Panzer Corps "Greater Germany"

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Panzer Corps "Greater Germany"

active September 28, 1944 to May 8, 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service Armored force
Type corps
Commanders
First in command Dietrich von Saucken
Second and last in command Georg Jauer

The Panzerkorps Großdeutschland was a major unit of the German Wehrmacht in the final phase of World War II .

history

From September 28, 1944, the establishment of a "Panzer Corps Großdeutschland" as a "Panzer Corps of a new kind" began in East Prussia to lead the Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland" and the Panzergrenadier Division "Brandenburg" . Strong corps troops were provided for this. The corps was initially under the command of General Dietrich von Saucken . The line-up was not yet completed on January 12, 1945 when the Soviet winter offensive began. According to OKH orders, the corps with the “Brandenburg” division moved to the Lodz area , while the “Greater Germany” division remained in the East Prussia area . So both associations never fought under a single command.

The planned counterattack near Lodz did not take place. Instead, in the chaos of the withdrawal of the 9th Army from the Warsaw area , the corps got into a "wandering cauldron". From February 1945 a new line of defense could be moved to near Görlitz .

On March 1, 1945, the following units were subordinate to the Panzer Corps within the framework of the 4th Panzer Army :

General Georg Jauer took over command of the corps from March 15 until the end of the war . Under his command, the corps took part in the battle for Bautzen , which lasted until the end of the war.

Other “GD” associations

In the broader sense (e.g. in the case of Helmuth Spaeter) all "Greater Germany" units are counted as part of the Panzer Corps, although there was no organizational connection.

The “Führer-Escort Brigade” and the “Führer-Grenadier-Brigade” were transferred to the Western Front in December 1944 to take part in the Ardennes Offensive and from January 1945 were designated as divisions. After the Soviet winter offensive in 1945, a Kurmark Panzer Grenadier Division in the Cottbus - Frankfurt / Oder area was put together from "GD" reserve troops and alarm units and thrown directly to the front.

After the failure of the Ardennes offensive, the “ Führer-Escort-Division ” and “ Führer-Grenadier-Division ” came back into action on the Eastern Front . In mid-April 1945 the “Führer-Accompanying Division” on the Neisse was pushed aside by the Soviet 4th Guards Armored Army and then destroyed in the Spremberg pocket. The “Führer Grenadier Division” was transferred to Army Group South in April 1945 to defend Vienna and later handed over to the Red Army by US units after being captured near Linz in May . The " Guard Regiment Greater Germany " saw the end of the war in the Battle of Berlin .

structure

Corps troops

  • Corps Fusilier Regiment Greater Germany
  • heavy tank division Greater Germany
  • Artillery commander 500
  • Artillery Regiment 500
  • Pioneer Regiment 500 (staff)
  • Panzer Pioneer Battalion 500
  • Panzer Corps News Department 500
  • Panzer Field Replacement Regiment Greater Germany
  • Supply Regiment 500

Subordinate units

literature

  • Gordon Williamson: German Army Elite Units 1939-45 . Osprey, 2002, ISBN 1-84176-405-1 (English).
  • Helmuth Spaeter: The history of the Panzer Corps Greater Germany. German Dörfler, 2006, ISBN 3-89555-374-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludger Tewes , The Panzergrenadierdivision Großdeutschland in the campaign against the Soviet Union , Klartext Verlag Essen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8375-2089-7 , pp. 572-583, p. 592.
  2. ↑ a b c Cf. Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the Second World War 1939–1945. Volume 14, ISBN 978-3-7648-1111-2 , p. 92.
  3. ^ Schramm : OKW war diary: Volume IV / 2, p. 1896