III. Army Corps (German Empire)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The III. Army Corps was a major unit of the Prussian Army , whose headquarters were stationed in Berlin .

structure

With the last state of peace in 1914, the corps were:

history

Franco-German War 1870/71

Constantin von Alvensleben

In 1870 the corps was part of the German 2nd Army and was unloaded on July 28th together with the X. Corps in the Bingen am Rhein area . During the advance to the Saar , Neunkirchen was reached on the evening of August 5 , the first major operation took place on August 6, 1870 in the battle of Spichern . After the 14th Division of the VII Corps was able to occupy Saarbrücken without a fight that day, it got stuck at the Spicheren Heights. The III. Corps had orders to come to the aid of the beleaguered General von Kameke immediately with the 5th Division (Lieutenant General von Stülpnagel ). The 9th Brigade under Major General von Döring arrived at Winterberg as the head of the division, and Infantry Regiment No. 48 stormed an entrenchment east of the Gifert Forest. After the arrival of the 10th Brigade (Major General von Schwerin), the Forbacher Berg could also be taken. On August 13 the corps reached Remilly in the area south of Metz and then swung northward.

The commanding generals of the German army corps in the war of 1870/71: I. Edwin Freiherr v. Manteuffel. - II. Eduard Friedrich v. Fransecky. - III. Constantin v. Alvensleben. IV. Gustav v. Alvensleben. - V. Hugo Ewald v. Kirchbach. - VI. Wilhelm v. Puddling. - VII: Heinrich Adolph v. Zastrow. - August 8th v. Goeben. - IX. Gustav v. Manstein. - X. Constantin Bernhard v. Voigts-Rhetz. - XI. Julius v. Angry. - XII. Crown Prince Albert of Saxony

On August 14, the Prussian III. Corps orders to cross the Moselle at Novéant and Champey. Here it was reinforced by the 6th Cavalry Division. On August 16, the corps stood out in the battle of Mars-la-Tour / Vionville . The large unit carried out an advance against the Metz - Verdun road via Gorze and Onville and met three complete French corps in the direction of Rezonville . The French 2nd Corps drove the German cavalry out of Vionville and occupied the ridge to Gorze and the town of Flavigny. Around 10 o'clock the German horsemen received reinforcements from the 5th and 6th Divisions, which reached the battlefield from Gorze and Onville. General Konstantin von Alvensleben immediately ordered the infantry to attack. He assumed that only the enemy rear guard was left in front of him. By noon the 12th Brigade under Colonel von Bismarck (who fell in the process) had recaptured the town of Flavigny, while the divisional artillery was working against the town of Rezonville . The 6th Division (Lieutenant General von Buddenbrock ) advanced north to Tronville and then swung partially to the east in the direction of the 5th Division and conquered Vionville at around 11.30 a.m. The two German divisions had thus merged between the villages of Vionville and Flavigny, reducing the risk of the two divisions being separated from one another. In these positions, the German units had to hold out against their superior opponents all afternoon without any significant reinforcement. With the capture of Vionville, the outnumbered corps prevented the French retreat to the west. It was mainly the III. Corps, which stopped the withdrawal of the Rhine Army and later made the enclosure of 180,000 soldiers in the fortress Metz possible.

Two days later, on August 18, the corps advanced via St. Marcel and also intervened in the battle of Gravelotte and then remained as a siege corps on the left bank of the Moselle. The Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Army, Friedrich Karl von Prussia , had the Metz fortress surrendered by October 26th. After the siege of Metz was over , the III. Corps in forced marches in the area between Paris and Orléans .

