IV Army Corps (German Empire)

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The IV Army Corps was a large unit of the Prussian Army that existed from 1818 to 1919 .

structure

Peace structure 1914

history

Service building of the General Command in Magdeburg, today the State Chancellery

The corps was established on August 30, 1818 from the previously existing General Command in the Duchy of Saxony. The general command was initially in Magdeburg . From 1822 to 1826 it was in Erfurt , then again in Magdeburg and from 1836 in Berlin . In 1848 it was relocated to Magdeburg and received Major Helmuth von Moltke as Chief of Staff on August 22nd of that year .

State crisis

In the autumn crisis of 1850 about the role of the leading power in Germany in the question of the establishment of a German (federal) state, the cautious King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. After a Bavarian-Austrian invasion of Hesse also mobilized on November 5th of the IV Army Corps. Moltke wrote in a letter the day before: “Wouldn't you like to be ordered sooner than you are actually determined to actually strike.” Looking back, he saw himself confirmed: “The IVth Army Corps was mobile and out for 24 weeks withdrew all garrisons. [...] The whole mobilization instruction was illusory and had to be replaced by lots of special provisions. "

“Prussia's diplomatic defeat at Olomouc hit him particularly hard : the mobilization of the Prussian army remained an empty demonstration, the king was not determined to strike. [...] But the chief of the corps in him soberly and objectively stated the shortcomings and inadequacies that had shown up when the mobilization machinery was started. "

The corps kept its seat in Magdeburg until its dissolution in 1919. Until the outbreak of the First World War, the corps of the VI. Army inspection subordinated.

Franco-German War

General Gustav von Alvensleben (1803-1881)

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the corps under General von Alvensleben was part of the 2nd Army under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia . As chief of staff acted Colonel von Thile, the 7th Division was under Lieutenant General large black Hoff , the 8th Division was Lieutenant-General von Scholer out. The corps was assembled in the Mannheim area until July 29th . The 2nd Army reached the St. Avold - Saarunion line by August 10th . The subordinate corps of the army crossed the Saar and reached the line south of Remilly (III. And IX. Corps ahead) - Oron (Guard) by August 13th. The IV. Corps followed with a delay as the outermost army wing on Chateau-Salins and reached the Seille on August 14th . The IV. Corps was on August 19 in the area of Toul and was together with the Guard Corps , the 5th and 6th Cavalry Division and the Saxon XII. Corps of the newly formed Meuse Army assigned to Crown Prince Albert of Saxony . On August 26, the army reached with the XII. Corps Varennes , behind with the IV. Corps the area south of Clermont , the Guard Corps stood north of Dombasle . On August 30, 1870, the IV Corps and the 8th Division advanced west of Nouart to Beaumont. The 16th Brigade under Colonel von Scheffler surprised the French V Corps in the camp at the Battle of Beaumont . The corps of General Failly got caught between the IV Corps as the left wing of the Meuse Army and the I. Bavarian Corps as the right wing of the German 3rd Army. The French tried in vain to rally on the heights of Mont de Brune and Villemonty and were defeated. The 7th Division attacked with the 14th Brigade under Major General von Zychlinski against the Mont de Brune and stormed Mouzon on the Meuse. On August 31, the 3rd Army crossed the Maas River and reached the area 5 km southeast of Sedan . On the morning of September 1, the Bavarians crossed the Meuse and infiltrated the town of Bazeilles . The IV Corps also intervened here in the Battle of Sedan and was able to recapture the just lost suburb of Balan.

After the French surrender in Sedan, the Meuse Army followed the advance of the 3rd Army on Paris. On September 16, the IV. Corps reached Nanteuil as the right wing, the XII. Corps as left wing Lizy between the Marne and Oury, in between the Guard Corps marched. The siege of Paris began on September 19, and the IV Corps was assigned the positions in the north of the city between Stains and Lake Enghien on the right bank of the Seine. After a French defeat in the battle of La Malmaison on October 21, the attacked Meuse army had to extend its positions to the right. Opposite the French occupied the ridge on the Seine peninsula from Mont Valerien to Asnieres with reinforced artillery and newly opened trenches. On January 19, 1871, the artillery of the IV Corps took part in the battle of Mont Valérien from the north, in the defense against the last French strike. The armistice followed on January 28, and on January 29, St. Denis was occupied by the IV Corps.

First World War

General Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin (1851–1936)

Under the commanding General Sixt von Armin , the corps joined the 1st Army at the beginning of the First World War in early August 1914 . The 7th Division was led by Lieutenant General Riedel , the 8th Division by Lieutenant General Hildebrandt , and Chief of Staff of the Corps was Major General Leo August von Stocken . The IV Corps marched into neutral Belgium and reached Brussels on August 20th . On August 23, it advanced through Enghien and Ath on Harchies and Pommerœul. The 8th Division had to break off their attack over the Mons-Condé Canal in the evening during the battle of Mons , but further east, parts of the 7th Division managed the first crossing on the southward road to Thulin. On August 24, the corps on the right wing was also supposed to cross the canal, but the British had already withdrawn. After a few hours proceeding over makeshift bridges, the 8th Division reached French territory at Quiévrain around noon and advanced on Valenciennes . The 7th Division meanwhile reached Angre via Thulin. On August 26, during the Battle of Le Cateau , the Corps bore the brunt of the battle against the II Corps at Caudry and Inchy.

