L. Army Corps

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The L. Army Corps (50th Army Corps) was a major unit of the German Wehrmacht and was deployed in the Balkans in 1941 and against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945.

Setup and missions

The General Command of the L. Army Corps was set up on October 8, 1940 in Wehrkreis V (Stuttgart) , Infantry General Georg Lindemann became the first commanding general of the corps.

1941

The corps was transferred to Bulgaria in the spring of 1941, where it was placed under the command of the 12th Army (Field Marshal Wilhelm List ). From April 6 to April 23, 1941, the corps was deployed in the Balkan campaign with the 46th and 294th Infantry Divisions . The corps here belonged to the army reserve for the greater part of the time and rarely got into combat. The advance of the corps took place over the Schipka pass to Plovdiv , over Dubnitza and Veles to Prilep .

Following the Balkan campaign, Lindemann's general command was relocated to East Prussia at the end of June 1941 in order to intensify the attack by Army Group North (Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb ) on the Soviet Union . The L. Army Corps came under the command of the 16th Army (General Field Marshal Ernst Busch ) from July 1941 and advanced on the southern flank of Army Group North in the Velikiye Luki area. In order not to weaken the connection with Army Group Center any further, on July 28, 1941, the L. Corps was briefly subordinated to the 9th Army (Colonel General Adolf Strauss ). On August 2, there was bitter fighting over the heights southwest of Velikiye Luki, in the course of which the 251st Infantry Division suffered heavy losses and had to move behind the Lowat .

For the attack on Leningrad , the L. Corps was then transferred to the area of ​​the 18th Army ( Georg von Küchler ). On August 22nd, the corps began the attack on Luga and at the end of August achieved the breakthrough on Siverskaya . Placed under the command of Panzer Group 4 , the L. Army Corps took part in the attack on Leningrad in September 1941. The L. Corps was already scheduled for the invasion of Leningrad and General Lindemann as city commander, but the city was no longer captured. On January 17, 1942, Hitler horrified Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb as Commander-in-Chief, and Army Group North was replaced by the previous leader of the 18th Army, Colonel General von Küchler. The election of a new commander-in-chief of the 18th Army fell on Georg Lindemann, who took up this post on January 18, 1942. The L. Army Corps then took over General of the Cavalry Philipp Kleffel .

1942/43

In 1942 the L. Corps with 58th and 215th Infantry Divisions was the right wing of the 18th Army south of Pushkino in a defensive position and held together with the XXVI. and the XXVIII. Army Corps established the " Leningrad Blockade ". In October 1942, after the conquest of Crimea, the LIV. Army corps thrown into Leningrad and pushed into the right wing of the corps. The L. Corps received in addition to the tried and tested 215 ID. temporarily also subordinate to the 9th and 10th Air Force Field Divisions. After the takeover of the coastal section in the Oranienbaum area by the III. Air Force Field Corps, the L. Corps was placed under the 250th and 170th Infantry Divisions to compensate . On February 13, 1943, the L. Corps with parts of the 24th, 58th and 215th Infantry Divisions led counterattacks against the enemy forces that had broken into Ljuban and prevented this group from uniting with the troops of the Leningrad Front south of Mga. On September 17, 1943, General of the Infantry Wilhelm Wegener took over the command of the corps, which is now subordinate to the 126th, 170th and 215th Infantry Divisions.

1944/45

After the offensive of the Soviet front under General Leonid Goworow in January 1944, the German withdrawal from Leningrad was forced. By April 1944 the corps was thrown back by the Soviet offensive on Pleskau and received there in the Association of the 16th Army (General of the Artillery Hansen ) until July 1944 the designation "Group Wegener". In September 1944, the General Command was assigned the 122nd, 126th and 290th Infantry Divisions . The superior 16th Army had to withdraw from Riga to the west by October 15, 1944 during the Baltic Operation after the Soviet breakthrough to the Baltic Sea . The L. Corps, which was then included in the Kurland Basin , was assigned to the new front north of Mitau . At the turn of the year 1945 the corps fought with the 24th, 122nd and 389th Infantry Divisions in the Rubeni area to the northeast of Lake Lielauce. In March 1945 it was again subordinated to the 18th Army (General of the Infantry Ehrenfried Boege ). Under the leadership of Lieutenant General von Bodenhausen, the corps surrendered on May 8, 1945 with the 24th and 218th Infantry Divisions northeast of Frauenburg ( Saldus ) and went into captivity.

guide

Commanding Generals:

Chief of the General Staff:

First General Staff Officer:

  • Major i. G. Hans Refior October 1940 to February 24, 1942
  • Major i. G. Klaus Hocheisel February 25 to October 1942
  • Major i. G. Horst Ogilvie October 1942 to March 1943
  • Major i. G. Heinrich Graf Strachwitz von Grosszauche and Camminetz March to September 1943
  • Major i. G. Burkhard Freiherr Loeffelholz von Colberg September 1943 to July 1944
  • Major i. G. Günter Goebel July 1944 to January 1945
  • Major i. G. Bernd Bosselmann January to May 8, 1945

literature

  • Percy Ernst Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965
  • Werner Haupt: Army Group North , Podzun Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1966.

Web links