The attack of the Loire Army to relieve Paris could be stopped on the German left wing in the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande . Here the corps came to the aid of the X. Corps ( Voigts-Rhetz ) just in time to turn the impending defeat on November 28th into a victory. When the French attacks were stopped, the III. Corps together with the other units of the army of Friedrich Karl of Prussia himself to the attack. After the conquest of Orléans on December 4th, the French Loire Army was defeated again in Beaugency by December 10th. On January 9, 1871, the III. Corps advanced in two columns to the west, the 6th Division encountered strong resistance off Artenay , the 5th Division had been stopped by the enemy at St. Mars de Locquenay. On January 10th the 11th Brigade was in action near Changé , and the 10th Brigade, which was advancing from Parigue, ran into enemy troops near the castles of Raison and La Paillerie. In the battle of Le Mans the III. Corps at the center of the German attack and was also involved in the capture of the city on January 12th.

First World War

General of the Infantry Ewald von Lochow
General of the Infantry Walther von Lüttwitz

At the beginning of the war in 1914, the corps was under the command of General of the Infantry Ewald von Lochow , while Lieutenant Colonel Hans von Seeckt acted as Chief of Staff . As part of the 1st Army , the advance through Belgium took place. After the first contact with the enemy at Tirlemont , the further advance in the direction of St. Quentin in northern France followed. On August 23, 1914, the Corps bore the brunt of the battle against the British in the Battle of Mons . Right on IX. Army Corps then should proceed towards Saint-Ghislain and Jemappes against the Mons-Condé Canal. The 5th Division under General Georg Wichura was able to storm Tertre, but remained lying south of it; another part could cross the canal at Wasmuël. The 6th Division under General Richard Herhudt von Rohden attacking directly across from Jemappes did not advance at first, and Frameries was only reached in the evening . After bitter house-to-house fighting, the 6th Division advanced on Warquignies on August 24th; the 5th Division had taken Saint-Ghislain and had broken through to the south via Hornu. This was followed by the advance via Le Cateau and St. Quentin to the Marne .

On September 5, the III. Corps the line Cerneux-Courgivaux in the evening. The IX. Army Corps secured the crossings on the Grand Morin on the Esternay- Neuvy line. On this day, the 2nd and 4th Army Corps advancing to the right camped west of Coulommiers , to the east of it the IV Corps went to sleep around Amillis . The von der Marwitz cavalry corps reached Courtacon. The left wing group of the 1st Army, the III. and IX. Corps, encountered the counterattack of the French 5th Army on September 6th in the Battle of the Marne near Cerneux-Monteeaux. After the withdrawal of the IV. Army Corps, marching off to the Qurcq, German army cavalry took over the defenseless flank of the III. Corps.

After the IV. Corps had cleared the plateau of Rebais , the III. and IX. Corps east of it, between Montolivet and Montmirail, a new battle line with a front facing south-west and south. After the IX. Corps was withdrawn on September 8, west of Mareuil on the northern flank of the Battle of Ourcq and the VII Corps of the 2nd Army was pushed back against French attacks at Montmirail, the situation of the exposed 5th Division in the Rebais area was threatening. On September 9th, the 1st Army was ordered to withdraw via the Marne and Villers-Cotterêts to the Aisne. The battle of the Aisne followed after the retreat . The III. Corps occupied the heights of Condé with the 5th Division and the area around Nanteuil-la-Fosse with the 6th Division behind it , successfully repelled the enemy attacks and went into position warfare at the end of September .

From January 8 to 14, 1915, the III. Corps at the Battle of Soissons strong French attacks north of the Aisne and went over to the successful counterattack. At the beginning of October 1915 the corps was transferred to the southeast front and assigned to the 11th Army for the campaign against Serbia . With the subordinate 6th Division and the 25th Reserve Division , the corps crossed the Danube at Semendria . Kragujevac was reached in late October and early October and the Serbs were persecuted as far as the Morava.

At the end of November it was relocated to the Western Front , and from February 21, 1916 the corps was used in the Battle of Verdun . Exhausted from the heavy fighting in the Caillette forest and around the village and Fort Vaux , the 5th and 6th Divisions were pulled out of the attack front in front of Douaumont in mid-March . Between October 5 and 27, 1916, the corps was in reserve on the Somme , followed by positional battles in the Argonne until February 1917 .

