Corps Bothmer

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Commemorative coin to Felix von Bothmer

The "Bothmer" corps was a major unit of the German Army during the First World War , which was subordinate to the Southern Army .

history

Originally, the large formation was set up at the end of 1914 as the 2nd Reserve Corps of the Bavarian Army . It was mobile from January 1915 and was briefly deployed on the Western Front in February 1915 . At that time, the 6th and 8th Reserve Divisions as well as artillery , engineers and other corps were subordinate to her. When the Bavarian troops were surrendered, the General Command moved to the Eastern Front in March 1915 and was called Corps "Bothmer" until it was converted to AOK Süd .

The "Bothmer" corps was in a sense the forerunner of the Carpathian Corps , which in August 1916 also consisted of the 1st Division , but was deployed in Romania and Bukovina . The corps owes its existence to the battle on the Zwinin . When the mountain could not be taken, a corps was formed on March 23, 1915 from the 1st Division - which was previously under the Imperial and Royal Hofmann Corps - and the 3rd Guards Division, which was still free, into a corps under the leadership of Felix von Bothmer . The greatest success of this corps was the storming of the Zwinin on April 9th, 1915, then the breakthrough through the Beskids and on May 31st to June 1st the capture of Stryj . On June 23, 1915, the difficult Dniester crossing took place , which finally ended with the pursuit to Zlota Lipa . On July 7, 1915, the corps was disbanded. Bothmer took over the leadership of the Southern Army. The 1st Division moved with the Bug Army to the north and the 3rd Guards Division with the South Army to the east.

Battle calendar

Composition of the corps

1915

  • April 9th ​​--- Storming of the Zwinin
  • April 10 to May 12 --- Battle near Koziowa
  • April 24th --- Storming of Ostry
  • May 12th to 17th --- Persecution in the Carpathians
  • Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów
    • May 18 to June 3 --- Battle of Stryi
    • June 4-9 --- Persecution in Galicia
    • June 10-22 --- Battle of Zydaczow
    • June 23 to 27 --- Crossing over the Dniester
    • June 27-29 --- Battle of the Gnila Lipa
    • June 30th to July 6th --- Persecution between Gnila Lipa and Zlota Lipa

structure

The Corps included the Prussian 1st Division and the 3rd Guard Division as well as corps troops. At the beginning of April 1915, the 38th Honved Infantry Division was added.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the Infantry Felix von Bothmer December 26, 1914 to July 7, 1915

literature

  • Reichsarchiv (Hrsg.): Battles of the world war. Volume 2: Battle of the Carpathians and Dniester 1915. Gerhard Stalling publisher. Oldenburg / Berlin 1925.
  • Curt Jany (ed.), Hermann Cron: History of the German Army in the World War 1914–1918. Military publisher Karl Siegismund, Berlin 1937 ( History of the Royal Prussian Army and the German Imperial Army 5).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen , Friedrichfranz Feeser : The Bavaria Book of World Wars 1914-1918. I. Volume. Chr. Belser AG. Publishing bookstore. Stuttgart 1930. p. 45.
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv (Ed.): The World War 1914 to 1918. Volume 7: The operations of 1915. The events in winter and spring. ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1931. pp. 127, 470.
  3. ↑ 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 , p. 659.