VI. Reserve Corps (German Empire)

The VI. Reserve Corps was a major unit of the army of the German Empire .

Allegations

In August 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, the association was subordinate to the following units:

• 11th Reserve Division
  • 23rd Infantry Brigade
    • Infantry Regiment No. 22
    • Infantry Regiment No. 156
  • 21st Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 10 (1st Battalion Striegau, II. Wohlau, III. Breslau)
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 11 (1st Battalion Glatz, II. Schweidnitz, III. Münsterberg)
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 11 (I. Division Breslau, II. Schweidnitz; established by FAR No. 6 and 42)
  • Reserve Hussar Regiment No. 4 (composed of 3 squadrons from Hussar Regiment No. 6)
  • 4th Company Engineer Battalion No. 6

• 12th Reserve Division
  • 22nd Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment 23 (1st and 2nd Battalion Opole)
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 38 (I. Battalion Oels, II. And III. Breslau)
    • Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 6 Oels
  • 23rd Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 22 (1st Battalion Rybnik, II. Ratibor, III. Cosel)
    • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 51 (1st Battalion Neisse, II. Gleiwitz)
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 12 (I. Division Neisse, II. Neustadt / OS; ascended from FAR No. 21 and 57)
  • Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 4 (composed of 3 squadrons from Uhlan Regiment No. 2)
  • 1st and 2nd Reserve Company / Engineer Battalion No. 6

history

First World War

With the mobilization at the outbreak of the First World War, General of the Infantry von Goßler became the commanding general of the Silesian VI by a cabinet order . Reserve Corps appointed. The large unit moved to the western front and was subordinated to the 5th Army . Colonel von Rath acted as chief of staff, the 11th Reserve Division was under Major General Surén , and the 12th Reserve Division was led by Lieutenant General von Lüttwitz .

Konrad Ernst von Goßler

On August 22, 1914, the corps was in the battle of Longwy-Longuyon . Opposite the French 5th Corps under General Brochin, the VI. Reserve Corps - left with the 12th Reserve Division via Laix - also on Longuyon and Pierrepont and reached the Frants – Cutry – Doucourt – Baslieux line. On the right, the 11th Reserve Division advanced via Cutry-Chenieres on the Grandville-Ugny line. The 12th Reserve Division was attacked on the left flank from Joppecourt, but withstood enemy pressure at Doncourt until the help of the 10th Reserve Division arrived. On August 23, the troops reached the Beuveille-Arrancy line and encircled the Longwy fortress, which was defended by the French brigade of General Darche. Before Longwy the 11th Reserve Division had arrived from Dorbey and was preparing to attack the city. The 12th Reserve Division captured Doncourt and Beuveille. The corps fought for Arrancy with the 12th Reserve Division on August 24 and was deployed against the St. Laurent – ​​Pillon line. On August 25th, further gains were made on the heights south of the Othainbach and between St. Laurent and Sorbey. After the battle, the corps went into trench warfare on the Othain sector, and the Strantz army division was established on the left wing the following year .

During the offensive against Verdun in 1916, the corps initially only supported artillery and did not begin its attack on the western bank of the Meuse until March 6th. The 12th and 22nd reserve divisions succeeded in taking the villages of Regnéville and Forges and the strategically important heights of Côte de l'Oie (back of goose) and Côte de Poivre (back of pepper) on March 7th. On March 14, 1916, the Silesians managed to conquer one of the peaks of Mort Homme and on March 30, they took the village of Malancourt. The VI. Reserve Corps was soon withdrawn from the front here and relocated to Bapaume as a reserve , from there it was used again in early July in the Battle of the Somme to repel English attacks.

In the spring of 1917 the corps covered the Lievin - Angres - Givenchy line with the 11th Reserve Division and the 16th Bavarian Division in the Lens area as the Souchez Group . At the beginning of the Battle of Arras , the General Command was replaced by the VIII Reserve Corps .

During the German spring offensive in March 1918, the Borne Corps was assigned to the 17th Army . In July 1918 it reinforced the front of the 7th Army in the area south-west of Reims and briefly attacked Chambrecy. After the French counter-offensive from the Foret de la Montagne, the corps had to withdraw.

Border Guard East (1919)

The Army High Command North of the " Grenzschutz Ost " (AOK North) in Königsberg, later Bartenstein under the leadership of the commanding General Ferdinand von Quast , was given the VI in January 1919. Reserve corps for the security of the border guards of East Prussia. In December 1918, the 8th Army broke away from the World War II front and was only partially present in the Livonia Governorate . There was no military protection between the advancing Soviet Red Army and East Prussia. With the tolerance of the Entente, the AOK Nord was supposed to lead and take care of the various volunteer associations and to stop the Red Army.

At the beginning of February 1919, the VI. Reserve Corps took over command of Courland . The commanding general, Major General Rüdiger von der Goltz , was responsible for the Libau governorate, the Baltic State Armed Forces , the Iron Division , the incoming 1st Guard Reserve Division and various smaller volunteer corps . At the beginning of March there was a major offensive action as far as Mitau . The reconquest of Riga on May 22, 1919 was officially carried out without the leadership of the corps, as the Imperial German troops had not received any approval for further action. In September the bulk of the not-yet- repatriated volunteer corps went over to the West Russian Liberation Army . They left the VI Reserve Corps and the German State Association.

On October 13, 1919, Lieutenant General von Eberhardt replaced von der Goltz, who, because of his unauthorized policy in the Baltic States, was no longer acceptable either with the victorious powers or with the German government. After the military defeat of the West Russian Liberation Army, the German Freikorps resigned on November 10th to the corps, which organized their evacuation to East Prussia until December 1919 .

Commanding general

Rank	Surname	date
General of the Infantry	Konrad Ernst von Goßler	August 2, 1914 to February 9, 1917
General of the Infantry	Kurt of the Borne	February 10, 1917 to December 19, 1918
Lieutenant General	Alfred von Kleist	January 10-18, 1919
Lieutenant General	Paul Grünert	January 19 to February 1, 1919
Major general	Rüdiger von der Goltz	February 2 to October 12, 1919
Lieutenant General	Walter von Eberhardt	October 12, 1919

literature

• Working group of traditional associations of Silesian troops (ed.), Artur Jüttner, Eckehard G. Münnich: Military tradition in Silesia 1241–1945. Kurt Vowinckel-Verlag. Berg am Starnberger See u. Potsdam 1997. p. 167ff.
• Rüdiger von der Goltz: My broadcast in Finland and the Baltic States. Leipzig 1920. ( online )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reichsarchiv: Volume I. Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1925, Kriegsgliederungen p. 677
2. ^ Reichsarchiv: Die Grenzschlachten im Westen 1914, ES Mittler Verlag, Berlin 1925, pp. 303-344.
3. ↑ http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0a1/sch/sch1p/kap1_2/kap2_56/para3_1.html#d8e165_rueck
4. ↑ Karsten Brüggemann: The founding of the Republic of Estonia and the end of the "one and indivisible Russia". Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002, p. 189.
5. ^ Rüdiger von der Goltz: 'My broadcast in Finland and in the Baltic States.' Leipzig 1920. page 192
6. ↑ Bernhard Sauer: From the myth of an eternal soldierhood. The German Freikorps campaign in the Baltic States in 1919 . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft (ZfG) , Volume 43, 1995, Issue 10, pp. 869–902 (here p. 892) (PDF file; 7.28 MB)
7. ↑ Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 . P. 628.