Army Group "Crown Prince Rupprecht"

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The " Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht" was a large unit and the associated command authority of the German army during the First World War (1914-1918). It comprised several armies .

Establishment, command area

Commander in chief
Chief of Staff

The "Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht" was reorganized on August 28, 1916 during the Battle of the Somme as part of a reorganization of the Western Front and the subordination of the armies, which had previously been led directly by the Supreme Army Command , to an Army Group Command and 2nd Army. The latter two had previously formed the short-lived Army Group Gallwitz (Somme) . The 4th Army (on the Channel Coast) remained for the time being under direct control of the OHL , the 7th Army was subordinated to the Army Group on August 29th. The Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria , was replaced in his command of the 6th Army by Ludwig von Falkenhausen . This was the first time that a special command authority was set up to lead field armies, while the previous army groups had always been commanded by the leader of an army at the same time. The headquarters of the Army Group was in Cambrai during the summer battle .

In the spring of 1917 the command areas of the army groups on the western front were reorganized, the 7th Army joined the German Crown Prince Army Group at the beginning of March , while the Crown Prince Rupprecht Army Group also took over the 4th Army. Until the end of the " Alberich Movement " in mid-March, the 7th Army remained subordinate to the Crown Prince Rupprecht Army Group, which was responsible for this. The 1st Army was disbanded on April 12th, and the 2nd Army joined the German Crown Prince Army Group on the same date. The Army Group Command Rupprecht moved in the course of the retreat to Mons . The command area of ​​the Army Group now comprised the northern section of the Western Front, starting on the Belgian North Sea coast to the interface with the German Crown Prince Army Group in the Arras area .

The "Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht" was, similar to the High Command of the 6th Army and in contrast to the other Army Group commands in the west, an office of the Bavarian field army .

Outline Western Front, 1918

structure

The Army Group comprised the following units (from north to south):

Opponents and fights

The focus of the fighting of the army group in 1916 was the battle of the Somme against Anglo-French troops in the area of ​​the German 1st and 2nd armies.

The opponent of the "Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht" was the Belgian army in the north from spring 1917 and then the British expeditionary army. Against the latter, the Army Group had to endure very difficult, costly battles in the second half of 1917 ( Third Battle of Flanders ). Before that, the spring battle of Arras had taken place in the area of ​​the 6th Army and the battle of Messines in the area of ​​the 4th Army .

After the collapse of Russia , the Supreme Army Command made one last attempt in the spring of 1918 to force a war decision in favor of Germany ( German Spring Offensive 1918 ). The first German offensive, " Operation Michael ", was intended to tear open the seam between the French and British armies, then push the British army to the northwest and encompass and destroy it by means of a second offensive - " Operation Georgette " - near Ypres . Both the focus of the attack and thus the entire offensive were in the command area of ​​Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht, while the Army Group of the German Crown Prince was only involved in the Michael Offensive with one army.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen: The Bavaria Book of the World War . Chr.Belser Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1930, p. 192