Army Group South Ukraine

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The Army Group South Ukraine was a major unit of the Army of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . She was the high command of changing armies and numerous special troops in the south of the Eastern Front , north of the Black Sea . It was created by renaming the previous Army Group A on April 1, 1944 and initially consisted of the 8th Army in northern Moldova , the 6th Army in Bessarabia and the 17th Army in the Crimea , as well as the allied Romanian troops. Its first commander in chief was Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner .

Development until summer 1944

On April 2, 1944, Hitler documented his misjudgment of the situation in directive no.54 with operational order no.7:

“ The Russian offensive in the south of the Eastern Front has passed its climax. The Russian has worn out his bandages. The time has come to bring the Russian project to a halt. "

In fact, the army group was pushed back to the Prut by a Soviet offensive (→ Dnepr-Carpathian operation ) . The 17th Army was destroyed in the Battle of the Crimea in early May ; only part of the troops could be evacuated from Sevastopol leaving behind the heavy equipment . Hitler forbade another withdrawal of Army Group South Ukraine, but feared a turning point in their sector:

“ I was right. The fate of the war will be decided in the south of the front. "

In mid-August, the army group consisted of the two army groups Moldova (8th Army and Romanian 4th Army under General Wöhler) and Bessarabia (6th Army and Romanian 3rd Army under Colonel General Dumitrescu ), a total of 21 German and 23 Romanian divisions. The defense line of the Army Group encompassed a front area of ​​900 kilometers in length from the eastern Carpathians via Jassy and Kishinew to Tiraspol in what was then Bessarabia . Their main task was to secure Romania's oil fields.

Collapse of Army Group in Southern Ukraine

After the destruction of the Army Group in the middle in June / July 1944, the OKH was of the opinion that there were no signs of major offensives by the Red Army in the section of Army Group South Ukraine; the OKW even assumed that the Soviet troops would withdraw their forces. In the background, however, the Red Army trained a lightning war campaign against the Wehrmacht in Bessarabia and Romania.

After the Soviet summer offensives had hit Army Groups North , Central and Northern Ukraine one after the other , the major attack against the 8th and 6th Army of Army Group South Ukraine (→ Operation Jassy-Kishinev ) took place on August 20 . The Soviet tank armies succeeded in a classic breakthrough and boiler battle in which the German front was breached in several places and the 6th Army and parts of the 8th Army (mostly horse-drawn infantry divisions) and the Romanian 3rd Army were destroyed by being surrounded several times. The attack of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Malinowskij) hit Army Group Wöhler on Prut and Sereth and the 3rd Ukrainian Front (Tolbuchin ) hit Army Group Dumitrescu from a bridgehead on the Dniester .

The surprise attack began with strong artillery strikes on the German positions. A strong dust formation hindered the detection of the Soviet troop concentration, which broke into the Romanian front sections and whose attack peaks could no longer be sealed off. The break-in was extended to a width of 267 kilometers and within a short time the German lines of defense could no longer be held. Both Soviet fronts were able to unite on the Prut near the villages of Leova and Cahul . On August 23, 1944, 16 German divisions were encircled. At the same time, King Michael of Romania officially ended his alliance with Germany and the Romanian soldiers sometimes switched sides during the fighting. In the battle of the Pruth (August 20-25, 1944) 19 German infantry divisions, as well as one armored and one armored infantry division, were destroyed. It is believed that 150,000 soldiers were killed during the fighting and 106,000 were taken prisoner by the Soviets. The remnants of a few German divisions made their way west. The War Diary of HG Southern Ukraine noted on September 5, 1944:

“ There is no longer any hope that any closed associations will break through. This is the greatest catastrophe that has affected the Army Group. 5 corps headquarters and 18 divisions are lost . "

The 6th Army had been defeated again after its destruction in Stalingrad on 25 August 1944th

Hitler described the destruction of Army Group South Ukraine on August 31, 1944:

"You cannot imagine a bigger crisis than the one we already experienced in the East this year."

The Red Army marched into Ploesti on August 29, 1944 , Constanta on August 30, 1944, and Bucharest on August 31, 1944 . The success of the Soviet attack led to the conquest of Romania and the occupation of Bulgaria without a fight at the beginning of September 1944. Romania and Bulgaria entered the war against Germany on the Soviet side. The penetration of the Red Army into the Balkans led to the evacuation of Greece , Albania and southern Yugoslavia by German troops from September 1944. The southern Ukraine Army Group was dissolved. On September 5, 1944, the Red Army united with Yugoslav partisans under General Tito .

The Soviet advance in the Carpathian Mountains was initially delayed until a new front could be set up as a makeshift on the Tisza in Hungary by the Army Group renamed Army Group South on September 23, 1944 .

Commander in chief

Chiefs of Staff

Subordinate major associations

date Subordinate major associations
April 1944 Army Group Wöhler ( 8th Army , 4th Romanian Army), Army Group Dumitrescu ( 6th Army , 3rd Romanian Army ), 17th Army
May 1944 Army Group Wöhler, Army Group Dumitrescu
August 1944 8th Army, 6th Army
September 1944 8th Army, Army Group Fretter-Pico (6th Army, 2nd Hungarian Army ), XXIX. Army Corps

Composition of Army Group South Ukraine in August 1944

8th Army (August 15, 1944)

8th Army (August 31, 1944)

4th Romanian Army

  • VII. Romanian Army Corps: 103rd Romanian Mountain Infantry Brigade, 104th Romanian Mountain Infantry Brigade
  • 1st Romanian Army Corps: 20th and 6th Romanian Infantry Division, 46th Infantry Division
  • LVII. Panzer Corps "Gruppe Kirchner": 13th and 1st Romanian Infantry Division
  • V. Romanian Army Corps: 1st Romanian Guard Division, 4th Romanian Infantry Division
  • VI. Romanian Army Corps: 101st Romanian Mountain Infantry Brigade, 5th Romanian Infantry Division, 76th Infantry Division

6th Army (August 15, 1944)

6th Army (August 31, 1944)

6th Army (September 28, 1944)

  • Breith group
  • III. Panzer Corps : 23rd Panzer Division , 27th Hungarian Light Division
  • VII. Hungarian Army Corps: 4th Hungarian Field Replacement Division, 12th Hungarian Infantry Division

The following units were destroyed by the German units during Operation Jassy-Kishinev: 9th , 15th , 62nd , 76th , 79th , 106th , 161st , 257th , 258th , 282nd , 294th , 302. , 306th , 320th , 335th and 370th Infantry Divisions.

literature

  • WA Mazulenko: The destruction of Army Group South Ukraine. August – September 1944 . Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense, Berlin 1959.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Bruppacher: Adolf Hitler and the history of the NSDAP - a chronicle. Part 2: 1938 to 1945. 2. revised. and extended edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8423-8627-3 , p. 477.
  2. ^ A b Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume II: 1942-1944. R. Piper Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 831.
  3. ↑ including the 13th and 20th Panzer Divisions
  4. ↑ sevenbuerger.de
  5. ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume III: 1944-1945. R. Piper Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , p. 831.
  6. ^ Prut battle: Dust in August . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1965, pp. 63-66 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Martin Seckendorf in http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/themen/Kriegsgeschichte/befreiung.html
  8. ↑ significant because of its oil production
  9. ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War. Volume III: 1944-1945. R. Piper Verlag, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-492-02166-2 , pp. 966-968.
  10. ↑ together with the 8th Army called Army Group Wöhler
  11. ↑ subordinated to the Breith group