During the Battle of the Marne , the group attacked by Armin Sixt to support the IV. Reserve Corps from 6 September in space Mareuil-sur-Ourcq in the Battle of the Ourcq one. As of September 9, the corps had to return to the Aisne via Villers-Cotterêts as a result of the entire withdrawal of the German right wing . The corps had to go back with the 8th Division on Juvigny and with the 7th Division Tartiers and took part in the battle of the Aisne south of the river between Vic-Fontenoy on September 13th . During the race to the sea , the corps was with the 6th Army in the area east of Arras from the beginning of October 1914 . Long years of trench warfare followed in the Lens area . During the battle of La Bassee in June 1915, the corps was assigned to the French XXI. Corps and during the Battle of Loos in September 1915 against the British IV Corps. During these defensive battles, the corps had been assigned to the 117th division at Hulluch and the 123rd division at Souchez in the spring .

During the Battle of the Somme , in mid-July 1916, the corps took over a new section of the front in the area south-west of Bapaume with the 2nd Army (from 19 July command area of AOK 1 ). The 7th Division defended in the Pozières area , the following 8th Division used a counter-attack, which was able to regain the Delville forest that had been lost in the Longueval area . The slow advance of the British reserves made it possible to stabilize the hard-pressed front with the help of the corps. After two weeks in the main attack area of ​​the British, the General Command was replaced by the IX. Reserve Corps ( Boehn Group ) and released the I. Bavarian Reserve Corps in the Arras area, which had been brought up for the summer battle .

After the return of the IV. Army Corps to the old combat area at La Bassée (November 1916), the general command under the new commanding General von Kraewel was called the "Loos" group between April 3, 1917 and April of the following year. During the Battle of Arras Kraewel's troops defended the northern wing of the 6th Army under Colonel General von Falkenhausen , which was attacked by the British .

From April 9, 1918, the corps was again used in the 6th Army during the spring offensive . Deployed in the southern section of the Fourth Battle of Flanders , the 4th Replacement Division on the left covered Festubert. The 18th and 43rd Reserve Divisions carried out the attack to the north of it, behind them the 44th Reserve Division followed as a reserve . After the breakthrough of the opposite Portuguese positions southwest of Armentières , the German troops managed to occupy Richebourg . After the Hundred Days Offensive , the corps was engaged in retreat fighting between the Deûle Canal and the Scheldt . In October 1918, the Corps in the Valenciennes area were subordinate to the 2nd Guard Reserve Division , the 4th Replacement Division and the 36th Division .

Commanding general

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

Rank Surname date
General of the Infantry Friedrich von Kleist 0October 3, 1815 to March 4, 1821
Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm von Jagow 0March 5, 1821 to September 3, 1830
Lieutenant General Georg von Hake 0September 4, 1830 to June 30, 1832 (in charge of the tour)
General of the Infantry Friedrich Wilhelm von Jagow 0July 1, 1832 to March 29, 1836
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry 		Carl of Prussia March 30, 1836 to March 4, 1848
Lieutenant General August von Hedemann 0March 5, 1848 to February 6, 1852
Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Radziwill February 19, 1852 to March 22, 1852 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry 		Wilhelm von Radziwill March 23, 1852 to June 2, 1858
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry 		Hans Wilhelm von Schack 0June 3, 1858 to September 25, 1866
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry 		Gustav von Alvensleben October 30, 1866 to October 1, 1871
Lieutenant General Leonhard von Blumenthal 0October 2, 1871 to March 21, 1872 (in charge of the tour)
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry /
General Field Marshal 		Leonhard von Blumenthal March 22, 1872 to April 12, 1888
Lieutenant General /
General of the Infantry 		Wilhelm von Grolman April 17, 1888 to March 21, 1889
General of the cavalry Carl von Hänisch March 22, 1889 to August 31, 1897
General of the Infantry Richard von Klitzing 0September 1, 1897 to January 26, 1903
General of the Infantry Paul von Hindenburg January 27, 1903 to March 19, 1911
General of the Infantry Friedrich Sixt by Armin March 20, 1911 to February 24, 1917
Lieutenant General Richard von Kraewel February 25, 1917 to December 19, 1918
General of the Infantry Kuno von Steuben December 20, 1918 to January 29, 1919
Lieutenant General Johannes von Malachowski January 30 to February 9, 1919
Lieutenant General Alfred von Kleist February 10 to July 7, 1919

Flags / flag decorations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Horst (Ed.): Moltke. Life and work in self-testimonies. Letters, writings, speeches , Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Dieterich Collection, Volume 5, Leipzig 1937, p. 183 f.
  2. ↑ M. Horst: Introduction in: Moltke. Life and work in self-testimonies. , Leipzig 1937, p. 29 f.
  3. ^ Justus Scheibert : The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 301.
  4. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 56f.
  5. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 103.
  6. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 124f.
  7. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 166.
  8. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, pp. 174f.
  9. ^ Justus Scheibert: The war between France and Germany 1870/71. Pauli's successor, Berlin 1895, p. 278.
  10. ^ Reichsarchiv : The World War 1914–1918. Volume I: The Border Battles. ES Mittler & Sohn. Berlin 1925, Kriegsgliederungen pp. 667–668.
  11. ↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815–1939. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 . Pp. 52-53.