Army Group E
The Army Group E was a major unit of the Army of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War .
history
Army Group E was set up from Army High Command 12 on January 1, 1943 , and its Commander-in-Chief also acted as “Commander-in-Chief Southeast” until August 1943. Army Group E was spread across the Mediterranean and the Balkans when it was formed and had units in Crete , Serbia and the Independent State of Croatia . She fought against partisans in both Greece and Yugoslavia .
After Army Group F was formed in August 1943, Army Group E was subordinated to it.
In September 1943, the Army Group, consisting of three corps , the fortress of Crete and the Storm Division Rhodes , took over sole responsibility for securing occupied Greece after the surrender of the Italian occupying power (see Axis case ). In the late summer of 1944 she was with about 300,000 men in Greece, on the Ionian and Aegean islands and on Crete. It faced the communist people's liberation army ELAS with around 20,000 partisans, as well as around 8,000 national-monarchist insurgents.
When the fighting in Romania in the summer of 1944 turned into German defeat, Army Group E began to withdraw from the Greek islands and the mainland. The withdrawal from the southern Balkans was successful. By the end of 1944, the Army Group had managed to repel attacks by Soviet and Bulgarian troops and the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army . On the Bosnian-Macedonian border she was able to build a stable defensive position. In autumn 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, together with the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army , conquered central Serbia as part of the Belgrade Operation . The Soviet troops were then withdrawn to the Hungarian theater of war. This saved Army Group E and the 2nd Panzer Army , which were now able to withdraw to Croatia via southwest Serbia, northern Montenegro and finally southeast Bosnia.
In the following months, the Commander in Chief of the Army Group, Colonel General Alexander Löhr , who took over the position of Commander in Chief Southeast at the end of March 1945, tried to keep the Independent State of Croatia against the People's Liberation Army. A major offensive launched by the People's Liberation Army on April 12, 1945 rounded up German troops in the Slovenian-Austrian border area. Only a few units escaped and finally surrendered to British forces that had occupied Styria and Carinthia. Alexander Löhr reached a partial agreement with the British Commander-in-Chief to accept the German units. On the day of the surrender, May 8, 1945, the bulk of the Army Group was still three days' march from the Austrian border. Numerous associations managed to flee to Austria by May 15. 150,000 German soldiers of the Army Group were captured by Tito's units. At that time, Army Group E consisted of seven German divisions , two Cossack divisions of the XV. Cossack Cavalry Corps and nine Croatian divisions. 220,000 members of the Croatian armed forces who fled to Austria with Army Group E were handed over to the Tito partisans by the British after their surrender; several thousand of them were subsequently killed in the Bleiburg massacre .
organization
- Army group troops
- Army Group Intelligence Regiment 521
- Subordinate major associations
| date | Subordinate major associations |
|---|---|
| February 1943 | 22nd, 187th, 369th , 373rd, 704th , 714th, 717th and 718th Infantry Division, fortress area Crete, 11th Air Force Field Division , 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", Italian division of Siena |
| May 1943 | 22nd, 118th, 187th, 369th and 373rd Infantry Divisions, 104th and 114th Jäger Divisions, Crete fortress area, 11th Air Force Field Division, 1st Mountain Division , 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Division "Prinz Eugen", Italian Division Siena |
| June 1943 | 22nd, 118th, 187th, 369th and 373rd Infantry Divisions, 100th, 104th, 114th and 117th Jäger Divisions , Crete Fortress Area, 11th Air Force Field Division, 1st Mountain Division, 7th SS - Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", 1st Panzer Division, LXVIII. Army Corps, Italian Division Siena, various Bulgarian Army units |
| July 1943 | 22nd, 118th, 187th, 369th and 373rd Infantry Divisions, 100th, 104th and 114th Jäger Divisions, Crete fortress area, 11th Air Force Field Division, 1st Mountain Division, 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", Storm Division Rhodes, LXVIII. Army Corps, Italian Division Siena, various Bulgarian Army units |
| August 1943 | 22nd, 118th, 187th, 297th, 369th and 373rd Infantry Divisions, 100th, 104th and 114th Jäger Divisions, Crete Fortress Area, 11th Air Force Field Division, 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", Storm Division Rhodes, LXVIII. Army Corps, Italian Division Siena, various Bulgarian Army units |
| September 1943 | 22nd Infantry Division, fortress area Crete, Storm Division Rhodes, XXII. Mountain Army Corps, 7th Bulgarian Division |
| October 1943 | 22nd Infantry Division, fortress area Crete, Storm Division Rhodes, 114th Jäger Division, 11th Air Force Field Division, Division Brandenburg , LXVIII. Army Corps, XXII. Mountain Army Corps, 7th Bulgarian Division |
| November and December 1943 | 22nd Infantry Division, fortress area Crete, Storm Division Rhodes, LXVIII. Army Corps, XXII. Mountain Army Corps, 7th Bulgarian Division |
| April 1944 | 22nd and 133rd Infantry Division, Storm Division Rhodes, 4th SS Police Panzer Grenadier Division , 104th Jäger Division, LXVIII. Army Corps, II. Bulgarian Army Corps |
| August to October 1944 | 22nd and 133rd Infantry Division, Fortress Brigades 938, 967 and 939, 11th Air Force Field Division, Storm Division Rhodes, 4th SS Police Panzer Grenadier Division, 104th Jäger Division, LXVIII. and LXXXXI. Army Corps, XXII. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps, II. Bulgarian Army Corps |
| November 1944 | 22nd and 133rd Infantry Divisions, Fortress Brigades 939, and 968, LXXXXI. Army Corps, XXII. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps and Army Corps Müller |
| January 1945 | 22nd and 133rd Infantry Divisions, Fortress Brigades 939, and 968, XV. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps, XXXIV. and LXXXXI. Army Corps, Army Corps Müller, V. SS Mountain Corps |
| February 1945 | XV. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps, XXXIV. and LXXXXI. Army Corps |
| March 1945 | XV. Mountain Army Corps, XXXIV. and LXXXXI. Army Corps |
| April 1945 | XV. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps, XXXIV., LXIX., LXXXXVII. and LXXXXI. Army Corps, XV. SS Cossack Cavalry Corps |
| May 1945 | 2nd Panzer Army, XV. and XXI. Mountain Army Corps, XXXIV., LXIX., LXXXXVII. and LXXXXI. Army Corps, XV. SS Cossack Cavalry Corps |
Commander in chief
- January 1, 1943 Colonel General Alexander Löhr
literature
- Klaus Schönherr : The withdrawal from Greece . In: Karl-Heinz Frieser , Klaus Schmider , Klaus Schönherr, Gerhard Schreiber , Krisztián Ungváry , Bernd Wegner : The German Reich and the Second World War , Volume 8, The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the Secondary Fronts. On behalf of the MGFA ed. by Karl-Heinz Frieser. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , pp. 1089-1099.
- Klaus Schmider: The Yugoslav theater of war . In: Karl-Heinz Frieser, Klaus Schmider, Klaus Schönherr, Gerhard Schreiber, Krisztián Ungváry, Bernd Wegner: The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the Secondary Fronts. On behalf of the MGFA ed. by Karl-Heinz Frieser, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , pp. 1009-1088.
- Erich Schmidt-Richberg: The final battle in the Balkans: The operations of Army Group E from Greece to the Alps (= The Wehrmacht in combat . Volume 5 ). K. Vowinckel, 1955 ( online at znaci.net ).
Web links
- High command of Army Group E (Commander in Chief Southeast) on archivesportaleurope.net