Army Group Center

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The Army Group Center was a major unit of the Army of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . The Army Group Command in the middle of this large unit was the high command of alternating armies and numerous special troops.

history

Emergence, advance, and failure

Army Group Center was established at the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 by renaming the Army Group B . It was the strongest of the three German army groups at the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union. The Army Group Center under General Field Marshal Fedor von Bock formed the center during the deployment plans and planning against the Soviet Union . It comprised the 9th Army (Colonel General Adolf Strauss ), Panzer Group 3 (Colonel General Hermann Hoth ), Panzer Group 2 (Colonel General Heinz Guderian ) and the 4th Army (Field Marshal Günther von Kluge ), thus 930 tanks and a total of 49 divisions. Their task was to break open the central Soviet defense bar and ensure the advance on the Brest - Moscow motorway . While Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch favored a direct attack on Moscow, this was initially forbidden by Hitler during this phase of the war:

“Only fossilized brains with fossilized conceptions can allow themselves to be hypnotized by a hostile capital. Moscow is nothing but a name. The citadels of Bolshevism are Leningrad and Stalingrad. "

The immediate goal of Army Group Center was initially Smolensk , after taking the city new marching orders should be issued. Initially with two groups of tanks and two, later three armies, they attacked the Soviet Union north of the Pripjet Marshes . Army Group Center was involved in the central fighting of the German-Soviet War and had large Soviet formations of 38 rifle divisions, eight cavalry divisions and 14 motorized brigades on the opposing side. On June 30, 1941, the border town of Brest-Litovsk fell .

After the boiler battle near Białystok and Minsk , the HG Mitte split up, with Panzer Group 3 marching against Vitebsk and Panzer Group 2 in the direction of the Dnieper River . Numerous difficulties arose: Due to the Soviet strategy of "scorched earth" there were hardly any intact logistical structures, many towns were devastated and there was a lack of water and resources . The blown dust caused major failures in tanks and other vehicles. With the expansion of the front, hardly any spare parts could be made available for maintenance.

For the 10./11. In July 1941, Army Group Center planned the Dnepr crossing in three places. Field Marshal General Günther von Kluge was given supreme command of Panzer Groups 3 and 4 in addition to his 4th Army; all reserves were combined into a 2nd Army under Colonel General von Weichs . On July 10, 1941, the Dnieper was crossed with armored forces near Orsha , while the advance guard of the 2nd Army was still 120 kilometers to the west on the Belarusian Bjaresina . After 20 new Soviet divisions were set up near Gomel , heavy fighting broke out between them and the 3rd Panzer Division in the Roslavl area , as well as the 10th Panzer Division and the SS division "Das Reich" near Mogilew . Smolensk, the metropolis of Belarus, was taken on July 16, 1941 by the 29th Motorized Infantry Division.

On July 16, the 46th Panzer Corps captured Jelnja and got stuck here because of strong Soviet counter-attacks . Trench warfare broke out here for a month and a half. The Soviet leadership concentrated 11 fresh divisions to protect the route to Moscow - the 24th Army (Major General KI Rakutin ) and the 43rd Army (Major General DM Selesnjow ) which caused considerable losses to the Wehrmacht troops. Hitler forbade the armored troops to advance beyond the Jelnja bend until the infantry corps of the German 4th Army had approached. Between Roslavl and Gomel, Panzer Group 2 was able to destroy strong Soviet formations between August 1 and 5, 1941.

On July 19, 1941, despite protests from Halder and von Brauchitsch, Hitler ordered the reduction of HG Mitte, which armored forces had to hand over to HG Nord and HG Süd, with directive No. 33. The background was a concentration on the goals of Leningrad and the resource-rich Ukraine .

The next operational target was the Soviet capital Moscow. The HG Mitte (GFM von Bock ) was reinforced again for the Taifun company , which started on October 2, 1941 : 47 infantry divisions, one cavalry division, 14 tank divisions, nine motorized divisions, six security divisions and one SS cavalry -Brigade were deployed on a front line 750 kilometers wide. The German advance was successful up to the basin battles of Vyazma and Brjansk , it approached the city limits of Moscow to about 40 km, but was terminated on 5/6. December stopped by the Soviet counter-offensive and thrown back on the Nevel-Rzhev-Vyazma line.

After the Soviet counter-offensive had also come to a standstill in early 1942, the German leadership shifted the focus of operations to the southern section of the Eastern Front, the Army Group (GFM von Kluge ) covered the flank of the armies fighting further south. After the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, the Army Group retreated to the old Soviet western frontier from 1939 in tough retreat fighting until the end of 1943.

After a short respite, their weakened armies (from north to south: 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 9th and 2nd Army), which had to defend a vastly stretched front line, were overrun by the Soviet summer offensive of 1944 in Operation Bagration . Of the 38 deployed divisions, 28 were crushed, and a total of three armies were wiped out.

The German losses amounted to around 350,000 men, of which 158,000 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner by the Soviets .

