Commander of the Rear Army Area

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A Commander of the Rear Army Area (abbreviated Berück ) was a territorial commander of the Wehrmacht in the war against the Soviet Union during the Second World War . The taken into practiced in the operational area of the Army Group , the executive power and was based in the area for a military administration. In the rear army area , which was set up directly behind the battle zone, on the other hand, the high command of the respective army (AOK) exercised the executive functions.

The main tasks of a Berück in its area included "ensuring peace and order", protecting the supply bases with the supply routes to the front, recording supplies in the occupied area and guarding and transporting prisoners of war . Compared to these military tasks, all other tasks had to stand back.

Secondly, the Berücks had the task of building up an administration and exploiting the country under wartime economic aspects. The second point included e.g. B. Keeping or starting operations of vital importance for the war effort in their areas.

The Berücks were not prepared to effectively fight partisans , as the Wehrmacht did not expect a broad partisan movement and expected victory in 1941. There were no plans for a longer war in the east.

In order to fulfill their security tasks, the Wehrmacht only set up nine security divisions . The soldiers in the security division were mostly older and poorly trained soldiers. The associations were also poorly equipped and armed, mostly with prey weapons. Their forces were insufficient for their tasks in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union because of the soon increasing partisan activity. That is why they had to be reinforced by auxiliary troops and soldiers from allied troops, especially Hungarian troops , and to work with the responsible Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF), to which the units of the Ordnungspolizei and the SD were subordinate. As the fighting in the rear areas increased, the Berück received from April 1942 the additional designation of commanding general of the security forces .

Apart from the units directly subordinate to it, the departments assigned to Berück were the respective command offices of the rear army area (Korück), which had previously been set up by the army commander-in-chief .

Between the invasion of the Wehrmacht in 1941 and the end of 1942, the majority of the murders of the Soviet Jews by the Einsatzgruppen took place in Berück command areas. The special commandos and Einsatzkommandos of the Einsatzgruppen were each assigned to a Berück, but not subordinate to them. The security police were not only responsible for liquidations, but also for research into and combating activities hostile to the Reich . In practice, the powers which the security police were entitled to in the Reich were extended to the occupied eastern territories.

The first commanders of the rear army areas with their staffs were set up in March 1941, the order for the setting up was officially issued on June 25, 1941 by Fuehrer's order. The OKH should decide to move the respective rear army area forward on the advance to the east at the suggestion of the army groups . Areas of the rear army area that are considered safe should be handed over to the respective planned political administration. However, Adolf Hitler reserved the final decisions. So that the army groups could concentrate on their combat operations, a general command staff was formed for each army group in early 1941. The Berücks had to exercise executive power in their areas according to the instructions of the Commander in Chief of the Army Group. At the latest with the collapse of Army Group Center in the course of Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944, the commanders of the rear army areas lost their function; their staffs were disbanded and the remaining security troops were placed under other control.

Berück areas

North

Commander of the Rear Army Area North, in the area behind Army Group North :

center

Commander of the Central Rear Army Area, in the area behind the Central Army Group :

south

Commander of the Rear Army Area South, in the area behind Army Group South :

In 1941 the army ceded areas to a civil administration: in August 1941 the area of Białystok came under a head of the civil administration to the province of East Prussia , from July to September 1941 the Reichskommissariat Ostland was established, from September to November 1941 the Reichskommissariat Ukraine .

With the division of Army Group South in the summer of 1942 into Army Group A and Army Group B (later renamed Army Group Don ), an additional Berück position was created. On November 24, 1942, General of the Infantry Friedrich Mieth became commander of the Don Rear Army Area. Instead of securing the rear army area, he had to fight with his security units and hastily assembled alarm units against attacking Soviet troops.

literature

  • Jörn Hasenclever: Wehrmacht and occupation policy in the Soviet Union - the commanders of the rear army areas 1941-1943. Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76709-7 . (Dissertation at the University of Münster 2007)
  • Dieter Pohl: The Rule of the Wehrmacht: German Military Occupation and Local Population in the Soviet Union 1941-1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59174-3 .
  • Hans Umbreit: On the way to continental domination. In: Bernhard R. Kroener, Rolf-Dieter Müller, Hans Umbreit: The German Reich and the Second World War: Organization and mobilization of the German sphere of influence. Volume 5/1: War administration, economy and human resources 1939 to 1941. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-421-06232-3 , pp. 3–348.
  • Jürgen Kilian: Wehrmacht and occupation in the Russian northwest 1941 - 1944. Practice and everyday life in the military administrative area of ​​Army Group North , Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3506776136 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Fuehrer's decree on the appointment of Wehrmacht commanders in the newly occupied Eastern Territories of June 25, 1941. In: Martin Moll (Ed.): “Fuehrer Decrees” 1939–1945 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-06873-2 , Document 92, pp. 178-179.