XII. (Royal Saxon) Reserve Corps

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The XII. (Royal Saxon) Reserve Corps was a major unit of the Saxon army in the First World War .

structure

The Corps was when the war began the 3rd Army subordinated and structured as follows:

history

With the mobilization on August 2, 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War , the corps was set up. As part of the 3rd Army under Colonel General von Hausen , it invaded France and fought on the western front throughout the war .

General Hans von Kirchbach

The corps was subordinate to General of the Artillery Hans von Kirchbach , while Lieutenant Colonel von Koppenfels acted as Chief of Staff. Coming from the Malmedy area , the advance through the Walloon province of Liège reached the Meuse section by August 20 . Left neighbor was the XII. (I. Royal Saxon) Army Corps under General d'Elsa that advanced towards Dinant .

On August 23, the Meuse crossing was enforced, standing on the right (northern) wing of the 3rd Army, the corps with the 23rd Reserve Division fought for the river crossing at Ivoir and Houx and advanced to Warnant the following day. On the left wing, the XII. Army Corps crossed the Meuse at Houx with the 32nd Division , while the 23rd Division was still wrestling at Dinant.

At the beginning of September the corps followed the XII as a second meeting. Army corps east of Reims south to the Marne . Between September 6 and 10, 1914, the XII. Reserve Corps in the Battle of the Marne , together with the left wing of the 2nd Army , the Guard Corps , tried to fight east of Fère-Champenoise in a struggle with the French XI. Corps (General Eydoux ) to advance further south. As a result of the withdrawal of the 2nd Army, Hausen's army had to break off the attacks and return to the Mourmelon - Francheville line on September 11th. Before the start of the Battle of the Aisne , the corps went back north via the Vesle and moved on the Prosnes - St. Hilaire line between the X. Reserve Corps (right neighbor) and the XIX. Army Corps new defensive positions in Champagne .

On February 16, 1915, a major attack by the French 4th Army began in the winter battle in Champagne , the Kirchbach corps covered in the Auberive position, but was not in the direct attack area.

At the end of July 1916, the XII. Reserve Corps of the 1st Army transferred and released the worn-out VI. Reserve Corps (Goßler Group) in the Battle of the Somme . The subordinate 8th Bavarian Reserve Division and the 23rd Reserve Division took over the front line Combles - Maurepas to Clery on the Somme at short notice against the French 6th Army . The command of the general command was released after a week by the I. Bavarian Reserve Corps ( Fasbender ) and took over until the XIII. AK in reserve. At the end of August the Kirchbach group with the newly introduced 56th and 111th divisions were again in the front defensive front, this time from Ginchy on both sides. After the loss of Ginchy at the beginning of September , this section was transferred to the II. Bavarian Corps and the Kirchbach group was again limited to its old section on the left wing near Guillemont . In mid-September 1916, during the first British tank attack between Flers and Courcelette , the newly subordinated 185th Division and 54th Reserve Division held the western front arc in front of the threatened Combles. After the loss of the front pillar Combles and the return of the Württemberg XIII. AK, the corps command in the Morval area was detached.

In November 1916 the corps had replaced the IV. Army Corps in the Arras area , was subordinate to the 6th Army and was consequently referred to as the Arras Group . In mid-December, the command was given command of the 17th Division and the 23rd Reserve Division .

In mid-1917 the corps in the hinterland of the 4th Army formed the "Gent Group", while the 40th Division and the 10th Bavarian Division were temporarily subordinate to the General Command in mid-June . Between August 30, 1917 and February 3, 1918, the command was referred to as Gruppe Turya , then from February 19 to June 5 as Gruppe Bensdorf .

As of June 6, 1918, the corps command under the leadership of Lieutenant General Leuthold was called " Group Mihiel ". During the Battle of St. Mihiel , the command was assigned to the 192nd Division , the 5th Landwehr Division and the 31st Division as a reserve . Together with the "Gruppe Combres" (General Command VAK ) and the "Gruppe Gorze" ( General Command 57 ), the Saint-Mihiel Arch had to be abandoned before the Franco-American attacks.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the artillery Hans von Kirchbach August 2, 1914 to December 12, 1917
General of the Infantry Horst Edler from the Planitz December 15, 1917 to July 23, 1918
Lieutenant General Max Leuthold July 24, 1918 to January 23, 1919

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Stegemann Volume I., pp. 144 and 145
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918, Volume IV. Map supplement 2
  3. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918, Volume IV. Map supplement 10.
  4. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918, Volume XIII, ES Mittler and Son, Appendix 2a
  5. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918, Volume XIV, ES Mittler and Son, Berlin 1944, p. 600
  6. ↑ a b c Dermot Bradley (ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939 Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939 , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 , p. 631