On April 26, 1917, the worn-out XIV Army Corps was pulled out east of Reims during the Battle of the Aisne . The III. Corps took over the left wing of the 1st Army in the area on both sides of Moronvilliers as "Gruppe Prosnes" and was also assigned the 223rd and 23rd Divisions . The newly subordinated 242nd Division began to replace the 223rd Division, which had been worn out again on May 14. After the end of the battle at the end of May 1917, the 13th , 51st and 54th Reserve Divisions were newly subordinated to the General Command . The corps remained in Champagne until February 1918.

In March 1918 the corps moved to the area of ​​the 18th Army and participated in the spring offensive on the Somme between Bellenglise and north of St. Quentin . The Lüttwitz Corps were subordinate to the 28th , 88th and 113th Divisions , it captured the Holnon Forest and penetrated the Somme by March 24th. At the beginning of April the front stiffened for the Lüttwitz group on the Avre in the area north of Montdidier . On August 8, after the defeat of the neighboring corps to the north ( General Command 51 ) in the area south-east of Amiens, the withdrawal was necessary. At this time the 24th Division and the 25th Reserve Division in the front and the 1st Reserve Division were subordinate to the Corps .

Commanding general

The command authority of the army corps was the general command under the leadership of the commanding general .

Rank Surname date
Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow April 1813 to June 2, 1814
Lieutenant General Johann Adolf von Thielmann April 1815 to October 1815
General of the Infantry Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien 0April 7, 1820 to February 20, 1824
Lieutenant General Wilhelm of Prussia March 22, 1824 to March 29, 1838
Lieutenant General Adolf Eduard von Thile March 30, 1838 to May 8, 1840
Lieutenant General Karl Christian von Weyrach 0May 9 to September 9, 1840 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant General Karl Christian von Weyrach September 10, 1840 to November 12, 1849
General of the cavalry Friedrich von Wrangel November 13, 1849 to September 19, 1857
General of the cavalry August of Württemberg September 19, 1857 to June 2, 1858
General of the Infantry Wilhelm von Radziwill 0June 3, 1858 to June 30, 1860
General of the cavalry Friedrich Karl of Prussia 0July 1, 1860 to July 17, 1870
General of the Infantry Constantin von Alvensleben July 18, 1870 to March 26, 1873
General of the Infantry Julius von Groß called von Schwarzhoff March 27, 1873 to October 17, 1881
General of the Infantry Alexander von Pape October 18, 1881 to August 20, 1884
General of the cavalry Hermann Ludwig von Wartensleben August 21, 1884 to July 11, 1888
General of the Infantry Walther Bronsart von Schellendorff July 12, 1888 to March 23, 1890
Lieutenant General /
General of the Cavalry
Maximilian of verses March 24, 1890 to October 6, 1893
General of the cavalry Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen 0October 7, 1893 to February 5, 1896
Lieutenant General Viktor von Lignitz 0February 6 to April 17, 1896 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry
Viktor von Lignitz April 18, 1896 to January 19, 1903
General of the Infantry Karl von Bülow January 27, 1903 to September 30, 1912
General of the Infantry Ewald von Lochow 0October 1, 1912 to November 24, 1916
Lieutenant General Walther von Lüttwitz November 25, 1916 to August 11, 1918

Flags / flag decorations

literature

  • Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany - based on the Great General Staff Works. Published by W. Paulis successor (H. Jerosch), Berlin 1895.

Individual evidence

  1. Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. As of May 6, 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1914, pp. 59ff.
  2. ^ Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany - based on the Great General Staff Works. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor (H. Jerosch), Berlin 1895, p. 11.
  3. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 22.
  4. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 44.
  5. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 48.
  6. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 70.
  7. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 71.
  8. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 75f.
  9. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 161.
  10. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 218.
  11. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 219.
  12. ^ Justus Scheibert: War between France and Germany. Publishing house by W. Paulis successor, Berlin 1895, p. 226.
  13. ^ Hermann Stegemann, Volume I., p. 183
  14. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-18, Volume XIV., Map supplement 25
  15. 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. 46f.