II. SS Panzer Corps

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The II. SS Panzer Corps was a large unit of the Waffen-SS during the Second World War . It consisted of a general command to which various Wehrmacht or SS divisions were subordinate and was used on various fronts from 1943 to 1945.

history

In July 1942, the Waffen SS set up the SS Panzer General Command in Bergen in the occupied Netherlands , which was to serve to organize the creation of SS divisions in Western Europe. The first commanding general of the association was Paul Hausser . In November 1942 the corps took part in Operation Anton . After the defeat of Stalingrad and the impending collapse of the entire southern wing of the German Eastern Front, the Wehrmacht leadership pulled together all available reserves in the winter of 1942/43 in order to stabilize the front. The SS Panzer General Command was transferred to Army Group B in February 1943 . Now known as the SS Panzer Corps , it was commissioned to defend the city of Kharkov . In the following weeks the corps was engaged in violent defensive battles against the Red Army , in which it played an important role in stabilizing the front (→ Battle of Kharkov (1943) ).

In June 1943, due to the establishment of another SS Panzer Corps, which was given the number I , the name was changed to II. SS Panzer Corps . In July, the corps took part in the Citadel operation. After the offensive was stopped and the government changed in Italy at the end of July, the corps was transferred from the Alliance (→ Axis case ) to Army Group B in Northern Italy to take countermeasures in the event of a possible defection in Italy . Of the three SS divisions so far, only the 1st SS Panzer Grenadier Division remained subordinate to him, plus Army divisions. After the armistice between Italy and the Allies, it first disarmed the Italian armed forces and then fought against local partisan groups . In November 1943 the corps was ordered back to the Eastern Front. After a brief refresher in the Netherlands (February 1944), it was used again until the summer. a. in the Kamenez-Podolski battle . After the Allies landed in Normandy (→ Operation Overlord ), the corps was ordered to France. SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich took over command there on June 29, 1944 after Hausser had been commissioned to lead the 7th Army . The corps defended the Caen area against extensive British attacks (→ Battle of Caen ). Later, the corps was instrumental in the breakout of parts of the 7th Army from the Falaise pocket . After further retreats, the corps, which had lost almost all armored vehicles, was pulled out of the front in September 1944 and relocated to the Arnhem area. When the Allied Operation Market Garden took place in this area , the Corps was involved in repelling this attack.

In October and November 1944 the units of the corps were reorganized before it took part in the Battle of the Bulge as part of the 6th Panzer Army on December 16 . After this failed, it was moved to Hungary . There it was to take part in the Lake Balaton offensive in February and March 1945 . This operation also failed. In the last weeks of the war the corps withdrew as far as the Vienna area. In the fighting there, the corps almost dissolved. The remnants of the association surrendered to American troops in Upper Austria on May 8, 1945.

structure

Corps troops
Subordinate divisions

Commanding generals

Corps doctors (IVb)

literature

  • Rolf Stoves: The armored and motorized large German formations 1935–1945 . Ed. Dörfler im Nebel-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2003, ISBN 3-89555-102-3 .