (6th Royal Saxon) Division , the 21st Landwehr Division and the 75th Reserve Division were subordinate to the General Command .

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the cavalry Otto von Garnier August 21, 1915 to September 3, 1916
Lieutenant General Hermann Brecht September 3, 1916 to November 2, 1917
Lieutenant General Erich von Redern November 2, 1917 until the end of the war

literature

  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volumes I and II: M – Z, Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 3-7648-2586-3 , pp. 226-228.
  • Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918 , Volume VIII, ES Mittler and Son, Berlin 1932, p. 500 f.