LV. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The LV General Command . Army Corps (Roman 55th AK) was a major unit of the German Wehrmacht and was deployed on the Eastern Front against the Red Army during the Second World War . The commando went down at the end of April 1945 in the Pillau area during the battle for East Prussia .

history

The LV. Army Corps was set up in Wehrkreis V on January 6, 1941 . General of the Infantry Vierow was entrusted with the command of the corps, which was first assigned to the 2nd Army in the Reich and from April 1941 to the 11th Army of Army Group C in the General Government.

1941

The LV General Command. was placed under the 6th Army on April 29, 1941 for Operation Barbarossa . On June 22nd, the mobile forces of Army Group South broke into Volhynia . Task of the course. Corps had to reach the Bug- crossing at Sokal , the 57th Infantry Division came into action north of Perespa. At Khorobrowo the bow was crossed. The 168th Infantry Division followed along with the XXIX. Army Corps (111th and 299th Infantry Division ) the advance of XXXXVIII. Army Corps . During the proceeding in the direction of Dubno , the corps was stopped by Soviet counter-attacks in the area 10 km northeast of Beresteczko . The 75th Infantry Division advanced through Smordva on the Volkovye-Sudobicze line. During the tank battle near Dubno-Luzk-Rivne , the corps were subordinated to: 168th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Hans Mundt), 57th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Blümm ), 75th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Hammer ). At the end of June, the corps built a bridgehead over the Ikwa west of Zalesze , and the 111th Infantry Division , which was briefly subordinate to it, defended itself in forest areas about 12 km north of Kremieniec. On July 3rd the LV. AK the Horyn section on either side of Jampol. Together with the XXXXIV. AK proceeding as the southern group of the 6th Army, the vanguard stood on July 6th on the Teofipol – Kuzmincy line (8 km south of Bialogrodka) and a few days later in the area northwest of Starokonstantynow on the Junaczynce-Brykula line. In mid-July, as a result of heavy defensive battles by the LI. Army Corps at Korosten stopped the corps in the area north of Berditschew . The next steps took place after the breakthrough of Panzer Group 1 at Zhitomir to the Dnieper south of Kiev . On July 23, the 57th and 295th Infantry Divisions reached the Irpen section northwest of Belgorodka, 10 km southwest of Borodjanka . On July 30, the command was temporarily assigned to the 299th Infantry Division on the line between Golaja-Maidanowka. In mid-August, in the midst of the battle of the Kiev kettle , the relocation to the Dnieper front took place. Army Group South ordered the attack of 17th Army from the bridgehead at Kremenchug to the north. In addition, the General Command LV, which had become vacant in the Radomyschl area, was taken over by the 6th Army . AK used to build the new front in the Poltava area . The corps was on the Rshishchev-Tripolye line behind the XI. (left) and LI. Army Corps (right) deployed and the 17th Army followed to the other bank of the Dnieper. On September 3, 1941, the 9th , 57th and 295th Infantry Divisions were assigned to the corps for its new task . At the beginning of October, the advance from the Poltava area to the north-east was resumed, with the 100th and 101st light divisions now subordinated . On October 22nd, 1941, LV, again with the 6th Army, succeeded. Army Corps to form two bridgeheads across the Una River . These were located a few kilometers southwest and south of Kharkov , which the Soviet 38th Army (General Maslow) was defending. On October 24th the 57th Infantry Division advanced together with the XVII. Army corps entered the city. General Vierow became the city command of Kharkov, and the General Command soon ordered the identification of the Jews there. On December 27th, the general command was hurriedly relocated to Maloarchangelsk in the area north-east of Kursk , where on December 25th the already occupied city of Livnyy was lost to a Soviet counter-offensive.

1942

The corps, subordinate to the 2nd Army , was in the area east of Maloarchangelsk in the spring of 1942 in defensive and position battles with the Soviet 13th Army (General Puchow). In June 1942 the LV. Corps assigned to the von Weichs Army Group , at the beginning of the summer offensive on the northern wing of the 2nd Army it penetrated close to Liwny again, then got stuck and went into position warfare. In July 1942 the following were assigned: 45th , 95th , 299th and 383rd infantry divisions . During this time, the corps stood as the left wing of the army exactly on the border of Army Group Center and Army Group B and maintained contact with XXXV. Army Corps of the 2nd Panzer Army upright.

