LVI. Panzer Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The LVI General Command . (56.) AK was a major military association of the German Wehrmacht , and on February 15, 1941, was incorporated into Wehrkreis VI as LVI. Army Corps (mot.) And was deployed on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union during the Second World War. On March 16, 1942, the name was changed to LVI. Panzer Corps .

history

1941

For the planned Operation Barbarossa , the general command under General von Manstein was transferred to East Prussia . On June 22, 1941, the LVI joined. AK (mot.) As part of Panzer Group 4 (Hoepner) in the area east of Ragnit to Haselberg to attack over the Nyemen . The 8th Panzer Division (General Brandenberger ) covered by the 290th Infantry Division to the left took Jurbarkas , followed by the 3rd Infantry Division (motorized) to Dubyssa , where a bridgehead was built at Ariogala in the afternoon . In a few days 240 kilometers were covered, on June 27th Daugavpils were conquered and a northern bridgehead was built against the resistance of the Soviet 11th Army (General Morosow). The bridgeheads on the northern Dvina -Ufer expanded further, the Totenkopf SS division caught up and in the direction of June 29, the advance Opochka continued. Between July 15 and 18, the 56th Corps was temporarily surrounded by Soviet troops between Mschaga and Solzy , a partial retreat to Dno was necessary, where the intervention of the following I Army Corps restored the situation. During the further advance west of Lake Ilmen there were strong counter-attacks by the Soviet Operative Group Luga (General Pjadyshev , from July 23rd General Astanin ) in front of Utorgosch , the 8th Panzer Division had to be turned from the attack direction to the southeast. On August 15th the corps was diverted. to come to the aid of the Xth Army Corps, who were harassed on the Lowat . On August 17, the corps marched with the motorized 3rd Infantry Division and the assigned SS Police Division near Dno and attacked the Dolschino-Rutschji line extensively to the east. Panzer Group 4 had slowly advanced into the area west of Krasnogwardeisk with its foremost parts by August 20 . Until August 20, the LVI pushed. Corps, together with the right wing of the X. Corps, returned the Soviet 61st Rifle Corps in the area south of Staraya Russa via the Polist to the Lowat section. The fighting lasted until the end of August 1941, when the last Soviet troops in the Luga Basin could be fought down. On August 27, the line Saputschje-Gadilowa-Rauschewo was reached, south of the Ilmen lake troops went over the Robja at Velikoselska. On September 4th the corps was on the west bank of the Pola , on September 13th the area southwest of Demyansk was occupied.

On September 19, preparations for the attack on Moscow began. The general command under the new commanding General Schaal was transferred to the central section of the Eastern Front and deployed within the framework of Panzer Group 3 ( Hoepner ) together with the 9th Army . On October 7th the 7th Panzer Division reached Vyazma and had a connection to the 10th Panzer Division of the XXXX, which was pushing against it from the south . mot. Army Corps . Four Soviet armies were trapped in the pocket west of Vyazma . The 6th and 7th Panzer Divisions and the 14th Motorized Infantry Division were assigned to the operations against Sychovka and Stariza on the northern front of the Moscow protective position . By the beginning of December, the tank corps had reached the Volga Canal near Dmitrov and the Jachroma area . From December 5th, massive counterattacks began in the Kalinin area against the positions of the 9th Army, which also threatened the back of the 3rd Panzer Army. During the fierce defensive battles of the XXXXI. AK (predominantly motorized 36th ID. ) There was no direct attack against the 7th Panzer Division, but it took place until December 13th together with the rest of the LVI. Army Corps clearing the front arch of Klin .

1942/43

In the spring of 1942 the LVI. Corps between Sychovka and Gschatsk was detached and on March 16, 1942 it was renamed LVI. Panzer Corps. Between March 1942 and August 1943 it was part of the 4th Army together with the XXXXIII. Army corps in the area between Spas-Demensk and Kirow used to fight enemy forces that had broken through and against the Soviet partisan units in the hinterland there. From XXXXI. Panzer Corps were temporarily assigned to the Decker group and parts of the 86th and 328th Infantry Divisions . After that, the General Command organized with the 267th and 331st Infantry and the 10th Infantry Division (mot.) , The company Dietrich , Banditenstreiche and Kingfisher against the partisans and retired at the Buffalo Movement (February / March 1943) on the new section in the Spas-Demensk area. In April 1943 the LVI. Panzer Corps assigned the 31st , 131st , 267th , 321st Infantry and the motorized 14th Infantry Division . The LVI. Corps maintained connection with the LV at Pesochnja in the south . Army Corps of the 9th Army and in the north at Kusemki connection to the XII. Army Corps , it was concentrated west of the Bolwa River : in the south the 321st Infantry Division held positions on the west bank opposite Kirov, in the west and north of the front projection held the 131st and 14th Infantry Divisions. In August 1943 the General Command was engaged in defensive battles against the Soviet Western Front in the area east of Roslavl (abandoned on September 25). The corps command was from XXXXI. Panzer Corps and withdrew from the 9th Army at the end of August. It reached the new operational area with the 2nd Army in the area 50 km west of Sevsk via Bryansk and Starodub . The retreat across the Dnieper section took place in September 1943 in the Shlobin area , while the corps covered the important railway line between Shlobin and Kalinkowitschi . From October to the end of the year between Pripyat and Desna as a neighbor of the XX. Army Corps deployed, the corps in the area south of Mosyr were subordinate to the combat group 137th Infantry Division , Corps Division E, remnants of the 12th and parts of the 4th Panzer Division .

