I. Reserve Corps (German Empire)

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The I. Reserve Corps was a major unit of the German Army in the First World War .

structure

Division of war on August 17, 1914

Reserve Telephone Department No. 1
Ammunition columns
Trains

Division of War of October 30, 1918

history

Otto von Below

The I. Reserve Corps was mobilized under the commanding General Otto von Below with the outbreak of the First World War on August 2, 1914 and strengthened the defense of the German forces on the eastern border of East Prussia . Colonel von Posadowsky-Wehner acted as chief of the general staff, the assigned 1st Reserve Division was led by General von Förster , the 36th Reserve Division by Lieutenant General Kruge .

In the battle of Gumbinnen the corps held the right wing of the 8th Army , which had not been attacked, at Angerburg . After the army takeover by General der Infanterie Hindenburg , the corps was on 23 August with the XVII. Army corps to the south and carried out with this the eastern enclosure of the enemy in the Battle of Tannenberg . On August 25, after a march of about 35 kilometers, the corps reached the Seeburg area , on the eastern flank the 6th Landwehr Brigade had accompanied the advance and reached Lautern from Rastenburg . On August 26th, the XVII. Army Corps between Lautern and Gross-Koellen on the Russian 6th Corps, the 36th Reserve Division simultaneously encountered the enemy on the north bank of Lake Dadey. On Ludendorff's instructions , the 1st Reserve Division was swerved prematurely to reinforce the German center (held by the XX Army Corps ) on Allenstein . The 36th Reserve Division was at Darethen on August 28 and the 1st Reserve Division reached Zasdros. Together with the East Prussian 1st Landwehr Division of General Goltz , the situation at Hohenstein was stabilized and the oppressed XX. Army Corps relieved. The encirclement of the Russian 2nd Army was successfully completed by August 31.

Curt of tomorrow

On November 8, 1914, Lieutenant General Morgen took over the command of the corps, and on November 11, 1914, the 9th Army , which was now superior , began its offensive to Lodz . Mackensen's left wing - the I. and XXV. Reserve corps stood on the Vistula and advanced south from the Thorn area towards Kutno . From mid-November 1914, the corps between Vistula and Lowicz and at the end of the year in positional warfare on the Rawka and the Bzura proved its worth . In the Battle of Humin at the end of January, poison gas was used on an experimental basis near Bolimów . For the first time, bullets filled with xylyl bromide were used. 18,000 gas grenades had been provided, but the cold almost negated their effect.

From February 1915, the corps fought in the association of the "Gallwitz" army group in the First Battle of Przasnysz . The 1st and 36th Reserve Divisions were detached from the Rawka Front and regrouped to Willenberg in order to advance against the Narew, leaning against the Zastrow Corps on the right. North of Lomsha , the 3rd Reserve Division was also involved in heavy fighting from February 21st. Przasnysz was briefly captured by Tomorrow's troops, but had to be evacuated on February 28 in three days of fighting against three Russian corps. On March 9, the reinforced Germans attacked again in vain in the same section. By March 16, 1915, the 36th Reserve Division had to retreat to the line south of Mława - Chorzele , losing 12 artillery pieces from the overwhelming Russian forces . At the end of March 1915, the 2nd Division and the 75th Reserve Division had to be brought in to stabilize the German front .

At the beginning of May 1915, the I. Reserve Corps was transferred to Army Group Lauenstein in Courland , on July 21 the capture of Schaulen and on July 25 the capture of Poniewiesch . After fighting in the Kupischki the corps reached in mid-August to early September Njemenek section and the Daugava . Together with the 88th division and the combined Beckmann division , an unsuccessful advance on Dünaburg was initiated in mid-September 1915 . To protect the threatened Riga , however, the Russian 12th Army was significantly strengthened, and the front on the Dune Line froze. In the spring of 1916, the Morgen group remained in the section of the 8th Army in the war of positions on the Daugava, the 76th Reserve Division opposite Lennewaden, the 1st Reserve Division before Jakobstadt and the 36th Reserve Division before Friedrichstadt .

Lieutenant General Richard Wellmann

In September 1916 the corps was relocated to the Romanian theater of war and supported the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army under General von Arz on the Upper Maros and in the defense of the mountains near Fogaras . The General Morgen, subordinated to the 115th and 301st Divisions , fought successfully in the battle of Kronstadt from October 7th to 9th together with the Staabs group . At the end of November the advance over the Törzburg Pass to the south took place, the newly assigned Bavarian 12th Infantry Division occupied Campulung and reached via Targoviste on December 6th with the XXXIX set to the east . Reserve Corps the Ploesti Oil Area . After the Battle of the Putna in January 1917 the I. Reserve Corps was at the center of the 9th Army standing in the approach towards Odubesti - the Patesti 89th and the Bavarian 12th Division allocated, while the 216 and three hundred and first Division were set on Focșani . In the battle of Mărăşeşti (August 6 to September 3, 1917) the XVIII was on the left wing . Reserve Corps with the 217th Division , while the Corps attacked tomorrow as the right wing. After the end of the war in Romania, the corps command was transferred to the western front.

In July 1918 the corps was added to the 18th Army on the Matz Sector , which was oppressed by French counter-attacks . After the fighting began on the western front on August 8th, the association was subordinate to the 206th Division and the 75th Reserve Division. In September 1918 the freed corps was pushed into the section of the 3rd Army in the area west of Grandpré under the leadership of the newly appointed commanding General Wellmann and had to retreat after the Meuse-Argonne offensive at the end of September 1918.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
Lieutenant General Otto von Below 0August 2 to November 7, 1914
Lieutenant General Curt of tomorrow 0November 8, 1914 to August 23, 1918
Lieutenant General Richard Wellmann August 24, 1918 to January 19, 1919

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reichsarchiv (Ed.): Volume II: The liberation of East Prussia. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1925. p. 359
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv (Ed.): Volume II: The liberation of East Prussia. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1925, p. 89f.
  3. ^ The World War from 1914 to 1918. Volume 7: The operations of 1915. The events in winter and spring. Berlin 1931, p. 166.
  4. ↑ Hanns Möller: The history of the knights of the order “pour le merite” in the World War 1914-1918. Volume 2: M-Z. Bernard & Graefe publishing house. Berlin 1935. pp. 491-492.
  5. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918, Volume VII., ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1931, p. 253 f.
  6. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918 Volume XIV, ESMittler and Son Berlin 1944, card insert 25
  7. ↑ Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 , p. 626.