1943

During the Voronezh-Kastornoye operation , the 60th Soviet Army overcame the Tim segment and occupied the small town of Tim on February 4, 1943 . With its breakthrough south of Maloarchangelsk, the Soviet 13th Army tore open a 50 km wide gap in the front. The German 45th Infantry Division was pushed back north of the Sosna River, the LV being pushed north. Army Corps was subordinated to the 2nd Panzer Army of Army Group Center on February 4th . During the Dmitryev-Sevsk operation from February 22 to March 21, 1943, the General Command was in constant defensive battles against the Soviet central front and was pushed back towards Oryol . On March 7, 1943, the advance of the Soviet 2nd Panzer Army reached a depth of 60 kilometers. The old divisions were replaced by the 110th , 134th , 296th , 339th Infantry and 5th Panzer Divisions . Colonel-General Rokossowski concentrated the 70th Army in vain around the pushed back LV. To smash AK in the promontory of Orlov. In April 1943 the corps was relocated north to Bryansk , subordinated to the 2nd Panzer Army and established Shizdra on both sides in the front of Army Group Center. From June 14 to August 12, 1943, the General Command was involved in the battle in the Orel-Bogen and was heavily attacked from mid-July. On August 16, the Shizdra corps section was lost to the Soviet 50th Army , while the LVI to the north was lost . Panzer Corps could still hold in the area northeast of Kirov . The operation Suvorov Soviet Western Front brought the front of Army Group Center to totter. On August 27, the LVI. Panzer Corps detached from the front and replaced by the XXXXI. replaced. On September 25, Roslavl had to be evacuated before the pressure of the Soviet 10th Army . Together with the XXXXI. Army Corps became the LV. Corps thrown back into the Krichev area. On October 6, 1943, Lieutenant General Herrlein became the new commanding general of the corps that had been pushed back by the Desna behind the Sosch , and were newly subordinated to: Kampfgruppe 268th Infantry Division , parts 36th and 321st Infantry Divisions , mass 110th , 211th and 296th Infantry Division .

1944

After the end of the fighting behind the Dnieper, the corps established itself under the command of AOK 2 in the Rogachev area as far as the Pripet . Until the end of March 1944 the following were subordinate to: 134th and 296th Infantry Divisions and 20th Panzer Division . In April 1944 the Corps in the area were south of Bobruisk on the front line of Karpilowka to Pripyat section at Petrikoff the 292nd Infantry Division (Lieutenant General John ) and the 102nd Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Bercken allocated). When Operation Bagration began on June 22nd, the corps that formed the right wing of the 9th Army was attacked by the Soviet 61st and 65th Armies. At the retreat fighting for Ptich section through the swampy Pripyat area over Starobin and Luninec to Slutsk followed heavy losses to enemy partisans. Once again subordinated to the framework of the 2nd Army, the General Command was withdrawn to Bialystok at the beginning of July , subordinate to the 28th Jäger Division , 367th Infantry Division, the 12th Panzer Division - and the remnants of the 20th Panzer Division . On September 13th, the city of Lomscha fell into the hands of the 121st Rifle Corps of the Soviet 3rd Army (General AW Gorbatow ). The new front was established on the northern bank of the Narew near the newly formed German 4th Army . In November 1944 the LV. AK concentrated in the position between Bober and Narew and assigned to the newly established 547th and 562nd Volksgrenadier Divisions . Left neighbor was the XXVII. Army Corps (General Felzmann), right neighbor the XX. Army Corps (General Roman) in the Ostrołęka area .

1945

During the major attack by the 2nd Belarusian Front in the Battle of East Prussia , LV. Army corps on January 13, 1945:

At XXIII. Army Corps of the 2nd Army was lost on January 18th, making the still holding right wing (LV. Army Corps) of the 4th Army in the north untenable. The withdrawal of the LV. AK. took place by the end of January through the Masuria on Bartenstein . The still intact General Command was made available to Army Group North in March . Until the end of April 1945 it served as a reserve of the AOK East Prussia and was used as the port commander of Pillau , where it was broken up according to the Soviet procedure.

guide

Commanding generals

literature

  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organization.
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume II: 1942 edited by Andreas Hillgruber, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organization.
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume III: 1943 edited by Walther Hubatsch, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organizations.
  • MK Barbier: The Battle of the Kursk Arch. The greatest tank battle in history Tosa Verlag, Vienna 2002, pp. 151–156.
  • Kurt Dieckert , Horst Großmann : The struggle for East Prussia. 10th edition. Engine book, 1994.
  • Vladimir O. Daines: Дмитриев-Севская наступательная операция from Советские танковые армии в бою (Soviet tank armies in battle), Moscow 2010.
  • Carl Wagener: Army Group South, Podzun Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1972.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Vol. 5, Osnabrück 1967, p. 197.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ OKW war diary volume 1, war organization p. 1135 and 1140
  2. ↑ OKW war diary volume 1, war organization p. 1354, 1360, 1380 and 1387
  3. ^ Rolf Hinze: Ostfrontdrama 1944, Motorbuchverlag 1987, p. 176. f