1944

At the end of January 1944, the 11th and 35th Infantry and 4th Panzer Divisions were subordinate to the General Command in the area of ​​the 9th Army in the Paritschi area. After the offensive by the 1st Ukrainian Front that broke out in January , the German units were pushed back across the Stochod in February . The LVI , which was relocated to the eastern Pripyat region , led to the Poles operation . Panzer Corps launched strong counterattacks with the 4th and 5th Panzer Divisions to relieve Kovel from March 21st . In April 1944 it secured access to Brest-Litovsk together with Hungarian associations . In Operation Ilse , the Hoßbach Group ( 35th , 110th and 129th Infantry Divisions ) together with the Royal Hungarian VIII Corps counterattacked the Turia to stabilize the front southwest of Kovel. On May 30, 1944, after the establishment of the Northern Ukraine Army Group, the command area of ​​the Corps was subordinated to the 4th Panzer Army , in that month the 26th , 131st , 342nd Infantry and the 1st Skijäger Divisions were assigned. On July 6, in anticipation of a new offensive ( Lemberg-Sandomier operation ), Kovel had to be given up and, after the attack, the retreat across the Bug towards Chelm had to be started. The breakthrough of the Soviet 8th Guard Army resulted in the loss of Lublin on July 24th, and the retreat did not end until after the Vistula . In September 1944, the 214th , 253rd and 342nd Infantry Divisions were assigned. In November the general command switched back to the 9th Army and, following the VIIIth Army Corps to the north, secured the Soviet Vistula bridgehead at Pulawy .

1945

In January 1945 the LVI. Armored corps in the Vistula-Oder operation with the 17th and 214th Infantry Divisions surrounded and pushed south from the Radom area and was taken prisoner by the Soviets. The commanding General Block fell in the ensuing retreat battles.

For the re-establishment in February 1945 the "Corps Group Silesia" was set up from the Deputy General Command VIII. Army Corps, which on March 7th as LVI. Armored Corps and was involved in the fighting in Upper Silesia under General Koch-Erpach . The assigned 20th SS Division and the remnants of the 168th Infantry Division were cut off and surrounded by the Soviets in mid-March between the Glatzer Neisse and the Oder near Opole , the rescued LVI General Command. was pulled out and sent to the 9th Army in Müncheberg . From April 16-19, the newly assigned associations of the LVI suffered. Panzer Corps suffered heavy losses in a major battle on the Oder . The 18th and 25th Panzer Grenadier Divisions , the Müncheberg Panzer Division , the heavy SS Panzer Division 102 and the Kurmark Panzer Grenadier Division were subordinate to the battles for the Seelow Heights . Katukov's 1st Armored Guard Army and Tschuikov's 8th Guard Army had torn open the German front between Wriezen and Müncheberg. The remains of the LVI. Panzer Corps had to retreat to the Rahnsdorf-Neuenhagen line and, in the course of April 21, to the Köpenick- Marzahn line to Berlin. On April 23, General der Artillerie Weidling was appointed the new commandant of Berlin, the General Command took over the defense of the city and was disbanded after the surrender in early May 1945.

guide

Commanding generals

literature

  • Percy Ernst Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
    • Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen .
    • Volume II: 1942 edited by Andreas Hillgruber , Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
    • Volume III: 1943 edited by Walther Hubatsch , 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 , Frankfurt / Main and Osnabrück 1966.
  • Tony Le Tissier: Breakthrough on the Oder , Bechtermünz Verlag, 1997
  • Tony Le Tissier: The Battle for Berlin , Bechtermünz Verlag, 1997
  • Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War , Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1985
  • Georg Gunter : Last laurel, Bläschke Verlag, Darmstadt 1974

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schramm: OKW war diary volume 1, divisions p. 1135 and 1141
  2. ^ Schramm: OKW War Diary Volume 1, Outlines p. 1362 and 1367
  3. ↑ Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift Volume 117 (1951), Issue 4, p. 265 f.
  4. ↑ Schramm: OKW War Diary Volume 4, Outlines p. 1875