VII Reserve Corps (German Empire)

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The VII Reserve Corps was a large unit of the army of the German Empire .

structure

At the beginning of the war, the corps was subordinate to the 2nd Army and structured as follows:

  • 13th Reserve Division
    • 25th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • 28th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Hussar Regiment No. 5
    • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 13
    • 4th Company / Engineer Battalion No. 7
  • 14th Reserve Division
    • 37th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • 39th Reserve Infantry Brigade
    • Reserve Hussar Regiment No. 8
    • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 14
    • 1st and 2nd reserve company / 1st Rhenish Pioneer Battalion No. 8

history

Johann von Zwehl

With the outbreak of World War I and the mobilization on August 2, 1914, the corps was set up and fought on the Western Front throughout the war .

The VII Reserve Corps was part of the 2nd Army and marched through neutral Belgium under the commanding General von Zwehl into France . Lieutenant Colonel Hans Hesse acted as chief of staff, the 13th Reserve Division, which was subordinate to the beginning of the war, led Lieutenant General von Kühne , and the 14th Reserve Division was commanded by Lieutenant General von Unger . Between August 8th and 12th, the troops were assembled in the Horrem-Buir- Düren area and followed by the 2nd Army in the second line. On August 14th the troops caught up to the Ourthe, on August 16th they reached Liège and Herve. On August 22, the Corps pulled the 14th Reserve Division to Gembloux gradually sparked north of the Sambre in the short term left behind 1st Guards Division on the western front of the fortress Namur from. While the 13th Reserve Division was still in the Liège area, the corps received orders on August 24th to march on with the 14th Reserve Division to Binche in order to strengthen the VII Army Corps in front of Maubeuge . After the replacement of General von Eine , Lieutenant General von Zwehl took over the supreme command of the enclosure of the fortress on August 27th. The main attack was directed against the northeast front, the initiation of the shelling by the heaviest artillery finally brought Maubeuge to surrender on September 8th, there were 45,000 prisoners and 400 guns were brought in. After the fortress fell, the released VII Reserve Corps was brought up in forced marches over St. Quentin to reinforce the heavily oppressed main German power and subordinated to the 7th Army , which was pushed into the battle of the Aisne . On the night of September 13th, the foremost parts of the VII Reserve Corps, coming from the area southeast of Laon , were brought forward to the heights of the Chemin des Dames to stop the British attack. Without the timely arrival of Zwehl and his troops, a breakthrough of the Entente between the German 1st and 2nd Armies could not have been prevented. The corps fought for the plateau of Montherauld, was pushed back onto the Ailette, but held the line between Courtencon and Craonne, where the XV. Army Corps intervened in the defensive battles.

This was followed by a year-long positional war on the Aisne before the corps was transferred to the 5th Army on the eastern Meuse front at the end of September 1915 . On February 21, 1916 the attack of German troops on the Verdun fortress began , the corps was together with the III. and XVIII. Army Corps participated in the first main thrust and headed south between the villages of Consenvoye and Flabas. The target of the corps was the contour line on the Haumont and the clearing of the area between the Meuse and the Haumont forest. After a five-hour battle, the Bois d'Haumont fell into German hands, and the village of Samogneux by February 24th. After a few days, however, the attack on the Côte-Talou in front of Verdun's northern front ran into the French resistance completely. On October 24, 1916, the 25th Reserve Division, subordinated to the left wing of the corps, had to give up the area on both sides of Thiaumont before French counterattacks.

As early as September 17, 1916, General of the Infantry von Soden had taken over the command of the corps command, which was deployed in the Louvemont and Bezonvaux area in mid-December . In the spring of 1917 the corps was part of the 3rd Army in trench warfare in Champagne . During the Second Battle of the Aisne , the General Command was designated as " Gruppe Reims " from April 16, 1917 and on May 28 it was again subordinated to AOK 1., which had moved from the Sommefront to the eastern Aisnefront. From the end of August 1917, Lieutenant General von Garnier led the corps command during the position battles near Reims and was replaced in this position by Lieutenant General Wellmann from the beginning of December .

In the course of the German attacks in the spring offensive of 1918 , the "Wellmann Group" attempted from May 27, 1918 to support the 7th Army, which was positioned to the west, in the attack battle between Soissons and Reims in the Third Aisne Battle . Shortly before the French counter-offensive that broke out on July 18 in the Marnebogen , Lieutenant General von Lindequist had taken command. During the defensive battles against the French 5th Army ( Berthelot ) off Reims, the command was assigned the 238th Division , 242nd and 8th Bavarian Reserve Divisions . After the withdrawal to the Hunding position, which was initiated in September, the Suippe section on both sides of Bazancourt was briefly occupied. At the beginning of October, the corps command established itself in the Brunhild position on the north bank of the Aisne in the area of Château-Porcien and west of Rethel . The 1st and 242nd Divisions and the Bavarian 8th and 50th Reserve Divisions were assigned to the corps command. Parts of the newly placed 17th Division wrestled at Vouziers at the end of October . After the withdrawal to the Antwerp-Maas position, the last occupied territories were evacuated after the armistice in November 1918.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
Lieutenant General Johann von Zwehl August 2, 1914 to December 17, 1916
General of the Infantry Franz von Soden September 17, 1916 to August 26, 1917
Lieutenant General Otto von Garnier August 27 to December 2, 1917
Lieutenant General Richard Wellmann December 3, 1917 to July 14, 1918
Lieutenant General Arthur von Lindequist July 15 to December 16, 1918

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reichsarchiv: Volume I. Kriegsgliederungen, p. 671
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv Volume I, Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1925, p. 128
  3. ^ Reichsarchiv Volume I, Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1925, p. 533
  4. ^ Reichsarchiv: Volume V. The autumn campaign 1914, ES Mittler and Son, Berlin 1929, pages 16–80
  5. ^ Reichsarchiv: Volume XI., Map supplements, sketch 12.
  6. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-19, Volume XIV., ES Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1944, card insert 31