The 2nd Army , which was the only army in Army Group Center not to be crushed by the Soviet summer offensive in 1944, withdrew via Pinsk and Brest-Litowsk towards Warsaw , where it became involved in further fighting .

List of captured and killed generals of Army Group Center in Operation Bagration

Renaming and reorganization

The Eastern Army could no longer recover from this blow; the front reached the East Prussian border in late summer 1944. Soviet fronts pushed their way between Army Groups North and Center. The collapse of Army Group Center was more dramatic for the Wehrmacht than the Battle of Stalingrad . The Wehrmacht lost its operational capacity to act.

During the bitter fighting in East Prussia, Army Group Center was renamed Army Group North on January 25, 1945 . Their units fought with heavy losses in West Prussia and Pomerania, the remnants of the troops were evacuated from the Baltic ports by the Navy.

Was reorganized Army Group Center on 25 January 1945 after the eruption of the Red Army at the Vistula by the renaming of the Army Group A . In the final fighting, the Army Group was subordinate to the 4th Panzer Army in the Dresden - Görlitz area, the 17th Army on the southern Silesian Oder line and the 1st Panzer Army, which adjoined it to the south, at the heights along Neisse - Jägerndorf - Ratibor - Mährisch Ostrau. The last headquarters of the Army Group was from March 28 to May 9, 1945 Bad Welchow in the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . The last intact Army Group of the Third Reich surrendered before the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts of the Soviets attacking from the east. Enclosed in a cauldron northeast of Prague, the entire Army Group went into Soviet captivity after their Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Schörner had left his plane.

Commander in chief

Structure of the Army Group

Army group troops
  • News Regiment 537
  • Intelligence Regiment 537 (2nd line-up)
  • People's Artillery Corps 405
Subordinate major associations
date Subordinate major associations
June 1941 9th Army , 4th Army
July 1941 Panzergruppe 3, 9th Army, 4th Army, Panzergruppe 2, z. Vfg. 2nd Army
August 1941 Panzer Group 3, 9th Army, 2nd Army, Army Group Guderian
September 1941 Panzer Group 3, 9th Army, 4th Army, Panzer Group 2, 2nd Army
October 1941 9th Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army , 2nd Army
November 1941 9th Army, Panzer Group 3, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, 2nd Army
January 1942 9th Army, 3rd Panzer Army , 4th Panzer Army , 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, 2nd Army
February 1942 3rd Panzer Army, 9th Army, 4th Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army
May 1942 9th Army, 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army
January 1943 LIX. AK, 9th Army, 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army
February 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 9th Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army
March 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 9th Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, 2nd Army
April 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, 2nd Army, z.Vfg. 9th Army
July 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Panzer Army, 9th Army, 2nd Army
September 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 9th Army, 2nd Army
November 1943 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 9th Army, 2nd Army, Wehrmacht Commander Ostland
January 1944 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 9th Army, 2nd Army
July 1944 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Army, z.Vfg. 9th Army
August 1944 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Army, IV SS Panzer Corps
January 1945 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, 2nd Army
Further see Army Group North *
February 4th Panzer Army, 17th Army , 1st Panzer Army
May 7th Army, 4th Panzer Army, 17th Army, 1st Panzer Army

*  Renaming of Army Group A to Army Group Center and Army Group Center to Army Group North

Composition of Army Group Center on June 15, 1944

3rd Panzer Army

4th Army

9th Army

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 345.
  2. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 345 f.
  3. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 363.
  4. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , pp. 376–379.
  5. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , pp. 394–396.
  6. ↑ Raymond Cartier: Volume I: 1939-1941; R. Piper Verlag, Munich; Title of the original edition: La Seconde Guerre mondiale, Paris, Larousse Paris Match, 1965, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 410 f.
  7. ^ Duncan Anderson The world at war The Reader's Digest Association Limited, German edition 2000, ISBN 3-87070-848-4 , p. 124.
  8. ^ Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager: The Resistance in the Army Group Center (Contributions to the Resistance 1933–1945, Issue 40). Berlin: German Resistance Memorial Center 1990, p. 21.
  9. ^ Rolf Hinze: The collapse of the Army Group in the Middle East 1944. Motorbuch Verlag, ISBN 3-87943-681-9 , pp. 34–35.

literature

  • Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager : The resistance in the Army Group Center (contributions to the resistance 1933–1945. Issue 40). German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 1990.
  • Werner Haupt : Army Group mid-1941–1945. Podzun-Pallas, Bad Nauheim 1966.
  • Werner Haupt: Pictorial chronicle of Army Group Center. Podzun-Pallas, Dorheim 1978, ISBN 3-7909-0066-4 .
  • Rolf Hinze: The collapse of Army Group Center in the East in 1944. 4th edition. Motorbuch, 1994, ISBN 3-87943-681-9 .
  • Franz Kurowski : The Army Group Center. 28 German divisions in the hail of fire of the 1944 Soviet summer offensive. Vitebsk-Bobruisk-Minsk. Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim 2001, ISBN 3-7909-0748-0 .