LIII. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The LIII. Corps was an army corps of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .

history

1. Setup

The General Command was set up on February 15, 1941 in Military District XVIII (Salzburg) at the Innsbruck Military Replacement Inspection . In the war against the Soviet Union , the corps under General der Infanterie Weisenberger was deployed as a reserve in the 4th Army section after the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 . The 45th , 52nd and 167th Infantry Divisions were initially subordinated .

At the beginning of July 1941 the general command was assigned to the XXXXVI. mot. AK. (General of the Panzer Troop von Vietinghoff ) tracked the advance to the Beresina . At the beginning of August 1941, the corps in the Bobruisk area was subordinated to the 2nd Army (Colonel General von Weichs ) and on August 14 attacked the bridgehead held by the Soviets on the west bank of the Dnieper at Shlobin and Rogachev . In September, the General Command acted as Army Group Reserve for Army Group Center , and the corps was assigned the 52nd, 162nd and 252nd Infantry Divisions . During Operation Taifun (October 1941) still deployed with the 2nd Army, the 56th , 167th and 112th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the corps advancing on Bryansk . Attacking in the eastern arc of Tula until December 1941 , the general command was pushed back behind the Oka to Bjelew by the counter-offensive of the Soviet 61st Army (General Popow ) until January , with the connection to the XXXXIII standing further north . Army corps completely interrupted by Soviet troops.

From November 1941 to August 1943 the corps was continuously subordinate to the 2nd Panzer Army in the Orel –Bryansk area. General of the Infantry Gollwitzer took over the command of the corps in the Bolchow area in June 1943 . During the Oryol Operation (July 1943), the 208th , 211th , 293rd Infantry and 25th Panzer Grenadier Divisions were subordinate to the command. On July 12, the front of the LIII. Army corps between Schisdra and the Oka torn up by a Soviet offensive, the XXXV on the right . Army Corps (General Rendulic) had to fall back on the Optucha. The Oka section including the Orel front arch had to be abandoned. After the retreat, the General Command came to the 3rd Panzer Army in the Vitebsk area , where it took over the troops of the 2nd Air Force Field Corps , which had been transferred to Italy. In June 1944 the corps was trapped in the Soviet operation Bagration in the Vitebsk pocket. The 206th and 246th Infantry Divisions , subordinate to them at this time , as well as the 4th and 6th Air Force Field Divisions , were either destroyed or taken prisoner. Remnants of broken cadres and units were used to set up the XII. SS Army Corps called in .

2. Setup

The General Command was re-established on November 11, 1944 near Danzig in Military District XX using the General Command of Rothkirch (formerly Commander of the Rear Army Area Center) and parts of the corps of the LIV. Army Corps . The corps was deployed on the Western Front from December 1944 , first with the 7th Army in the Trier area and from April 1945 with the Lüttwitz Army Department in the Ruhr basin . At the beginning of March the 176th , the remnants of the 326th and 340th People's Grenadier Divisions were subordinate to the General Command . The last commanding general, Lieutenant General Fritz Bayerlein , surrendered to American troops on April 15 near Menden in the Sauerland with the remains of his corps.

people

Commanding generals

literature

  • Percy E. 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
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945.
  • Rolf Hinze: The Army Group collapsed in mid-1944 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1992.
  • Rolf Hinze: Das Ostfront Drama 1944 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1987.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schramm: OKW-KTB Volume 2. Volume, Kriegsgliederung p. 733

Web links